Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
ELIZABETH
Beautifully Broken Love
For years, I have worn my grief like body armor, hoping to protect the remnants of my fractured heart.
I never expected to fall in love again. The Fates, who were often cruel with how they manipulated my life, had also gifted me with two great loves.
Jayson and Ryder. My moonlight and my starshine.
My two best friends. The two boys whose smiles stole my heart when I was a little girl.
My first love and my forever love. I never thought it would be possible to love another man the way I loved them.
Until Fallon.
This beautifully broken man whose darkness soothes the damaged parts of me.
A man who makes me laugh when I thought I’d forgotten how.
A man who challenges me and dares me to be fearless but also supports me every terrifying step of the way.
He accepts all my jagged pieces and never tries to erase the past that Jayson and Ryder occupy, only asks to walk beside it at his own pace.
And when I stumble along the way, he steadies me. When I fall, he catches me.
I finally see it all. I see him , truly, for the first time. How he’s always been there beside me, quietly moving through the shadows of my life, unassuming, but always there.
Reading the letters Fallon wrote to me shifted something, like a missing piece of the puzzle of my life had finally been placed in the space where it belonged.
The ache of Ryder’s absence hasn’t faded—it will always be there—but it no longer feels like a prison made of grief and heartbreak. Because I’m finally… finally …ready to move on. Completely and without reservation.
I’m ready for the final chapter of my story to begin.
With my heart pummeling my ribcage, I curl my fingers around my wedding rings, feeling their warmth one last time. Fallon’s ice-blue gaze tracks my movements as I gently set them on the dresser.
“I love you, Fallon. Not as a friend or because you saved me when my life fell apart. I love you as the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.” Taking a step toward him, I lift my hand, offering him my whole heart without fear because I know it’s safe with him.
“Are you ready for another adventure, Fallon Parker Montgomery?”
The smile that breaks free across his face dazzles me. He grabs my hand, and I’m suddenly crushed against him.
“Goddammit, Kitten,” he says, tears choking his words.
I’ve only seen him cry once before—that night in Barcelona. He hates showing weakness of any kind, but he wears his vulnerability for me like an open wound.
“You don’t have to take off your rings to prove that you love me.”
A future of possibilities opens as I stare into this magnificent man’s eyes. “I know.” With reverent fingertips, I caress the side of his face, from temple to cheek. “But just to be clear so there is no misunderstanding, I want to spend the rest of my life loving you with everything I have in me.”
Fallon tilts my face, his kiss possessive and demanding. And damn, does he kiss me.
Fisting his shirt, I pull him closer, moaning louder with every stroke of his tongue. “Take me to bed.”
The significance of my request is monumental, and he tenderly cups my face between his calloused hands, his love for me shining brightly behind the tears.
“Soon,” he says, and I know I’m in trouble—the very good kind—when his eyes glint cerulean fire.
“But you’re not in charge right now.” He sneaks a hand underneath the front of my shorts to find me already soaking and needy.
His smoldering gaze holds mine with a challenge as he slips a finger inside me.
“Let’s see how quiet you can be. Don’t want the kids to hear me defiling their mother. ”
“No, we wouldn’t want that,” I rasp as he teases circles on my clit that have an explosion of desire racing through me.
Craving the release his clever fingers are promising, I adjust my stance and widen my legs. Pleasure pulses and swirls as he deliberately edges me toward climax…only to stop just when I’m about to tip over that sharp edge into bliss.
“Fallon.”
Another smile, this one full of amused devilment. “I love it when you purr.”
“It was a growl, not a purr.”
“Let’s see what sounds you make when I do this.”
Whatever I was about to say comes out as a long moan when he punishes my clit with firm strokes. Oh god. Oh god . I have no time to prepare. No time to brace. My orgasm slams into me with brutal force, stealing the air from my lungs.
The room flips when he lifts me and lies me down on the bed, deftly shedding my shorts until I’m left bare to his heated gaze.
“Beautiful,” he softly says, running his hands up the length of my body to my breasts. “Up,” he instructs, and I raise my arms above my head on the bed.
He bunches my shirt, sliding it up my torso in increments, as his mouth leaves a trail of soft kisses as he goes, but he doesn’t take it off. I can’t see what he does or how he does it, but somehow he binds my wrists together with the fabric.
He touches his forehead to mine and cinches his eyes closed. He doesn’t do or say anything, but I can feel how hard and fast his heart is pounding. One forever second goes by. Then another.
“Fallon?”
“Marry me.”
My breath stutters to a standstill as the words leave his lips. Everything freezes. Time. The room. Us. This moment. The universe contracts to a singular point composed of two words: Marry me .
Like a zoetrope spinning rapidly, an image of our life together flickers and takes shape. I never imagined I would have this kind of love again—the forever kind—not after losing Ryder. But here it is—real and raw and absolutely…terrifyingly… beautiful .
Tears track down my temples as a flood of emotion inundates my senses.
Gratitude for the love I had but lost, and a soul-deep happiness for the love I found again.
