I shed some more tears, this time not over lost love but the frantic hell that my life became so suddenly. Or maybe not so suddenly. I was just so busy with taking care of Cierra and working, I didn’t realize what John was pulling me into.

My daughter nearly saw that gruesome display, my life turned upside down, and now I’m staying in the hands of a man I barely know. A killer.

But my hands have blood on them too. Did I kill that man when I shoved my thumbs into his eyes? I don’t know. Not for sure.

It’s gut-wrenching. And just when I think I’m ready to head out and join them, I peek my head out of the hall quietly, and see them…

Viktor, for all his faults, is sat there, playing games with my daughter — our daughter — as if she were his own. His charming smile back in full force, his natural good nature easing her tensions, making her happy.

He doesn’t look like a thug or a gangster. He looks like the man I fell deeply in love with. The man I shared my dreams and passions with as he held me for that one perfect night.

I feel the tears welling back up and I head into the bathroom again a while. When I next emerge I see them chatting, him handing her a slice of pizza. And it’s so touching. He doesn’t know it’s his daughter, but he’s so kind. So fatherly all the same.

A dizzy spell comes over me and I stumble, knocking a picture off the wall and it hits the floor with a crash.

Viktor goes for his gun, hidden beneath his blazer. But he sees it's me quickly and relaxes.

“Alice,” he sighs with relief, and luckily Cierra didn’t see the gun he hid. “Just in time to join us for the pizza,” he says, serving me up a slice on a paper plate.

“Prince Charming, mama!” she says, and I wish she hadn’t. I guess some part of those stories I told her about my waylaid love life remained somewhere in her memories.

“It smells delicious,” I say, avoiding her comment with a smile as I slide into my seat. I’ve scrubbed my face, and I’m sure it’s red and puffy, and my hair is still tied back in a bun. I wanted to take a shower, but I wasn’t ready to be naked. Not yet. That was a level of vulnerability I’m not prepared for.

I thought about texting John, some dumb sense of loyalty welling up inside me, but he nearly got my girl killed. He’s the one that put this blood on my hands, and he doesn’t deserve the courtesy of knowing what type of people are after him. As if he doesn’t know already.

Not just that, but being in contact with him would only put us at greater risk. I don’t know who he’s in deep with, but it’s no one I want to tangle with.

“And make sure to save room, there’s dessert after,” Viktor says with a wink to Cierra, her eyes going wide. The next while goes by so quickly, so naturally. I couldn’t have anticipated that we’d all just mesh so well as a little unit.

A family.

Before I know it, Cierra — and Viktor — are guiding me to the couch, to show me what she’s created in the game. The three of us sitting there, laughing and smiling. And it’s almost like none of the horrors of the day occurred.

Night scarcely seems to have set when Cierra falls asleep on the couch, and we quietly make our getaway to another room.

“Are you okay?” he asks me when the door’s barely been shut a half-second. There is a look of concern on his handsome, rugged face.

“I am definitely not okay,” I answer honestly. “What the hell were you doing at my apartment? Because stalking is really not the way to win me back.” All that anger and fear that I’d pushed down for my daughter’s sake is coming bubbling to the surface.

“I wasn’t stalking you,” he says in an even, patient voice. “I was looking for a man who owed a friend of mine a lot of money. I was trying to get to him before some other, nastier folk got to him first. Clearly, I was too slow.”

“Jesus,” I reply, my hand going to my forehead. How many people are after John? He’s in way deeper than I thought...

I slump back against the wall, the wind taken out of my sails. “What’d your friend say about him?”

“Just…” he hesitates, and I can tell immediately that he’s trying to soften the blow. “That he’s tangled up in some very bad things. That he’s done some stuff he shouldn’t have. Really shouldn’t have. And that I was supposed to get to him while there was still someone to get to.” He takes in a deep breath, his broad shoulders rising up, his chest swelling. “I had no idea you’re going out with him.”

“I’m not,” I say, maybe a little too quickly. “He’s my deadbeat ex who refused to move out after I dumped him. And he’s been shifty as hell lately, so this explains a lot.”

