“I plan on a whole different approach from here on out. Honesty. Simplicity. Those two things and I’m going all in.”
“I like the sound of that. Get completely well and come home. Now that you’re looking better, I need to get back to Eden. I’ve let everyone know you’re okay, but I’m ready to see my wife.” He grins. “I need to take her on a little getaway after this, she deserves it after all the worrying we’ve put her through. Maybe after I check out things at home.”
“Go, get back to her. I’m fine here. There’s only one nurse left and I think I’m fine without her.”
“Why don’t you guys spend some time here before coming back? Take all the time you need. I’ll look for the stones. But we’re wiping the slate clean either way, okay? My father put more on you than you deserved. You shouldn’t have ever had to deal with that alone. I’ll restore your funds and you can have the beginning with Mara you both deserve.”
My eyes fill with tears and I lower my head. He puts his hand on my shoulder and I look up. “I have your blessing then? I want to marry your sister and make up for all the time we’ve lost.”
“God, yes, you have my blessing. Please marry her already!”
We laugh and I grip his hand. “Thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever feel worthy of her or your generosity, but I’m grateful. I’ll never make you regret it, I swear.”
“You’ve always been my brother. I trust you with my life. I know the kind of man you are, Elias. You’re one of the good ones. One of the best ones.”
I shake my head, denying it, and he grips my hand harder.
“No, no more of that,” he says. “Own who you are. You’re not like your father. You’re not like mine either. We are forging a new kingdom. One that stands on honor.”
We’re standing that way, clutching hands, when Mara walks in and smiles. “What did I miss?”
“I’m going to head out today, get everyone back to the estate. It’s safe to return. The entryway, my office, and the hall outside of the office are the only rooms affected by the explosion. I asked Franco and Harmi to make sure nothing in my office was touched, but the entryway has already been repaired and should be good as new. Smoke-free and all, hopefully.” He takes a deep breath and pulls Mara close. “I also told Elias you guys should take some time here and rest and when you come back, we can have a memorial for Winthrop.”
She puts her arm around his waist and leans her head against his chest. “Thank you for everything. I’ll let you know when we’re returning.” She smiles at me and I feel a rush of love for her that is staggering. She looks up at Luka. “And Luka? Tell Eden I couldn’t have survived without her the other night. Her or Brienne really.”
Luka and I both stare at her in shock and I have to bite the grin back.
“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?” he asks.
She rolls her eyes and gives him a slight shove. “I might be willing to admit I was wrong about your wife.” She lifts an eyebrow at me. “And your tall, hussy friend.”
Luka bursts out laughing and so do I. “Hussy?” He laughs harder. “What are you, eighty?”
She giggles and looks so much like the Mara I’ve always loved, my heart gallops ahead of itself.
He walks to the door and looks back, his eyes lighter than they’ve been in a long time. “I love seeing the two of you happy. Feels as if all is right in the world again.”
I take Mara’s hand and stare at her, bringing her hand to my lips. “Finally.”
* * *
That night the last nurse leaves with instructions for the last of the breathing treatments and what to do should any of my burns cause me trouble. I wasn’t kidding when I said this isn’t the worst I’ve felt. I’ve been hurt worse than this, no question, but I’m still flying high on Mara and I don’t think any physical pain could get me down right now. The loss of Winthrop is staggering and I know I’ll feel that even more when I go back to Niaps and try to face life without him.
I make dinner with the groceries the nurse left and we sit at the table for the first time since we’ve been here, looking out at the mountains and water surrounding us.
“It’s peaceful here.” I pour our wine and set the bottle down.
She nods in agreement. “This makes me think of all the meals you made for me when we were growing up. Out by the campfire, or in your kitchen…I’ve always loved your cooking the most.”
“You’re definitely partial then because you’ve had some of the best chefs in the world cook for you.”
“Don’t downplay your strengths. I think you must hear your mother on your shoulder, whispering all the things she used to say.”
I tilt my head, a slight acquiescence to what she’s saying.
She nods. “Unless she’s saying sweet, uplifting things, let me be the new voice on your shoulder. You are a brilliant man with exceptional gifts. You’ve been sidetracked for a while, but you’re back and you will be better than ever. With me by your side, we’re unstoppable.”
My face hurts from smiling. “I love you. Hurry up and eat, I want to strip you naked and have you for dessert.”
She flushes and has never looked more beautiful. She takes a huge bite and the sounds of our laughter echoes in the room.
* * *
I take her hand and lead her to a bedroom no one has been using. It’s clean and there isn’t medicine or gauze lying on the nightstand. I stand in front of her and pull down the zipper of her dress. It takes one little nudge of my hand and it puddles onto the floor.
She stands in front of me in her black lacy underwear, looking like every dream I’ve ever had of her, only a thousand times better because I can reach out and touch her. I do just that and she steps forward, reaching for the buttons on my shirt.
