Glancing back up, he takes my face in his hands and pulls me close. “True or false?”
Smiling, I bite my bottom lip and wait for him to continue.
“You’ll marry me right now, tonight, before you can ever push me away again?”
I laugh at his question, before seeing the seriousness in his eyes. Lowering my forehead to his own, I give him a wink and whisper, “True.”
He laughs before pulling me a step closer. “I love you, Rochelle, and I am going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never run away again.”
He goes to kiss me, but I pull back and smile. “You and me, Catch. For better or for worse. After tonight, it’ll be official.”
“Good!” he grins. “Stealing your heart was the best thing I ever did. It gave me what matters most. Heaven in a life filled with hell. I can’t wait to spend forever with you, Angel. For better or for worse.”
Epilogue
Hunter
One year later
Her sweet hips sway back and forth as I follow her up the front walk of our home in Atlanta. She looks behind her with a teasing grin and I know I’m a dead man.
“A bet is a bet. And oh how I enjoy making you lose at your own game.” She gives me a wink and I hold back the natural desire to go after her. To take her over my shoulder and carry her into our house on our one-year wedding anniversary, and force her to see just who exactly is in control of her and the little games she plays.
“I don’t think that you ‘distracting’ me once again is grounds for me losing, Angel,” I warn, remembering the first time she tried the same tactic with me. And hell if it didn’t work again, just like the first time she pulled the stunt.
She grabs a hold of the door handle, and swings around. Her eyes hood. She licks her lips, tempting me, teasing me, but I hold on with the smallest restraint I can still manage. “Want to bet on it?” she sasses.
Before I can reach her, she flings the door open and takes off. I run after her, through our large expansive entryway, through our elaborate dining room, and into our kitchen. Her fits of laughter only spur me on as I finally catch up to her before she rounds the center island.
Grabbing her around her waist, I spin her around in my arms. A year ago she made me the luckiest man alive when she said “I Do” in a little chapel in Las Vegas. I swore to her then that I would make her proud to call me her husband for the rest of our lives. It’s a promise I have been lucky enough to keep this last year and don’t plan on breaking anytime soon.
“Keep pushing me Angel,” I tempt, as I back her up against the countertop. She softens in my arms. “You know how I like to take you long and hard after you give me a challenge.”
When the test results finally came back from the coroner, and everything was made clear about Margaret Thomas, Rochelle held on to me tighter than ever before when the reality of her past, and all of her mother’s secrets were uncovered. She was in fact an addict, worse than either of us could have imagined. And to make matters worse, she was wanted for murder in the little town she came from back in Georgia.
The new discovery was just one of the many reasons for her and Rochelle’s disappearance in the middle of the night all those years ago. They left because she realized she couldn’t hide the truth any longer. The man Rochelle had known as her father growing up didn’t commit suicide, he was killed when he had found out her truth and threatened he was going to the cops if she didn’t come clean.
I thought the truth would have broken my Angel. But she stood stronger than any woman I had ever known before and buried her mother with all the grace, dignity, and love I admire her for, and spread her ashes in Savannah with Victoria by her side.
We took time to ourselves afterward, as we moved to Georgia, and looked for a home to call our own. Those few months, as we built our marriage and a new life, will always be some of my most cherished memories. Just me and her. The whole world before us, and the past finally becoming a distant memory we both never want to relive again.
I get lost in the thought as Rochelle wraps her arms around me and buries her head against my chest. I hold her tight before saying, “You know what happened the last time you made me lose, and I don’t care to remind you that bringing me to my knees to please you is one of the things I love most about our marriage. Not really a loss when I get to do to you whatever my heart desires, Angel.”
She moans against me, her pleasure heightened. “Thank you,” I whisper.
She looks at me perplexed and cocks her head to the side. “For what?”
“For loving me. For trusting me. For marrying me and making me lucky enough to call you mine for the rest of my life.” I kiss the tip of her nose and release her.
“But I still say you lost the bet,” I give her a wink.
“Oh really?” She sasses, as I walk over to the sink and pour myself a glass of water. “You sure about that, because I seem to remember you saying if I could catch three balls, that you hit mind you, into right field, then I could get whatever I pleased. And I caught those balls fair and square.”
I finish taking a sip and set my cup down on the counter. “And I seem to remember you having to hit the same three balls out into right field for me to catch. Angel, you only hit two.”
She puts her hands on her hips and walks to a drawer in the kitchen. “Was the bet on hitting the balls, or catching them Hunter?” She asks as she pulls something from the drawer.
I give her a mischievous grin and try and see what she is holding behind her back. But she takes a step away and keeps it hidden.
