She was right.
If anyone had a reason to think that way, it was my Remi. She’d been through hell and back and survived. If she wanted our son to live free of the chains that bound us to this world, then who was I to deny her?
Taking her hand, I led her to our room and closed the door behind us. Knowing this could be the last night I had with the love of my life, I wanted it to be just us.
Alone.
Together.
Wrapped in each other’s arms one more time.
“I need you woman.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Max,” she said, wrapping her arms around my waist, tilting her head back for a kiss. Never one to deny her, I grabbed her face and kissed her.
Closing my eyes, I remembered our first touch, first kiss.
If she only knew what that moment meant to me. What having her in my arms still did to me. For so long, I stumbled, walked aimlessly in this world until she found me.
For years, there were so many miles between us, so many hours in the dark with only the memory of her voice to keep me sane. Her gentle hand and soft words of encouragement kept me going when the nightmares threatened to consume me. Then, she appeared when I thought I was doomed to live in the darkness forever. Shining her bright light on my darkened soul.
The memories we created together were enough to last me a lifetime. She showed me how to live, to love, to laugh. She was the very best of me. The beating heart of my blackened soul.
Brushing her hair back from her beautiful face, I saw my future in her eyes.
For a moment, all I could do was stare. I wanted to get lost in the beautiful pictures before me. To live in this moment forever. To let the darkness consume us, protect us forever.
As I let my eyes take in her beautiful form, the only thought that went through my mind was that she was achingly beautiful, so lovely to me that she made my heart ache with longing and a deep desire. The glow of the moonlight filtered in casting our room in darkness.
Our safe place. In the dark, where no one could hurt us. In the dark, there was only us. Our eyes meet.
A moment of recognition hit me like being struck by lightning.
There was nothing more I could say.
I feel it as sure as the darkness surrounded me.
Her arms around my neck, the rounded curves of her bottom in my hands holding her to me, her legs around my thighs. I felt the salty wetness of her tears as she rained her sweet butterfly kisses all over my face. Moving us around and around, making slow circles around the room, I felt the touch of the mattress on the backs of my legs. Holding her tightly, tightly to me, my precious only love, I fell backward onto the soft waiting cushion of the bed as a cascade of lustrous, perfect golden curls fell around me.
For a moment, I was lost in the wonder that was my love.
In the next heartbeat, she pushed her body against mine, holding me down as her mouth descended. We shared that first hot kiss, fueled by such love and nights of needing each other close while for years we were so far apart.
A distant memory no more.
Her kiss was not gentle. No, it was a kiss that had been denied for far too long, as it crashed into me like a storm assaulting the shore. Terrible in its intensity, searing in its heat.
Perfection in its expression of love.
Her face shined in the glow of the moonlight with the tears of release and sorrow that she cried, but there was nothing else in the world as her kiss ended only when she breathlessly pulled herself from my lips, only enough to breathe.
For a few moments, all I could do was wordlessly watch her try to catch the breath that her kiss had taken away. Memorizing every inch of her.
My beautiful Remi.
My woman.
The love of my life.