“Come here.” I wave him over inhaste.
“Let me set this thing down.” He trots his phone over to the railing and rests it against thepost.
“You ready to do this?” Gage strides my way with that come hither look in his eyes, and I’m ready and willing to do just about anything with him right aboutnow.
“Yes!” I hop up and down, hardly able to control my Landon-freeenthusiasm.
Gage turns the knob, and the door flies open. Then in one fell swoop he picks me up and spins me with a kiss. “To our first official home onParagon.”
“Only home,” I tease as I pull him in by the bill of his hat. I’m not ready to call the old Walsh house ours just yet. “Gimme a forever kiss,” I say, batting my lashes, doing my best to seduce him. The last thing I want to talk about is real estate, this home or any other. I just want this to be aboutus.
Just as he’s about to carry me past that threshold, a horrible sinking feeling settles in. Something about this feels all too familiar. I’ve been here before—been here, done this—said those verywords.
“Turn that off.” My head cranes to the camera in horror, and I leap out of his arms like a gymnast. My heart wrenches with agony as I fumble with the phone, struggling to shut the damn thingoff.
“What’s going on?” Gage appears at my side, his arms secured to my shoulders as if he needed to hold me down to earth, and hemight.
“Demetri.” A silent cry bucks through me at the thought of how much pain we just invoked in Logan. “Summer before senior year, Logan’s birthday—we were at Demetri’s—in that damned theater.” I shake my head, still dismayed by the memory. “Demetri used that footage we just shot to torment Logan. It was just Demetri being an asshole.” My heart wallops hard because I have a feeling it was so much more than that. Why choose this moment to torment Logan? Was Demetri sending Logan a heartbreaking message? Or was it meant for me? I glance back to the boys still sound asleep in their carseats.
“So this was the vision.” Gage takes a step back and glares at Whitehorse as if it were the house’s fault. “Me here at the house that Loganbuilt.”
“Trust me, you’re the last person Demetri was messingwith.”
“Or am I.” He gives a depleted frown at the doorframe that holds the banner of Logan’s love for me. “We never made it through the threshold.” He shakes his head at that gaping doorway. “He’s speaking to me,Skyla.”
I join him in staring blankly at the dark hole of the house. “What do you think he’s saying?” I whisper, afraid to ask—praying that perhaps he didn’t hearme.
Gage wraps his arms around me from behind and rests his head on my shoulder, our gaze still fixed on the porch. “He’s about to interrupt us. That’s what it means, Skyla. He was just showing off for you and Logan. It’s me he’s about to stab in theheart.”
The two of us stand there for who knows how long, staring at the opened door as if it led to a black hole. I don’t doubt for a moment that it does. But I’ll be damned if I let Demetri steal another thing from the two ofus.
“He doesn’t own us.” I spin into my gorgeous husband’s arms and lock my wrists around his neck. “And he will never shape ourdestinies.”
He lets out a quiet sigh and closes his eyes briefly. “You’re right. This is ourspringtime.”
“The time of ourrebellion.”
His lips rise at the tips. “Norules.”
“Just you and me, together forever.” I hike up on my heels, and Gage and I share a heartfelt kiss, his tongue probing me as if the answers to life were hiding right there in my mouth. Then just like that, he scoops me up and races me across the threshold, and we laugh, right there—in the face of DemetriEdinger.
We collect the boys and carefully bring them up to the master bedroom with us. Gage faces them toward the wall and covers them both, still snug in theircarriers.
The bed is turned down on one end, revealing crisp sheets that feel as if they have never been slept in. I wondered how I would feel in this room, in this bed realizing that Logan would know we defiled it. But deep down, I don’t think Logan sees it that way. Deep down, I don’t either. This is a room. This is a bed. And starting right now, it belongs to Gage andme.
Gage comes at me with that devilish grin, taking off his shirt as he makes his way over. The breadth and width of his muscular frame, his wingspan with those well-defined lats, those abs as hard asgranite.
“Gage Oliver.” I have to catch my breath. My God, he truly is a stunning specimen. “Are you threatening me with yourbody?”
“Hell yes, I am.” He lands me on the bed as a steady stream of giggles bounce through my throat. “And I’m going to punish you with it, too.” He ravishes me with heated kisses up and down my neck, and I struggle to keep from exploding withlaughter.
Gage takes my clothes off. He washes me from head to toe with his tongue, penetrates me with all of hislove.
Gage could never punish me with hisbody.
It is always apleasure.
The third dayof our second honeymoon, I take the boys to Marshall’s while Gage takes off for finals back at Host. The island basks in its monochromatic glory despite the fact summer is nipping at our heels. Both Barron and Nathan are fast asleep, so I schlep them into the living room one byone.
