Love That For Me by Abby Knox
Epilogue
Ten yearslater
Jessica
“This is good,”I say on a sigh. “This is so, so good.”
I can barely contain the moan of pleasure at the taste of the latest blend made to celebrate Alex and my tenth anniversary.
My husband shifts his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably and clears his throat.
We’re in the same spot we haunted ten years ago on our first trip together. The vineyard’s tasting room is empty except for us as we wait on more bottles that the vintner wants us to try before launching it for public consumption.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?” I ask.
Alex has a weird look on his face as he sets down the wine. He’s not gazing at the ruby red special blend, though. He’s looking at me like he wants to devour me.
“The wine is perfect. It’s you who’s the problem,” he says.
If I didn’t know him so well, I might be offended.
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” he replies, leaning into me. “You keep moaning over the wine; I’m gonna get hard.”
My eyes roam down and land below his belt.
He sees the gleam in my eye and rasps. “Jess. What are you doing?”
“I’m setting my glass down,” I say, slinking off my stool at the tasting bar. “…before my elevated body temperature warms up the wine.”
I fit myself between his spread legs and cup his length in my hand.
“You’re already hard, my guy,” I tease, unable to hide the tremble in my voice. I can’t help it. He still knows how to crank me up after all these years.
Ten years have come and gone with lightning speed. Alex and I have managed to set up three separate charitable foundations. At our primary home in Darling Creek, Montana, we’ve restored the old movie house to its former glory, and it now hosts a small annual film festival. I’ve made six trips to Paris Fashion Week for my own vlog, which has over a million subscribers on my YouTube channel, where I upload videos showing people how to thrift for designer goodies on a budget. I would have made it to Paris more regularly, but I was happy to miss it for pretty important reasons.
Even better than foundations, successful vlogs, and wine are the two amazing little ones Alex and I created. At the moment, Freddie and Sonia are spending the week at Disneyland with Meredith, Nate, and their daughter Beth. Nate’s dad, Jesse, and his wife, Mariam, are also there with their kids. The Joneses are our family, and I’m happy our kids will have people to call aunts, uncles, and cousins.
“Babe, the vintner will be back in fifteen minutes,” Alex warns.
“Fifteen minutes is all we need, remember?” I purr against his neck while running the base of my palm over him, just the way he likes it.
“Hey, I’m older now. I have stamina.”
I chuckle, “Except most days, we have to finish quickly before the kids walk in on us. At least Gunther knocks.”
He growls, dragging me against him for a fierce kiss. Alex always gets a little crazy when I remind him of our first time together.
“How about we head back to the house and take advantage of the privacy?” Alex says, running the side of his thumb over my bottom lip.
“What about the vintner? He’s coming right back.”
Alex smiles and gives me a licking kiss. “He’ll understand something probably came up when he hears you screaming my name from here.”
“Is that a personal goal of yours?”
“It’ll be my crowing achievement,” he murmurs, filling one hand with my breast and squeezing a moan from my throat.
Yeah. Time to go.
We leave the tasting room behind, scrambling up the hill to the house along the landscaped lane overlooking the vine-covered hills.
Alex smiles back at me over his shoulder, and I remember, suddenly, something I meant to do today.
“Hold on,” I say, reaching into the pocket of my sundress.
He watches me with interest as I pull out a small, weathered, blue envelope.
“What’s that, Jess?”
Oh god, I’m going to cry. I hold it to my chest and take a deep breath. “Ten years ago you sent me this.”
“I did?”
“With the flowers. The first flowers you sent me. I never read it. I’m going to read it now.”
He’s shaken. “You’ve … you’ve held onto that for ten years?”
I nod, and open it up, tugging out the card.
I read it out loud:
Jessica,
I would say I’m sorry for calling you scary, but I think you liked it. What I should have said was I like your smile. I hope to see a lot more of you soon. Not in a creepy way. Well, maybe. You know what I mean.
And here I thought I was going to cry, but I’m laughing.
Alex’s cheeks are crimson as he scrubs the back of his neck self-consciously, cursing under his breath.
I tug the front of his shirt, pulling him down for an innocent, reassuring kiss. He answers that with a rough, passionate kiss that takes my breath away.
Awkward one moment, intense the next. Never, ever boring. That’s my guy.
“Let’s go,” he growls, gripping my backside once, then sweetly taking my hand again, resuming our uphill journey to our vineyard home.
We might make love all night as we used to do when we first met, or we might pass out at 9:30, tired parents that we are.
Alex sweeps the pad of his thumb over my fingers, and I look over at him and squeeze his hand.
It took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that I’m married to Alex Martin, billionaire, genius, tech titan.
But now, to me, he’s just Alex. He’s my husband, the father of my children, a philanthropist, and my best friend.
I love everything about where we’ve ended up. I love it for Alex, and for me.
THE END
Thank you for reading Love That For Me, part three of the Small-Town Gossip series. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review. If you haven’t read the stories of Nate and Meredith, or J.T. (Holmes) and Franny, both of their stories are available to read in Kindle Unlimited!
More by Abby Knox
All my books are stand-alone romances, each with its own HEA. No cliffhangers or cheating!
Small-Town Gossip
Do That To Me
Say That To Me
Love That For Me
The Roadside Attractions series
Roadside Attraction
Claiming Fate
Falling into Fate
Fate’s Dark Shadows
Rode Hard
Crash into Me
Snowed Under
Accidentally Inn Love
Next to You
Wish List
The Mail-Order Brides of Darling Creek
A Baby for the Bride
A Week to Wed
Her Guardian Groom
The Cowboy Auction of Darling Creek
The Cowgirl’s Bid
Winning the Cowboy
Her Forbidden Prize
Holiday reads
Elf—napped
The Halloween Bet
The Halloween Flip
Pumpkin King
Snow-plowed
The Windy City Holiday Duet
Pumpkin Spice
Comfort & Joy
Homemade Heat
Judge Me
Cake Walk
Hand-Tossed
Chef’s Kiss
Bite Me
Crow Bar Brute Squad
Party Foul
Dirty Martini
Whiskey Sour
And plenty more on my Amazon page!
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