He looks a little stunned, relieved? It’s hard to tell, but he nods.

“Good. I mean, it’s good you’re not still tangled up with a man that’s tied up in this shit,” he says, a sort of melancholy falling over him for a moment. “I am so sorry for everything, Alice. But I will find a way to return you to your life, and solve all of this. I promise.”

“They were hassling girls at the club. Threatening them to try to find out where John was. I couldn’t tell them, and if they come back, looking for blood... Oh God, Viktor, what if they screw with the club? What if they find out that I knew him? If he’s really in as deep as you say,” I sob, completely losing my cool once more, tears streaming down my face. “I didn’t even know what he was into.”

Viktor’s fists clench and then unclench, his hands going to my shoulders to hold me comfortingly.

“I never wanted to get tangled up in any of this,” he says to me in that deep, husky voice of his. “But now that I am, I can help you, Alice. I’ll make sure these men don’t bother you or your coworkers again, you hear me?” He looks me in the eyes so dead serious, so certain. “I never got to make our date five years ago. And as much as that pains me, it was for a good reason. And it’s the same reason I’m going to go and finish these fuckers for you tonight. I’m going to make sure they can’t hurt you or anyone like you, you hear me?”

Hurt lances my heart as I look at him through blurry eyes. This was the man I always wanted to be with, the one I longed for.

But I don’t know how deep this goes. Whatever he’s into...

“I feel like I don’t know you at all,” I admit, another sob coming from my chest. “You told me so much, but you never... you never told me who you really were.”

“But I did,” he says without hesitation, looking a bit pained. “Or at least as much as I could.” He runs a hand back over his hair again with frustration. “I wasn’t tangled up in any of this that night. Everything…” he struggles and I don’t know what he wants to say but feels unable to. “Everything went to shit right before our date. I made a stupid mistake. And I paid five years of my life for it in prison. Five fucking years. More than I spent in the corps,” he says, his broad jaw jutting out as he fought his anger. “I didn’t have your name, your full name, I didn’t have any way to tell you it all. And… frankly, I didn’t want to drag you into my fucked up life after I was arrested anyhow. You didn’t deserve that bullshit hanging over your head.”

The charming, handsome knight was replaced by a pained, embittered man. That made him all the more real and endearing in some ways until his words sink in.

“You were arrested? You were in prison?” I can’t believe the shock that goes through me, and all the food in my stomach churns, threateningly. All those years, I was thinking of him just getting cold feet, being a charming playboy... Never in my wildest fantasies...

“I know, I know,” he says, scratching at his scalp, tousling his handsome blonde hair. “I never thought that’d be the kind of man I’d become. But… well,” he licked his lips, “fuck it. What’s it matter? I did it and I served my time. But I never stopped thinking about you. Even though I knew I didn’t deserve you anymore. Fuck, I couldn’t even find a real job when I got out. How was I supposed to win over a woman like you?”

He says that like I’m the finest woman he’s ever met.

Like he still pined for me the way I pined for him.

Fresh tears spring to my eyes, and all I want to do is fall into him once more. To forget this horrible day in his body, and just let myself feel something other than heartbreak and fear. I wanted to be weak, if only for a little while, and I stare into his eyes for what feels like a long time.

“What did you do,” I manage, but I’m afraid to find out. But not knowing... How can I trust him with Cierra and me without knowing?

“I beat a guy up. Bad,” he says to me. “I was coming to visit you just as you got off work, when I saw...” his fists clench. “Well, some piece of shit was harassing a dancer. I couldn’t let it go. It got ugly,” he says. “She got away and went back into the club. But I was shot, arrested and convicted. Rich son of a bitch wasn’t gonna let me get away with beating the crap out of him.”

“Jesus, Viktor,” I curse, swiping my tears away. “Jesus,” I repeat as it slowly dawns on me. I’d seen Julie in the dressing room, fighting with one of the new dancers around that time. I thought it was strange, since Julie was usually sweeter than pie. And I knew she’d been having trouble with a rich guy she’d been seeing. She mentioned having a date with him, but he’d invited some friends and things got brutal. She didn’t dance for very long after that.

