EPILOGUE
Destiny stood at the kitchen window watching the rain come down. The drops splattered against the glass, turning into liquid rivulets that reflected the silvery light of the full moon.
“What are you thinking, my darlin’?”
Reece slid his arms around her waist and she turned to him, as charmed as ever by his accent, by the fresh, earthy scent of him. He kissed her cheek, then nudged his way down to her neck. A warm shiver ran through her as his lips brushed the sensitive skin there.
“I was thinking how odd it is to be raining in June. And the rain made me think about the day we met.”
“A most amazing day,” he murmured against her throat. “What else?”
“I can’t believe it’s been six months. It’s like I’ve always been here.” But hadn’t it felt like that since the first time she was in Reece’s house? Their house now. “I remember seeing your kitchen for the first time. I had this image…”
“Tell me,” he demanded, trailing his lips up her neck.
“Mmm…you’re very distracting.”
“Tell me anyway, love.”
His palms slid over her body, cupping her breasts through her cotton sundress. Her nipples hardened, desire a sudden, steady beat between her thighs.
“I’m going to burn dinner.”
He pulled away, grinning at her, and his smile dazzled her, as always. She’d never gotten over his smile, his blue, blue eyes.
“Dinner can wait, woman. I can’t.”
She laughed as he backed her toward the stove and reached behind her to turn off the pasta that had been boiling, sending steam into the air.
“Neither can I. Ever.”
“Come here then. And tell me.”
Pulling her close, he brushed her hair from her face. She saw desire in his eyes. And love.
“That first night I sort of…saw myself here, in the kitchen. Cooking. Happy. And here I am.”
“Are you happy, Destiny? Happy here with me?”
She stood on her toes to kiss him, a soft press of her lips on his, the flavor of him lingering as she pulled away. “You know I am.”
“Ah, a challenge then.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll have to find a way to make you happier still.”
He grinned a little wickedly, making her smile, making her melt into him. His erection was a solid shaft against her stomach.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I seem to remember putting the kitchen table to certain uses. It’s been too long. What do you say?”
“Yes. To anything.”
He smiled once more, and kissed her hard. His tongue slid between her lips, hot and sweet, leaving her breathless, her sex damp, needy.
He pulled back to murmur, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Taking her hand, he led her to the table. There, he kissed her shoulders before turning her around and bending her over the granite surface and lifting her dress. She was shivering with desire, with anticipation, as he pulled her lace panties down and smoothed his hands over her bare ass. When he slipped one hand between her thighs and brushed her wet cleft, she sighed.
“Always ready for me, darlin’.”
“Yes…”
He massaged her pussy lips with his fingers and they filled, swelled, aching with need. She tried to arch back into his hand, but he pulled away.
“Please, Reece.”
He bent over her, kissing the back of her neck. “Stay here, don’t move,” he said quietly.
Goose bumps rose on her skin, and she braced her hands against the table, the surface cool on her heated palms. She heard the whisper of his zipper as he undid his jeans. One arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her body close to his. She loved when he held her like this, body to body, making her feel safe. Loved. And she loved the solid weight of his cock against her buttocks, knowing he would be inside her soon.
He leaned over her once more, and she felt his breath in her hair, a ragged pant of desire.
He whispered, “I need you so much, I can barely hold back. Are you ready for me?”
Before she could gather enough breath to answer, he slipped his hand down her stomach and between her thighs, his fingers sinking into her wet heat.
“Oh…God, Reece.”
“So wet for me, darlin’. My beautiful girl.”
He pumped his fingers into her, pleasure arcing through her like an electric current, making her moan. Then he slid his fingers out and used them to press against her clit.
“Reece…I’m going to come.”
“Not yet. Wait until I’m inside you.”
“Yes, I want you inside me.”
She bit her lip against the pure pleasure making her sex pulse, throbbing hard with the first edges of climax.
He shifted, using his other hand to spread her pussy lips, and she felt the head of his cock at her entrance. Then he was in, one silken thrust, buried deep inside her.
“Oh!”
And instantly, he was there with her, inside her head, seeing through her eyes, and she through his. Pleasure multiplied, sensation upon sensation. Cock and pussy and warm, scented breath. His cock pushing into her, the velvet clench of her sex around him as he thrust, over and over.
Pleasure built, spiraled. His lips on the back of her neck, kissing, licking, biting gently. She pushed back against him, taking him deeper.
“More, Reece.”
He shifted again, stroking her ass with his hand, and she spread wider, knowing what was coming. Then his fingers spread her cheeks and slipped between them to press at that tight hole. He rubbed there with one hand, the other pressing on the hard nub of her clit as his hard cock plunged into her.
“Please, Reece,” she gasped. “I need…”
“Ah, I know what you need, darlin’.”
His finger slid into her ass, and she pressed back against him, loving the sensation. She was filled everywhere, pleasure racing over her skin, deep inside her pussy, her ass. And she knew the sensation of his cock inside her, the taste of her own skin on his tongue. Too much sensation, too much to take. She came, hard, her climax and his shattering her, a million stars going off in her head, in his, their bodies entwined and shivering together with a pleasure far too intense for only one body, one mind to take.
“Ah, Destiny!”
He kept pumping into her, drawing it out for them both. And her mind was filled with the softness of her hair on his cheek as he bent over her, the shivering weakness of his legs, and her own, the primal scent of sex.
Slipping from her body, he turned her in his arms, his mouth finding hers. He kissed her, hard at first, then more tenderly. She sank into him, into his arms, the soft touch of his mouth on hers.
Finally he pulled away. His eyes were that brilliant, Superman blue, his face the one she’d loved since the day they’d met.
“I love you, Destiny,” he told her, as though reading her mind. Perhaps he could.
“I love you. So much I can hardly believe it sometimes.”
“Still the skeptic, my darlin’?”
“Not anymore. How can I be, with you?”
“I want you to truly be with me, my beautiful girl,” he said, his fingers brushing her cheek, and the love in his eyes made her breathless.
“Reece. God, I love you.”
“Then marry me. I want us to spend our lives together. And I will say these words, will ask you a million times, so you know I mean it. Will that make a believer of you, my beautiful skeptic?”
Her heart filled, overflowing with love, a love so strong and deep and true, it had to be fated in the stars.
Was that lilacs she smelled in the air? She couldn’t be sure. But she couldn’t be sure it wasn’t, either.
She smiled and kissed him hard and deep, pausing only to murmur against his lips as tears ran down her cheeks, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. You only need to ask me once.”
She’d learned to believe in the impossible, in things she never would have thought to be true before she’d met him. She’d learned that her very name was a truth in itself. He was her destiny, just as she was his.
And nothing but the rest of their lives together would do.