AURORA
Five Years Later
“Mommy, look what I made!”
Liam rushes across the living room with his pumpkin in his hand. I put aside my sketchbook and smile down at my son’s creation. A pumpkin painted with a masquerade mask. He got the idea when he saw me and his father looking at photos for ideas of what we’ll wear to the next Retreat.
Liam has his father’s eyes, glinting with the same intensity despite his young age. I already know he’s going to be a little heartbreaker one day.
“Do you like it?” he asks.
“No,” I tell him.
Across the room, carving a pumpkin of his own, Raiden looks across at me with love etching his every feature. Years pass as we grow into what one publication has called a power couple, but what strikes me most is how much deeper our affection grows, our lust never failing, the spark never fading.
“I love it!”
Liam giggles and puts it down, then climbs into my arms. I hug my son, feeling drunk on his love. He wraps his arms around me and puts his head against my chest. It’s not long before he’s snoring softly.
Raiden walks across the room of our high-rise apartment. We’ve been thinking about moving out of the city, but with Raiden’s clinic and my design studio, we’re established here. Perhaps we’ll get a townhouse.
“What are you thinking?” Raiden asks. “You’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“The one you get when your mind is sparking away at a million miles per hour.”
“Just how lucky I am to be able to think, oh, shall we get a townhouse or a house-house outside the city? To be able to design for celebrities all over the world. To have a husband who can follow his passion of helping veterans with their service-related injuries. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel real.”
“We built this,” he whispers, leaning down and kissing me on the forehead. He gently picks Liam up. “He’s had a long day, lots of carving. We’ll let him have a nap before dinner.”
“Is that an order… sir?”
He looks at me with the same savage glimmer in his eyes. No matter how many years pass, that look never fades.
He carries our son into his bedroom, closes the door, then returns to me.
He’s wearing a sleeveless workout shirt and shorts from his trip to the gym, still smelling of musky manliness, his arms corded with thick muscle.
He’s beginning to get a few threads of silver in his hair.
Somehow, that makes me want him even more.
“You need to be careful with that word,” he growls, hauling me to my feet and driving his stiff manhood against me.
“I know what I’m doing—”
The buzzer for the apartment goes off. A moment later, Liam’s door flies open, and he runs out with a look of joy on his face. “Grandmas!”
“Later,” I whisper, kissing Raiden on the cheek.
“I completely forgot they were coming,” he says ruefully. “I shouldn’t be surprised though. You always have that effect on me. I’ll walk them up.”
“Can I come, Daddy?” Liam says.
Raiden lifts Liam up and cradles him to his chest. “Don’t even have to ask, little man.”
I return to my sketchbook and get some quick adjustments done before they join us.
When Evangeline and Grandma walk in wearing their masquerade masks, I laugh in delight. Liam walks between them, holding each of their hands, a big beaming grin on his face.
“Halloween has officially started,” I say, approaching them.
Evangeline pulls me into a hug, then I say hello and kiss Grandma. She takes off her mask and shows me her smile, the stroke a distant memory now, healthier and sassier than ever.
“Grandmas, do you want to see my pumpkin?” Liam says.
Evangeline takes off her mask too, her eyes glistening with emotion. She always wanted more family. That was how this all started, after all.
Now she’s got her wish, and she never takes it for granted.
THE END