But I’d never even heard about the trial. I guess I was distracted with feeling betrayed Viktor at the time…

“I know. I know, Alice,” he says with a sigh. “It’s not what I had banked on for my life, that’s for sure. And it’s certainly not what’s right for you. I’ve got no illusions of this leading us back together. As much as I’d love to be in yours and your girl’s life, I’ve fucked things up too much for that now. But I will fix things for you. I’ll set it all straight before you leave. On my honor,” he says with such grim determination.

My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“You haven’t figured it out?”

“Figured out what?” he asks me, his stern brow knit as he stares at me. He has no idea.

I shake my head and sigh. Do I even tell him? I always thought I would, if the chance ever came. Just to let him know. To let him be fair. And he looked like such a natural with her. If he didn’t even realize that she was his, then clearly he has... something in him. Some fatherly connection that he doesn’t realize is even there.

He’s also a killer, I argue with myself. But then... so am I. Whether I finished him with my thumbs or not, am I really that much better? We’re both on the run from the law, whether I like that or not. And it was all to protect Cierra. It was justified.

I lick my lips.

“What is it, Alice?” he asks me again, his voice lower, more tender as he rubs my arms. “You don’t need to worry. I’ll die to protect you and Cierra, if that’s what it takes. On what honor I have left as a veteran of the corps, I’ll not let you and that little girl down. If there’s one last thing I can do in this life that’s right and just, it’ll be to free you from the thugs that are out to ruin your life.”

“Viktor... do you remember what happened that night between us?”

He pauses for a moment before cracking a smile.

“There’s not a moment of that night I haven’t etched in my memory forever. From the time I first saw you on stage, to the moment we realized we were talking well past sun up. And everything in between, like—” and then it dawns on him. His eyes widening. “She’s not… really?” he says, and at first I think he’s mortified, but then I see it spreading across his face. A look of joy I’ve never expected to see on a man’s face after giving him that kind of news. “I’ve got a daughter…?” he says, and right before me that big-hearted brute of a marine began to look glassy-eyed.

I nod.

There’s no words, not really. Nothing that can convey the emotions I feel rising up in my heart, in my throat, all threatening to take my over. I can’t even pick them out as they swirl together, just giving me this warm but mournful feeling in my chest.

“I guess we’re both just that good,” I finally manage through my tightened throat.

He looks back at the door, as if he’s going to run out and grab Cierra up and hug her right now. But he thinks better of it, looks back to me and cracks a smile, laughing softly as he grabs a hold of me and squeezes me tightly in his arms.

“Fuck Alice, I can’t believe I missed out on my own daughter’s first years,” he says, squeezing me so tight in his thick, powerful arms. “On top of all else I lost, a real career, my plans… my chances with you,” he says.

“She could really use a father,” I admit with a shrug. John’s never been that, not even at the beginning.

The offer though... It stunned Viktor. And for a moment I worry he’s not interested. That the idea — as it would to so many men — would repulse him.

Instead, he pushes his lips to mine in a passionate kiss that takes me all the way back to our first night together. That blissful, perfectly fated moment where I felt like the stars aligned to give me the life I always dreamt of.

“Sorry,” he says, pulling back. “I… I shouldn’t have presumed.”

Barely before he could finish his sentence, my mouth silences his, my tongue pressing in against his with such a need. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just the intensity of the day, or the power of seeing him again. Maybe it’s still the adrenaline coursing through my veins and making me a bit loopy.

Or maybe I’m still in love with him, even after all these years, even after only knowing him one night.

We don’t get to decide who our soulmate is, but I’m not going to let him get away again. Suddenly I’ve forgiven him of all his sins, of all the sleepless nights I laid awake, wondering where he was, and if he ever thought of me.

All that matters is he’s back in my arms. We have a second chance at this now.

He wraps me up in his big arms, that haven’t gotten any smaller. In fact, his forearms feel thicker, stronger than before even. That time in prison was spent honing himself even more than the marines had.

Maybe it’s strange to focus on the little things, like the thickness of his arms, the way the veins on his forearms bulge beneath my fingers, but I’m just soaking him all in with such relish. Ours was a love meant to happen, but which was interrupted cruelly. And I can’t even blame him. He helped out Julie big time, maybe even saved her.

