Page 120 of Brighter Shades of Light

Keith had been dishonorably discharged from the Corps two years ago for getting drunk and beating up another Marine so bad the guy went deaf in one ear, all over some chick. We had lost touch with him after The Basic School when he started partying and getting into trouble. I was glad Marcus and Rachel were still in our lives, though, even if they lived so far away.

After dinner, Sebastian and Lucy sat at a table and watched as Tristen, Evan, Jared, and I played pool. We ordered pitchers of beer and had a good time drinking and talking.

Evan loosened up after a few glasses, and it turned out he was actually pretty funny. He did impersonations of famous people and freaking nailed them. His Owen Wilson imitation had me rolling. I could see why Tristen was with him.

Every time I looked over at Sebastian and saw him smiling, my chest warmed. Nearly eight years and I was even more in love with him today than I was back then. Small wrinkles had formed at the edges of his eyes. He hated them, but I adored them. They were caused from all the times I had made him smile over the years.

As if sensing my eyes on him, he looked up at me, and damn if that didn’t make my heart skip a beat.

Suddenly, I was eager to get back home. I wanted to worship every inch of him—show him how much I loved him. I was married to a man who accepted all my weird quirks and supported me in every way. Being with someone in the military wasn’t easy, but he had stayed by my side through it all.

Hours later, we said goodbye to our friends and returned home.

Our lips met as soon as we walked inside. He tossed his keys on the table and led me up the stairs. We didn’t say anything, but I knew his mind was in the same place as mine. We entered the bedroom, and I undid his tie, tossing it aside. He popped the buttons on my shirt before grazing his teeth up my neck.

“Sebastian?”

He lifted his head. The movement knocked his glasses a little off-center, and I smiled as I fixed them.

“You’re still my spark,” I said, entwining our fingers. The ring he had engraved for me was still in its place on my hand.

Sebastian lifted our joined hands and kissed the engraved ring. I couldn’t read his expression. Then, he pulled me closer.

“I never thought I could love someone as much as I love you,” he said, lightly moving his lips across mine but not kissing me. “Love isn’t logical, yet loving you is the only thing that feels right. The beating of your heart keeps mine beating in turn. Your every breath fills my lungs, and your touch brings me to life.”

Closing the gap between our mouths, I pushed him toward the bed where we came together in a tangle of limbs and sloppy, lustful kisses. His body pushed into mine, and I clawed at his back. Sweat dampened my brow, and he kissed my temple, moving in and out of me in a tantalizing way. And when I came, he kept his arms around me, holding onto me as I shattered into a million pieces beneath him.

“I love you,” I said, staring up at him as I slowly came back down to earth.

“And I love you.” He shuddered as the last ripples of pleasure left him. “More than you’ll ever know.”

Sebastian could be too serious sometimes and maybe a little eccentric when he got to talking about one of his experiments. He could be too quiet when he was lost in his head, and he didn’t sugarcoat the truth, no matter how brutal. But he was also gentle and kind, funny in his own way, and fucking sexy as hell. I loved all of him, the perceived flaws included.

There was no one I would rather spend the rest of my life with.

“Our love was inevitable,” I said, recalling a conversation we’d had so long ago under the stars.

“The spark that grew to a flame.” Sebastian kissed beneath my ear, pushing his arms under my back. “You’ve set me on fire, Cody Vale, and I hope I never stop burning.”

He kissed me, his lips soft yet firm. I wrapped my arms around him and flipped him to his back, grinning when I felt him harden again.

He was my spark. My happy ending.

And, like the universe, our love would go on forever.

The End