“I don’t know how any of this will work, but I want to try. I want more than ‘pizza with benefits.’”
“And I want to give it to you,” he said. “Literally and figuratively.”
“I might be wearing a purple bra.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and gave me his sternest look, the eyebrow above his blue eye arched. “I must see it. Those are the rules.”
“That you made up!” I said even as I took off my shirt.
“Stark, I will build you an entire pizzeria if you come to bed with me now and don’t leave that bed until next week.”
“You drive a hard bargain, but sold.”
The next thing I knew, Malone had thrown me over his shoulder. Through the curtain of my hair and out the window of his kitchen, I saw ... a big, beautiful blue moon.
Later, I lay in his arms, thoroughly kissed, and grinned at the wonder of the moon shining down on us while the King of My Heart took a well-deserved snooze.
Epilogue
Not quite one year later
“Well, Stark, I’ve been saving something for this very moment,” Havisham said as we gathered at Finnegan’s to celebrate both my completion of the paralegal certificate and her marriage to Trace. She’d taken no chances he might jilt her; they’d gone to the justice of the peace.
Judging by the way he looked at her, though, she had nothing to worry about.
Malone, who’d flown into town for the week, pulled me close. I could tell he was thinking marriage, but he’d said nothing. He was a blessedly patient man.
I wasn’t going to say never. I’d learned my lesson about taunting the universe.
Finally, Havisham popped up behind the bar with ... the bottle of champagne that I’d brought in with me on what she and I now lovingly called That-Night-I-Accidentally-Touched-A-Boob.
“I can’t believe you kept it!”
“Of course I kept it,” she said as she popped the cork. “It wasn’t mine. It was yours. Even that night I had an idea we might make something good come from the bad.”
“See? You’re a Pollyanna after all,” I said as I took the flute she offered me.
“What perfect timing,” Malone said.
“Oh?”
“Remember when Selena flipped on Blake to get a lighter sentence? That expedited his trial—well, I’m sure Grandpa made some calls too—and now my least favorite cousin is off to prison.”
“Probably a Club Fed,” Havisham muttered as she handed him a glass.
The idea didn’t give me as much joy as I’d thought it would. “It’s a shame Trista couldn’t recover more of their assets.”
“About that,” Malone said.
“Yes?”
“I may or may not have shared some pertinent information with Trista’s divorce attorney.”
“All aboveboard?”
“Technically?”
I couldn’t hide my grin. My Malone wasn’t going to break the law, but he shared my sense of justice.
