Page 109 of Heated Takeover

“But I didn’t really think that counted as a proper proposal, especially since I didn’t have a ring yet. I feel like the fact I smelled like swamp probably took a lot of the romance out of it…” I say, and she giggles.

“I wouldn’t have cared.”

“But I would have. Because you deserve the world. And I’m going to give you just that. Both of you. I want you to believe me when I say that every moment I have shared with you meant something to me. It was never shallow. Not even our first time in this gondola.”

I pull the ring box out, and she giggles again. Then I pop the box open, and she gasps again. “Natalie…will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she answers immediately. “Yes.”

I slide the ring on her finger and stand in front of her. We kiss again with the ocean view around us and the city below us and everything we need inside the gondola where it all began.

Epilogue - Natalie

Six months later…

“Everyone is staring,” I whisper to Marcus as we sway on the dance floor to A Little Bit of Love.

“Maybe because you chose a Weezer song for the first dance,” he teases. “Very unorthodox. Though very you.”

“I don’t like when people stare,” I say. “I don’t like being the center of attention.”

“You’re the center of my attention,” he smirks and winks. And as handsome as he looks in his jet-black suit, I still have to give him a look.

“I would think that an event planner would know that brides are typically the center of attention at weddings,” he says, twirling me and pulling me back into him again.

“Doesn’t mean I like it,” I say, and he pulls me even closer and lowers his voice.

“Then focus on me,” Marcus says. “Nobody else is here. It’s me and it’s you and no one else.”

And surprisingly enough, that is enough for me to blur out the nearly two hundred people staring at us. Don’t get me wrong, I may or may not have enjoyed planning this wedding. My job made it easy for me to swing an elaborate ceremony and reception in less than a year. It’s nice when you have connections in the field. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t shaking in my heels a little bit when I saw all those eyes on me, eyes that haven’t left me since I walked down the aisle an hour ago.

Maybe it’s the Maggie Sottero dress. The shimmery satin and delicate beadwork running down the train. Maybe it’s the fact that I am actually wearing make-up today. Make-up someone else did for me so it actually looks good, tasteful without being overdone. Or maybe it’s the fact that for the first time in ages, my mid-back length hair isn’t pulled into a tight braid or up in a high, straight ponytail.

Whatever it is, I have the room’s attention. And that is not my favorite. What is my favorite though, is the smirk settled comfortably on Marcus’s lips. The warm yet very intense gaze in his eyes that I also felt as I walked down the aisle towards him. His lean, hard, yet comforting body pressing against mine as we dance to a song that visibly surprised everyone in the room except for Jamie when it started to play. Jamie picked it, claiming that Little Bit of Love is the best love song ever made. While I laughed (I raised him right), Marcus heartily agreed and confirmed that it would be our first dance song.

So as we twirl and turn and sway to Rivers Cuomo, I let myself focus on only that. My groom, our son, and the perfect song at the perfect wedding. Honestly, a lot of things have been good recently, despite the chaos of the last year. Reese and Garrett remain in custody. Faced with the financial records, camera footage, ransom message, and Janice’s cooperation, both entered guilty pleas to the major charges. Sentencing is still pending. My heart still aches a little because Reese is my sister, but being family does not make her safe or innocent.

Business has also found a new rhythm while Mission and Ashford settle into their formal partnership. After an independent valuation and the necessary approvals, Dad repurchased enough voting shares to hold fifty-one percent of Mission again. He serves as executive chairman and stays informed without returning to the daily grind. Ashford retains a minority stake, and an independent COO runs daily operations. I remain director of events, but my compensation, performance reviews, and job security go through the COO, not Marcus. Dad has his company back, Marcus still has the partnership he built, and my marriage and career stand on their own.

I still wake some nights needing to check Jamie’s bed. Jamie sees a child therapist and has nightmares of his own, though they are becoming less frequent. Marcus and I do not rush either of us through it. We check the locks, sit with him when he wakes, and let recovery move at its own pace.

Jamie and I moved into Marcus’s penthouse with him. It was closer to work for both of us and even Jamie’s school. We gifted my condo to Brittany so that she had a little more space (she was renting one of the complex’s one-bedroom condos before) and so that when she watches Jamie for us, he still feels like he’s home. It was the perfect resolution to keeping both homes.

I can happily report that things have come together quite beautifully in the end. Like a perfectly planned event where everything worked out exactly as it should. Exactly as it was meant to be.

The song comes to an end, and Jamie runs out onto the floor.

“Mommy! Dad! It’s time for everyone else to dance!” he beams.

“You mean I have to share my bride now?” Marcus makes a funny face, making Jamie laugh.

“Boo,” I drone, and Marcus smiles, giving me a quick kiss. It’s short and sweet, but enough to make me want more. And as the dance floor fills with people and we join in on a more fast-paced dance to one of Pitbull’s songs, it becomes very obvious to both of us as our bodies brush and grind together that we both want more.

“We could sneak away,” he says, pulling me back into him and whispering in my ear.

“You don’t think people would notice?” I ask, biting my lip as his hips grind against my ass.

“They might notice,” he says, his voice gravelly. “But I might not care…”