Epilogue - Six Months Later
Grant
If dragging your feet on dealing with a legal problem had been an Olympic sport, Kara and I would have taken gold.
We had to sort it out eventually. Kara needed to feel secure in her own future and that involved knowing her assets. That didn’t mean we had to figure it out right away though. The longer we waited the more time we had to figure out if we could really make this work for the long haul.
So far the answer was yes.
The mystery of why Walt had done what he did would probably never be solved, but neither of us cared. As far as we were concerned, the place belonged to both of us and always would. We were happy sharing space. We didn’t plan on ever being apart, and today, I was going to make that official.
“The lawyer called again,” Kara said, padding into the living room from her office.
We’d turned Walt’s old bedroom into a workspace for her since she worked from home. We both knew we couldn’t keep the room as a shrine to him forever, but I also hadn’t felt right bending his niece over in his old bed.
“Did you answer?”
She shook her head.
“We should probably get back to him at some point,” I said, running a hand through my hair.
I was nervous. It was stupid to be nervous, but I was.
She dropped onto the couch beside me; the cushion dipping with her weight.
The ring in my pocket felt like a live wire.
She leaned into my side, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
She was wearing loose-fitting sweats, her hair twisted up in one of those messy buns that made me want to bury my face in her exposed neck.
To smell that shampoo of hers that was like catnip to me.
“Later, okay?” she said. “We can deal with it later.”
“Later,” I agreed. I kissed her temple, forcing myself to breathe steadily.
This was it.
I didn’t know what I’d do if she wasn’t on the same page as me, but she deserved to know exactly how I felt.
“You know it was six months ago today that you pulled your pepper spray on me in the kitchen?” I said.
She laughed. “The day I learned about your naked coffee ritual.”
I nudged her with my elbow. “You’ve had no issue stripping me in that kitchen since then.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Hey,” I said, my heart starting to thud harder, “since it’s our sort of anniversary, would you wear something special for me tonight?”
Her eyebrows slowly rose. “I’m trying to picture you in a lingerie store and failing.”
I laughed, though it came out higher than usual.
Damn it, I really was nervous.
“Not lingerie. You know I barely have the patience for undoing your regular bra hooks, let alone all that lacy, strappy stuff.”
“Then what did you have in mind?”
I shoved my hand into my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the metal band. I pulled it out and opened my hand to reveal the small ring lying in my palm.
She had told me once that Chad had given her a big, flashy gold ring, something she’d secretly hated for being too much. Because of that, I’d chosen silver. Simple and uncomplicated with one small addition.
Her hands flew to her mouth as her eyes darted between the ring and me. “Grant…”
“Hang on,” I blurted. “Let me do this right.”
I shifted until I was down on one knee, my joints loudly reminding me that I was over forty and had spent the day before hiking through the bush.
For her, I didn’t care.
“I spent a long time thinking I was better off alone,” I said.
“Turns out I was just waiting for you. This—us—feels like exactly where I’m supposed to be.
When we found out Walt might’ve set this up, we worried that what we felt wasn’t real.
But being with you feels too right, and the idea of losing you feels too wrong for this to be anything but forever.
I want to marry you, Kara. I want you and Tuck to be my family, not because Walt wanted it, but because we choose each other every damned day. ”
She dropped to the floor in front of me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “That was romantic as hell, Grant. Of course I’ll marry you.”
I slid the ring onto her finger and then pushed her gently onto her back.
We were laughing and kissing, then our hands started to roam. “Now,” I murmured against her lips, “I want to see you wearing only the ring.”
Heat sparked in her eyes as she reached for the zipper of her hoodie and tugged it down. My heart rate spiked. There wasn’t a single thing about her that I could ever get tired of. Piece by piece, we stripped until there was nothing left between her bare skin and mine.
“Tell me what you want,” I said, peppering kisses along her bare skin.
“I want you to make me come,” she said, rocking her hips up into me, “but I also want to make you come.”
I grabbed her arms and rolled us so I was on my back and she lay across my chest. “Turn around.”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“Straddle my face, babe. Facing my feet.”
Understanding flashed in her eyes as she shifted until we were aligned in sixty-nine.
The view was something else. I could see the perfect globes of her ass cheeks, smell her excitement, the weight of her breasts was pillowed against my lower stomach.
I was fully hard already and we’d barely gotten started.
“We’ve never done this before,” she said, then I felt the heat of her tongue lick me from base to tip, before sucking lightly on the head.
My vision nearly went white. To distract myself I returned the favor, lifting my neck until my face was buried in her eager center. I knew how she liked it by now and I didn’t waste any time in sweeping my tongue over her most sensitive places. She let out a long groan.
