Chapter Twenty-Four
Twenty-Four
Olivia
“Oh my God, I’m shaking,” I said as he lay above me with our hands clasped and my arms stretched above my head, his hard length poised at my entrance.
He dropped his head and kissed my jaw. “I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”
Tears leaked from my eyes; I was a ball of raw emotion that was out of my control.
He loved me. How had that happened?
I wanted to believe him—I did believe him—but a tiny part of me was holding on to doubt. I’d had the rug pulled out from under me before, and Justin was nothing if not too good to be true. I knew that in my head. But my heart... that crazy organ had given up the fight long ago, cashed in its chips, and was all in.
“Tell me again,” I whispered.
He drew back and his ice-blue eyes peered right into my soul. “I love you. More than I have ever loved any other person in this world. More than I ever will again.”
I bit my lip as hot tears flooded my eyes. Unable to speak, I just nodded, hoping that he understood my silent words.
He didn’t seem to need my response as he gently kissed me, pressing forward until he was seated as deep into my body as he could be, making us one.
We kissed with the quiet assurance of two people whose hearts had finally found each other as we slowly rocked with each other. It was unhurried, it was sensual, it was healing. It was everything.
He told me in a hundred ways with his body how he felt about me, and I did my best to say it back. We went to new heights, reaching our peak together in a strangled cry, our faces buried in each other’s throats.
He rolled off me and tucked me close into his side and we fell asleep with the scent of our lovemaking heavy in the air and the wind whipping heavy against the window as a storm brewed outside... but I knew it couldn’t get to me as long as I was in his arms.
I squinted againstthe sudden onslaught of brightness.
I surveyed my surroundings, not sure where I was. There was a small grove of trees and a stone bench. Not a place I knew, still something about this place felt familiar.
My eyes were drawn by soft feminine laughter and...
My heart froze, then began to pound in my chest. It couldn’t be.
“Claire?”
She turned to me, a vision in white, with a glorious smile in her spectacular green eyes. “Hi, Livvie!” she said, using the childhood name she’d had for me. “I’ve missed you!”
“Oh!” I tried to run her way, but my feet were stuck, and I made no forward progress.
I glanced down and I was standing in tall grass, but weeds had my feet tangled and I couldn’t move. Fear surged through me, and I glanced back up. “I can’t—” Then I saw she wasn’t alone. “Elizabeth?” My little girl was playing with a doll at her feet, dressed in one of the sparkly dresses she’d just worn to show off for Justin.
“She’s safe,” Claire assured me as she ran a loving hand over her curls.
Again, I tried to move, to get to them, but it was as if I was trapped in quicksand.
“We don’t have much time,” Claire said as a beam of the warmest, brightest white light shone down on her, somehow soothing all of my anxiety and making me stand completely still and in awe as it illuminated her and the small lake just behind her, sparkling like diamonds off its surface.
“Time for what?” I whispered.
She reached down and scooped up Elizabeth as the light became brighter, nearly blinding. “Trust him,” she said. “Trust his love... it’s the only way to live again...”
I woke with a flash just as Claire disappeared into the white light.
It was just a dream, and yet . . .
It felt like so much more.
I rolled my head and glanced at the clock. Just after midnight. I wasn’t usually one to subscribe to the supernatural, but something wasn’t sitting right, and I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon, not after that.
Gently, I slid out from Justin’s hold and slipped out of bed. I pulled on his shirt and padded down the hall to check on Elizabeth. She was sleeping soundly in her bed, and I shook my head at myself.
Claire was heavy on my mind as I headed to the kitchen to make myself some hot tea. I sat on the couch in the dark, remembering how she looked in my dream. So beautiful, so much like the girl I remembered, and yet, also so much more.
What if . . .?
No.
I shut that thought down immediately. My subconscious was just working overtime because I’d been super stressed with everything going on. That had to be it. I glanced over at the security system panel, reassured by the glow of the cheerful green light.
Trust him . . . Trust his love.
I sipped and mulled that over. Clearly, I was also still working out my trust issues too. I loved Justin. What I felt for Christoph paled in comparison, if it was love at all. That didn’t change the fact that he was Elizabeth’s biological father and how I’d been wounded by the horrible things he’d said to me before I left Italy.
Or the lies I’d told afterward.