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My insides turn to liquid, and I feel a rush of wet heat between my thighs. “I’m wearing stockings as well, you know.”
“I have plans for those also, don’t worry. Now say your goodbyes and get in the goddamn car.”
I place my hands on his chest like I’m going to shove him away. “You can’t speak to me that way, big guy. Since when do you think you get to boss me around like that?”
“Since I made you my lover. My best friend. My partner in everything I do. Since I made you my wife. Is that good enough for you, Hot Sauce?”
I lean forward to kiss him and tangle my tongue with his in a way that leaves us both breathless.
Yeah, that’s good enough for me.
Epilogue II
SEBASTIAN
SIX MONTHS LATER
Lauren slides the file to me across the pub table, her lips set in a grim line and her fingers trembling. They’re trembling because she’s angry, not because she’s scared.
I lay my palm on the manila folder but don’t pull it toward me. “You’re sure?” I ask. “We could just forget we ever discussed this.”
“I’d never forgive myself. Take it. Show it to Sasha. You two… Do what you do best. Clean up.”
I take a quick look at the contents. Photos, witness testimonies, a mug shot of the scumbag grinning smugly at the camera as though he thinks he’s untouchable. He’s wearing a dickie bow, for fuck’s sake, looking like some overweight prick from a fancy boarding school.
Turns out he was right, he was untouchable—at least legally. Now, though? He’s going to get touched, and not in a way he will like. In a way he won’t survive.
“And there’s no link to you or the law firm?”
“Seb, you ask me that every time—no. I know what I’m doing here, okay? Remember who you’re married to.”
I have to laugh. As if I could forget—her fiery Montoya blood comes out to play every few days. We fight all the time, but wow, the make-up sex is so worth it.
She gulps down her wine. “He’s a grade-A sicko, Seb. He got away with molesting children for years—good lawyers, money, sympathetic judges. It’s all played out in his favor. And he doesn’t just molest them. He films it. Films it, photographs it, and sells it. He kept one girl under his thumb from the age of four until she was twelve, when he told her she was too old and ugly to interest him anymore. She killed herself, Seb—at twelve years old. But still, all the proof was circumstantial. He covered his tracks. He’s done it for so long, and you know as well as I do that he won’t stop unless someone makes him.”
I nod and close the file. The fewer people get the chance to see it, the better.
“Okay, sweetheart, I trust you. Sasha and I will take it from here. Sure you don’t want to join us?”
She smiles, a glint of something like lust in her warm brown eyes. There she is, my warrior queen.
“Believe me, Seb, part of me wants nothing more. But I’d lose a piece of my soul, part of who I am, and I need to stay in one solid piece until Nicky is older. But after that…”
She doesn’t need to finish the sentence. Sicks fucks of the world had better watch out when my girl starts coming after them. Fuck, I couldn’t love her more if I tried.
“Until then, Seb, I have you, and you have Sasha. And bit by bit, we’re making the world a better place.”
I pick up her hand and plant a kiss on the sensitive skin of her palm. “Damn right we are, sweetheart.”
I can hardly believe that I have so much joy and love in my life now. Three incredible kids who make me grateful every single day, not to mention our dopey, lovable mutt, Winston.But most of all, I can’t believe I get to call this incredible woman mine.
And she is mine. Every single inch of her. Just as I am hers.
I may have the heart of a devil, but it won me a life with an angel by my side.