Beachcombing in the Bahamas (Once Again #11)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

B rock had found a lovely villa on the Caribbean Sea for their honeymoon.

Twenty-four hours after they were married, he lay with Yvette on the lounge chairs in their special private cove on that tiny Caribbean island where so much had happened.

He held Yvette’s beautiful naked body against his. The weather was much hotter now than it had been at Christmas, and good lovemaking bathed their bodies in perspiration. Correct that, fantastic lovemaking. The best he’d ever known, the way it always was with the love of his life.

“Let’s just stay here and never go home,” Yvette whispered against his chest, her warm breath turning him liquid inside.

“Where do you want to go? The world is our oyster,” he quipped. “We can do whatever we want.”

She tipped her head back to look at him. “Don’t tell me you’ll give up the company after you fought so hard to make sure Adeline didn’t take it from you.”

Adeline had done her best—or perhaps it was her worst—but in the end, the board had sided with Brock. Adeline didn’t have a stock share big enough to fight everyone. Brock would remain as CEO of Donnelly Shipping until he decided to step down. But the battle had delayed the wedding, just as it had delayed the search for their new flat.

But all the delays were over now.

Brock stroked his foot up and down her calf. “I’ve got a few more years left in me. At least until Trevor, Garth, and Jodi are ready to take over.”

Jodi would join the company when she graduated in two years, and she would do summer internships until then. But free from their grandmother’s influence, Ethan and Malcolm had now embarked on different paths. Malcolm wanted to go to medical school. And Ethan, even so close to graduation, had surprisingly chosen the life of a history professor. “Someday I’ll write historical novels,” he’d claimed. “Great sagas like Bernard Cornwell or Ken Follett write.”

Yvette played with Brock’s chest hair. “And I’ll stay at the company with you.” She laughed, that husky sound that excited him deep in his core. “I love locking the office door after everyone’s gone and having my wicked way with you right there on your massive—” She pinched his nipple, making him groan. “—desk.”

Laughing, loving her, he held her tight against him, wanting her all over again. He would always want her. And he would love her with his last breath.

“But then,” she said, “when you give Garth his chance, I want to travel the world. An around-the-world cruise. I want to see Antarctica. And Iceland. The Great Wall of China and Angkor Wat. The pyramids at Giza and Antoni Gaudi’s cathedral, Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona.”

He kissed her. “I never knew you wanted to travel.”

She widened her eyes. “I never knew I did either. But that’s what I want.”

They had never been a traveling family, despite being shipbuilders. There’d been business travel, of course, but he’d never found the time to enjoy the sights. Beachcombing in the Bahamas for Christmas had been an anomaly. But now they would make it a habit.

“There’s nothing stopping us from traveling,” he said. “Starting with Rome when Kacey is over there.” He laughed, joy rippling up from deep within him. “I’m CEO. I can take a vacation whenever I want.” He kissed her, long and lingering. “But once a year,” he said, before he let things go further, “on our anniversary, I want to come here. Back to our special cove.”

So much has happened in this place. Some of it so painful it still wrenched his heart, but so much that was good had come out of it.

“I love you,” he whispered, his lips against hers, his body ready to give her everything. “I think I’ve always loved you, even if I couldn’t let myself admit it. I always will love you. And I’ll go anywhere you want whenever you want.”

As she looked at him, he saw the tears in her eyes. “Wherever we go, from now on,” she said like she was making a vow, “we go together.”

There would never be anything he wanted more.

“Now,” she said, “about that puppy you said you wanted to get when we were married.”

He laughed, hugged her tightly. “God, I love you. You never forget anything.”

“And I love you. I’d also love a puppy. And to learn how to ride a horse.”

“Oh baby, it’s no different than learning how to ride me.”

She tweaked his nipple. “Then you better get busy teaching me.”

The Once Again series, where love always gets a second chance.