Epilogues

Charleigh

Cool air lifted with the gentle breeze that blew over the lake. The sun shone high in the vast expanse of blue above, and the warmth of its rays caressed my skin where I sat on a blanket on the sandy beach.

Voices and laughter carried from where River's family was gathered at the foldable tables we'd brought for our barbecue.

I gazed back at them.

My chest clutched.

My family .

It's what they'd become over the last two months since everything had happened.

Kane was giving Otto crap the way he always did, and Theo was chuckling along at their antics where he sipped from a beer where he sat on a fold-out chair.

Raven retaliated in Otto's favor. She sat tucked close to him, tiny against his massive frame, though likely not close enough if she was ever to get her way.

I thought the guy was oblivious, though, or maybe just…scared of looking at her in a way he thought he shouldn't.

Cash was missing, as I'd come to understand was the usual unless there was something important going on with their family.

And River…River was down at the water with Nolan, the two of them skipping rocks.

"You did it, Daddy-O! Did you see that? You had five whole skips!" Nolan jumped as his little hand sporting all five fingers jabbed toward the sky. "My turn!"

Nolan grabbed a giant rock and tossed it. It blobbed against the water and sank straight to the bottom. "Whelp, guess I don't got any extra points for that. I'd better take your advice and get a different kind of rock. That's because you got smart ideas, right, Dad?" he asked as he started to poke around in the line of rocks that had gathered on the beach.

River chuckled that sound that rolled through me like greed, and as if he felt it, he turned to me. That dark gaze raked over me, and his expression shifted, a promise of what he was going to do to me later.

I bit down on my bottom lip.

I couldn't wait.

That man had had me in every way. Constant and unendingly. And I knew I would never get enough.

But right then, this time was about family.

About our family, and I stood from the blanket and started down the shore.

"How about we take a break from rock skipping and take a little walk?" I asked, my nerves rattling inside me.

Nolan squealed and clapped his hands, bouncing toward me as he asked, "Like a hike? I'm really good at hikin'."

"Yeah, like a hike."

River looked at me from over his head. Awareness pulled between us, and emotion gathered thick at the base of my throat, this heaviness that was also the lightest light.

I took Nolan's left hand, and River took his right, and we began to wind up the trail to the spot we had picked for this day.

It was no surprise that Nolan had been traumatized that day two months ago. He hadn't let me or River out of his sight for two weeks before he'd felt safe and confident enough to move around the house on his own. Once in a while, he still cried out for us in the night.

But he'd begun to heal, and I knew it was time.

We climbed up the winding trail that wound through the dense, soaring trees.

Nolan's little feet scuffed behind me. "Whew, this hike is really tough, isn't it, Miss Charleigh? You got hard puffs from your mouth, too?"

A soft, affectionate giggle rolled out of me. "I sure do. But we're almost there."

We finally broke out in the clearing where we'd climbed to the short cliffs that overlooked the lake. Beyond, we could see the cabins that lined the area, hidden beneath the swells of lush leaves.

Theo's motel, The Sanctuary, was down at the base below us.

From here, the lake appeared crystalline, a scatter of diamonds glinting over the top.

It was gorgeous. Awe-inspiring.

But not close to the beauty I saw when I turned to look at River standing there holding Nolan's hand.

"Come over here, Nolan, I have something really important I need to tell you."

He didn't hesitate. He trotted along at my side as I led him to a big rock that gave an extraordinary view of the valley. We settled down onto it, the stone worn from the weather and storms.

We were far enough back that there was no danger of falling over the edge but close enough that it felt as if you hovered right over the lake.

I pulled Nolan onto my lap and angled him sideways, and River came and sat beside us.

"So, what you gotta tell me that's really important?" He was all grins, kicking his sandal-clad feet as he beamed between us.

My spirit ached in the most blissful sort of way, and I brushed his hair back from his face that now was nearly completely blond as the coloring had faded away. "Do you remember when you told me about your love mark? "

Nolan rushed to push up the short sleeve of his shirt, flinging his arm overhead and pointing to the birthmark on his arm. "This one right here?"

"Yep. And you told me that your dad called it a love mark because your mommy must have loved you so much."

"She had to if she left a heart on me." He said it pragmatically. As if it should be plain and obvious and he'd long ago accepted it.

As if it were simple when I'd never felt anything so complex.

"She did love you very, very much. And she still does."

A frown scrunched between his eyes as he tipped his head back to peer up at me. "You know her?"

My heart fisted and my throat nearly closed off. "I am her, Nolan. I am your mom." The words dropped out of me like a plea. "I got lost for a little while and I couldn't find you, but I finally did. I found you, and I found your dad."

River and I had decided to try to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Leaving out the sordid details. The pain and the tragedy.

Plus, River wasn't sure it was safe to tell Nolan he wasn't his biological father.

Not when we were keeping his identity as Nolan Tayte. Not when we didn't want to disrupt everything the child had ever known. Not when we could never link ourselves to what had happened to Frederick Winston and his guards.

