“Together,” I agreed.

Her head tilted back as her gaze roamed over my face. She cupped my cheek again and then traced the curve of my jaw with the pad of her thumb.

Turning my head, I caught the tip of her finger between my teeth. Passion clouded her eyes as I nipped down.

“You need to stop doing that,” she said, pulling her hand away and sliding it down to my chest.

I raised my brows. “Why would I do that?”

“Because for some reason, these pregnancy hormones have me wanting sex for, like, nearly twenty-four hours a day,” she said, and hell if that didn’t go straight to my dick. “You do something like that, and I just want to climb on you like a sex-deprived manic.”

“Okay. I don’t care what you say.” Wrapping my hand around the nape of her neck, I kissed her. “I am so fucking lucky.”

Josie laughed against my mouth. “Because I’m horny all the time now?”

“Yeah.” I pressed my forehead against hers and drew in a long, slow breath. “And for the fact that, after all of this, you’ve never given up on me.”

“I could never give up on you.” She kissed me again, nibbling at my bottom lip. “Not just because I love you, but because you’re worth fighting for, Seth. You’re worth loving, and if takes a hundred years to prove that to you, I will.”

Her words were a lightning bolt to my chest.

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“Hell,” I growled. Snatching the sheet that had pooled at her waist, I tossed it aside. The silk sheet floated in the air beside the bed and then fell quietly to the floor.

Needing to be inside her more badly than I needed my next breath, I willed my pants off.

Josie laughed as she fell back onto the bed. “That is a nifty talent, Seth.”

“That it is.” I climbed over her, stopping to kiss her lower stomach. “You’re jealous of it, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah.” Her fingers threaded through my hair. “Who wouldn’t be?”

Moving up, I placed a kiss on the raised mark between her breasts. “But I like to think I have far better talents then undressing myself with a thought.”

“You do.” She tugged on my head, guiding my mouth to hers as I settled between her thighs. “But that would make getting ready so much easier.”

My laugh was lost in her kiss, and then I got lost in her. Everything started off slow. I took my time, because hell if we didn’t have all the time in the world to slow everything down, to enjoy one another without a threat hanging over our heads, and to simply live.

So, that’s what we did.

I sipped from her lips, drank from her breathy sighs, and fed from her cries as I worked my way down her, exploring every dip and curve like it was my first time. And in a way, it sort of felt like that.

It always felt like that.

I’d never grow tired of those soft sounds she made, or the way her skin tasted. I’d never grow tired of her. Never.

By the time I slid inside her, we both were grasping at one another, hands greedy on slick skin, our breaths short and urgent.

Josie cried out my name as I thrust into her, and the sound was like touching a live wire. Those long, beautiful legs wrapped around my hips. I moved over her, arms shaking, hips pumping slow and deep.

She was having none of that.

Rolling me onto my back, I laughed and grasped her hips as she took control. She planted her hands on my chest. Head thrown back and back arched as she rode me, I’d never seen anything more beautiful. And when she came, clenching and throbbing all around me, my release powered down my spine.

I sat up, wrapping my arms around her as tight as I could. Her head dropped to my shoulder as her body trembled all around me. I pulled her down, grinding up and sealing our bodies together. There was not an inch of space between us when I came, shouting her name.

I fell back, bringing her with me as the aftershocks shook me to my very core. Good gods, I was rattled in the best possible way.

Clearing my throat, I glanced over at Josie. Breathing just as heavily and fast as me, half her body was strewn across me and her legs were tangled with mine. That was something about her I loved. Somehow she always managed to get her legs all wrapped up in mine. A lazy grin tugged up the corners of my lips. She was the best kind of octopus.

“Gods.” I dragged my hand up her spine as I turned my chin, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I could do that again and again and again.”

“Same.” She snuggled down. “That was…”

“Extraordinary? Heart-stopping? The best sex of your life?” I suggested helpfully.

She giggled. “All of those.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Your ego never fails to amaze me.”

Dragging my fingers along the center of her back, I chuckled as I let my eyes drift shut. There was a good chance that I might’ve dozed off, because when I opened my eyes again, the sunlight had shifted from the bed to the floor and Josie was smiling at me, her chin propped against her fist, resting on my chest.

“Have you been watching me sleep?” I asked, retuning my hand to her back, because I knew she liked that.

“Maybe just a little.”

Lifting my other hand, I dragged it down my face. “How long was I sleeping?”

“A couple of hours. Not too long.”

“Shit. Really?”

She nodded. “I wasn’t staring at you the whole time.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” I paused. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, Seth.” Josie smiled as she pulled back. “You can take naps. We have forever to be awake and annoying each other. Like literally. Forever. And soon, we’ll have a little version of ourselves to also annoy and take naps with.”

I don’t know why, but it struck me right then that we really did have forever—fuck, we really did. Not the blink and you missed it life. Not a future that ended hopefully when we were both old and gray, our muscles weak and our bones frail. We really did have forever.

“Yeah.” My voice thickened as I tugged her back down, right where I wanted her. Flesh against flesh. Heart to heart. “Yeah, we do.”

Josie kissed my chest, and another thing struck me as I lay there. Something fucking wondrous in a way.

I…I had gotten everything I could ever want in the end.

Me. The one some called the villain for a long time.

But it was true. I had the love of my life in my arms. My wife. I would have a child soon. I had a real future, one that I would look forward to every day.

I laughed before I could stop myself.

Josie lifted her chin. “What?”

“I was just thinking.” Smiling, I curved my hand around her arm, holding her tight to me. “I got everything. Every damn thing I never even allowed myself to dream. Crazy.”

Josie wrinkled her nose in that cute way of hers, and my smile grew. She let out a happy little shriek as I rolled her onto her back. Staring into the eyes of the woman who was truly a gift, I made a promise I’d never break. “I’m going to spend the rest of eternity proving to you just how much I deserve all of this.”

Tears filled her eyes. “You already do, Seth.”

Epilogue

Seth

“Do you think you’d ever want one of these?” Deacon asked Luke, never taking his eyes off the little, wrapped bundle in his arms.

Luke looked over to where I stood. His brows lifted in surprise. “I think so, but not for a fairly long time from now. Like a real long time from now.”

I grinned.

“I don’t know.” Deacon lowered his face to the bundle resting in the crook of his arm. “I would like to get me one of these.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Luke replied. “Like you can go to the local grocery store and pick one up.”

“Nowadays, that could happen,” I commented dryly.

“Don’t antagonize him.”

Deacon went back to making those ridiculous cooing noises—noises I’d found myself making more than a time or five hundred. Sometimes I’d do it without even realizing it.

“I can’t wait for Alex and Aiden to see him,” Luke said, crossing his arms. Deacon hadn’t been able to keep his hands off the newest addition to the Army of Awesome, but Luke was a bit standoffish, staring down at the wrapped bundle like it was some kind of unknown weapon of mass destruction. I couldn’t blame him for that. “This kid is going to be spoiled considering he has, like, four or five godparents.”




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