He sped up his thrusts. “Right there with you, sweetheart. Always right there with you.”
After we caught our breaths, he glided in and out for the longest time. “I love you, Sutton.”
“I love you, too. For years, I felt like I needed to be fixed, but when I’m with you, I feel like it’s okay to be a little broken.”
Jagger kissed my lips. “Neither of us needs fixing, sweetheart. We just need each other, exactly as we are.”
EPILOGUE
Sutton
Almost a year later
“Come back here.” Jagger caught the bottom of my bathrobe and yanked as I stood from the bed. “We’re not done.”
I snort-laughed and tugged the silky material from his hand, hurrying to the bathroom. “I have to get ready for work.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“And? Since when does that matter? You often go into the office for a twelve-hour day.”
Jagger pouted. “Not when I’m still hard, and you’re naked under there.”
I started to wash up at the sink. My bossy CEO had woken me an hour ago with his head between my legs. I’d returned the favor on my knees. “I really think you should get that thing checked,” I yelled. “It’s supposed to deflate after you finish, you know.”
Jagger stalked into the bathroom. He came up behind me and tugged the tie of my robe. It opened and parted, exposing my breasts. “I’m never finished until I’m inside you.”
Remembering the last time he’d come into the bathroom and made me late for work—taking me from behind while we watched each other in the mirror—I was tempted to give in again. But then I remembered the meeting I had at nine. I turned around and pressed my lips to his.
“I can’t be late this morning. But I promise I’ll make it up to you when I get home.”
Homewas now Jagger’s penthouse. I’d finally agreed to move in with him two months ago. A lot had happened over the last year, and the timing had finally felt right. Amelia and Olivia no longer lived with their uncle, though they did live in the spare apartment in the building with their mom. It had taken Catherine six months to get back to a place where she could be with her daughters again. Once she was healthy, she’d moved to New York, but it took another four months before the girls lived full time with her. Jagger now had joint legal custody of his nieces, something his sister had actually agreed to, rather than going back to court. The girls were happy to have their mom back, but they still spent a lot of time with us. Which was the reason this bathroom was lined with pastel nail polishes, bubble baths, hair clips, and a million other little-girl things, not to mention all of my beauty supplies. Seeing the clutter spread out all over the vanity—in what used to be an immaculate, nearly sterile apartment—made me smile.
“If you worked for me…” Jagger pouted. “…you would be able to take off whenever you wanted.”
Against the advice of everyone, including my stepfather and bossy boyfriend, I’d declined the Apex executive training program invitation. While it was the business opportunity of a lifetime, I knew it wouldn’tbe healthy for our relationship. And I valued what we had personally too much to put it at risk. Balance was important to me, and it hadn’t been difficult to figure out where I preferred Jagger Langston to be in charge. He wasn’t happy with my decision, but it had all worked out for the best. The week after my internship ended, Louise—the sitter who took care of Amelia and Olivia—had a family emergency in Florida. Her mom had broken her hip, so she went down south to take care of her for a while and wound up not coming back. I was able to step in so the girls didn’t have to be introduced to a stranger. We had an amazing nine months together. And then when one door closed, another miraculously opened.
Remember Will, the head of the algorithm-engineering division at Apex? Well, he left and started his own company. Turned out, Jagger’s loss was my gain. I was now an AI algorithm engineer at Alchemy AI, Will’s amazing startup.
“I’ll only be at work for a few hours. And then tomorrow you’ll have me all to yourself for a full week.”
“You better have ice packs and Epsom salt in your suitcase because you’re going to need ’em.”
“What else am I going to need?” Jagger had kept the destination for our upcoming vacation under wraps. “You, at least, need to tell me if I need a bikini or a winter coat.”
Jagger slipped a hand inside my robe and pinched a nipple. Hard. “You’re assuming you’re going to be allowed to leave the room.”
With that, he begrudgingly let me get ready for work, and I stopped in the living room on my way out. If I wasn’t already head-over-heels in love with this man, the sight of him sitting shirtless on the couch with my dog snuggled up next to him, head on his lap while he snored, would’vedone it. I’d gotten Blue a few days after everything went down with Silas. Since I’d refused to move in with Jagger, he’d pushed me to get a dog. Of course, he was thinking more along the lines of a highly trained German shepherd or Doberman and not the lazy, extremely sleepy basset hound I’d picked up at the pet store a few doors down from the office. Blue was no longer lonely. Though I couldn’t even train him to sit on command, much less attack someone. Still, I liked to believe he’d protect me if push came to shove.
Blue snorted, waking himself up, and proceeded to fall off the couch.
Jagger shook his head. “What a guard dog.”
I bent down and kissed both my boys goodbye. “Why would I need a guard dog when I have a guard human?”
***
The following afternoon, I still had no idea where we were going when we arrived at the airport. Though I guessed it didn’t really matter. I was just excited that Jagger had taken off work for a full week. It was going to be his first vacation in six years.
