heard rumors about. One so powerful that it made me swear I could hear a chorus of angels singing when I reached my peak.
Dane’s heart hammered against mine, and for several long minutes, we stayed exactly as we had been. My limbs felt like jello and my brain had shut out every thought except for how lucky I felt to have him in my life.
When he eventually rolled off me, he pulled me into his arms wordlessly and held me close to him, pressing soft kisses to my bare back and shoulders. It was one of those moments where, in my extreme relaxation and the realization of how much I loved him, everything was stunningly clear in my head when my brain started working again.
As I lay there in his arms with the lights of Rome casting a golden halo over the city beyond the rooftop, it was like I could picture my whole life ahead of me. I could see how Dane and I would finish with this search and the campaign, how we would eventually get engaged and then married. I could even see myself with a swollen belly while his child grew inside me.
I’d never seen my own life so clearly before. The plots of my books would often come to me in this way, but I never thought I’d have anything like it for myself.
Who knew I’d end up with my own love story as glamorous, over-the-top, thrilling, and passionate as the characters I love to read and write about?
Epilogue
DANE
Six months later
What a fucking ride. As I stood in the dining room at Rick’s restaurant and looked around, I couldn’t quite believe everything that had happened since I’d last been in here.
It was the first time we were back in Texas since Jefferson and I had recruited Leah, and while the town looked exactly the same, so many things in my life had changed. For starters, the last time I’d been here I hadn’t been so desperately in love that I was stupid for a girl.
I was stupid for Leah, though. It had been six months since we’d said our “I love you’s” for the first time that night in Rome, and yet it still felt like I was falling for her just a little bit harder every day.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her, which was why I was here in Texas just a couple of weeks before the worldwide launch of the perfume. I should’ve been back in New York, working around the clock to make sure everything was running smoothly, but I wasn’t.
Instead, I was here, spending the day decorating the restaurant for a party with Rick and her parents while she caught up with some old friends. In my defense, I wasn’t being irresponsible with the launch. Just because I was stupid for Leah didn’t mean I wasn’t staying on top of things from afar.
Katie and Janice were working closely with the new me, a guy called Xavier who I’d hired a few months back. Between the three of them, I was constantly updated about what was going on there and I’d been on top of things enough that I hadn’t thought a trip away for a few days would hurt.
Besides, this was important. It was a huge deal for Leah, which meant it was a huge deal for me. I hadn’t been about to let her come down here to celebrate without me, but I also didn’t want her to stay in New York when it meant she wouldn’t have her family and friends around her for this day.
“Can you believe she really did it?” Rick asked as he came to stand beside me, a satisfied grin on his face as he checked out the decorations we’d put up.
There was a big banner with the words “Congratulations Bestselling Author To Be” printed on it, lots of brightly colored balloons, streamers, and flowers, and a podium set up for her to read as much as she wanted of her first chapter out loud.
I stared at it all, knowing that she really had done it, but I couldn’t quite believe it. “No, I can’t. I mean, fuck. She wrote a book while traveling all over the world and having a full-time job. She didn’t even just write it. Do you have any idea how much work it takes to get a book from a completed manuscript to a novel ready to be published?”
He chuckled, shaking his head as he glanced at me.