Water trickled down his chest when I squeezed the sponge over him. He sat between my thighs, the warmth of the water around us breaking through the chill that had settled in our bones.
“You think it’ll ever be over, Kloe?” Anderson asked, unexpectedly.
“Only if you let it. They’re gone now. All of them. There’s only you and me and our child left to dictate where our lives go from here.”
He nodded. “And where do we go from here?”
“Anywhere we want to. Judd and Samantha have been laid to rest. It’s about time we honoured their short lives. Don’t let their pain become worthless.”
He turned, sliding onto his knees before me. The water splashed around us when he grabbed me and pulled me onto his thighs and straight onto his hard cock.
Air rushed from my lungs as pleasure ran through my veins. My head fell back and Anderson captured the flesh on my neck with his teeth. When blood started to trickle down my skin he caught it on his tongue and kissed me with a passion that would soon overwhelm me.
The taste of Anderson and blood on my tongue made my whole body tremble with need. His tongue twisted around mine as his hands gripped my waist and he lifted and lowered me slowly onto him.
My heart swelled with the look of tenderness in his eyes, his gaze fixed on every bit of the pleasure he was granting me.
He made love to me for the very first time, and I never wanted it to end. I wanted to feel the closeness of his soul forever. I wanted to feel his heart beat alongside mine for eternity.
“I love you so much, Anderson,” I whispered, begging that he felt every bit of my declaration in his soul.
His hands moved from my waist and slid up my sides until he framed my face. I took control, moving over him just as slowly as he had directed me. The gentle friction of his cock inside me brought my orgasm quickly and sharply, the tremble in my bones making me cry out his name.
He thrust hard and deep, spilling inside me with my own name rushing from his lips.
His face buried into the crook of my neck as my arms slid around him. “Kloe,” he whispered, and it wasn’t until his body started to shake that I realised he was crying.
Grief had a funny way of showing itself at the strangest of times. And Anderson’s rocked him with a ferocity that took the breath from his lungs and the strength from his soul.
I held him tighter, holding onto him while he let go. I pleaded with him to use me, to take what I offered him.
“You’re okay,” I told him. “You survived this. You survived it all. The future is ours, Anderson. It’s all ours, and we’re going to live it.”
He lifted his face to mine, his beautiful glistening green eyes reflecting back the love he would never speak of. His thumb swiped at my own tears, and he placed it to his lips and tasted my love in its most physical form.
“Marry me,” he whispered.
Shock didn’t actually cover it. I stared with huge eyes as a smile took his misery and annihilated it.
“You speak of our future, Kloe, and all I see is you and our baby. That’s my future. Family. When you walked into my hospital room four years ago I felt it then, the connection we had. Our souls had always been linked with a bond that proved to be unbreakable. And once again we found each other. Our souls are never complete without one another, and they will forever hunt for each other.”
“Yes,” I whispered. I hadn’t even had to think about it. My soul had already decided for me.
His smile turned into the widest grin possible, lighting up his handsome face. I soaked the image up, using it to fuel my heart.
“And then you can take me somewhere hot and tranquil,” I informed him with a huge smile of my own. “God damn, I think we deserve a holiday.”
He laughed, nodding in agreement. “That we do, my little wolf. That we do.”
Present Day
PERFECTION.
The soft light skipped over her pale skin, highlighting each scar and making them dance for me. Her soft but full body swung in the ropes before me, her large round belly caressed in my hands, my fingers spread over the stretched skin.
My boy kicked me, telling me he knew I was there.
Kloe smiled, the blue of her eyes glistening with tears of delight. She was so amazingly beautiful when she was happy. And I’d given her that. I was the one who had filled her womb with what she craved, what she had once only ever dreamed of.
Crashing my mouth to hers, she moaned into me, the small puff of air flickering across my tongue and making me hunger for her even more.
“I love you,” she whispered against my lips. Her eyes were fixed on mine, the declaration of her words reflected back at me through her gaze. “I love what you do to me, Anderson. What you’ve given me.”
She waited. Like always.
Her soft lips moved with the touch of a gentle smile. “Even now.” She sighed. “Even now, after it all, you still can’t say it, can you?”