Page 39 of Bound in Matrimony

I lift my head to meet his eyes. "Her mother found herself checking the sky every hour, watching for your return like some lovesick heroine from a gothic novel." I trace the line of his jaw, feeling the slight stubble beneath my fingertips. "Her mother discovered that three days without you felt like three years."

Satisfaction softens his expression. "Good. It was mutual."

We lie in comfortable silence, the sound of waves breaking on the shore drifting through our open windows. In moments like these, I marvel at the journey that brought us here—from my initial wariness of his intensity to this complete acceptance of our mutual obsession. The sophisticated art director who once valued independence above all else now finds her greatest freedom in belonging, utterly and completely, to this man. Just as he belongs to me.

"We should get dressed," Knox says eventually, though he makes no move to release me. "Claire will be looking for me."

"Five more minutes," I negotiate, pressing closer against him. "She's having fun with her shells."

He acquiesces immediately, his arms tightening around me. The powerful CEO who commands global industries cannot deny his daughter or his wife even the smallest request. This is the private Knox Vance that only Claire and I ever see—tender, yielding, vulnerable beneath his formidable exterior.

The knowledge fills me with a fierce possessiveness. This version of him is mine alone to witness, mine to protect, mine to cherish. Just as the version of myself I am with him—passionate, yielding, completely centered in my surrender—belongs only to Knox.

I let my hand rest over his heart, feeling the steady, strong beat beneath my palm. Over my name, permanently etched into his skin. In this moment of perfect stillness, perfect connection, I acknowledge what I've known since the day I agreed to become his wife:

This is forever. This consuming need, this mutual obsession, this perfect balance of possession and surrender—it's not a phase or a passion that will burn itself out. It's the foundation of who we are together. The core truth of our existence as a unit.

I know that soon we'll rise, dress, go find our daughter and spend the evening as a family. Knox will listen with complete attention as Claire shows him every shell she's collected. He'll carry her on his shoulders as we walk along the beach at sunset. We'll put her to bed together, reading stories and singing lullabies until she drifts to sleep.

And then we'll return to this room, to this bed, and I'll let him have me again and again throughout the night—because I am his, just as he is mine. Because our mutual obsession has become the most natural state of being I can imagine. Because nothing has ever felt more right than belonging, completely and without reservation, to Knox Vance.