This time I do smile. I can’t help it. “Just curious.”
“But why? Why are you curious?”
“I just wonder if she knows she saved mine, too.”
Chris wrinkles her nose and winks at me. “I think she has a clue.”
I think back to the wild morning we had before I came in to town today, the wild morning followed by twenty minutes of kissing afterward.
“I was dead before I met you and I’ll be dead again if you ever leave me,” I told Samantha.
She leaned up on one elbow and tilted her head to one side, considering me. “You don’t have to worry about that. This is safe with me,” she said, kissing the left side of my chest, right over my heart.
Now, with Chris, I smile again. “Yeah, I think she has a clue.”
EPILOGUE PART TWO - Samantha
Four months later
All the lights are off when I unlock Alec’s front door. I pause just inside, listening. Not a sound.
“Hello?” I call out to the empty room as I remove the key and close the door behind me. Alec told me to meet him here at nine. It’s nine. And I’m here. And there’s no Alec.
Dropping my purse at the foot of the stairs, I make my way through the living room and kitchen. Still, I find no evidence of Alec. I crack open the garage door and see both the Mercedes and the Range Rover parked there. He’s definitely here. Somewhere.
Closing the garage door, I make my way toward the stairs, ascending first one level then another as I head for the master bedroom. When I reach the landing, I see the pale flicker of light. My stomach twitches in response.
Alec has been pretty busy with work and…whatever other stuff he’s been so preoccupied with lately, that I haven’t seen him as much as usual. And my body is reminding me how much I miss him.
My heart already knew that.
“Hello?” I call again. Still nothing, but I continue on into the bedroom.
I look around the empty room. There are no candles lit that I can see, only the soft glow of the fireplace. That must’ve been the light I saw.
“Stop,” comes Alec’s deep, velvety voice. I jump in surprise, whirling to search him out. I see only his silhouette in front of the balcony doors, outlined by the moon at his back. He’s so quiet and still, I didn’t even see him.
I start toward him, but he stops me.
“Stay where you are. Close your eyes,” he commands.
With an excited smile trembling at my lips, I do as he asks. Anticipation curls in my stomach as I listen for his movements. I can barely hear him approach, but I can certainly feel it when he nears me. He disturbs the air around me in a way that no one else does. Like there’s electricity moving between us, a constant arc of attraction that never dissipates.
The brush of his lips against mine is like heaven. Although I saw him for a moment just this morning, it’s not enough. It’s never enough. I always want more. Always need more.
I lean in to him, but he pulls gently away. I’m tempted to open my eyes, but I don’t want to ruin whatever he’s going to do next, so I quell the urge.
I feel his mouth as it brushes my collarbone. Chills spread down my chest, a trail for his lips to follow as they make their way to my br**sts.
Only they don’t.
I feel Alec’s fingers slide down my left arm and tighten over my palm. He strokes each of my fingers from knuckle to tip, slowly and with a practiced seductiveness that only Alec can manage. Every place he touches, no matter how innocent, can be turned into an exercise in erotic pleasure. This is no different.
Only, this time, there’s something else. Something…more.
“I remember with perfect clarity the first moment I saw you, sitting so primly in front of a crowd of your biggest fans,” he begins softly, his voice arising from somewhere below me.
The cadence of his words coupled with the languorous touch of his hand threaten to lull me into a stupor, but something deep inside me struggles to pay close attention. His words…there’s something different about his words…
“I think I might’ve fallen in love with you that very day. And a little bit more every day after. I tried to let you go. I thought I could live without you, that I could move on. But I couldn’t. I could hardly last a day.”
My heart swells at his words. Alec has told me he loves me a thousand times, but never like this. He’s never opened up like this before. His confession is like a rare, night-blooming flower—so precious and so fleeting that I’m afraid to blink and miss one glorious second of its beauty.
“I don’t ever want to be without you again. Air doesn’t feel the same. Food doesn’t satisfy me. Water doesn’t quench my thirst. In my life, for as long as it burns on this earth, there is only you, Samantha. Only you. Forever.”
I feel tears breach my closed lids and pour down my cheeks. I bite my lip to hold in sobs of pure joy.
“Open your eyes,” he says, the words more a plea than an order.
My lids part to the image of Alec on one knee in front of me. Even through the shimmering wash of my tears, I can see that his hand is holding mine and his heart is in his eyes.
My breathing stops and all of time and space stills around me.
“Will you marry me?”
I let go of a sob that refuses to stay put behind my ribs. My knees, unable to support me anymore, buckle and I drop down in front of Alec.
“I’ll do anything you ask of me, Alec. Anything. For the rest of my life, you have me. Body, heart and soul. And nothing would make me happier than to be your wife.”
His lips curve into a smile, one of his genuine smiles that I see more and more of lately. His eyes fall to our joined hands as he slips an enormous diamond onto my ring finger.
“Then clear your schedule for tomorrow. You’ve got a wedding to attend.”
I feel my mouth drop open as his words and their meaning sink in. A laugh bubbles up in my throat. I cover my mouth with my hands, but my fingers can’t stop the sound from spilling out.
“What? You mean…does that mean… did you…”
When I can’t form a coherent question, Alec chuckles and fills in the blanks. “Yes, me, an incompetent man, has managed to plan an entire wedding without you having to lift a finger.”
“But…but…what about…”
My mind is spinning in delirious circles, my happiness so blinding and so complete that it nearly steals my breath.
“But nothing,” he says, raising his hand to cup my cheek gently. “I’ve taken care of everything. All I wanted was to give you one perfect day. And I hope it will be.”