Page 180 of Cara

Isabella’s laughter heals me. To see Thomas whine restlessly in someone’s arms, calming only when Xavier has drawn him to his chest, is something I’ve never seen before. He is learning life through his babies, and I get to watch it all.

For that, I can’t help but feel like I’m incredibly blessed.

Xavier’s breath warms the cavern between my breasts, his hands kneading the peaks to exquisite tenderness. He sweeps the hair from my face, smiling as he notices how overwhelmed I’ve become, lost in him and in everything we’ve lost and gained. “Why are you crying?”

I shake my head, unable to express it.

His face is flushed, glistening with sweat. The flickering candles on the nightstand bathe his skin in a warm glow, their wax having dripped and pooled on the mahogany. I rest one hand on the intricately carved bedpost that Dante gave us for Christmas while my other hand finds the back of his neck. I feel his hands roam down, guiding my movements, slowly stretching me as he slides back in.

His eyes drift down to where his body joins mine, glazed with desire. While he glides his tongue over my chest to take in a tender nipple, his fingers trace past my navel, dipping into my cleft. He nips at the underside of my breast, growing more impassioned, his lips roaming to my arms, my shoulders, my throat.

Anywhere he can reach.

I smile, and his lips mirror mine, spreading warmth against my throat. Xavier grips my waist, laying me flat beneath him, pushing aside the tangled sheets that separate us.

His hair brushes against his wide shoulders, dark strands clinging to his neck. He has never looked sexier than when he’s unwound, desire threatening to overwhelm him.

As we edge oblivion, the tension bodies us, stripping him of any control he has.

We cry out, clinging to each other, merged by a force that transcends love. I can no longer separate his soul from mine.

When we lose ourselves in bliss, we do it together.

And the world needs to catch up to us.

Everything is hazy in the aftermath of that kind of passion. Xavier smiles against me as my hands roam over the broadness of his back, wanting to erase any residual hate that may still linger in those raised scars. His cheek heats my smooth skin, his breath echoing my own.

As if weights were dragging them down, my eyes close. I think it’s only been a few minutes when they open again, but Xavier is dressing by the foot of the bed, already wearing faded denim jeans. He stretches a white t-shirt over his head when he catches me staring. “I want to take you somewhere.”

“Now?”

He smirks when I glance at the baby monitor. “Courtney is rocking Thomas while we speak.”

I roll onto my side, sinking into the plush pillow. “But it’s so warmhere.”

He crawls over me, tickling my neck with sweet, soft kisses. “The bed will be here when we get back. What I want to show you won’t be.”

When I toss the sheets aside, he grins, relishing the victory, and throws me a sundress that I had draped over a chair.

The special smile Courtney flashes at us as we tiptoe past the nursery door reminds me of a time when laughter was scarce. She’s witnessed it all—right from the beginning. She saw me convince myself that I hated this man. She saw me fall in love with him.

Xavier hands me a helmet and climbs onto the motorbike first. I settle behind him, pressing against his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist to brace for departure.

The sun hasn’t fully risen yet, still hovering on the horizon, but the clouds have begun to blush with color.

As I breathe in deeply, my eyes close, relishing the scent of us lingering on his skin, blending with the salt in the air. When I stretch my arms, welcoming the warm breeze against them, I notice a smile touch his lips. This freedom is so damn cathartic, something I only grasp when we are as alone in the world as we are now.

In this place, the darkness cannot find me.

My smiles won’t cease.

Enjoying himself just as much as I am, Xavier’s smile transforms into an uncontrollable grin once I’ve leaned forward, wrapping my arms under his while flexing my fingers over his contoured ridges, still stuck on what he just did to me in bed. “Where are we going?”

“Someplace I found the other day.”

“Tell me.”

“Don’t have to. We’re here.”