Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
“No waiting. No.” She was already midlaunch, her body colliding with Sig’s so hard, his back slammed into the door. He was laughing, though. They were both laughing as they embraced, his powerful arms lifting her off the floor and squeezing tight as a vise, and it was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard in her life. There were no reservations, their joy totally unfettered. And when his mouth found hers and the hunger came roaring in, they did nothing to stop it. They couldn’t.
Sig reversed their positions, flattening Chloe to the door, his hands already rucking up her dress to her waist, unzipping his jeans while he looked her right in the eye, letting her see the love that ran wild there. Love that was no longer hesitant or worried or penned in. It would grow until it took up every corner of the universe.
His eyes slid closed and squeezed, squeezed so tight, his mouth slanting over Chloe’s in a slow, thorough kiss that communicated promises and lifetimes together. “We could wait until I get you home,” he rasped, pressing his hard flesh to the swath of cotton between her legs, finding her entrance through the thin barrier and rubbing. “We have forever now.”
“I told you,” she murmured, kissing his cheeks, his jaw, his lips, encircling his hips with her thighs. “No more waiting. No more. I love you too much. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too. I love you,” he said hoarsely, his mouth open and panting against hers as he jerked her panties aside and thrust home, his hand raising and cupping over her lips to trap the ensuing gasp and whimper. “Shh. Everything is okay now, Chlo.” His voice vibrated with intensity. “We found a way. The bad is behind us.”
Her neck lost power as he rocked into her roughly, tenderly, her chest almost in pain from the sheer amount of bliss that had been unlocked. “Wake up with me tomorrow morning. Wake up with me every morning.”
He rolled their foreheads together, holding himself deep. So deep, she could feel him, and the fervent promise that followed, everywhere. All over. “Until my last sunrise, dream girl.”
Epilogue
Five Years Later
Sig walked into the house he shared with Chloe in Jamaica Plain, a green suburb of Boston, and set down his equipment bag with a thud. His eyes closed automatically when he heard the harp notes drifting down the stairs, taking a moment to savor the fact that he was coming home to his best friend. And knowing without an iota of uncertainty that she would be equally eager to see him. There was something about a man believing his soulmate was out of reach forever that made him profoundly and eternally grateful to marry her. That gratitude seemed to triple every time he went on the road and returned to her arms.
With a knot in his throat, Sig started up the stairs, looking at the pictures that hung on the wall as he went. Their wedding day, which had taken place in Sofia’s backyard, overlooking the Sound, the country club where they met in the distance. After he’d uncovered the truth about his paternity, there had been a few months of friction between the two couples. Not to mention, the tension between Sig and his mother. After all, either one of them could have put Sig and Chloe out of their misery with a single revelation about his paternity. And Sofia . . . well, she was Sofia and wasn’t changing any time soon. Ultimately, Sig was too fucking happy to be with Chloe to hold a grudge and his wife felt the same, although she’d created some healthy boundaries with Sofia and didn’t feel guilty about redefining them when necessary. Just one of the million reasons Sig was the proudest husband on the planet.
They chose the dates they visited Darien.
Chloe refused to let her mother so much as pay for a muffin.
And when Sofia referred to Chloe as impulsive now, she responded with thank you, that impulsiveness has served me well.
Watching Chloe thrive so drastically that Sofia had no choice but to grudgingly embrace her daughter’s independence and new strength of spirit? Priceless.
Sig would never be close with Harvey, but the reconciliation between him and the man he’d once believed to be his father had allowed for visits to Darien, so Chloe could see her mother—and being able to fulfill her wishes made swallowing his pride a no-brainer. He’d even let Harvey drag him to the country club for a round of golf once or twice.
Golf. It wasn’t so bad, after all. As an added bonus, he got to think back to the night he’d met the love of his life on that very same grass. A night he’d remember in vivid detail until his very last breath.