Chapter 54 Elizabeth
ELIZABETH
@pancakesareelite:
Wish me luck
@theanswerisno:
For what?
@pancakesareelite:
I’m starting something potentially life-changing tomorrow
@theanswerisno:
Good luck, Pancakes. Maybe after you’ve changed your life, you can change mine
Lincoln loaded everything into his truck, including me. I curled up in the passenger seat and watched him close the door to his childhood home for the last time. He couldn’t hide his feelings from me anymore. I could see the heartache, but there was something else too. Some inkling of peace.
My head lolled to one side and shot upright as he climbed in beside me. He turned the heater on and laid his jacket across my legs.
“You can sleep,” he whispered. “I’ll drive gently and avoid potholes.”
I wanted to make a joke, but exhaustion stopped me. Today had been too much. The last eight weeks had been too much.
At some point, the seat belt was peeled off me, and I was pulled into Lincoln’s arms.
“I can walk,” I slurred.
“I know,” he replied, holding me even tighter.
I wanted to exist only in this moment with the man I loved in a way I’d never loved anyone else.
And as soon as he got me into his apartment, I wiggled awake. “Want to shower.” I pointed at myself. “Join me.”
Again, Lincoln scooped me up, and then he carried me to the bathroom.
When the water temperature was perfect, we stepped into the shower together and washed off the day. I washed his chest, kissed it too. He lathered my hair with shampoo, taking care to rinse it all out.
It was like a fever dream in the best of ways.
“Do you really love me, Lincoln?”
He nodded.
“Forever?”
He nodded again and emphasized it with a kiss. This was what I’d been waiting for. A moment when I had stopped worrying about this job and he had stopped worrying about everything else. A moment that was only about us. About solidifying all the emotions I had when it came to him.
“I’m not going anywhere. I promise,” he whispered against my mouth. “Nothing you could do, or anything you have done, can scare me off. You’re stuck with me because I’m sure of one thing, Lily—I was always meant to be yours.”
My heart felt like it may pop out of my chest. I leaned into him as we made our way to his bedroom.
“Lincoln, I would like nothing more than to mount you but I have to sleep. Don’t touch me.
Don’t even look at me with your gorgeous face.
” My eyes were already closing. I smiled and stroked lines across his damp chest. “Besides, we’ve gotta worry about your back. ”
“You’re so full of nonsense,” he teased, and then winced. “To be honest, it is cramping a little.” Still, he scooped me up and placed me on the bed.
I wriggled my fingers. “Let me massage you and show you what I am really capable of. I held back last time.”
“Tomorrow.” He kissed my nose. “You need sleep, love.”
I curled into the curve of Lincoln’s body. “Who would have thought Link and Lily would lead to this?”
He chuckled. “Link dreamed of it.”
“Lily too.”
The next morning, after Lincoln proved, yet again, that he was the perfect lover, we went to my apartment.
I walked over to my closet and made a show of grabbing my laciest underwear. Lincoln’s breath hitched before he dropped his head back.
“Um…” I started. Despite feeling sure about our relationship, I didn’t want to overstep. “Will I be spending tonight with you? I just want to know what I should pack.”
“Lily, if I had my way, I’d take all your stuff and throw it in the back of my truck right now.”
A wide grin stretched across my face. This was what happiness felt like.
“So what are we doing today?” I asked.
“I’d like to take you out on a date. Somewhere nice and fancy. I haven’t figured out where yet.” He curled an arm around me and kissed my cheek. “But first, breakfast.”
“Pancakes?” I teased, despite knowing he preferred eggs.
“For you, I’ll eat pancakes. Every day. For the rest of my life.”
I hoped he would. But before I could say that out loud, he pulled me in for a long kiss. “You were about to say something filthy with that sweet mouth.”
I giggled and went in for a slow, luxurious kiss. He slipped his tongue between my lips, and my body prickled with desire.
I pulled back, sucking in a deep breath of air. “You could kill me with those kisses.” I leaned in for another. “But it is a worthy way to go.”
There was a knock at the door. My chest sank, and panic swirled in my belly. No one had this address. Except my gran, who didn’t drive, and Alistair.
Noticing my inability to move, Lincoln opened the door.
“Hi,” a woman’s voice said. “I’m looking for Elizabeth?”
A voice I knew. A voice I’d missed.
“Mom?” I asked.
Lincoln stepped aside as my mother ran toward me and pulled me into a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her small frame and squeezed, afraid I might break her. Her floral scent took me back years, through good and bad times, but I couldn’t let go. “Mom,” I whispered. “Mom.”
“My love, my Lily,” she said, her voice muffled by my hair. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you,” I said, and loosened the hug, but I didn’t release her. I was afraid if I did, I’d lose her again. “What are you doing here? You haven’t replied to any of my texts.”
Her red hair was pulled back into a stern bun. I hadn’t seen her hair up in years. Douglas preferred it down.
She ran her hands down her royal-blue shirt. “I know. I was busy with something very risky. Something I once asked you to trust me with.”
I stared at her, afraid to say the thing I was hoping for.
“I left him, Lily.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, matching hers. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “It took me so long, and I had to keep so many secrets because I needed to make sure that, when I left, he understood that if he ever came after us or dared to write about you again, he would regret it. It took me years to dig up enough evidence of his schemes. I may not be able to bring down the entire GB empire, but what I have is enough to scare him into submission.” She lifted her chin, and I finally saw the brave woman my grandmother always spoke about.
“We are free of Douglas Gordon-Bettencourt and all his henchmen.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My heart was racing. “Mom, it must have been so scary doing this alone. I could have helped.”
“I got us into this mess. I wanted to get us out. And I wanted you to focus on your life, on your career, on…” She glanced at Lincoln and raised an eyebrow before leaning in. “Is this the gorgeous boss my mother’s told me about?”
Lincoln cleared his throat and shifted on his feet, looking anywhere but at us. “Hello,” he said with a small wave. His lopsided smile came out, and the spark of joy in my chest spread through to the tips of my fingers and toes, setting everything alight.
“Mom, this is Lincoln Carden, the love of every life I’ve lived.”