Words couldn’t begin to describe the feeling I had, being rescued by Kane. As he brought me back to the safety of shore, I knew in my heart that he’d be my man forever, and I’d be his girl. There’s something about being protected, about being saved, that shows you just how loved you are.

My doubts about my future with Kane began to melt away.

“You saved us,” I said, without thinking.

“What?” he said. “Us?”

“Me,” I corrected. “You saved me.”

He was holding me again, and I could have melted into those arms and stayed there forever.

Finally, I thought.

I’m home. I’m in the arms of the man I love.

All I’d wanted for the last month was to find my way back into Kane’s eyes. It took almost drowning to get there!

I felt my stomach and wondered about the baby. Would it be okay after all that had just happened? I’d have to get to a doctor and have a check up.

I’d thought I was dead for sure. I thought I was going to drown, and then Kane’s arms were around me and I knew instantly that everything was going to be all right. I could feel it. He had that affect on me.

I was there, under his weight, still afraid to look into his face.

“Are you all right, Meadow?” he said. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, but you’re not,” I said, looking at the blood on his leg.

“I’ll be fine.”

“We should get to a doctor,” I said.

He nodded. He took his weight off me and I felt him turning me around so that I’d be looking up at him. I closed my eyes. I was still too nervous, too shy to look at him.

Something grazed my lips gently and I realized it was his mouth. I opened my mouth and let his tongue enter. We kissed, our lips crushing against each other, our tongues dancing and intertwining, for what felt like an eternity. He held my head in his hands as he kissed me and I felt so good in his strong arms.

I’d always known he was coming back for me. It was a strange feeling, instinctive, I just knew it in my bones. I’d been worried the whole time he was away, but I hadn’t panicked. I knew it was temporary. From the moment I first met Kane, I knew I was going to be his woman.

Usually, his disappearance would have sent me into a tailspin, but something told me it was for the best. He needed to deal with the loss he’d suffered, and then he’d be back for me.

That time had come.

As we continued to kiss, our legs intertwined. His thigh got between mine and spread my legs apart. I felt his thigh against my pussy and it sent quivers of desire through me. I’d been craving his touch for so long. I yearned for his touch. I yearned to feel his manhood sliding into me.

Even if I hadn’t just been in the ocean I’d have been wet down there!

I felt something wet on my neck and shut my eyes, relishing in Kane’s attentions.

“Hey, get out of here,” Kane said.

I opened my eyes with a start.

A big German Shepherd was right above me, wagging his tail wildly and licking my neck.

“Oh my God,” I cried out, bursting into laughter. “I thought that was you, Kane.”

“It was me, until a second ago!”

We both laughed and laughed, as much from nerves and relief as from the humor of the situation.

I sat up and petted the dog, looking around for his owner. There was a man some ways down the beach waving at us and apologizing. The dog ran back toward him.

I turned and saw that Kane was staring right at me.

“Wow, Meadow,” he said when our eyes finally met.

My stomach got tense.

“You’re even more beautiful than I remembered,” he said and every inch of me melted.

My eyes welled up.

“What?” I said, shyly burying my face in my arm.

“Don’t you dare be shy with me, Meadow. Look at me.” Reluctantly, I looked back at him and saw his smiling face. The way he looked at me proved that he meant what he said. In that moment, he made me feel like the prettiest girl in the world.

“I’m sorry I disappeared. I want to explain myself,” he started to say.

“It’s okay, Kane. I understand. I said the most awful things to you. Don’t you apologize, I am the one that’s sorry. I was horrible that morning. I never blamed you for leaving. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I had no idea, and with the shit my ex put me through, I over reacted. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I never meant any disrespect to you, Carolyn or Tamara. I was convinced you’d never want to see me again after that morning.”

“Meadow, believe me when I say that’s not the reason I skipped town. You said nothing wrong. Of course you jumped to those conclusions. Anyone would have.”

“Then why did you leave?”

“Well, because that morning, I realized something very important.”

“What was it?”

“I realized that you deserved better than the man I had become, and if I ever wanted to be with a woman like you, I needed to heal myself.”

My heart did butterflies as he spoke.

He continued.

“Losing Carolyn and Tamara destroyed me. It broke my heart and sent me into a very dark and lonely place for a long time. I secluded myself. I avoided everyone, and I especially avoided love. I thought I’d never love again. I was convinced I’d be alone forever. Until I met you.”

My heart moved to my throat and I couldn’t speak. He carried on.

“That night on the beach with you, that changed everything for me. It was like you brought me back to life, Meadow. You made me laugh. But more importantly, you made me feel. You showed me that my heart still had life in it, and that I could love even more deeply than I had in the past.”

“Kane,” I said, wanting to tell him I was pregnant, but he kept talking.

“That night with you was heaven. Being with you, being inside you, I couldn’t believe how deeply I felt it. I was alive, Meadow, and I could feel right from that moment that I was falling in love.”

“Then why disappear?”

“Because when I woke up in the morning and called you by the wrong name, I realized just how broken I was. I panicked. I knew I couldn’t lose you, I couldn’t blow it with you before we’d even started. So I ran away to make sure I fixed myself before really starting a relationship with you.”

“You’d never blow it with me, Kane.”

He smiled and reached out to touch my cheek.

“Well, I sure got scared. I don’t exactly have a good track record. The last woman I loved died, and I held myself responsible for it. For her death and her daughter’s. I was convinced I was cursed and that I was the reason they were dead. I promised to protect them and I broke that promise. I couldn’t risk blowing things with you too.”

My heart broke for him. Never had I witnessed a man speaking so deeply from the heart. He showed me such vulnerability and was completely opening up to me. It was a heartbreaking story and now I finally understood why he had disappeared. Sandra had told me about the accident, but hearing him explain it made it so much clearer. I grabbed his hand so he knew I was there with him.

“If you hadn’t come back, I would have died today,” I said.

He looked at me and his eyes started to fill with tears.

“You have no idea how I felt when I saw you fall off that cliff, Meadow. It was like my worst nightmare all over again. And when I leapt off the cliff, honestly, I didn’t care if I died. If you were going down, I wanted to go down with you.”

“But we didn’t go down. You saved us.”

“Us?”

I’d done it again. I was so desperate to tell him I was pregnant that I kept slipping it in to sentences. But it wasn’t time yet.

“You and me,” I said. “You saved us both.”