If only more men were willing to put it all on the line to stand up for women like her — like me — things would be so much better.

So I just savor every moment of this kiss, every little sensation of our lips smacking together. Every touch of my fingertips. The press of our bodies together.

My fingers run up his arms, to his jaw, stroking him gently as if I’m just trying to figure out if he’s really here. If this is actually happening, or just another one of my many dreams, staring at him. My Prince Charming.

“I’ve missed you so bad,” I admit, surprising even myself. “When you never showed, I thought I scared you off. That the condom breaking...”

His grasp on me tightens, those powerful arms embracing me so warmly as his smoldering eyes gaze into mine.

“Fuck no,” he says crassly, to the point. “I was never happier about a moment in my life. And with the condom breaking… shit, I was eager to see it through, whatever happened. I just… I acted without thinking of the consequences. Without realizing it might cost me a possible future with you. Damn Alice, you never left my mind in prison.”

He presses his lips to mine again in a sudden, passionate kiss renewed for another sweet moment.

I can feel all this relief, all this regret swirling within me. Anger that we’ve been so unfairly separated, that chance would put him on this horrible path. He never should’ve been put in such a heinous situation, especially not for just trying to stand up for someone else. That shithead rapist should’ve been the one serving time.

Not my sweet Viktor. Not this man with a beautiful heart, with the most gorgeous husky voice and kindest words.

It was an injustice.

But all that paled in comparison to my gratitude to have him back. To be kissing him once more.

Those big hands of his grasp my hips and together, as if we’re of a unified mind, he lifts me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. He lets his palms move from my hips to my ass, touching, squeezing me as we make out frantically.

We’re in his bedroom, by sheer coincidence of needing a quiet place to chat. It’s spacious, big, the bed humongous, and he carries me towards it after making out with me in his arms for so long.

The two of us tumble down upon the bed, the thick comforter seeming to swell around me as he rests over me. My big, broad-shouldered hero.

He saved me and Cierra today. Whatever he did, he did it for me and my child.

Our child.

My hands reach down, grazing across his abs before reaching the button of his pants, my eyes meeting his the entire time.

“I never thought I’d see you again.”

“I never stopped dreaming I would,” he responds in that deep, husky voice of his, so deliciously masculine.

Those big hands of his move up over my body, feeling me out, rubbing my waist and chest, tugging up my shirt and helping shed me of my shirt and clothes as he kisses down my neck, across my collarbone.

And just like last time, it feels so right. Like this is meant to be.

It has to be fate. It has to be. What are the odds of the world sending our lives colliding back together like this if it wasn’t fate?

I unzip his pants, my fingers delving in and touching his cock, an irrepressible moan of delight escaping my lips. He feels even better than I remember, and my body quivers with excitement as his lips continue teasing across my chest.

He reaches beneath my body, undoing my bra with such a fluid motion, freeing me from its confines as his ravenous mouth sweeps in to kiss and lick at my breasts, to ease the edges of my areolas. It doesn’t feel like what we had was a one-night stand five years ago. Our bodies move together like we’re husband and wife parted for far too long. That’s how it feels as he hungrily devours me, suckles my nipple and teases my flesh before moving down to work open my pants and get them off of me.

I release his cock just long enough for him to free me of every last stitch of my clothing, and then I look up at him. I’m bared to him, naked and vulnerable. He’s taken two lives today, but I know he did it for me. To protect me.

He didn’t think twice about it, about the repercussions. He could’ve been sent right back to jail, and we’d never have had this moment, but he didn’t care. He was just worried about keeping me safe.

He’s a hero. He’s always been a hero. Even though his hair isn’t quite the military crew cut anymore, and there’s a darkness in his eyes that wasn’t there when we first met, I can still see that spark in him. That boyish charm, that strong moral code.

He’s my hero, and in this moment, I’m utterly in awe of him.

My mouth goes to his once more, tenderness and passion combining as I taste him. “I love you, Viktor,” I whisper against his lips, sealing it with a kiss.

