“Yes, relationships are about more than mind meltingly good sex. But that’s a pretty good bonus, and we are obviously compatible. The rest will fall into place if you let it.”
“What about my work?” I ask. “I love what I do.”
“And you’re extraordinary at it. You can have the contract for the hotel, and grow from there. Which was your plan anyway.”
His hand sweeps over my cheek, then he hooks a finger under my chin and turns me to look at him fully. “Don’t be scared of the unknown, Jessica. Own the here and now. Own me. Own what I do to you, what I can do for you. Take it all and use it to grow into who you want to be.”
His mouth closes over mine, searing his words into my brain.
That’s when I know that I don’t have to know what the future holds to know I want to be standing beside him when it arrives.
Epilogue
Jessica
The spa smells like eucalyptus and expensive oils, the kind that promise transformation even if you don’t believe in it. The entire top floor has been closed to the public for the day, a quiet luxury that still feels surreal when I remember the version of myself who used to count pennies and pray invoices would be paid on time.
I’m wrapped in a white robe, feet tucked under me on a heated lounger, a glass of champagne sweating slowly onto a marble side table.
Jasmine is across from me, bare-faced and glowing, her dark hair twisted up messily. Charlotte lounges beside her, legs stretched out, scrolling through something on her phone before snorting softly and locking the screen.
“This is officially the most excessive hen do I’ve ever attended,” I say. “But then it’s the only hen do I’ve ever attended.”
Jasmine smiles, eyes flicking to me. “You’re marrying Rurik. Excessive is now your baseline.”
I laugh, and it still surprises me how easily it comes.
A few weeks ago, I didn’t know if I was coming or going. My life felt like it had been split cleanly down the middle. Beforehim. After him. Before the mother stepped back into the world like she’d never left, and after.
Lena didn’t fall in a dramatic blaze.
She unraveled. Quietly. Methodically. Exactly the way Rurik said she would.
The marriage didn’t protect her. It exposed her. Financial investigations. Conflicts of interest. Michaelsson distancing himself so publicly it bordered on cruelty. By the time the story fully broke, she was already isolated, her influence stripped down to nothing.
Neutralized, he called it.
When I saw her name in print for the first time, paired with words likeinquiryandirregularities, I expected to feel triumph. Or grief.
Instead, I felt clarity. I finally understood who she was, and who I wasn’t.
“You okay?” Charlotte asks gently, catching the shift in my expression.
I nod. “Yeah. Just… thinking.”
Charlotte grins. “Dangerous pastime, that.”
We all chuckle.
The hotel refurb was approved last week. Passed unanimously. Work begins in the fall, and with it came three more inquiries. Two domestic. One overseas. The wordtraveldoesn’t feel out of my reach anymore. It excites me.
Being with Rurik didn’t close doors as I feared it might, it opened them.
The spa doors open quietly, and something in my chest tightens before I even look.
I know him that well now.
Rurik steps inside like the space belongs to him, dark suit tailored perfectly, presence bending the room without effort. His gaze finds me immediately, sharp and possessive and soft all at once.
