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Her grin widened as tension slithered in the air like smoke from a bonfire. “Technically, you’re the best kind because you never got caught. I had to pull a confession out of you.”

“See, but you still knew it was me before I admitted to it,” I teased.

“I’ll admit the Rougarou disguise did get me for a while, and if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of your tattoos, I probably wouldn’t have put that together.”

“At least I got that goin’ for me,” I replied with a smile. “Anyway, why’d you come out here tonight and not stay at the house?”

Her gaze slid around our temporary getaway from a world that would be waiting for us in the morning. “Because I knew you were out here,” she whispered and brought her beautiful eyes back to mine.

Maybe it was the way she spoke, or the way she looked at me, but not a word came to my mind. The devil that constantly barked was quiet,so silent that the gentle bellows of the gators in the distant outside seemed to be the only sound to break the slowing of time between us.

She’d always been the one for me. I’d known that my entire life, but at this moment, it had never been so difficult to breathe, yet I’d never felt so alive and free at the same time. Her chest rose slow and steady as her eyes bore into mine, as if she could read every dark thought and discover every depraved hollow part of my blackened soul.

But I didn’t want this to happen unless she knew everything about me that I could share.

“There are things I still haven’t told you,” I finally croaked out. “And there are things I’ll never be able to tell you.”

Her face softened as she reached forward and traced a finger across the scar on my jaw. “I don’t care because every secret you’ve kept from me was with the intention to protect me. You never gave up on me, and you never stopped loving me. I don’t care right now about anything you haven’t shared with me, because I love you, Ford.” Her bottom jaw trembled as she rested her hand against my cheek, and tears glistened in her eyes. “I think fifteen years is long enough, don’t you?”

I closed my eyes as her lips crashed into mine. She was the only heaven I’d ever make it to.

Chapter 30

COLETTE

It seemed only fitting that the first place we had ever made love happened to be the very same place that, after fifteen years, we finally shared everything of ourselves with each other again.

But there was something entirely different about it this time. More binding, as if not a single thing existed in this world that could tear us apart again. Things were rawer, and more vulnerable. More passionate.Hewas simply more. Every sweep of his hand upon my body, every touch against the swell of my hips from his calloused and roughened skin ignited a fire within my bones that had never been there before.

He was patient and exacting, taking in every freckle that littered my skin and every imperfection that had come with time and aging. And he seemed to relish in it—no, devour it. He wasn’t the ghost in my mind that I begged to come home all those years ago. He was here now, holding his girl once again.

Life had taken us on the most unexpected and unfair route, but somehow, despite all the odds that fought against us, here we were, lost in the most perfect moment. Even if it were just for tonight, I’d sink into every ounce of beauty and love he offered me and believe it was for forever. Because his love was everlasting. He’d never stopped loving me. He’d never even given another woman a moment of his time, and I knew he never would. I hadn’t entirely figured out life yet, but one thing that remained true to the course, no matter the rocky edges I’d crashed upon, the one thing that had never changed was his love for me. And in the end, mine for him.

There were no regrets as we tumbled from the couch to the floor, losing our clothes in the process. Words were not needed as our bodies spoke every thought that painted between us. Gentle and rough exactly when it was needed, I lost myself in his touch that took me to the most exquisite and excruciating high of my life.

There he offered me the release I sought, but it wasn’t the ending of this perfect moment. It was merely the beginning as he fell back into my kiss and melted once more against my body. As sweet as honey, the ridges of his lips became a sealed memory against my own. I would never hold another man in my arms—I would never want to hold anyone else. He was my everything. He came home to me. In the end, after everything, here he was, speaking without words. Every fear of his, every desire, everything that made him smile and laugh became wrapped up in my soul.

And he finally took me. After all of his selfless love, giving me pleasure, he eased himself in with an involuntary whimper that matched my own. Never to be alone again, we became one at this moment. Wherever lifetook us after tonight, I’d ride that wave with him. There was no one else I’d dare to travel this terrifying world with. Time was of no consequence, and all the sounds that permeated the night air faded behind the moans and whispered pants of my body moving in perfect sync with his.

Stars of pleasure pounded at the back of my vision as his eyes filled with the most undeniable gaze of love. It was as if we were the only love story to ever be captured in this painting we’d created between each other.

Ford was mine. And I was his. No matter how long this life lasted, for this moment would cross into the eternities. Everything I was, I gave to him. There was no other love as strong as ours, and I knew that, even if I wasn’t able to spend every moment with him, nothing could destroy it. With his arms holding me, safety and warmth enveloped my body along with the rising passion from him until he, too, found that beautiful cascade at the end of that building pleasure.

And we lay there, panting and exhausted in a messy heap upon the floor. Once our breathing slowed, in silence, he eventually helped clean me and himself up, and then, still without speaking, we simply cuddled up on the couch and held each other.

His lips pressed gently into my forehead as my heavy eyelids drooped. In all the years we’d shared, I’d never felt so calm and safe. For this night, the violence and doom spanning around our families were absent. There was only him and me.

And I drifted to sleep as the whole sky fell around me, cradled within the arms of my best friend and lover.

Morning light danced across my closed eyelids, rousing me from the most blissful and deep sleep I’d ever experienced.

And I shot up on the couch.

“Shit,” I exclaimed. This morning was the 5k that Azelie was running, and I hadn’t set an alarm. In fact, she’d had one of the worst nights of her life, and I’d been here with Ford, having the best one of mine. I ran a hand over my face and glanced at the ticking clock on the wall.

A sigh escaped my lips as it read six in the morning. I had at least an hour before participants started lining up, and two hours before the race started. Slowly, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and scanned the empty room.

Empty.