Epilogues #2
“Told you that you needed to see it.” He lifted my ponytail and murmured it at the sensitive skin at the nape of my neck.
Shivers raced.
In it was an intense bout of emotion. Joy and thankfulness.
“You’ve helped me see so many things, Kane.
I thought…I thought I’d live my life alone.
A prisoner to what had happened to me.” A scrape of a disbelieving laugh left me.
“I thought I was satisfied . That it was enough . But you made me shine.”
I released each word like a prayer. Exhaling, he pulled my back against his chest and wrapped those strong arms around me.
Lifting me.
Supporting me.
My dragon.
Kane let his flattened palms slip beneath the bottom of my tank top, splaying wide across my abdomen. “I knew you would glow.”
I whimpered as I felt him pressing against my shorts, his cock hard as he dragged his hands higher, slowly, slowly lifting my shirt.
“What are you doing?” I wheezed, already so spun up I couldn’t breathe.
“Figured I’d really make you glow,” he rumbled at my cheek.
“Here?” I squeaked it.
I could feel his grin against my flesh. “I think there’s only one thing that could make this setting more beautiful than it already is. And that would be my girl coming alive under it.”
A sigh rippled out as he began kissing a path up and down the side of my neck.
Slow, delirium-inducing kisses that made me weak .
“How do you make me feel this way, Kane Asher? How, in one second, do you have me shaking?”
“Because you were made for me, baby, just like I was made for you. Both of us purposed to be in this very spot. Together.”
He started guiding me forward, up to a boulder that rested close to the cliff.
He pressed my hands against the cold, smooth stone.
A tremulous breath curled from me as he let his hands wander down my sides.
“Do you have any clue what you do to me, Emery Voss? All damned night, feeling your warmth next to me. Glancing at your face. Tempting me with this body. Wearing these little shorts and this tank. Nearly drove me out of my mind with the need to get inside you.”
“Every second, Kane. Every second you have me in knots, and that’s never going to change.”
“Have you been wet for me? Thinking about what I was going to do to you once the sun went down?”
My nod was erratic.
Needy and wild as he dipped his fingers into the elastic waistband of the casual shorts that I wore.
I gasped a shocked sound as he knelt and ripped them down, taking my underwear with them.
Cool air clashed with the flames that burned between us.
He wound the shorts from my ankles and tossed them to the ground before he kissed his way up the back of my right thigh.
“Oh God,” I mumbled as his tongue laved and lapped an upward path.
A low chuckle glided out of him as he made it to my ass.
Still leaning low, he spread me, and I choked over the pleasure when he dragged his tongue through my folds.
“Kane.” I struggled to keep quiet.
“Told you the only thing I had for you was pleasure.”
“So much. So much.” I felt half delirious.
He rose. The man a shadow. Intimidating and awestriking and everything I hadn’t known I wanted .
Arousal rushed, my entire being throbbing and achy.
“Always, Emery. I’m always going to give it to you.”
He pulled himself from his sweats and drove straight into me.
My legs nearly buckled, and my nails scratched at the boulder as I bowed forward, struggling to adjust to him filling me full. So full I was overwhelmed.
Overpowered.
Perfected in his touch.
By his body and his spirit and the aura that surrounded.
“Such a good girl, taking all of me the way you were meant to do.” He grunted the words as he gripped my hips.
A frenzy of energy snapped around him.
A crackle of intensity that blistered in the night.
“Nothing. Nothing in the world feels as good as you. This tight pussy hugging my cock. I will never get enough of you, Little Warrior. You are it for me. My everything.”
Pleasure sparked as he pulled out then rocked back in.
So deep I was gasping all over again.
“Fucking heaven, being inside you.”
Kane started to move, picking up a fast, reckless rhythm. Thrusting in possessive, long strokes. He gripped my hips and jerked me back to meet him with each one.
As he owned me.
As he drove me right up to the edge of surrender.
But that’s what I was.
Surrendered.
Wholly and completely.
My heart and my body and the joy that I had found in the one man I’d thought I could never fall for.
But I was wrong.
The tattoo on the inside of my wrist seemed to glow and throb in the whispers of the lapping night.
Find me in the darkness, bring me to the light.
He was the one I’d been looking for all along .
Kane grunted as he fucked me hard and deep, murmurs of praise falling from his lips with each desperate stroke.
“So good, Emery. So fucking good.”
He pulled me back against him so he could grip me by the jaw, and he turned my head so he could kiss me into oblivion.
His mouth as potent as the drive of his body. He splayed his hand across my belly, running it down until he pressed it between my thighs.
His fingertips swirled over my clit.
Pleasure glinted and sparked in the darkened night. A glow that lit up around us.
I felt consumed. Overtaken.
Bliss flamed around us.
The two of us standing in the fire.
The juts and rocks of our bodies as we crashed into one another.
An inferno that consumed.
“Let go.” Kane commanded it low at my mouth.