“Fuck, why do people like this position? Your mouth is way too distracting for me to blow you right now.”
Laughing, I grabbed her hips and rolled her onto her back. “Let me focus on my bride, then.”
“Ooh. If I’m going to be spoiled, can we move to the bed? This floor is cold, and I don’t want a splinter in my ass.”
I shook my head and laughed. I did that a lot since she’d shown up.
For every no-nonsense aspect of my personality, she had a quirk to counteract it.
We were exact opposites yet a perfect match.
“I can see why I’m the romantic one,” I said, I pushed myself to my feet, then reached out a hand to help her up.
Once she was standing, I threw her over my shoulder caveman style.
Carrying her to the bedroom, my cock bounced painfully with every step, and I tossed her onto the bed. She bounced once, before pushing herself to the top of the bed. She’d long since added a dozen more pillows to the bed, and she was practically drowning in them.
I let my eyes run over her, every bump and curve was perfect and mine. My dick twitched, reminding me that I could sink into her beautiful body, but I didn’t want this to be over too soon. This was our own private celebration of creating the life we wanted.
“I’m glad you like what you see, but I’m getting a little lonely over here,” she said, making grabby hands at me.
I crawled onto the bed, the smooth fabric of the duvet under my knees.
She had talked me into getting a new one of those too, although luckily she didn’t pick leopard print.
She parted her thighs as I came closer and I moved between them like I was meant to be there. “Let’s continue what we started.”
She opened her mouth to answer but it turned into a moan when I sank down between her thighs and resumed teasing between her folds. I worked one finger inside her, moving it lazily in and out as I licked and nipped at her sensitive skin.
Her fingers knotted in my hair, her toes curled into the duvet beside my hips and she thrust up to meet my mouth. “Don’t stop,” she moaned a final time, before her body curled in on itself and she came hard on my tongue.
I stayed with her as she writhed, not letting my mouth leave her clit until her body gave a final twitch and she laid still. Then my patience ran out.
I wanted to take my time, to stretch the afternoon out endlessly. But seeing her under me wearing my ring stripped away what little I had left. Possessiveness surged through me and I sank into her wet heat in one motion.
We both froze and moaned in tandem.
I slowly withdrew and sank back in. When her eyes fluttered closed I did it again. One stroke after another, getting faster and harder as I went.
The old mattress springs protested and I was glad Tuck was outside or he’d be howling in the corner.
She wrapped her legs tighter around my waist, urging me deeper. Heat started to collect at the base of my spine, my leg muscles were on fire and I knew I wasn’t going to last.
“I need you to come for me, baby.”
She slid her hand between her thighs, fingers working fast. Sweat slicked my back as I focused on the rhythm, on staying with her.
I couldn’t control myself around her and now that she was going to be my wife, even less so.
I tried to think about something unsexy–accounting spreadsheets for my business, baseball statistics, anything.
But the breathy little sounds she was making kept me from escaping into my head.
I refocused on hitting her as hard and deep as I could, the way I knew she liked it.
I grabbed one of her tempting thighs and put it over my shoulder.
One thrust at this new angle and her body tensed, then shattered beneath me with a broken moan.
That did it.
I drove into her a few more times before I came, pleasure washing over me in waves until there was nothing left but sensation. Her heat, her smell, her taste, her skin. It was all around me and I could happily drown in it for the rest of my life.
“That was amazing,” she said, kissing me softly as I fought for breath. I could only grunt in agreement. Once my heart rate had returned to normal, I gently pulled out and went to get a warm cloth to clean us up.
When I finally collapsed beside her, I slid my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my side. She rested her head against my shoulder, still distractingly naked, but if I wanted round two I was going to have to wait.
And I really wanted round two.
“I got so excited earlier that I forgot to show you something,” I said. “Take the ring off.”
She pressed it to her chest. “I never want to take it off.”
“It’ll be worth it,” I promised.
Reluctantly, she pulled it off and handed it to me. I was impressed how well it fit given that I’d had to measure her finger with a piece of string while she slept. I turned it so she could see the engraving inside.
“Right where we belong,” she read. She smiled up at me. “You’re pretty sappy for a self-proclaimed loner.”
“Only with you.”
“I love you,” she said. “This is perfect.”
Tuck chose that moment to start barking outside, wanting to be let in no doubt. The bigger the dog, the bigger the baby I swear. I groaned, rolled out of bed, and pulled on a pair of sweats.
Life kept moving, but now our lives were officially intertwined. It didn’t matter what the will said or what that letter claimed. What was mine was hers, and what was hers was mine.
The cabin was our home. The forest was our playground.
And this love—hard-won—belonged to us alone.
THE END