Epilogue
Zane
I reached down and hooked my arm under Andi’s knee, bringing it up and over my shoulder as I thrust into her over and over again.
“Oh, shit…that’s—”
“So fucking good,” I supplied, pushing deeper into her sweet heat as my mouth sought out hers before latching onto her neck. “Gimme one more, princess.”
A laughing gasp fell from her lips as her nails dug into my back. “I can’t, Zane.” Pant. “I’m…” Pant. “I’m wrung out.”
“Don’t let me go alone,” I said, groaning against her skin as I pressed a wet kiss to the inner part of her knee hanging over my shoulder.
A bead of sweat chased down my back as I brought my other hand between us and pressed my thumb to her clit.
Her body rolled into it as her hands flew to the headboard, gripping the spindles as her back bowed off the bed.
“There you go, princess. Just like that. Take it. Take what you need.”
The headboard banged and banged and banged against the wall with every thrust of my hips into hers, and when I felt her thighs start to tremble I pushed deeper and swirled my thumb faster.
“You gonna gimme one more?”
She nodded frantically, trapping her bottom lip between her teeth as her chest rose and fell with each dramatic intake of breath.
“Words, princess,” I said, and nipped my teeth against the sensitive flesh on her inner thigh.
“Ah! Yes. Yes, Zane. Oh my God… Yes. Yes!”
The moment her body spasmed around my cock I went right with her, holding her tightly to me as I spilled myself inside her.
A tremor rocked throughout my entire body as I gasped for air and let her leg drop from my shoulder before leaning down to kiss her.
“I love you,” I said, nuzzling her neck as her arms wound around me and teased my hair.
“I love you, too,” she said, just as breathless. “I think we’ve successfully broken in my bed now.”
I grinned around a chuckle and slipped out of her, falling onto the bed beside her and looping an arm around her waist to draw her close. “You gonna write about that accomplishment in your journal?”
Her head fell back deeper into the pillow as she laughed at the ceiling. “It’s eating you up wondering if you’re in my journal or not.”
“Can you blame me?” I said and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.
“You’ve got a whole book dedicated to your private thoughts, and I’m just over here selfishly wishing and hoping to be one or ten of them.
” I held my hand up in the air and pretended to scribble.
“Dear Diary, Zane really rocked my world tonight.”
She let out another laugh, this one softer.
“Ease my curiosity, please,” I murmured, and shot her a playful frown when she turned to look at me.
“Well, I can tell you for certain that I have never written the words ‘Zane really rocked my world tonight’,” she said, and laughed when I said, “Oof.”
“But you are mentioned plenty,” she added, and rolled over onto her side to face me.
“Yeah?” I grinned and she nodded. “What’s the last thing you wrote about me?”
Silence fell between us as her eyes dipped from mine, only for a second or two. Our eyes met again, and she said, “I wrote to my parents about you.”
Well…shit. I wasn’t expecting that, or for her to reach over into her nightstand and come back with her journal. “Andi…I can’t…”
“Nothing between us,” she said, and opened it up to the last entry.
I sighed and made a face as I propped myself up onto my elbow and took the open journal from her hand, reluctantly reading the pretty script covering the page…
Dear Diary,
Dear Mom and Dad,
It’s hard to believe how much has changed since you’ve been gone. I know I’ve made some choices that probably broke your hearts. Trust me, they broke mine, too…
A minute or so later, I finished reading the words and traced my fingertip over the page. “Can I see your pen?”
She narrowed her eyes curiously but reached back over to the nightstand and came back with a blue clicky pen. I took it gently from her outstretched hand and clicked it before touching it to the paper.
“What are you doing?” Andi asked, craning her neck to get a look but I blocked the book with my arm.
“Gimme a sec,” I said, writing as legibly as I could (my handwriting was no better than chicken scratch). “And…done.” I grinned as I handed her back the pen and then twisted the journal so the words faced her.
She eyed me suspiciously but then picked up the journal and read my words out loud.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Ford,
Andi is…something else.
You raised a beautiful woman who is kind, and courageous, and—thanks to my sister—knows how to throw one hell of a right hook.
It’s a shame I never got to meet you, and that my family never got to meet you…
and vice versa. But I just want you to know that Andi was right with everything she said.
I am and will always be there to catch her, hold her, and put her back together when she feels like she’s falling apart.
I love your daughter, and I know it’s a ways down the road, but when I do get around to asking her to spend the rest of her life with me… I hope I have your blessing.
Mr. Ford…thanks for leaving her your Camaro. And Mrs. Ford…thank you for sending her to me. She’s in good hands…my hands…and I will protect her and cherish her for the rest of my days.
Completely smitten with your daughter,
Zane McKade
Andi closed the journal and looked at me with watery eyes. “You want to spend the rest of your life with me?”
I reached up to touch her cheek before tucking her hair behind her ear. “That’s the plan, princess. Would you like that?”
A tear slipped down her cheek as she nodded.
I chuckled. “Words, princess.”
She expelled a teary laugh and met me down on the bed, laying her body over mine. “Yes, I think I would love spending the rest of my life with you, cowboy. In fact, I think it sounds just like…”
“Heaven,” we both said at the same time.
And it was.