The Romance Revival(95)
There’s the sound of a smooth, electronic slide. Cool air washes over me and my skin prickles. It isn’t unpleasant, but it’s definitely overstimulating, like every inch is being innervated at once.
I blink a few times, clearing my vision, and a face looming over me comes into focus. Blue eyes overcome with what looks like relief. Not blue like a cloudless day, but like the sky after a thunderstorm. Worn denim, thistle, a blue spruce. His skin looks warm and smooth; his eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles.
“Hey there.”
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“Who are you?” I say, voice stronger but still hoarse, and then add, “Are you here for me?”
He frowns, blinking rapidly. “Emery?”
“You’re so hot. I really hope you’re here for me.”
He fights a smile. “I am indeed.”
“Take it down a notch, lover boy.” It’s the woman’s voice again, and I know she’s standing beside him, but I can’t look away. His face is so… sweet. So perfect. So goddamn hot. “Let’s keep her pulse steady for now.”
“Sorry.” He doesn’t look away, either. Instead, he brushes a piece of my hair back. “Hello, Emery Rose Martín. Welcome back.”
“I’m Emery?” I ask, pointing to my chest.
He nods but his frown returns. “Yes… and I’m Luca.”
“Luca?” I repeat slowly.
“Your husband.” Luca glances at the woman next to him, concerned. “Shit, Annie, I don’t think she—”
Laughing, I reach for the collar of his shirt and pull him down on top of me on the hospital bed. “I’m just messing with you,” I whisper into his neck, before planting a kiss there. “I remember every second.”
Epilogue EMERY
TWO YEARS LATER
I’ve never been a beach person. Not the way Luca is, anyway. I’ve never loved the feeling of sand stuck all over my skin or being overheated almost instantly. Swimming in the ocean with literal unseen monsters is a hard pass for me. However, I will sit on this beach until the end of time if it means I get to forever watch Luca Martín emerge from the waves at Uluwatu Beach. His surfboard is tucked beneath his arm; his wet hair flops messily across his forehead. Sun glistens on the drops of water on his torso, and the trail of dark hair on his stomach leading beneath the waistband of his low-hanging board shorts makes my entire body go hot.
He drops down beside me, completely unconcerned that he’ll be wearing grains of this fine sand for the rest of his life, and tilts his face for a kiss. His lips are warm, and he tastes like salt water and the coconut juice he finished just before going into the ocean.
“What do you feel like doing now?” he asks, brushing a wayward strand of hair beneath my sun hat.
“Are you done surfing?”
“For now,” he says, and rubs his flat stomach. “I could go for some lunch.”
These days, I feel like I could always eat. “Then lunch it is.”
Luca helps me up before tugging his T-shirt over his head and stepping into his flip-flops. He was made for life here in Bali. And maybe I am, too. With the breezy coastline, incredible food everywhere, no schedules, our rented home overlooking the crashing surf, and quality time with my favorite person on the planet, it has been the best three months of my life.
Unfortunately, we’re only here for another four days.
If someone told me five years ago that I would take an entire summer off work in order to figure out what would be next for me, I would have laughed in their face. But now I’m not sure I even want to step foot in a lab, office, or clinic ever again.
After all, I feel like I’ve already done what I set out to do: I was able to literally save lives. Not just Luca’s, of course, but my own: Annie administered Compound Y to me that day in the warehouse, her decision giving me crucial time—not to go into the BioVIVE, but to get to the hospital for life-saving surgery the good old-fashioned way. I came out of it just fine, with a cool scar to boot.
But not everyone was so lucky. Annie used the compound on Claire, too, who undoubtedly wished she’d been left to die after the massive government inquiry into her attempts to sell classified technology to China landed her in a white-collar prison in upstate New York. She’s now serving more years than she’s got left. Vince, despite choosing too late to be the good guy, was charged with unlawful imprisonment and extortion and is serving time, too. I expected to feel smugger about his downfall, but I’m just too busy not giving a shit.
I wanted to leave BioNEX immediately, of course, but given that Annie and I were the only ones who knew everything about the BioVIVE protocol, we stayed on as consultants for six months. We made them pay us an exorbitant amount of money to ensure that the transfer of the project was smooth when it was taken over by an international consortium of scientists from various countries who agreed to an intimidating amount of government oversight. I’ve been consulting here and there ever since—for totally legal and public companies, I swear—but nothing is really sparking my brain.
So as to what comes next for me, professionally? Who knows? I don’t need to work anymore, but the idea of not working feels crazy, and Luca has already informed me that I’m not allowed to stay home and slowly lose my mind. He and Crash still have their landscaping business, but they get to be really picky about the projects they take on. Which is to say, no more lonely, topless women married to men with large gun collections. It’s given Luca plenty of time to finish the renovations on our house. We have a new bathroom and have added an upstairs addition with two bedrooms, another bathroom, and a view of the ocean in the distance. It’s a beautiful home, but I know myself, and know I wouldn’t be happy there all day.