Royal Elite Epilogue (Royal Elite #7) by Rina Kent

“Morning, beautiful.” He climbs my body with slow, sloppy kisses up my belly.

I stopped my life-draining diet two years ago. It took too much to make that decision, so as soon as I began to keep my food in, I decided to adopt a healthy lifestyle but without starving myself.

Xander became my personal trainer for runs, and I might have wanted to kill him at the beginning for all the long jogs we did, but then I started to look forward to them. And, okay, the way he looked in his running clothes might have helped a bit. Fine, a lot.

He’s just delicious, and all the girls who jog in our park agree.

When I glared at them, he teased me and told me while fucking me that I’m the only woman he sees and ever will.

True, I still have those self-confidence issues sometimes, but now, I have my mechanisms and I’ve learnt how to easily move away from them by digging into my self-empowerment.

Now, I can look at myself in the mirror and finally smile. I can be myself and not want to be someone else.

And the person who played the most important role in all of that is this man who’s now kissing his way up my body – my non-perfect, full of stretch marks and scars body – and still has that wild, lustful look in his eyes.

He flicks my nipple with the pad of his thumb and I moan deep in my throat and run my fingertips over the place where his heart lies. He had a tattoo inked on his skin as soon as he returned from rehab and stayed away from Absolut Vodka. We do drink, but he never loses himself to it now.

Green.

That’s what’s on the tattoo. Just one word next to his heart.

He got me inked on him for life, and I still feel close to tears whenever I see it.

Xander is mine as much as I’m his.

His chest sticks to mine as he grins at me with that sloppy, sleepy, lustful smile.

“Morning, Xan.” I ruffle his blond hair. I can’t keep my hands off it and I might be too in love with the colour. It’s shining under the morning light coming from the balcony of our bedroom.

He leans on his elbows so they’re on either side of me. “Happy graduation.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me of all the things I have to do today. Kir was demanding to come here.”

Dad, Lewis, and Kirian will join us for lunch after the graduation ceremony, and then I’ve already made plans with Elsa, Aiden, and the others.

That is, if Aiden doesn’t decide to kidnap Elsa somewhere.

We always have family lunches and dinners now. Lewis and Dad are our fathers, and although I don’t call Lewis ‘Dad’ and Xan doesn’t do the same to my dad, we have that unspoken mutual understanding, sort of like the one Dad and Lewis had for years.

It’s easier this way and doesn’t give us grief from any prying eyes.

Mum moved to Paris two years ago. She sends us invitations to her exhibitions, but we don’t go. There isn’t even any pain as we talk about her now. She’s like that distant relative no one actually cares about.

Even Kirian, who’s supposed to be attached to his mother, doesn’t want to spend time with her and is now striving to be a ‘proper’ man like Dad and his Uncle Lewis – his words, not mine.

“I’ll bribe Kirian with brownies so he doesn’t spend the night,” Xander says.

“Why can’t he?”

“Because we’re celebrating.”

“We’ll be doing a lot of celebrations for one night.”

“We’ll have to add one more then. The most important one.” He reaches under the pillow and retrieves a ring with a blinding green jewel on top.

My eyes widen as I stare between him and the ring. This can’t be what I think it is…?

“I’ve wanted to do this since RES, but Dad and Calvin said all that adult shit about college graduation and whatnot. Besides, I didn’t want to distract you more than I should. Needless to say, I’ve waited so fucking long to make you officially mine, to call you my wife, my life, and my future.”

I’m crying like a little girl by the time he finishes. “Yes! Absolutely yes!”

“I wasn’t asking. That means you have the chance to say no and I’m not having that, Green.” He slips the ring on my finger. Perfect fit – of course it is.

Sometimes, I think Xander knows me even better than I know myself.

He stops and looks at me more than I’ll ever stop to look at myself.

And for that reason, he’s not only perfect for me, but he was made for me.

Just like I was made for him.

“I love you so much, Xan.”

“And I love you, Green.” He claims my mouth in a slow kiss that robs my breath.

I’m melting and I have no interest in stopping it. London, our cat, mewls, then jumps on the bed, demanding to join the celebration. She hates being left out.

Xander pulls away, “Now, for the wedding date.”

“What about it?”

“How about tomorrow?”

We both laugh as our lips meet again.





Teal





Age Nineteen





There’s something about seeing the world through different lenses.

Before, it was blurry. Now, there’s sense to it, a clarity I wasn’t able to feel before.

There’s something called happiness, and there’s something called joy.

For my whole life, I never actually understood what happiness meant and why people would crave to be happy. It felt like a high that would just eventually wear off.