“We’ll do it together.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“You don’t ever have to do anything alone again,” he promised. “I’m here and I swear to you, Lauren, I will never again let you down like I did tonight.”

She flung her arms around him. “You didn’t let me down. You saved my life. I love you. I don’t know if I’ve really truly told you how much. I didn’t tell my mother enough. I was a teenager, and it wasn’t cool and then she was just gone. Tonight I almost died and my last thought was how much I wished I had told you how much you’ve changed my life, how much you mean to me.”

“I love you, too, baby, more than you know. If you’d have died in there, I would have died with you.” He ran his hand down her hair. “Let’s go talk to your father. We’ll get through the bad, and we’ll make the good together.”

Epilogue

A month after Lauren had sat in that wooden chair, certain she was going to die, she stood in a pink silk robe on a Paris balcony looking out over the city, appreciating life more than ever. The moon was full, the stars twinkling in a fairy tale vision of perfection.

She had two weeks of heaven here with Royce, and then she’d start her new job with Mark and Lindsey. Her father was retiring from government to run his own firm, and had fired Brad, though Roger was still around. Apparently, her father had been being blackmailed, though she’d never found out about what. Just that he now knew that Sharon had been involved, and perhaps, though she wasn’t certain, Brad as well.

Royce walked up behind her and slid his arms around her. “It’s beautiful,” he said, staring out at it with her.

“Yes,” she sighed. “I’m so glad we did this.”

“Me too, baby,” he said, and turned her to face him. “And I can’t think of a better time or place to have a talk.”

She laughed and turned in his arms. “Not the talk again.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “The talk.” His expression turned serious, and he added, “I can’t go on like this, Lauren.”

There was something so intense about him that her heart skipped a beat. “What does that mean?”

“It means I want things to change between us.” He bent down on his knee and took her hand, before presenting a black velvet box and flipping the lid open. “Forever, baby. Either you want me forever or you don’t.”

A gorgeous white diamond twinkled as brightly as the stars and her lips lifted in a smile. “On one condition. You still have to work on the bossy thing.”

“You like the bossy thing.”

“Sometimes,” she admitted, and then bent down and kissed him. “Forever.” He scooped her up in his true alpha glory, and took her to bed, where he excelled at being deliciously bossy.

THE END