“Let’s get this off of you,” she says softly. Her voice, along with the brush of her fingers across my skin, makes me shiver. I feel completely intoxicated by her. “In fact, why don’t you let me do all the work, and you just feel good.”
“As good as that sounds, it’s not possible. I’ve been consumed by you for years. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you do all the work tonight. Work,” I scoff, “it could never feel like work anyway.”
“Settle down. I’m only saying you need to take it easy. I’m going to make you work a little bit for me, don’t worry.” She smirks and unzips my pants. Her hands slide my briefs down on either side, my dick bobbing free to greet her, already hard, and she grins. “See? You’re already doing your part.”
I pull her to me and have her bra on the floor in seconds.
She nods. “Such a hard worker. Let me get these.” She pulls her panties down and steps out of them, standing like a vision before me. She takes a long look and I see the lust, the crazy, overpowering desire in her eyes that I feel for her. “I never got a proper look at you. I know you felt like heaven inside of me, but you look like heaven too.” Her full lips speak their voodoo words and I’m hazy with lust.
“Sweetness, you’re the spiritual experience.” I reach out to tweak her nipple and it pebbles beneath my touch. I run my fingers down her chest and her stomach, right into the fire I know is waiting for me. I explore her there until her eyes get glassy and her breaths get shorter and shorter. When she’s just about ready to explode, I give her a little push back onto the bed and she lies back, opening her legs for me. I have tunnel vision. I only see the drip of her desire for me and it beckons me in. I want to take my time though, so I tease her by diving into her with two fingers, my thumb still circling her clit, until her head falls back.
“Elias,” she cries again and again. “Mmmm. I need all of you.”
“You’ve got all of me, always will.” My arms are sore from the wounds, but I feel weightless as I lean over her and drink her in. “I can’t believe this is happening. And it’s not a goodbye. It’s not, right?” I ask in a moment of panic.
She touches my face and then reaches for me, her hands feeling like magic on my cock. She lines
me up with her and I sink in, cursing at how good she feels.
“It’s not a goodbye, it’s an always. It’s a hello and good morning and good night and everything in between.” She gets a grip of my ass cheeks and pushes me in as far as I can go.
My eyes roll back. “This feeling with you will never get old. You are made for me.”
She starts the tempo and our words become breathless chants of the oldest love song ever written. When two people who love each other lay aside everything else and become one.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Mara
Our days at the safe house are spent making love, day and night. Sometimes with barely any time between. I can’t get enough and neither can he. My body aches inside and out, and yet it just makes me want him all the more.
We eat and sleep to get by; talk as we’re rocking back and forth and when our heads hit the pillow, but the most communication happens when we’re making love. I see all of our past, our present, and our future in his eyes and in his lips and in the way he makes my body sing with his touch. I feel all of the regrets, all the things he wanted to say before and couldn’t, and all of the ways he will love me in the future. I hear his heartbeat against mine and know it’s forever; he enforces it with his whispers of forever and I love you.
We grieve. We grieve for Winthrop. We grieve for the time wasted, the time lost…and we grieve for the hurt we inflicted on each other.
We heal.
When it’s time to go home, I don’t even mind because I’m excited for what the future holds with him. Neither of us have a home to go back to and neither of us care. It’s the most liberating feeling I’ve ever had.
The pilot comes to pick us up and we kiss one more time in the doorway.
“We’ll have to revisit this place, see how different our lives look after we finally saw reason,” Elias says, his eyes searing into mine.
“Same time next year?”
“It’s a date.”
We get on the plane and I tell him more about the project in Yuman. I don’t feel the need to move there anymore, but it’ll be a fun getaway together when I need to work with Zsa.
Wells picks us up and we head to the estate.
“Are you nervous being there again? The last time was so traumatic.” I squeeze his hand.
“A little. It would be worse going back to my house. I…I don’t want to go back. Ever. Winthrop and you were the only good memories in that house and now that I have you, I don’t ever need to go back.”
“Okay. We won’t then. We’ll only look ahead.”
I’m staring at him when we pull into the drive and he leans over to kiss me. We hear something and break apart, looking out the window.
Luka, Eden, Basile, Chelsea, Brienne, Harmi, and Franco are all standing outside cheering and waving balloons or banners. I laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, so unlike them to be festive.
Luka runs over and opens our car door and wraps me up in a hug. “Welcome home, Mara.”
His words are a peace offering of all the wrong I’ve done to him and Eden and I squeeze him tighter. “Thank you, Luka. You’re the best brother ever.”
He laughs and Eden shuffles next to him while he moves on to hug Elias. She looks at me shyly and I stare at her for a moment, so sorry for all my stupidity. I step closer and reach my hands out to her and she wraps her arms around me, hugging me tight.
“I’m sorry for being such a bitch,” I tell her.
She laughs and hugs me tighter. “You were, weren’t you? You know what? I forgive you. We were all put in an incredibly awful position and it’s normal that we would have some kinks to work out.”
I lean back. “You’re being gracious. I was a bitch.” I look at Brienne. “Especially to this one. And I still am, deep down.”
