“I devoured them,” he says. “And I’m so fucking proud of you, by the way.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. When you thought I’d ghosted you, you dealt with it, you acknowledged how you felt, and then you forced yourself to move on with your life,” he says. “Makes me proud as hell to know you respect yourself like that.”
“Thanks, Corp.” I kiss his wet lips again, my legs cinching tighter around him.
“You keep rubbing yourself against me like that and I’m going to have to take you right here, right now.”
“Is that a threat? Or a promise?” My hips circle against his growing hardness and I wear a teasing smile that I bury in the solid bend of his neck. His corded steel arms wrap around me, holding me tight, and I swear I could live here in this moment for the rest of my life and be perfectly content.
Striding to a shallower corner of the pool and taking a seat on the steps, Isaiah’s hands slide up my outer thighs before gripping my ass and pushing me down onto him.
I exhale as he fills me and I lower myself deeper before tossing my head back and holding onto the back of his neck. He takes a pointed nipple between his lips as I grind against him, rocking slow then fast then slow again.
We’ve got all night.
And all day tomorrow.
And the rest of the week.
Hell—the rest of our lives.
Neither of us are going anywhere.
Isaiah’s rough palms skid along my slick body, the pool water lapping around us, ripples of water kissing our skin as we move.
Dragging my hands along his sculpted shoulders, I lower my lips to his neck, peppering kisses along his collarbone then working my way up to his jaw before finishing at his mouth. I could kiss Isaiah a million times and it still wouldn’t be enough to show just how crazy I am for him.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he says, lips tracing mine as he drives himself into me, our bodies rocking in tandem. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Maritza. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving that to you. I love you, Maritza the Waitress.”
My lips curl. “I love you, too, Corporal Torres.”
Epilogue
Isaiah
Three Years Later
Dear Isaiah,
It’s so strange to think that this will be the last letter you ever get from me while overseas. In a way, it’s bittersweet, like the closing chapter of an amazing book you’ve spent years devouring, but mostly it’s just sweet because now we get to start our sequel.
No more goodbyes. No more sleepless nights. No more waiting. No more worrying.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what’s next for us. I’ve always kind of liked not knowing what was next, and I’ve always thought it’d be nice to wing it with you because I can’t imagine any scenario being less than amazing as long as you’re in it.
In your last letter you mentioned that you’d never wanted kids until you met me, and that one night you dreamt we had three kids and it got you excited. To be honest, it caught me off guard because I never knew if I wanted to have a family either. Being an only child with one cousin and parents who were never around all that much doesn’t really instill much for family values, but since I’ve met you, I’ve been thinking …
And I want a big, loud, crazy family and I want it with you.
So yes. Let’s do it. Because I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else.
See you soon …
Yours forever,
Maritza
P.S. I love you.
I spot her from the other side of a high school gymnasium in Burbank, where my troop is making their official homecoming entrance. It’s loud as hell in here, people crying tears of joy and shouting and running into each other’s arms, but there’s my girl, standing under a basketball hoop in a pretty floral sundress, scanning the room.
It only takes a moment until our eyes catch and the way her face lights sends a shock of joy to my chest. A second later, she runs to me, jumping into my arms and wrapping her long legs around me.
“We made it, baby,” I say, holding her tighter than I’ve ever held her before. “I’m done. I’m all yours now.”
She kisses my neck and breathes me in again and again. “I’ve waited so long for this day.”
I think about everything we’ve been through. Our chance meeting. The fact that, against all odds, we somehow couldn’t get enough of each other. I’ve never once believed in fate, but I’ve always believed in karma, and I like to believe I did something right to get an effervescent girl like her to fall head over heels in love with a damaged soul like me.