Salvation.

That’s what this kiss is.

When I was overseas, I absorbed a great deal about different cultures. Buddha believed he was born into the world to be the king of truth, the salvation of the world. Hate to break it to him, but the person who was born into the world to be my salvation, my moral compass of right and wrong, has her arms around my neck, her lips parted against mine, and tastes like everything I ever dreamed of.

Incandescent light, sweet temptation, fiery passion.

I never want to let her go.

I moan into her mouth as her hands trail down my back, her nails scraping along the way. I deepen our kiss, letting my hands roam her body. I rest them on her rib cage under the fullness of her breasts. Her answering sigh lets me know she’s with me.

I don’t just have salvation; I’m holding a miracle.

Breaking my lips away, I bury them in the crook of her neck. “Cori,” I murmur.

“Yes?” she purrs. I want to roll my eyes back in my head. That Southern accent goes straight to my cock as always.

“Princess, we still have to finish talking.” I want nothing more than to spend the day running my mouth over Cori’s curves, but we have so much more to discuss.

Pulling back slightly, she narrows her eyes at me. “That’s less enjoyable than what we were doing just now.”

Dropping a quick kiss on her lips, I pull back slightly to admire the pout forming on her swollen lips. “Agree with you a hundred percent. But baby, I want to know what your sisters were referring to last night.” Sitting down in the lounger, I spread my legs over the sides to make room in between. “Sit back down and let’s talk.”

Eying me warily, she says, “I’m not having a foursome with my sisters and you, Colby. Our sister wives’ pact involved us and vibrators.”

I chuckle. “Wouldn’t have even thought it. Please, Cori.” I pat the spot between my legs again. “Just come and talk with me.”

After nodding, she arranges herself between my legs, muttering, “I hope the chair doesn’t collapse with my added weight.”

I don’t even think. I pinch her ass.

“Jesus, Colby.” She swivels around and glares at me. “That hurt.”

“I swear if you bash your curves in front of me, I’m either going to slap or pinch that magnificent ass. If you knew how many times I’ve dreamt of taking you from behind…” My voice trails off. I focus in on her again to find her glassy-eyed. “Are we understood?”

“That was you who mentioned spanking last night?” Her voice sounds dreamy.

“Sure as hell wasn’t that asshole doing tequila shots off your stomach. Which, if I have my way, will never happen again,” I growl.

I expect immediate acceptance in the wake of that kiss. Instead, I get a mild “Hmm, we’ll see.”

“Excuse me?” I’m irrational. I know it. We’ve just shared our first real kiss, but we’re already so much more.

Corinna lays her head back on my shoulder. “If I unilaterally agree to what you’re saying, then how are you going to have the choice of doing that in the future? So—” She shrugs impishly, making my cock get harder against her ass. “—we’ll see.”

I shake my head, even as a smile teases my lips. The difference between Corinna then and now is astounding. Back then, she may have had these thoughts, but they would never have left her lips. Now, the sexual innuendos are a delicious addition to her already dynamic personality.

I brush my lips over her forehead and wrap my arms around her to hold her close. My chin rests on her head as we sit for a moment, observing the breeze move the wildflowers back and forth. I bring us back around to the question burning in my gut. “What were Em and Holly talking about last night? You’re not having the surgery?”

Her body stiffens. “Shit.” She tries to pull away, but I don’t let her.

“Talk to me, Corinna. I’m not judging.” Yet. “I want to understand where your mind is.”

“I need to move for this conversation,” she requests quietly. I immediately open my arms, and she flies out of them faster than a bat flying out of hell.

Something’s not right.

Corinna immediately begins pacing around the deck, frustration in her every movement. I sit quietly, a testament to my willpower, as I want to scoop her into my arms and get her to the nearest doctor to remove the one final barrier that could prevent me from having a lifetime to explore the feelings I have for her.

But it’s not my choice. It’s not my life. It’s hers.

Finally, she begins talking. “There’s no pain, Colby. I had a small episode that was a sign the tumor grew. Frankly, I’ve been in too much shock to think about it logically. Not that logic has been my strong suit.” The wry look she sends me is an acknowledgment of her part of the breakdown of us years ago.

I nod, unwilling to interrupt but willing her to continue. She does. “I want to make certain I have the best medical care possible. When I was hiding this”—she faces me head-on—“I was limited in the doctors I could work with. Until this week, I never would have doubted my surgeon was anyone but the best. Now…”

“What happened this week?”

As Corinna recounts the relationship she’s enjoyed with her doctor and the newfound pettiness he’s engaged her in, I’m infuriated. Frankly, I don’t blame her for second-guessing her medical team. This isn’t a mole removal; it is a craniotomy. She has to have full faith and confidence not only in her surgeon, but the nurses, anesthesiologists, the hospital—everyone involved with the procedure from scrubbing her down to feeding her afterward.

Corinna sits down again, having spent most of her energy. “Maybe I’m tired of feeling like a fool for believing in someone so wholeheartedly, but no one else knew but my primary care. Who, by the way, is a part of Jack’s practice. Did they make the best choice for me, or were they influenced? I can’t trust anything after the other night,” she ends bitterly.

I make a mental note to find out everything I can about my former friend, from his outstanding debt to his favorite brand of underwear, so I can make his life a living hell. I open my arms, and Corinna moves into them. “You haven’t explained this to the family like this, have you?” I ask quietly.