Brienne smiles and tilts her head to the side. “Seeing how much you love Elias is what made me realize you weren’t all bad. And now, seeing you glowing like this, and with a whole air of—” she waves her hand around me, “—satisfied hormones, shall we say?” We all laugh and she presses her lips together, trying to stop to finish what she was saying. “I know I was right.”
I reach out and clasp her hand. “Thank you. It’s hard to relearn a lifetime of bitchy, but I’m going to try. I know both of you are worth it. You proved it to me by being rocks of support the night of the explosion.” I turn to Basile and hug him. “And you too, Uncle. I love you.”
“I love you, dear girl.”
Elias puts his arm around me and everyone stares at us.
“I’ve been rooting for the two of you from day one,” Luka says, smiling.
I look at Brienne nervously, hoping her heart isn’t broken even though there’s no way in hell I’m giving Elias up, but she’s smiling as wide as everyone else and her expression is completely authentic. I breathe a sigh of relief and we go inside to a meal lovingly prepared by Chelsea, who, as gross as it is to think about, seems to be glowing with her own satisfied hormones.
* * *
After dinner, Luka takes Elias to the library, where he’s set up a temporary office and when Elias comes back, he looks like he’s swallowed a huge secret whole.
“What is up with you?” I ask him when we get to my room.
Luka told us to stay as long as we needed, forever if we wanted. It’s temporary—both Elias and I are ready to make a new home for ourselves.
“Get naked,” he whispers in my ear. “Then lie down on the bed.”
I grin, mostly at how excited he seems, but I’m also ready to be back in his arms. It feels like forever already since I was last writhing underneath him.
I strip and fall back on the bed, enjoying the way his eyes light up every time he sees my breasts.
He pulls a bag out of his jacket pocket and dips a hand inside the leather. Color sparkles and the light dances across the room as he steps closer and drops the gems across my skin. They’re small enough that they don’t even sting, but the cool stones feel like little drops of silky light and there are so many! He pours them all over me and I laugh, dipping my hands in them and pouring them over my skin again. When he leans over me, he brushes a few off and picks up a beautiful blue stone.
“It’s so beautiful,” I whisper.
“You are.” His tongue traces my lips and he dives inside, his kiss making me frantic for more of him. He pulls away and waves the stone. “Can you imagine this as a ring? Or would one like this do?” He holds up another, equally as beautiful.
“Any of them would be magical,” I tell him honestly. “Anyone you sell them to is going to be entranced by their beauty. You don’t see stones like this every day.”
“I mean for you, as my wife, would a ring like this do?”
My mouth drops and I stare at him, eyes wide. “What are you saying?”
“It’s more like a question. Will you be my wife? Will you love me forever and never let me know what it’s like to be without you again?”
“I will. Yes.” I nod, still eyes unblinking.
He holds up the blue stone again and I nod again. He laughs. “Okay, this will be the one. Marrying you will be the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“Is this really happening?” I still have moments of doubt when I think this happiness is bound to be short-lived.
“Oh, it’s happening. The sooner, the better for me.”
“Yes. Same. Yes,” I answer, still in a stupor.
We make love until the sun comes up, and it starts to feel like this might be real. A real walking, breathing dream.
Elias is mine.
* * *
We find a cottage on the beach about eight miles from the estate. It’s not one I’ve ever noticed before because it’s tucked into the side of a cliff with the sandy beach down below. You have to walk down stone steps to get to the water, but the view is indescribable. It doesn’t matter that it needs lots of work and we will have to add rooms if we add any new family members…it’s something we’re going to make our own.
Life feels really good. Really sweet. My life has never felt sweet. Some days I don’t know what to do with all the goodness and find myself wondering if I’m going to self-sabotage, but I’m recovering from my past habits too, and when I’m struggling, I go to Elias and tell him how I feel. It’s amazing how much that helps.
It also helps that my mother is still in jail. So far security with my father seems stable and although Tito hasn’t been found, the warehouse has been shut down for months. Now that all of Elias’s debts have been paid off, no goons have come searching for him.
Life feels hopeful and I try to keep my eyes and heart wide open to take it all in.
Epilogue
Mara
Nine months later
Eden, Nadia, and Brienne are in my room, helping me get ready, something I never saw happening. It’s been strangely easy. With everyone happy and with the person they’re supposed to be with—except Brienne, we need to find her a man, STAT—the egos and snottiness are surprisingly set aside.
Eden takes my wedding dress down from the tall hook by the window and comes to a dead halt. She frowns and I move toward her quickly. I don’t know when or if my initial reaction to something will ever stop being fear or thinking the worst is about to happen, but I’m still not there yet. Especially on my wedding day. I’m too happy and that makes me scared, being this hopeful.
“What’s wrong?” I look out the window and see Ava throwing her head back at something Gentry has said. She clutches his arm and he grins at her like he’s been struck by an angel. Uh-oh.
“Does he know she’s not even eighteen yet?” she asks, her frown deepening.
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