It was best if it was forever believed that Chastity and Levi Winston had died in that car wreck.

Maybe the day would come when we felt it was in Nolan's best interest to know, but for now, we were going to raise him as our own.

His little frown deepened. "Where'd you get lost at?"

Anguish twined in my spirit. The years lost. The sorrow I'd sustained. But I knew…I knew with every place I'd run to, I'd been running here.

Toward these two.

Curling my arms around him, I hugged him tight and whispered against the top of his head, "I just got lost looking for you, but I finally found my way. "

"Well, it's really good you found me because I already loved you like you're my mommy because I already loved you the most, just like I love my Daddy-O."

"I love you the most, too. Just like I love your Daddy-O."

I looked at River then.

River, this storm of a man who was my calm.

My safety.

The sanctuary that had held this child in all his ferocity.

And I knew he would for all his days.

I hugged Nolan for the longest time before he hopped to his feet and tried to drag me to mine. "Well, come on then, Mommy. We should probably go tell the rest of our family the really good news."

Again, he said it simply.

As if it were rational when I knew I'd been given nothing less than a miracle.

I sniffled over an affected laugh. "I guess we probably should."

River stood, too, and he enclosed, picking up Nolan and hugging him between us, his massive arm looped around my waist as he pressed a kiss to my temple. "Little Runner…thank you for running to me."

River

The sound of the tattoo machine whirred in the enclosed space of my station. It was close to eleven at night, and all the lights were cut in the shop other than the bright one that hung low from the ceiling to illuminate the area.

I was working the most gorgeous piece I'd ever done.

I might have been biased, but I didn't give a fuck.

The tattoo chair had been adjusted so Charleigh could sit straddling it, wrapped around the leather with her cheek rested on the headrest.

I was sitting low on my stool so I could get to her lower back where I was doing the fourth session of her tattoo.

A piece that covered the scars that bastard had carved onto her lower back. Eradicating him the way I'd promised her I would. Covering her in beauty rather than the atrocity he'd intended.

It was a forest scene, an innuendo of Moonlit Ridge, though we'd taken some liberties to make it our own.

Trees rising up around the lake.

But this one…this one had a river running through.

She'd said we were the current that had led her here, and she believed she'd ridden on our energy that had called her to this small town. Hidden in the torrent was the silhouette of a blue puppy…stretched out and riding through the waves.

She flinched when I swept the needle over the ridge of her spine where I was adding a teal blue shading.

Could tell she was trying to hold her breath. Doing her best to ignore the burn that erupted on her skin as I marked her deep. Cutting into the lines and filling it with ink.

She squirmed and whimpered, and fuck me, my dick strained.

That first night when I'd tattooed her, I'd chalked the reaction I had to her up to me being a twisted fiend. Hungering for something I should never take.

I'd loved that I had been the one to etch her permanently. Loved that she had been going to walk out of my shop and forever carry a piece of me.

What I hadn't known was this woman was the one who would permanently etch herself on me.

The one who would change everything.

The one who was going to take my guilt and shame and knit it back into love.

I edged back, and I wiped up the excess ink and the bit of blood with the towel before I leaned in and blew across the heated skin to give her some relief. Didn't feel I was crossing a line that time.

Not when the Little Runner was mine.

"How you holding up over there?" I rumbled as I kept brushing the needle over her flesh that bloomed pink.

"I'm great." It was all kinds of breathy.

A rough chuckle rolled out of me. "Great, huh? "

She shifted to look back at me from over her shoulder. The cinnamon flecks in her eyes flamed. "Any time I'm with you, I'm great."

"That so?"

"Mm-hmm." There was a coyness to it. The girl playing nothing but temptation and a tease.

"If this is great, then I can't imagine just how good you feel when I'm tryin' for it." I let the suggestion wind into my tone.

A raspy laugh escaped her. "Now that is something else entirely."

"Only thing I want…to give you pleasure." I said it as I finished up the last few passes I needed to make. I set my tools aside and ripped off my black rubber gloves, then I eased back, inspecting my work.

Pride gripped me by the chest.

But it wasn't of my work. It was of this woman who'd only known running.

Fear.

Terror of what might catch up to her.

But when she'd finally found her way home…to us…she had been willing to give it all to protect it.

This home.

This place.

Our son.

"How does it look?" she asked on a whisper.

I let my gaze travel up the column of her back. "Stunning. Steal the breath straight outta my lungs stunning ."

Goosebumps lifted on the surface of her flesh. She knew I wasn't talking about the tat.

Still, I pushed from the stool and took one step to the side so she could peer behind her to see the reflection of it in the mirror that hung on the wall.

Tears blurred her eyes as she glanced up at me. "Oh wow, River. It's…beautiful."

My fingertips slipped along her bare shoulder. "You're what's beautiful, Charleigh."

"You've always made me feel that way. I felt seen the moment I met you. "

"Think you've been the only thing I could see since the second I found you standing in that doorway."

I sat back on the stool and began to clean the tattoo.

Charleigh hummed as I did, as if she found pleasure in that bare touch.

