Epilogue

I wake Nora with a kiss to her neck, curled up behind her in my bed. Her body stirs before she does, arching into me as a drowsy sleep-smile lifts her lips.Moonlight beaming in from the window bathes her skin in a silver glow.

It's been five weeks since I've seen her, the longest stretch of time since my Nebraska contract started. We usually make it three max before I fly home or she flies to me. I've missed her down to my marrow.

She's lived in Nella's house this last month since her lease ended, waiting for my contract to end, too.

It finally, mercifully has.

I move to her shoulder, biting just hard enough to wake her, but not hard enough to make her cry out in that way I like.

Her eyes flutter open.

And then she jolts onto her back, terror flashing in her eyes.

"Shh. It's just me, baby."

She blinks fast and lays a hand on my cheek. "Seb?"

I cover her with my body weight. "Who else were you expecting to show up in my childhood bedroom?"

Her expression becomes progressively more alert until she's smiling. "What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't get in until tomorrow afternoon!"

"I decided not to sleep at a hotel and drove straight through. I couldn't be away from you another night."

Her eyes soften. "I missed you so much."

I try to hug her, but she fumbles toward the nightstand and puts two tiny Listerine strips on her tongue instead.

"Nora." I shake my head, biting back a laugh. "I know what you taste like all hours of the day. We've been together for almost a year."

She holds up a finger as she waits for them to dissolve.

"There." She curls up beside me. "Minty fresh for our first real kiss in weeks."

"You're ridiculous." I slant my mouth over hers. The tingling of mint spreads across my tongue as I reacquaint myself with her lips. As usual, the touch of her hand anywhere on my body reduces my thoughts to a string of single words.

Home. Mine. Love. Need.

I slip my hand down her side and into her shirt. "Finally, home for good."

She breaks the kiss and glances down at her torso. "Wait. I didn't prepare for this homecoming. These are my ugliest pajamas and even uglier underwear, and my hair is a tangled nest. I was going to spend tomorrow morning—"

"You are perfect as is." I tug her shirt up and off, and then her bottoms. "There, ugly pajama problem solved." I kiss her like we have all the time in the world, even while my hands roam like impatient beasts with minds of their own. They journey down the center line of her chest, across her stomach, up her ribs, sneaking behind her back to start a new circuit.

"Let's not forget your rule," she says sternly, even as she works my boxers down my legs. "Should we at least keep it somewhat innocent?"

I grope her ass with a firm hand. "Says the naked girl. I haven't touched you in so long I might die."

"At least you aren't melodramatic." She takes my hard length in her palm. Her breathy hum is one of my all-time favorite sounds. "Oh, you are hard, aren't you?" She glides her hand up and down at an achingly slow pace until she swipes her thumb over the wet tip. "It must hurt."

She will turn me into an animal. "Remember what happened the first and only time you teased me in this room?" I pry her legs apart. "Splayed open across my lap, begging me to mark you, playing coy as you fucked your fingers when they were covered in my come?"

Her lips form a scandalized O as she drags her fingers up the inside of her thigh. "You were the one begging, if I recall."

"You're right. I wanted to make you mine, no matter the consequences." I drive into her with a hard thrust, shoving the air from her lungs.

"I always was yours," she gasps. "From the day we met."

And I never tire of hearing it.

Her beautiful body strains against mine, begging for more. After months of belonging to this beautiful woman, I can say with authority that she is horniest in the mornings. Nights are great, too, but my girlfriend is like a virgin on prom night between the hours of five and nine a.m., keyed up before she even opens her eyes.

And I know just how to take her even higher.

I dip down and lightly tease her stiff nipple with the tip of my tongue. "I'm so in love with you, future mother of my children." I withdraw almost completely, then spear her harder. "I pictured you that way when you teased me in that chair. Did I ever tell you that?"

She stifles a groan and arches against me. "No…you did not."

"Mmm. Well, I did." Another thrust. Deeper this time. "And in the photo booth when you told me you got the shot?"

She bites her bottom lip and nods.

I kiss my way up her neck and nip her earlobe. "I would have fucked you either way."

Her gasp dissolves into a whimper. "You know what hearing that does to me."

"Oh, I know." I reach between us for her swollen clit. "I can feel how much you like knowing I was gone on you and ready to risk it all. And that's never going to change."

I pick up speed, stopping just shy of rattling the metal bedframe. Weeks of pent-up need turns me into a thrusting—quietly thrusting—machine. Her mouth falls open as her eyes glimmer in the soft silver moonlight. Color blooms on her cheeks and neck, climbing down the dip between her tits. She's close.

So am I.

I kiss down her jaw in a sweep, licking and biting her neck, gripped with affection so strong I can barely stand it. Of all the places we've both lived, we were in the same place at the same time long enough to meet not just once, but twice in the span of two weeks. I'm glad fate had a plan, because I wouldn't have been able to dream her up on my own. "I love you, Nora."

