Then he kissed me goodnight, and we went to bed. But he never turned off the bedside lamp, and I sure as hell didn’t remind him.
Epilogue
Rafe
Over the next few days, things slowly got back to normal. Or the new normal, I guess. I decided, with a lot of input from Gage, not to go back to Ravenwood, or at least not right away. Beau and I had a long talk, and he said he had no desire to ever live there again. He had talked to Sophie, who felt the same, and then deeded the property over to me.
I still loved Ravenwood and always would, I guess. But it was terribly run down and in bad shape, which was one of the reasons it was so easy for Emil to get in like he did. It needed extensive renovations, and I wasn’t sure I had the stamina for all that after so much had happened.
Gage sat me down not long after his uncomfortable interview with his partner Luc, and told me that he’d realized, when he was ready to lie to his own partner and do whatever else it took to keep me safe, that he was totally in love with me and wanted us to get married. It was kind of a strange proposal, and I had to talk long and hard to reassure him that the lies were little white ones—well, sort of. None of us had done anything wrong. Except for maybe Abel, and it wasn’t possible to arrest a dead man. After checking Emil’s fingerprints, they found matches at the scenes of both the murder cases they’d been working.
Emil deserved what he got too. It had been Emil who had gone to those old ladies, demanding to know what they knew. I figured that one of them had probably told him about that night in St. Louis Cemetery, and he became obsessed with finding the diamonds and getting the kind of power Camille had before she died. He had managed to get the Rauskinna spell book from one of them. Probably the first lady he killed, and though she may have told him she didn’t have the diamonds, he obviously didn’t believe her. Though neither of those old ladies were exactly innocent—they were Camille’s partners in crime, after all, and somehow successfully hid the Rauskinna from us—neither of them deserved to be murdered.
After we talked, I think Gage felt a little better and gave me a proper proposal. I said yes, of course, and we talked about where we might live after we got married. That’s when he offered to sell his building. It was in the Quarter, so very valuable. He said he could get a lot for it, and he could invest it into restoring Ravenwood to its former glory, if that was what would make me happy. But even though it was a wonderful offer and sweet of him to want to do that for me, I decided against it. Like Beau and Sophie, I had little desire to stay at Ravenwood. I thought we needed a new start, and I told Gage I’d rather stay at his building in the Quarter, at least for now. I thought we could be really happy there. I put Ravenwood up for sale and got an offer for it right away—an all cash offer for more than the asking price.
The new owners were Julian Montague and his lover, the hot and gorgeous Valen Beauchamp! They wanted possession as soon as possible, and didn’t even care about any renovations, saying they preferred to make their own arrangements. It worked out perfectly, and they were even sort of in the family. Nic and Beau’s family, anyway.
Nic and Beau would be staying in the Quarter indefinitely. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Nic and Gabriel, but Beau told me he didn’t approve of Gabriel’s alliance with the vampire, and Gabriel had been pretty defiant. They had some words and were currently not speaking at all. I hoped they could work things out.
As for me, things were the best they’d been in years. No, the best ever. I was going to start making wedding plans soon.
As for my detective, he made love to me almost every night, and he said he was even getting used to Loki. Now if I could just get him comfortable with Celeste, everything would be almost perfect. Of course, that was a very big “if.” Still, it was a goal to shoot for. As far as happy endings went, I thought we had a pretty nice one, and something I never thought I’d have.
After all, simply believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan E Scott lives with her husband in a small town in north Georgia. Susan enjoys scrapbooking, traveling, and reading and writing romance. Susan writes M/F and M/M erotic romance
PAINTED HEARTS PUBLISHING
Painted Hearts Publishing has an exclusive group of talented writers. We publish stories that range from historical to fantasy, sci-fi to contemporary, erotic to sweet. Our authors present high quality stories full of romance, desire, and sometimes graphic moments that are both entertaining and sensual. At the heart of all our stories is romance, and we are firm believers in a world where happily ever afters do exist.
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