Chapter 51
Ruby
Evangeline was the last one I said goodbye to.
She lingered to ensure the staff knew which vases were due back the next day.
As she hugged me, she whispered, “I’m so happy for you, Rubs.
” My throat tightened, because damn, she deserved someone to look at her the way Sebastian looked at me—like I’d hung the moon and somehow forgot to mention it.
After the garden emptied, the extra lights and music turned off, and the inn was quiet again, Sebastian and I wandered down toward the beach. He wrapped his jacket around me, his fingers lacing through mine.
We kicked off our shoes, I gathered the hem of my dress, and we went down the little rocky dune to the cold sand. Still holding my hand, he reached the bottom first and caught me as I jumped the last yard.
With my stomach pressed to his chest, arms looped around his neck, I kissed him.
“Good wine,” he murmured when we broke apart, clearly meaning the taste of my lips. “Fruity, oaky, with a tinge of honeysuckle.”
I laughed.
He set me back down and we strolled to the water’s edge. The December night was balmy—another sign of a dry winter—but I was too deliriously in love and happy to care.
“I brought you something,” he said after a beat.
“You shouldn’t. I don’t need gifts.”
“I know. It’s nothing big.”
“Unusual for you,” I teased with a grin.
He reached into the inner pocket of the jacket draped over me and pulled out a small box. It wasn’t jewelry—he knew me and my pace.
Inside was a four-inch Wonder Woman figure. All our hours of running jokes—Superman, Wonder Woman, pick your cape—landed right there in his smile.
“It’s perfect,” I said, melting inside. “We’ll put her on the shelf right under your poster.”
Moving in together wasn’t a question anymore. It was the air I was already breathing. I wanted all his clothes in my closet, all his action figures on my shelf, all of him in our home.
“Thought you’d like her. She saves the world. Or runs an inn.”
I laughed, melting even more. “So no tattoo?”
“Someday. But you should know I don’t like needles. For you, though ...”
“How come I didn’t know that about you?” I scrunched my nose, trying to remember if he’d ever told me.
“There’s still stuff we need to learn about each other.”
“I want to know everything.”
“Me too.”
“Let’s see what else,” I said, and jumped into his arms.
He scooped me up. “Deal,” he said, gently falling with me onto the sand. We kissed, and he rolled on top of me. My dress hitched up.
With his free hand, Sebastian cupped my face, his thumb stroking my cheekbone, his eyes glimmering, looking into mine.
“I love you,” I said again, because it never felt redundant.
“And I love you.” His hand slid down my body, his weight warm and solid over me.
I grinned against his lips. “For the record? I don’t like sand in my ass.”
Sebastian laughed, then rose up, pulling me with him. “I know a clean bed not too far,” he said.
The inn lights guided us as we turned back up the path together.
I studied the angles of his profile, every line so achingly familiar and yet still capable of undoing me.
All these years, I’d been both fearless and terrified at the same time—living in defense mode.
And when my defenses cracked, I pushed harder to restore them, convinced that I could. And when that failed, I was frozen, unsure which way was safe anymore.
But Sebastian had always made me feel safe. With him, I could finally unclench my grip, let go of the rope, and leap into the unknown.
I wanted him more than I wanted safety.
The choir of doom in my head finally shut the fuck up when I stopped fighting and let myself surrender to love. I knew the fears still lived in me, but I had Sebastian to face them with.
He carried me the last stretch, kicking the door shut behind us as we stumbled into the cottage. The Wonder Woman figure ended up on the console in the entry, abandoned in our rush. Clothes trailed behind us, laughter breaking between kisses until the bedroom swallowed us.
I needed him bare, needed him skin on skin.
Sebastian lowered me onto the bed like I was fragile, then kissed me hard like I was indestructible. I drank in the feel and scent of his body, pulled him closer, wrapping my legs tight around him, greedy for the delicious feeling of his weight, his heat, the solid reminder that he was mine.
Every touch was both familiar and new—the slide of his hands between my thighs, the way his lips lingered at the hollow of my throat, before trailing down to brush the ink on my ribcage.
He groaned when I whispered his name and dragged my nails down his back.
Then his mouth found mine again, the kisses turning rougher, hungrier. I couldn’t get enough, didn’t want to.
When he pushed inside me, a moan tore out of my throat. I clung to him, lost in the rhythm of his body and the wild stutter of my heart. Each thrust was deep and sure, his forehead pressed to mine, his gaze burning through me, until nothing existed but us.
We shattered together, breathless and wrecked.
I collapsed against him, slick with sweat, trembling with the aftershocks, laughter bubbling up through the tears I hadn’t realized I’d shed.
Grains of sand clung to our skin, sprinkling into the sheets as we shifted, a reminder of where we’d just been.
Sebastian held me close, steady as ever, my chaos wrapped in his calm.
And when the world quieted again, with his heartbeat steady under my ear, I knew I didn’t just love him. I trusted him with every unguarded piece of me.
The inn’s walls were whole again, but so was I—because of him. Sebastian was the pillar I leaned on, the only foundation I wanted, needed, and chose to trust with my heart.
Sebastian’s breath, his scent, his arms around me, the ocean outside—I had everything I needed. And I’d never let go.