Chapter 20 Claire #2
I answered by taking his hand and leading him out of the study.
We climbed the stairs together, past Millie's closed door, past the guest room that was once mine, to the master bedroom at the end of the hall. His room. Our room, now.
The space was dark except for the moonlight streaming through the windows. He laid me back against cool sheets and followed me down, his weight a welcome anchor. For a moment, he just looked at me, really looked, like he was memorizing every detail.
"What?" I whispered.
"Just making sure this is real."
"It's real." I pulled him down to me. "I'm real. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
He kissed me again, slower this time, savoring. His lips trailed from my mouth to my neck, tracing its sides, finding the sensitive spot that made me arch into him. My hands explored the planes of his back, the warmth of his skin as clothing was carefully, reverently removed.
When we were skin to skin, the world narrowed to sensation, the solid warmth of his chest against mine, the gentle rasp of his breathing, the way his hands mapped my body like something precious.
There was a moment of vulnerability, of openness, where I felt tears prick my eyes.
Not from sadness, but from the overwhelming reality of being seen, being wanted, being chosen.
"Hey," he said softly, his thumb brushing my cheek. "Stay with me."
"I'm here," I promised. "I'm right here."
The joining was slow, profound, a conversation without words, a promise made in movement and breath.
We found our rhythm together, unhurried, letting the pleasure build in waves rather than rushing toward release.
His eyes never left mine, and in them I saw everything: the fear he'd conquered, the walls he'd torn down, the love he'd learned to give without control.
When the wave finally crested, it wasn't an ending. It felt like a beginning.
Afterward, we lay tangled together, my head on his chest, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my shoulder. The room was quiet except for our breathing, slowly returning to normal.
"So," I said eventually. "Still think we're taking things slow?"
He laughed, a rumble I felt against my cheek. "Glacially slow. This was the glacier finally reaching the ocean."
"That's a terrible metaphor."
"I'm a CEO, not a poet."
"Clearly." I propped myself up on one elbow, looking down at him. "Do you remember the night we met?"
"I remember everything about that night."
"You offered me ten million dollars, and I thought you were insane."
"I was insane. I was also terrified and desperate and completely out of my depth." He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "You refused the money, and I didn't know what to do with you."
"And now?"
"Now I know exactly what to do with you." He pulled me down for a soft kiss. "Keep you. Love you. Marry you. Build a life with you."
"That's a good plan."
"I thought so."
We lay in comfortable silence for a while, the kind that comes from having said everything important and being content to just exist together. I was drifting toward sleep when his phone buzzed on the nightstand.
He groaned. "Ignore it."
It buzzed again.
"It might be important," I murmured.
He reached for it, squinting at the screen. "It's Miles."
"This late?"
Nathaniel answered, his voice rough with contentment. "Miles. You know it's almost mid—"
I couldn't hear the other end, but I watched Nathaniel's face shift: surprise, then relief, then concern, then something softer.
"That's excellent news," he said. "The best… Riverside? Is everything okay?" A pause. "I understand. If you need anything… anything at all, you let me know." Another pause, and he smiled. "Thanks, Miles. I will. Take care of yourself."
He dropped the phone back on the nightstand and pulled me closer.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah." He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Victoria's final appeal was denied. It's officially over. She's out of our lives for good."
The tension in my chest unclenched, a tension I hadn't even realized I was still carrying. "That's... wow."
"Yeah." He was quiet for a moment. "And Miles has a family emergency in Boston. He's leaving for a few months."
"That sounds complicated."
"Probably is." His arms tightened around me. "But that's his story, not ours. Right now, I just want to focus on this. On us. On the fact that you said yes."
I smiled against his shoulder. "I did say yes. Still terrifying, you know. But in a good way."
"Terrifying in a good way." He kissed the top of my head. "I'll take it."
We lay there in the quiet dark, the house peaceful around us, the past finally laid to rest. I thought about the woman I'd been six months ago, convinced that love was something you had to earn through suffering.
I thought about the woman I was now, a nonprofit founder, a soon-to-be wife, a soon-to-be mother to a brilliant, brave, beautiful girl.
Somewhere in the distance, my mother's voice had finally gone silent. Not because I'd defeated her memory, but because I'd outgrown it. I'd built something stronger than fear. Something more real than the pattern she'd carved into my bones.
"Nathaniel?"
"Mm?"
"I'm really happy."
He pulled back just enough to look at me, his eyes soft in the moonlight. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." I traced the line of his jaw, still marveling that I got to touch him like this. "Not in spite of everything we went through. Because of it. Because we chose each other anyway."
"We're going to keep choosing each other," he said. "Every day. For the rest of our lives."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
He kissed me, slow and sweet, and I let myself sink into it, into him, into this life, into the future stretching out ahead of us.
For so long, I'd believed that love was a transaction.
That I had to earn it, prove myself worthy, sacrifice pieces of myself to keep it.
But lying here, in the arms of a man who'd given me freedom when I expected chains, who'd let me go when he wanted to hold on, who'd chosen me again and again despite every reason not to, I finally understood.
Love wasn't a transaction.
It was a choice.
And we were going to keep making it, together, for the rest of our lives.
I closed my eyes, Nathaniel's heartbeat steady beneath my cheek, and let myself believe in happy endings.
After everything, I'd finally found mine.
Next in the Series: Back To You