She closes her eyes and smiles as if marinating in the words. "I love you, too."

We've said it for months and it still feels brand new. Sacred.

"It feels so good to say that in person." I flip her over and jerk her hips off the bed, one hand gripping her ass and the other reaching around to continue its steady work. I haven't even bottomed out yet when my lower back tenses in familiar warning. "You are so tight like this I can't stand—"

" Shh, " she scolds. But she pushes back against me, taking me deeper, barely able to temper her own moans. Nothing compares to the way she feels around me, this woman who I love more with each passing day, who miraculously loves me, too.

I risk the noise and spank her once. She falls apart, clenching and spasming around me as her hands grip the sheets. I bury myself in her, her name hoarse on my lips as my orgasm rips me apart. I'm so far past gone for her and I don't want to be found.

It's good to be home.

…

"What do you think?" Nora bobs up and down on her toes as she watches me blow on the ladle.

I bite back a laugh. "Can I taste it first before you hound me?"

"It's meant to be hot!" Nella waves her hand. "Wash it down with a frozie if it's too much, you coward."

"I think we all need alcohol, given the hostile climate in here."

"Sauce is serious business," Nella counters. "Nora practiced this recipe seven different times to get it right for you."

Her glare says I will sacrifice you for Nora and it's not a close contest.

A pretty frown pulls Nora's full lips down. "It wasn't seven times, was it?"

Nella catches my eye again. "It was."

"Practice makes perfect," Nora grumbles, clearly embarrassed by her adorable obsession with getting this sauce just right.

I close my mouth over the tip of the ladle. It burns like a sonofabitch, but I try not to let it show. "Wow!" I give it enough time to mentally dissect the flavor profile. "It's perfect. Beyond perfect."

Nora brightens right back up. "Really?"

"Yes. Really. You nailed it."

She squeals, lunging to kiss me. As if losing her nerve to let our lips touch in front of Nella, she aims sideways for my cheek. "Thank you."

"No, baby. Thank you ."

Nella walks up and sticks a clean spoon in the sauce. "All right, let's give it a go."

I hold my breath and crush Nora against my side and we watch Nella, the ultimate authority, take her sample.

"Well?" I'm now as invested in this as Nora, if not more so. "How'd she do?"

She pauses, thriving in the spotlight.

"Fantastic work," she decides. She moves forward to pinch Nora's cheek. "Your best yet, darling girl."

Nora throws her head back and cries out in relief. "Okay, that means I can put the noodles on." She pulls away from me and sets to work. "I'm making three different types so people have options. I really thought I was going to have to order us pizza tonight. Oh, the garlic bread, what did I do with the garlic chopper thing…"

Nella meets my eye as Nora continues narrating her inner monologue. "She's a keeper."

Pride fills every inch of me. "Believe me, I know."

Nora refuses to let us help her cook, so Nella and I take a seat at the island.

"What's the status of the furniture, Nora?" Nella asks as she swirls her frozie. "Are you going to be able to sleep in your new house tonight or will you stay here a little longer?"

Nora peeks over her shoulder. "The bulk of it was delivered today, including the bed."

I silently pump a fist in the air. I am more than ready to spend the first night in our new place together.

"I guess we have our answer, then. We'll go home tonight." I fold my hands, trying not to ogle my girlfriend too thoroughly as she cooks with a cute apron tied tight around her waist, accentuating her curves. "What things are we still waiting for?"

"Oh, this and that. The coffee table and television." Her smile is angelic with a hint of something wicked. "A sturdy reading chair, like the one you have in your room. It's a favorite of yours, so I figured I'd get it a friend."

I like that chair, all right. And the things we've done on it. "Oh yeah?"

"Mmhmm." The first hint of a blush colors her cheeks as she starts prepping the garlic bread. "And the pool table you ordered for the den is on back order, of course. That'll be a while."

Evil woman. Now I'm imagining her laid out on the green felt like she was at the Foxfire Lodge, or bent over the side—

"When can I visit?" Nella asks, interrupting my filthy thoughts with a dose of sentiment. "I can't believe I get to keep you both in Great River. It's a dream come true for an ol' girl like me."

Fuck, that gets me good. I rub my chest. Being in love is like watching your heart beat outside your body, and I'm a lucky man to feel it so many times over with my family, my friends, and now the love of my life. If I get one thing right in this life, I hope it's how much I give back to the people who have given me everything.

"Anytime, Nella. Our house is your house." Nora meets my eye and all the playfulness fades to something softer. Something so familiar I can't imagine my life before it and refuse to imagine my life without it.

I know a little something about a dream come true.

Because I'm living it.

The love doesn't end here…