He’s momentarily stunned by my words, and then it tumbles from his luscious lips: “I love you too, Alice. Since the moment I met you I just felt it was meant to be,” he says with such passion, excitement, his heart thudding in his chest beneath my hand as it rests on his bulging pec.

It wasn’t just me that felt it. This magnetism between us. He felt it too.

We’re kissing again, making out madly, passionately, when he breaks away to speak.

“I don’t have a condom on me,” he admits. “I wasn’t… I didn’t expect anything like this to happen,” he admits.

“Not like it really helped last time,” I reply, my tone a bit joking, though really, there’s a million thoughts rushing through my brain.

But the one overpowering them all is that he loves me. He’s the reason the best blessing in my life is here. And he’s the only one for me, I know it. I draw in my lower lip.

“What will happen if...” I ask, my voice going a bit quiet.

“I learned five years ago I can’t promise what will happen,” he says to me, giving me another brief kiss, the moist smack punctuating the air. “But I can promise what I’ll do. And that’ll be everything in my power to protect you, our daughter and any future kids we might possibly have. That’s the best I can give you, Alice,” he says with such deep conviction.

“But what you’re involved in,” I say, reality edging back in as my fingers go to his jaw. We’re so close we’re sharing a breath, my body pinned beneath his, so desperate to just fuck like we did when we were younger and filled with dreams.

Back then, the future spread out before us like a fabulous feast.

Can we get that back?

“I’ll leave it all behind for you. For Cierra. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it legit. Just as soon as I handle this threat to you and her. On all my honor, on everything I learned in the corps, I’ll stay true to that vow, for yours and Cierra’s sake,” he says, such steely certainty in his eyes.

I believe him. Every cell in my body tells me that he’s being honest, and that he’ll stay true to his words.

Neither of us knows what the future will hold, but now that I have him back in my life, I don’t think I can ever turn back from this. The what-ifs with him are the only chance I have at getting the future I want back.

My hand goes to the back of his head, running through his hair as my other hand travels to his cock. My fingers wrap around his girth, and I stroke him, gently. I want to savor it; savor him.

“I’ve never fallen for anyone like I’ve fallen for you. And I never want to lose you again.”

“And I’ve never loved anyone before you, and I’m not sure I ever could again,” he says to me back in a gravelly declaration, kissing me passionately, his hands feeling my body, lavishing in my flesh. His thumb reaching in from my inner thigh, touching upon my slit, teasing my clit. “You took ownership of my heart so very, very long ago,” he professes as his cock swells in my hand, so thick, so veiny, so damn needy.

“How can one night have changed everything?” I moan, my body eagerly writhing beneath him. “Just 24 hours and everything changed. And now,” I kiss his throat, down his shoulder, over his pec, just trying to convince myself he’s real. “Now I have my hero back.”

We’re almost like two horny, grabby teens again, the both of us pawing at each other excitedly. Feeling each other out, every inch, every curve and crevice. We’re so ravenous, so hungry for one another.

“Memories of our night together kept me sane each and every night in my cell,” he says, his dick throbbing as he circles my clit, teasing me, raising my pleasure and desire to such a height as he rocks his own hips with growing desire to enter me.

“I wanted to look for you, to find you. But I didn’t want you to think it was just child support... If you ran, I didn’t want you to think...” I trail off, my mind such a haze of emotions that I can barely sort through them any longer. None of it matters.

Nothing matters but us. But our future. Our family.

“I want you,” I whisper. “I want you to fuck me.”

“I want you. Whatever way I can have you,” he confesses to me between kisses. “I wouldn’t have cared if you just came after me for child support. I just wanna be in your and Cierra’s life. And I’ll make it work,” he pledges as his thrusting hips and my hand guides him to my pussy. “I need to fuck you,” he says, just a half-moment before his thick, veiny cock splits my pussy open, stretching my labia around his hefty girth.

It’s been so long, and I can’t remember it ever feeling so good. So right. Like now we’re not just kids playing around, but adults, people with a real connection.

My arms go around his neck, and my legs around his waist, locking him in against me as I meet his intense, emerald eyes. The same eyes Cierra inherited from him.