She had her shorts pulled all the way down so the band only covered half her ass, and she'd removed her tank, her bare tits smashed to the leather of the seat.

I was inundated by the way I'd felt that first night. The way I'd wanted to peel her out of her little shorts and rid her of her tank so I could get to those sweet, tiny tits.

How I'd wanted to sink my cock deep into the well of her squirming body.

Fucking her right here on my chair, something I'd never done before because it was fucking unprofessional.

I had every intention of changing that tonight.

Making sure I didn't touch any of the area I'd tatted, my hands slipped down to grip her by the outside of the waist. "You, Charleigh," I murmured. "You came into my life like a hurricane. Thought you were fuckin' it all up. Destroying the foundation I'd set. The commitment I'd made to a little boy after I'd failed his mother. My commitment to Sovereign Sanctum. And there you were…filling the hollow spaces we didn't know had been empty."

She shifted so she was looking back at me, her hands still clinging to the chair. "And there you were…showing me that I didn't have to be alone. That I didn't have to be afraid. Lighting the places inside me that I thought were forever dead. Making me fall in love with a little boy. The two of you becoming my balm. And then to find out he was mine…"

My palms glided up her ribs. "We're both yours, Charleigh. Think we would have been either way."

"Yes. I loved him, no matter what."

Energy swelled, two of us trapped, the already cramped walls of my station closing in.

Lust and possession smacked me in the face .

I pushed to my feet, rising up behind her.

"Get on your knees…I want to fuck you on my chair."

Charleigh made a choked sound in the back of her throat, though she scrambled to get up and kneel on her knees, my woman more than eager.

She panted while I slipped my fingers in the elastic waist of the tiny shorts she was wearing, and I began to peel them down.

Exposing the perfect globes of her ass.

Her trembling thighs.

She lifted each knee so I could drag them all the way free.

And there was my girl.

Naked and writhing in my chair, hanging onto the headrest while she stared back at me.

Hair that she'd let go back to blonde cascaded over her shoulders and back.

That tat I'd permanently marked on her exposed, skin still red and hot, the color bright and shiny with the cream.

Knew I needed to be careful not to touch it or irritate it, but I had to have her.

Just like this.

She arched her ass out. No doubt she needed it, too.

I reached out and dragged my fingers through her pussy. She was already soaked. "Look at you, always so fuckin' needy. I hadn't even touched you yet, and you were dripping wet."

"Because I always need you," she whimpered.

I ticked the button of my jeans then dragged down the zipper. The rip of it bounced against the walls, and Charleigh inhaled a jagged breath as she squeezed her thighs together.

I pulled myself free, cock in my hand. I pressed the blunt head to her entrance. "Do you know how hard I've been since the second you sat down in my chair tonight? Hours spent dreaming of this…driving my dick into the sweet heat of your cunt."

I took her in one possessive thrust.

Pleasure flashed in bright lights at the edges of my eyes, the feel of the girl pure, awe-inspiring bliss .

Her tight little pussy hugged me in a throbbing, greedy fist, and Charleigh gasped and writhed as she adjusted to my size.

"So good, Charleigh," I grunted. "Doesn't matter how many times I have you, I will never get enough. Will never stop feeling like I'm dreaming. Fuckin' fantasy, having you like this."

"Yes…I…please…take me." A roll of pleas toppled from her, and she pushed back, trying to take me deeper.

I was happy to oblige.

I gripped her by the hips, and I watched as I pulled out, my cock drenched with her arousal, her lips slick and swollen and perfect.

I rocked back in.

Hard.

Charleigh bowed forward before she rocked back.

I began to drive into her like that. Fucking her in hard, deep strokes.

A buzz of pleasure built around us. A burn that was only meant for us.

We were both panting and grunting, fighting to get closer to the other. This woman my ecstasy.

Praises poured out of my mouth.

"Look at you. The way you take my cock. The way you were made for me. Good girl."

Good girl.

The best girl.

My only girl.

The only one who could be meant for me. The only one who could see me for who I was.

A monster who would gladly rip the world to shreds if it meant protecting her.

Loving her.

Keeping her.

"Touch me," she begged, and I looped my arm around her so I could play with her engorged clit.

"Like that?"

"Yes," she rasped.

Her ass was jutted out as I pounded into her.

Hard and fast and desperate.

"River…Oh God…I…"

"Come for me, Little Runner. Come."

She exploded around my dick, the girl shooting off in this orgasm that ripped through her like a storm.

That's what we were.

The perfect storm.

Volatile and chaotic and perfectly right.

Her rapture set me off, bliss bursting through me as I came. I held her tight as I poured into her body.

We were both gasping as we came down, though neither of us ever really touched the floor.

We were always lifted.

Elevated.

Given to this thing that could only belong to us.

"I love you," she whispered.

Careful to avoid her back, I leaned forward so I could murmur at the sensitive flesh at the nape of her neck.

"Yeah, baby. I love you. From here to eternity."

Thank you so much for reading From Here to Eternity! I hope you loved River, Charleigh, and Nolan as much as I did.