One Dirty Night - Page 130

Epilogue

ONE YEAR LATER

A BOUQUET OF WILDFLOWERS PERFUMED THE HOUSE AS I opened the front door and stepped inside. My eyes instantly locked on their riot of colour, my heart glowing with love.

He remembered.

I wondered if he would.

A lot had happened this year, so I would’ve understood if he’d forgotten our unofficial anniversary.

Unofficial because we’d never really announced we were going steady.

But also official because the night he took me, spread and trapped on the living room wall—the night where he stripped me back to sobs and screams, then filled me with love and devotion—had bound us together stronger than any vow or ceremony.

The other Ella from The Black Peacock had been right.

This lifestyle of ours was intense.

We were the air and sustenance to each other. We played and protected and did everything together, and…it was absolutely perfect.

Kicking off my heels, I padded into the kitchen and plucked the card from the flowers.

Dear Miss Infinity,

An incomparable year where I go to sleep every night with you in my arms and wake with you in my heart every morning.

Happy anniversary, sweetheart.

I’m still madly obsessed with you.

See you soon.

N

Xxx

Hugging the card to my chest, I stuck my face in the flowers and inhaled.

Sweet and sensual…just like him.

Nicholas…the perfect contradiction of ruler and partner: fierce and kind, dominating but attentive, ruthless but loving.

God, I’m so lucky.

A year and I just kept falling.

A year and we couldn’t stop tripping deeper and deeper into one another.

We’d tried to keep our secret from work, but…it hadn’t been long before we’d been called out.

Mainly because of me.

The passionate mistake I’d made a year ago when I’d told Kate it was me in the middle of a Nick and Hunter sandwich had ensured we’d become office gossip to the point where we’d been summoned to explain ourselves.

The moment we’d stepped into our boss’s domain, Nick had taken all the blame. He’d offered to quit, even though he wanted to stay at our lab instead of relocating to Singapore. He’d said he would give up his career—the same career that drove him to find a cure for men like his brother and father who’d been robbed of so much time—to keep me.

His devotion broke my heart, and I’d stood beside him and handed in my resignation before he could.