But I was there.
Already gone.
Completely taken by this love that had been purposed for me.
I rode it.
This rapture.
With him as we both soared into the star-strewn heavens.
He gripped and pulled at me as he poured into my body.
Breaths heaving from him, he curled his arms back around me, holding me fiercely against his chest.
The two of us gazed out on the beauty, and he murmured, “There’s never been anything as beautiful as this. My girl blooming like a morning glory. Pulled from the darkness and coming alive. You are my perfect ten.”
Emery – Six Months Later
The bell jingled over the door of Ivy Threads. It was no longer located in Wisconsin. It was here in Moonlit Ridge, in the building two doors down from Moonflower.
Kane came striding in with that easy smirk on his face. The man so intimidatingly beautiful he never failed to steal my breath.
“Ah, I see you have been making magic, Little Warrior.”
My cheeks pinked at the pride in his voice. “You think so?”
I glanced around at the displays of clothing and accessories. Mine and my sister’s dream. The one I’d let go out of fear that now had come to fruition.
“It’s amazing. Whole town is going to be clambering to get through that door come tomorrow morning.”
Excitement blazed in my chest, and he rounded the counter that he’d built then helped me paint.
The store had been decorated in pinks and whites, something Charleigh had suggested and Raven had reluctantly climbed on board with, the two of them helping me design and put everything together. The shelves and floors were whitewashed woods, and the seating areas were soft blush velvet.
A chandelier hung from the ceiling, giving a glam vibe to the different displays situated around the store, and Raven had insisted on bringing over a slew of pink and white flower arrangements from Moonflower for our grand opening.
Kane wrapped his arms around me from behind and hooked his chin on my shoulder. He swayed me back and forth. “No chance of it not being amazing. Not when you are behind it.”
Air puffed from my nose, and I rested against his chest, watching the flurries of snow fall out the big windows in front. Colorful lights and wreaths adorned each storefront outside, the streets of Moonlit Ridge decorated for the holidays.
I couldn’t wait for my mom and Ted to come visit for Christmas. For them to see our new home. This life we had made.
The joy we had found amid the horrible grief.
“I’m so happy,” I whispered.
Those arms tightened a fraction. “So. Damned. Happy,” Kane grunted at the shell of my ear .
Both of us seemed to be drawn to the bracelet that I wore around my wrist. The one that his mother had worn. The one that had been lost when Kane’s heart had been lost. The same one that had served to guide us here.
Connecting us.
Binding us.
“She would be so proud of you, Kane,” I murmured.
His nod was wistful. “Think she would have given anything to see this. You, me, and Maci.”
Kane traced his fingertip over one of the roses, and I whispered, “Maybe she’s been right here, all along.”
The bell dinged overhead, and my attention jerked up as we were popped from our bubble.
A really beautiful woman came through the door, wearing a puffy white coat with faux fur around the neck, jeans, and heeled boots that came up just past her knees.
She smiled, both confident and wary as she stepped into the boutique. “Hi, I hope it’s okay that I just came in, but I saw that you are hiring?”
With a smile, I untangled myself from Kane and stepped closer to the counter. “We are. I’m just getting ready to open the shop tomorrow, and with ski season and the holidays, we’re definitely going to be shorthanded. I’m Emery.”
Eagerness shined in her eyes. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Piper.” She paused then lifted an uncertain shoulder to her ear. “I was hoping I could put in an application?”
“Of course. Are you new to town? I’ve never seen you before.” And Raven had made it her life’s mission to introduce me to everyone she knew.
Piper gave a slight nod. “Yes. I just got into town and am looking for a permanent place to stay. I…I hope that’s not a problem?”
“No, not at all.”
Relief seemed to ripple across her face, and she gave me a timid smile. “That’s great. I could really use this job. ”
“And I could really use the help.” I didn’t know what it was about her, but I immediately liked her.
“Where are you staying?” Kane asked.
She averted her gaze for a moment then seemed to force out, “The Sanctuary. Though it might be more aptly called The Prison.”
She let go of a roll of self-deprecating laughter.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She shrugged in uncertainty. “The owner is a little…overprotective. He demanded to know where I was going when I left today. He somehow thinks just because he did me a favor when he was fully booked, I’ve become his responsibility.
” Then she dropped her attention to the ground and scratched her forehead, her voice lowering when she said, “I probably shouldn’t be unloading that on you, should I? ”
A small giggle rolled from me. “You can definitely unload it since I’m pretty sure you and I are going to be great friends. Just to be clear, you are talking about Theo?”
Her blue eyes went wide with surprise. “Yes. Theo Mallin. You know him?”
“Oh, I definitely know him.”
Kane chuckled a low, disbelieving sound, and his words slipped into amusement. “So, you’re Piper Whittman. Welcome to Moonlit Ridge.”
Curious what Theo is up to with the town’s new resident? His story, Beyond the Blue Horizon, is up next!