“Hmm . . . I didn’t realize that.”
He twirled me again. “No?”
I shook my head. “Must have slipped my mind.”
“Slipped your mind, huh?”
Vigorously, I nodded before I was yelping as he dragged me back into the far recesses of the balcony. Right back to that spot that had changed everything between us all those months ago. He hoisted me up and placed my bottom on the table before he plopped down in a chair in front of me.
He gripped me by the outside of the thighs. “Do I need to remind you?”
A tiny moan slipped free from between my grin. “Mmm . . . I think you might.”
He shot forward and captured my mouth in a consuming, maddening kiss.
Soft, plush lips and demanding, delicious tongue.
Orange and whiskey.
Smooth.
All man.
My head spun, and my body sang.
Throbbing and needing this man in a way I’d never thought I’d need anyone.
He pushed to standing, and I wrapped my legs around his waist then groaned into his mouth when he pressed his hard cock against my center. “Kale.”
“Are you remembering yet, Princess?”
“Almost,” I teased, the word both a giggle and plea.
He kissed me deeper.
Passion spiraling around us.
A bind. A bond. Our commitment.
“How about now?” I could feel his smile as he murmured against my lips.
I pulled back so I could look at the defined curves of his face, a perfect silhouette in the shadows. Sobering, I brushed my fingertips across his lips. “I could never, ever forget.”
A needy rumble echoed from his chest, all the playfulness gone when he kissed across my jaw and down my throat, words woven in the middle. “Couldn’t even stay downstairs for a few hours, knowing you were up here. Only thing I wanted was to get to you. Touch you. I can’t believe I’ve been given this. That in two days, I get to call you my wife. That I get to call Evan my son. Tell me this isn’t a dream.”
I clung to his shoulders.
Lost to this beautiful, beautiful man.
His devastating body and his extraordinary heart.
“I’m yours,” I told him.
Wholly.
Completely.
“I still can’t believe it,” he murmured, edging back to look at my face as his words rode on the night.
I took him by the face, my gaze locked on his kind, knowing eyes. “Believe it. I believe in us. I believe in you.”
Kale had rescued me in so many ways. Filled up all the vacancies. Filled our home with laughter and love.
With security.
He’d worked with his attorneys to ensure Dane could never be a threat to Evan ever again.
And somehow, miraculously, I had received a check for five hundred thousand dollars from the Gentry Trust at the finalization of my divorce.
Almost the exact amount required to cover Evan’s emergency heart surgery and ICU stay, plus the debt I’d incurred when I’d made the choice to fight for my son. No matter the cost.
I’d never asked for it, demanded it, my aim only to sever ties with Dane forever. But the truth was, it’d been a lifesaver. Another burden lifted. He’d never admitted it, but I somehow knew Kale had been the one who’d made that happen. How, I wasn’t sure. Honestly, I didn’t want to know. But I would be grateful for all my days.
He set his big hand on the side of my face. “I love you, Hope. You are my everything. I can’t wait to share my life with you. With Evan. Grow our family. I never thought I would get this chance.”
I drew in a staggered breath at the thought. I never thought I’d get this chance, either.
Evan would always be enough.
Kale would always be enough.
It almost felt greedy to hope for another child.
Still, that sacred place in my spirit bloomed with the possibility.
But no matter how our family was shaped, I would cherish it.
A tender smile fluttered across Kale’s lips and adoration moved across his expression. “I’ll never stop fighting for you. Working to protect you and Evan.”
“I know that. I love you more than you know,” I whispered to him, searching him in the shadows that played and danced across his gorgeous face.
“Princess,” he murmured, kissing across my jaw.