Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
"Yeah?" I smile down at her. "Because of the wine?"
"Because of you. Because of this. I have your ring on my finger. I have a job here, so we don't have to leave. Everything feels…perfect. It feels so damn perfect." She blinks watery eyes. "Pierce would love this for me."
"Yeah, he would," I murmur, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "He'd be so fucking proud of you, Dimples."
"I know."
"I'm proud of you, too. No matter how your dreams change or what you decide to do next, I'm fucking proud of you."
Her sweet smile is everything. It's sunshine and sin. And it's…fucking perfect.
"God," I groan, lifting her up to kiss it from her lips. Her legs spread around my hips, her hands delving into my hair. I groan again, my cock jerking to life between us.
She feels it and whimpers, shifting around until she's hovering right over the tip. Her eyes meet mine, full of so much love, it steals my breath.
"I love you," she whispers as she sinks down, knocking my world out of orbit all over again.
"Christ, I love you too," I growl, my hands sinking into her hips.
We rock together, getting lost in one another. My hands are all over her, but hers aren't still either. I feel them searing along my skin, setting little fires everywhere she touches me as I tumble her over backward, taking control.
My name echoes around the office as my hips crash into hers, driving me deep and then deeper. We come together again and again, spiraling higher with every moment, every touch. And when we fall, we do it together, our cries of ecstasy melding into one somewhere around the ceiling.
It's loud and messy, and it's us.
"I love you," I whisper through the fog of bliss, clinging to her sweaty body. "So fucking much, Dimples."
"I love you, too, Ridley."
She could say it for a lifetime, and I'd still want to hear it again. Those words are three years of hope, whispered into existence, and three years of pain, soothed into nothing all at once. They're my dreams, every goddam one of them, breathed to life by her lips.
They're everything.
Epilogue
Paisley
Three Years Later
"Ridley, I will murder you if you even think about touching me," I cry, dodging to the left as he saunters toward me with a devilish smirk on his lips. "I am not smashing grapes with my feet!"
There's no way I'm putting my feet on something people are supposed to drink. Hell no. I'm still not okay with the fact that wine used to be made that way.
He doesn't say anything as he stalks toward me. I see a break between the vines behind him and decide to take a chance. He's fast…but I'm desperate. Maybe it'll work in my favor.
Spoiler Alert: It doesn't.
He snags me around the waist before I even have a chance to race around him, hauling me up in his arms. Just like always, he drops me over his shoulder, smacking my ass.
My shriek of protest echoes around the Italian countryside, bouncing back to us from every direction. It doesn't stop my husband at all.
"You should have run faster, Dimples," he says, chuckling as he carries me toward the basin of grapes he set up earlier.
"You're evil."
"Maybe, but you fucking love me anyway."
He's right. I do. Every day, he finds new ways to make me fall all over again. It shouldn't even be possible at this point, but I don't think this man can be stopped. Not when it comes to me or our babies.
My life is a dream with him, and it just keeps getting better every day. Like right now. Even though I'm absolutely going to murder him for this, I'm so fucking happy, I feel like I could burst.
He flips me upright, his lips slanting down over mine half a second before my feet land in the vat of grapes. I sink into the basin as they squish beneath my feet, juices running between my toes.
"You are in so much trouble," I growl against his lips…but he just throws his head back, a loud rumble of laughter spilling from his lips. And I can't help but smile in response.
"It's not that bad," he teases, tucking strands of hair behind my ear.
He's right, it's not. It's…an odd sensation, a little like stepping in mud, honestly. But I'm not telling him that.
"We are not drinking this."
"Nah." His green eyes twinkle. "I figured we'd bottle it and give it to my cousins for Christmas."
"Ridley!" I smack him across the chest, a shocked laugh escaping. "Absolutely not. I don't even know why you think I needed this experience."
He chuckles again before his expression turns serious. "You're all over this vineyard, baby. I worked the earth until I was too exhausted to move, trying to erase you from my mind. Instead, I planted memories of you everywhere. They're in every new vine we put down that year. You sweeten every berry."