CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Six months later . . .
Tess walked the long hallway of the second floor, peeking in the finished rooms and wondering if she’d made the right decision.
These weren’t the rooms that she’d known since she’d lived there. These were the rooms of a home. The renovations had been finished only the week before, and the top two floors were now as spectacular as the bottom. She saw the swish of a black tail as the cat slunk inside the bedroom at the far end of the hall, but she turned and went up the stairs to her suite of rooms.
The memories there were strong, especially of her and Deacon—as he’d demolished her bathroom, teased her unmercifully, or stripped her bare and made love to her until the sun peeked through the big glass windows.
Her life had been irrevocably changed. She’d seen and done things she could never unsee or undo. She knew the truth. She’d be lying if she said there wasn’t fear or doubt. Fear for his life. For hers. For the family they’d make one day.
The only thing that mattered was that Deacon was her home. Wherever that may be.
“Deep thoughts,” came a gravelly voice from the doorway.
She turned and smiled at him and held out her hand. His expression was solemn, but he took her hand and squeezed it once.
“They did a good job on the renovations,” she said. “Much sturdier,” she said, bouncing up and down lightly on the new floor.
It was a good space. The floors had been replaced with gleaming oak, and the wallpaper had been stripped. The walls were a soft ivory, and the ornamental ceiling had been restored to its full glory. The windows let in lots of light, and with the light paint and floors, the room was open and airy and comfortable. The king-size bed sat intimidatingly against the far wall, the duvet soft and white, the pillows mounded up at the headboard. The bathroom and sitting room were equally beautiful and spacious. And she smiled as she saw one of Deacon’s T-shirts draped over the chair in the corner. It was still theirs. Only theirs.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
“I want to marry you,” he said. “We’ve waited long enough. You’ve won that bet at the Clip n’ Curl a hundred times by now.”
“I’ve already told you I’d marry you,” she said, looking at the ring on her finger. “Set a date and find a preacher. I’ll be there.”
“You’ve been planning this wedding for the last six months,” he grumbled. “You made me buy a suit.”
Tess rolled her eyes. Men. “Then maybe you should just wait until Saturday and show up at the church on time. It’ll be here before you know it.”
“Smart-ass,” he said, smacking her behind.
“Do you want to leave?” she asked, seriously now. “Do you believe we’ll be safe?”
“I don’t know,” he said, pulling her down to sit on the bed next to him. “I’ve learned from experience to never take anyone at their word. It’s too dangerous. Would I risk leaving if I felt it was the right thing to do? I don’t know that either. I worry about your safety. I wouldn’t forgive myself if anything ever happened to you.”
“So our options are to stay, to make this our home and continue doing the work you’ve done all these years. To use the funeral home as a front for everything else. Or we can pack our things and start over. New names and backgrounds. A new country. We’ll be together and be able to live a life free of the dangers of covert life. But we’ll always be looking over our shoulders.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” he said, his smile wry. “Do you regret loving me?”
“Not ever,” Tess said firmly. “I’d do it all again. Deacon, don’t try to second-guess yourself or do what you think would be safest. I know you love what you do. It’s been your life. It’s important. And you’re good at it.”
His lips twitched and he squeezed her hand. “I want to stay here,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “This is our home. We’ll never have a normal life, but we can make the best of an abnormal life. We have each other.”
“Always,” he said. “And plenty of room for children on the second floor.”
Her smile was radiant. “You want children? That’s the first time you’ve ever said so.”
“Yes. I especially want to make children,” he said, rolling her to her back and kissing her senseless. “As long as we never leave them alone with your mother.”
“She seems very happy and mostly stable for the moment.”
“That’s because you moved her into one of those retirement villages. She’s got no choice but to be happy and mostly stable. She can cut hair at the little salon on-site and she’s got plenty of new people to charm and steal stuff from. It seems like a match made in heaven to me.”
“And best of all, she’s a thirty-minute drive from here,” Tess said, no longer feeling guilty for having peace.
“I promise I’ll be at the church on time,” he said, nuzzling her ear and working his hand beneath her shirt. He stripped her quickly and settled between her thighs, nudging at her silky folds. “I especially promise not to be late for the honeymoon.”
He pushed into her, and her ankles pressed into the small of his back. It never took long for the first orgasm to build.
“Ohmigod, yes!” she cried out and clung to him.
“I’m glad you stopped telling me no,” he said into her ear. “Yes is so much better.” And then he followed after her into oblivion.