“I didn’t want him to hurt you. I couldn’t live with that. You are my whole heart, Heath. My world. You’ve always been. Money never mattered. I loved you penniless, and I loved you flush. You can do your very worst, and I’ll always love you, no matter what.”
I squeeze her hands and bury my face in her bosom, kissing her neck, her cheek, and her forehead, which registers as clammy and cold. I kiss the tip of her button nose that’s always freckled in the summer sun.
“I’ve loved you to hell and back and I’d do it all again,” she says. She sniffs as tears flow from her soulful blue eyes.
“Nothing in this whole universe would make me happier than sharing my life with you, Kat. Exploring the beach, catching tadpoles, fishing, studying for finals, whatever the fuck you want to do, I’m in. Life is unequivocally better when I experience it with you. I don’t want to live another minute if it hasn’t got you in it.”
Kat cries freely, but her mouth curls into a smile, and her joy is obvious as she cradles my face in her hands. She wipes my tears away with her thumbs, and I return the favor.
“Whenever I think life is unfair, that it’s handed me a raw deal, all I have to do is look at your face, and I remember that I’m the luckiest woman in the whole goddamn world.”
“Look at us, a bunch of crying, lovesick fools,” I say.
“Better to cry over lost years and misunderstanding than to never have rekindled a true love that was meant to be.”
I kiss her full pink lips gently, over and over, treasuring their warmth and vitality.
She kisses me back and wraps her arms around my neck, yanking me in close. “Heath, the ocean brought you to me,” she whispers.
I break the seal of her lips with my tongue and she opens beneath me, pulling me under like the swift tide. I love Katelyn Shaw irrevocably, and I’ll gladly drown in the ocean of her love if she’ll have me.
Epilogue- Six Years Later
Heath
My arms are wrapped around the most precious thing in my universe as we walk, one small step at a time, on unleveled rocks and gravel.
“Can I take this blindfold off?”
I hold her hands firmly against her soft, round stomach, “Two more steps.”
“You know I’m not the best with surprises.”
“I know, Princess, but you might as well get used to it because I like surprising you.”
We’ve been married for five years—the best five years of my life. It would have been six but we had to wait a year until Eddie could be considered legally dead. It killed me to wait, but Kat kept telling me she wasn’t going anywhere. Not that I’d let her leave, even if she wanted to.
“Ready?”
She starts bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Yes!” My hand falls from her eyes, and she inhales a large intake of breath. “Where are we?”
“Our new cabin in the Catskills.”
She whirls around and stares at me, unshed tears held hostage in her eyes. “You bought us a cabin?”
“With five acres of land. I guess I bought a few cabins. The place is completely secluded.
She wags her eyebrows, “Secluded, huh?”
I grip the top of her sundress and rip it off her body, watching as it pools on the dirt under our feet. “Secluded. Just how I like it. I plan on having your ass naked and at my mercy twenty-four hours a day.”
I tug her toward me, bend down, and nip at her ear. Kat told me she likes it rough, that the games others made her play are ones she wants to play with me willingly.
I bite on her ear lobe, whispering in her ear, “Run.”
Kat giggles and I watch her feet strike the ground as she runs into the brush forest.
I walk slowly. Might as well let my prey believe she’s got a shot at winning. Where’s the fun in catching her too quickly? It’s the chase, the hiding and seeking that enhance the play. After Kat took a bullet and I thought I’d lose her, I vowed never to be rough with her again. To only make love to her, kiss her tenderly, and when we had sex, to do nothing more than gaze into her eyes with love. Until the day Kat herself told me she needed more. She needed the aggression. She wanted me to be rough and forceful. She told me that, with me, it wasn’t abuse but a necessary component of her pleasure. I think it’s her way of washing away the past and embracing who she is today.
The weather is warm even with the changing leaves starting to fall off the trees. It’s that time of year when you get the beauty of autumnal colors but can still bask in the summer heat.