Wet (A Real Man #25) - Jenika Snow Page 0,28
did these summer barbecues frequently. My parents still worked for the St. James family, but it was just... different and weird and incredible.
I felt the lap of water against my shins and glanced back toward the pool. Pyper was swimming toward me, her long dark hair piled high on her head, the smile she gave me making my heart hiccup.
God, I loved this girl.
She swam up to edge, braced her hands on my knees, and stared up at me. I should control my PDA for her, especially since our families were a stone’s throw away, but fuck it.
I leaned down and cupped her face, brought my lips to hers, and kissed her like she was my world.
And she was, without a doubt.
By the time I broke away, I expected my mom or dad to scold me for being so blatant in front of them, but their conversation and laughter told me they hadn’t even noticed.
“I love you,” I said so only she heard. I didn’t care who knew; hell, I wanted everyone to know. But those three words would always just be for Pyper.
Over the last year, our home life hadn’t changed much aside from the fact that she was no longer staying in the dorms. She’d worried about her parents being upset if she stopped going to her Ivy League school, but like everything so far, they’d been understanding. So Pyper had transferred to a university closer, still a damn good school, and one where she could commute to school so she could see me every day. I tried to talk her out of it, told her I’d do the traveling to see her, but Pyper was an independent woman, and I’d learned fast when she set her mind to something, there was no stopping her.
When I wasn’t doing my community school courses, I was working for the St. James family. I didn’t want to do maintenance and yard work forever. I wanted a real career, one that had a degree and would get me a good job. I wanted to take care of Pyper.
But there was no rush. We had all the time in the world. I knew we’d be together forever. She’d be my wife soon enough; we’d have our own home. We’d start a family and have the cat and dog she talked about. We’d have it all, because we had each other.
And at the end of the day, that’s what was important. The love we had for each other.
Epilogue Two
Pyper
Ten years later
I looked over the paperwork spread out across from me. As part of the St. James family and the only child, I knew the distillery would always be part of my future. I wanted that, wanted that legacy, wanted to help out. It was in my blood, so after I got my master’s degree in business administration, after I continued going to school post-graduate, I knew the St. James Distillery would be around for a long time with hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and all the many employees who made the distillery what it was. Because without all their tireless work, it wouldn’t be able to run the way it did. They were the heart of the company, and just like my father, I made sure they knew, felt, that they were family.
And after Gio got his own degree in business, both of us ran the company together, both sets of our parents long since retired.
I leaned back in my office chair and rubbed my eyes. A second later, I felt someone watching me and glanced up to see Gio standing in the doorway, his chest shirtless, his lean muscles bulging and on clear display. My heart gave a little stuttering beat at the sight.
“Lizzie is finally asleep.” Gio gave me a little crooked smile, and God was he the most attractive man I’d ever seen. “She made me read her three books tonight.”
I laughed softly. That was our Lizzy, a rambunctious, stubborn little girl who had her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
“You look beat,” he said and stepped into the room.
“I am.” I gave him what was no doubt a tired smile. But despite having worked all day on the distillery books, seeing Gio instantly had my body on fire. It should be illegal for a man to look that good.
For long seconds, we just stare at each other, and then I saw the slow smile spread across his face, and despite being tired, in that moment, a surge of energy