“Never leave me,” I beg him. “I need you, like this, all the time.”

He begins to thrust into me, all that powerful muscle put into hammering deep into my body, filling me up and stretching me out as he moans and kisses me. The two of us become ravenous for each other, his powerful hands squeezing and groping as his beat rocks beneath us. The expensive mattress is put to the test as his balls slap against my ass noisily.

“I don’t ever want to be apart from you again,” he husks deeply between the loud, deep thrusts that make me moan with pleasure.

After five years, after so much has changed, and yet our bodies still work in tandem with each other. He knows just the right way to make my eyes roll back in my head, and every time my legs pull him in that fraction of an inch deeper, he moans with such delight.

We have to be quiet, for Cierra, but that makes it even more exciting, somehow. Like we’re misbehaving, sneaking around.

I kiss the hollow of his throat, and trace his collarbone with my lips.

There’s a mirror on the wall, and I catch sight of us in it. I don’t even recognize myself at first, because we just look so good together I can’t believe it. His powerful, thrusting form filling me, working with mine. Me, spread out to accommodate him, our skin dewy and glistening from perspiration, we look far better together than either of us has any natural right to look apart.

And he bites my neck, suckles it as we make love. My breasts rippling atop my chest as they rock with his hard thrusts, his thumb pressing upon my clit, making it tingle and ignite with such fiery sensations!

“You’re the most gorgeous woman in the world, Alice,” he growls out in my ear before returning to his hungry assault upon my flesh.

Ever since I first laid my eyes on him, I knew he was someone special.

Ever since we touched, I knew what we had was something special.

But there’s something about him coming back into my life, after all these years, that makes everything take on a new significance and importance. We’re meant to be together.

A future filled with dance classes and playdates for my daughter, always putting my own needs aside, stretches and expands. Suddenly I can see a future not just for her, but for me, too. And it’s all because of him. All because of Viktor.

I whimper as electricity starts to gather in my lower belly, and my limbs begin to quake. I dig my free hand into the blankets, clutching them hard as I gasp.

“Oh God, just like that,” I beg.

And he does it exactly like that. He keeps that perfect rhythm going, hitting me in just the right way as I stare up at his gorgeous body, all bulging, rippling muscle so perfectly sculpted and honed. He’s a killer, but he’s a killer for a good cause. He’s a man made fighting machine, but he’s my fighting machine.

And I adore him for it.

But right now, all that perfected muscle and practiced ability is put towards pleasuring me and I couldn’t be happier to watch him pound into me. His thick cock vanishing inside my pussy with each new thrust, my narrow little cunt clinging to his cock whenever he tugs back, eager to pull him in once more as he moans and grunts.

When I can’t take it any longer, my head knocks back, and my eyelashes flutter down as that awesome pleasure crashes over me. I bite down on my lower lip — hard — just to silence the scream that’s brewing in my chest.

My free hand clutches him, nails digging into his flesh as I ride out my orgasm, him hitting me just so with every single thrust.

It’s such an overpowering intensity and I get so caught up in the moment I almost miss the glorious sight of his hulking, muscular body twitching and coming to life with his own impending orgasm. He groans, shudders, all those rippling muscles bulge as he comes hard. His moan loud and bellowing as his cock swells and he shoots his load deep inside of me. Each new throb of that manhood another heavy spurt of his seed, and I know it.

I know the risk intimately. We’ve been here before, though I didn’t know it at the time.

But I know what comes next. I know the worst case scenario, because I lived it, and I wouldn’t have traded Cierra for the world. I’m not afraid of the worst case anymore.

I choose to have hope. For us, for him. For our family.

My mouth crashes against his again, and our intensity is nearly bruising as we kiss and nip at one another with such need, such relief.

Like before, he holds me, squeezes me in his arms and just tenderly strokes my hair and sides. The two of us draining every last sliver of pleasure from the moment as he empties his loins into me, our lips smacking noisily as we rest upon his bed.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he husks between kisses. “No matter what it takes.”

I don’t doubt him. But at the same time, that’s what has me worried. Because I know he’ll truly stop at nothing.