Yes , my heart whispers before my voice can say it.
Instead, pure joy tumbles out, the laughter that follows filled with unfiltered happiness.
“You thought you had to tie me up in order to propose?”
The side of his mouth curves up. “I’m unconventional.”
Unconventional. Wonderful. Larger than life. Infuriating. Stubborn. Dangerous. Caring. Protective. He’s all those things.
Somehow able to get my bound wrists out from the impossible knot he tied, my grin is radiant when I wrap my arms around him. “Yes.”
“Yes?” His face sparks with hope, like he’s not sure if he believes it.
“Yes. But there’s one condition.”
“There’s always a condition with you,” he jokingly replies, referring to the demands I made when we began our adventure of Finding Elizabeth.
“I want the wedding to be here with our family.”
His gaze turns tender. “Baby, I’ll lay the world at your feet to make sure every wish you’ve ever dreamed comes true.”
“That was absolutely heart-melty and very swoon-worthy,” I tell him.
The smirk I love so much makes an appearance. “I have my moments.”
“One more thing,” I say when his lips start to roam, pressing soft kisses down the curvature of my neck.
“Hush, woman. I’m trying to seduce my fiancée.”
Fiancée .
“I really like the sound of that.”
“Just wait until I call you wife.” My back arches off the bed when he laves my nipple with slow, sensuous licks.
“I want to tell the kids tonight. I’ll call Marcus and make sure he doesn’t work late and?—”
Fallon pushes up onto his forearms. “Can I please make love to you, or are you going to keep talking?”
I giggle. “Shutting up now.”
Continuing his exploration, my eyelids flutter closed on a sigh when he places open-mouthed kisses down my stomach to my pubis, nuzzling his nose in the soft, curly hairs of my mound.
With a delicate nudge of his fingers, my thighs eagerly fall open.
Fallon wastes no time. Draping my legs over his shoulders, he drags the flat of his tongue through my folds, then scrapes his teeth over my clit.
His pillow-soft lips seal around the tiny nub, sucking with long pulls of his tongue that cause a rush of pleasure to coil tightly in my belly.
I look down at my broody man and am met with a primal intensity that burns within the depths of his sky-blue eyes.
He takes my hips to hold me in place—and then Fallon devours me like a man starved.
Every muscle clenches taut in ecstasy when he slips two fingers inside me, pulsing them in perfect synchronicity with the rhythm of his tongue.
“There’s this very sensitive spot right here…” he says and scrapes his fingers against my inner walls, then sinks his teeth into my sensitive flesh—and I’m suddenly catapulted into orgasm.
Holy shit.
My quivering legs fall off his shoulders when he suddenly lurches up and sheds his clothes in fast succession. Fallon has such a beautiful body. He’s a masterpiece of colorful ink and defined muscle.
“Keep looking at me like that?—”
“I love looking at you,” I reply, excitement building when he runs his hands down my legs and grabs my ankles, pulling me down to the end of the bed.
He flips me over onto my stomach, then lifts me to my knees. My spine conforms to the hard planes of his chest when I feel his erection nestled in the crack of my ass, prompting a flurry of illicit thoughts that have my nipples hardening and arousal pooling between my legs.
Fallon twists my face to the side and covers my mouth with his, his tongue like velvet when he kisses me.
My breathy “ Fallon ” morphs into a needy moan when he slithers a hand up my front and cups my breast. I mold my hand over his, urging him to be rougher. To take me. Ruin me.
His chuckle fans over my neck. “Greedy.”
“It’s your fault.” I can’t help wanting more of the wonderful things he does to me. How he plays my body and sends me soaring.
My thighs begin to burn as I hold myself still when he pushes past my resistance. He rocks his hips back and forth until he’s seated fully inside me, and we both vocalize at how good it feels, the connection not only one of intimacy but of love.
I grip the back of his neck, silently giving him the signal to move.
“Your body is my paradise,” he says, easing out, then thrusting forward.
Our lips meet in a ravenous kiss as decadent as the way he’s making love to me. Within minutes, I feel the familiar tingle down my spine as everything spirals tighter and tighter in my center.
“You feel so fucking good, Kitten.” When he feels my internal walls start to quiver, he picks up the pace, his thrusts becoming more punishing. Harder. Deeper.
“Fallon, I’m—” is all I get out before I climax so hard, my muscles lock tight, my orgasm ripping me open with pleasure and destroying me in the most amazing way.
He follows me into euphoria, my name on his lips as he comes on a masculine moan, pulses of his warmth filling me.
I slump back into him and turn my head to kiss the underside of his jaw. Our bodies are slicked with sweat, our hearts beating the same song.
Turning me in his arms, he lays me back on the bed, and I pull him to me, enjoying the feel of his weight pressing me into the mattress.
Fallon nuzzles my neck, oh, so sweetly, before brushing his lips over mine.
“I love you, Elizabeth,” he tells me, and I absorb it into my soul. “Now, let’s see if I can break my record.”
My giggles turn to moans when he proves that he can. Over and over.