She shakes her head against my chest. “Just Em, and well, you saw how that ended up last night.” She tips her head back with a small smile.

Now, so much makes sense. While they’ve always had a now-or-never attitude, the Freemans were reacting to thinking Corinna was giving up. She isn’t. She’s trying to regroup in the wake of some pretty severe blows. “It might be possible this Moser guy is a dick, but is still the best choice of a surgeon. You just want the choice to find out.”

Corinna nods. “I’m about to give someone my life, Colby. Can they give it back to me? Will I be able to drive a car again? Bake again? Make love again? Eat again? Smile again? Breathe again?” Her face crumbles. “I understand no one’s guaranteed a tomorrow, but I need to know I have a chance.”

The strength of the woman lying on me is equally humbling and staggering. And to have held this in for so long? “How did you feel when you first found out, Cori?”

She begins to laugh. “I was so pissed. I blamed you, unjustly.”

“Is it my fault?” Sorrow and regret lace my words. I have no idea how all of this works. Maybe something I did caused this.

Corinna pushes up on my body until her face is even with mine. Her long, thick hair curtains both of us. I’m trapped, surrounded, and I never want to be rescued. I reach up to touch her face and wince. “Colby, you fucked up. I fucked up. You didn’t cause the tumor. Yes, I found out that night that I had one, but in retrospect that’s one good thing. It gave them time to monitor it and establish a plan of care. They suspect I had it since birth; it’s that slow growing. That’s a good thing.” Taking a deep breath, she admits, “It was my own foolishness in not telling the family. I thought I was protecting them. The reality was, I was just holding on to my own resentment about the tumor, about you, about how this could happen to me after everything else I’d already been through.”

I can appreciate her point of view, and her honesty, but still— “Nothing about this is a good thing.”

“Trust me. If anything is, that is. The longer it takes to grow, the better. My problem is the placement of where it is.” She shrugs. “I’ve always been a challenge.”

I take a deep breath and let it out loudly. “That you have.” Corinna smiles as she lays her head back down.

“Let’s embrace the now and all of the mess we’re going to create just by living,” she whispers.

I can do that, so long as I have her wrapped in my arms. Brushing my lips on top of her head, I tuck her closer. “Deal.”

Hours later, we’ve moved out of the sun and talked more freely than I think we ever did in college. Corinna has quietly been telling me about her long-standing relationship with Marco. I shudder when I think about how close I came to losing her before I had a chance to have her back.

“He was the first man who looked at me and saw me. He didn’t just see a reputation or a conquest. It was just me,” Corinna explains.

“He wasn’t the first,” I reprimand her.

She stills but then recovers. “He was after I went on a free-for-all dating everyone,” Corinna says quietly. “Granted I didn’t sleep with hardly any of them; the dating was apparently enough.” Corinna sounds disgusted.

I feel disgusted too. With myself. I listened to the rumors and innuendos and then saw fit to give Corinna a lecture when I haven’t been a monk for the last ten years. Corinna, at least, had developed a long-term relationship with someone who cared about her. I barely stuck around after I slid the condom off.

“I owe you an apology for that too,” I murmur, stroking her hair.

We’ve moved inside and are lying down facing each other on her couch. I’d shrugged my shirt back on but left it unbuttoned. Corinna nuzzles her face against my chest hair. The sensations cause my breathing to catch.

“For what?”

I’ve lost my train of thought. Her uncomplicated sexuality where I never expected it years ago, and never hoped for it recently, undoes me. If she understood how completely she disarms me, I’d be a duck in a shooting gallery. “Hmm?” I slide my hand under the heavy mass of her hair and massage her neck.

A sigh passes her lips that I feel on my chest. “That feels good.”

“I never understood how this tiny neck could hold up such thick hair.” I slide my fingers around her throat and brush them up and down.

She snickers. “It’s only tiny to you, Colby. It’s pretty…” I don’t let her finish.

Smack!

Right after my hand lands on her ass, I begin to rub it to soothe away the sting.

“Hey! I wasn’t going to insult myself.” She pouts.

“Oh, sorry. Call that one foreplay, then.” Her eyes brighten. I can’t resist. I laugh even as I drop a kiss on her lips.

“What else were you going to apologize for?” she asks, resuming the spike in my blood pressure by curling closer.

“I’m sorry for not believing in the person you are. For believing rumors over what I know to be true right here.” I clasp her hand and place it over my heart. I slide mine over her amaryllis tattoo. It’s not meant to be a sexual move; it’s meant as a promise. A vow. “I had no idea you weren’t getting my letters. Not that it should have mattered. I knew you. I should have just manned up and come back sooner to figure us out.” I rested my forehead against hers.

She strokes my heart through my chest. “You know I’ve been living my life like tomorrow doesn’t exist, because it might not. You accept that, right?”

As much as it churns my gut to admit it, I do. I nod against her dark hair.

“Let’s put the past where it belongs, behind us. Live with me in the now, in whatever capacity you can handle. I promise to not burden you with more than you can take.” Her eyes are earnest, and her mouth quirks. “Mind you, if you had any sense, you would go running through my front door as fast as you can. My ups and downs are going to drive you crazy.”

“Living without you drove me crazy. I’ve learned to adapt to everything but that.”

“Then how do we seal the deal?” I can feel the acceleration of Corinna’s heartbeat beneath my hand.

“Like this.” And I lower my mouth to hers to taste her once again.

Talking makes way for other types of communication, as our lips engage and our hands reach for purchase on each other.