“You’re right. They don’t.” An incredible sadness weighs down her features. “I guess you can say it’s sort of a loanerpowergifted from you. The boys made me strong, but it’s fading. Each day these new gifts wane just a little bit more. I’m not as powerful as you are, Gage. And one day soon I will no longer be able to penetrate that minefield of secrets youhave.”
“There won’t be any more secrets.” I steal a kiss from the hollow of her neck. “Let’s make a pact, Skyla”—I pick up her hand—“a covenant amongst ourselves, that we remain strong assteel.”
“Strong as the Steel Barricade?” Her smile flexes in amusement. “I like that. The impenetrable steel wall of our love. We are our own. We belong to us. They can’t have us. They can’t take what rightfully belongs to you and tome.”
“Our love is strong as steel, as relentless as time, as stubborn as death. We are one life, you and I. We cannot bebroken.”
“Our love is strong as steel.” Her fingers rake across my back until I’m over her, balancing my weight on my elbows, careful not to crushher.
“To a new beginning,” I whisper over herlips.
“The portal toforever.”
Forever. That’s exactly how long our love willlast.
And for the first time for as long as I can remember, I don’t feel Logan’s shadow hovering over our bed. Logan has dissipated, evaporated into the past, dissolved into the atmosphere like some long-dead ghost. It’s just Skyla and I—destiny can approve or disapprove. It doesn’t really matter. We’re happening. And we always willbe.
* * *
Ahard knockemits over the door, and I pull Skyla in even tighter like a reflex. My mind floats easily back into a dream as my body gives way to thick, delicious sleep onceagain.
Pressured knocking picks up again as my lids struggle to pry themselves open. Skyla takes a deep, audible breath, pressing her bare bottom into my stomach, and I bury a kiss in herhair.
“Skyla?” Lizbeth’s voice resonates clear as if she were in the room, and I force myself to wake the hell up. “Oh, my! Is thatyou,Gage?”
I give a few tired blinks, and Lizbeth’s disembodied head seems to be floating over the dresser. It takes a moment for me to realize she’s burst through the door and moved the dresser over a few inches as she tries to muscle her way into theroom.
“Mother!” Skyla pulls a pillow over her head and gives a sharpscream.
“I can’t believe this!” Lizbeth’s face lights up red as a Valentine heart. “My God, is thisreal? I wished for this to happen. I mean, Iprayed. Heck, I even saw that father of yours and fell on my knees for him to do something for God’s sake—butthis?” Her gaze rides down the length of me, and her mouth falls open once she hits paydirt.
I glance down to find the sheets wrapped around Skyla’s chest, the rest of them off the bed, leaving my own body as naked as the day I was born. And shit. Is she staring at mycrotch?
“Wow.” Her fingers tap over her lips a moment, but those eyes are still firmly pinned to my dick. “Justwow. Gage Oliver…” She staggers unsteady on herfeet.
“We’ll be down in a minute.” I sit up and casually pull the pillow from Skyla’s face and land it on mylap.
“Oh,Skyla.” She shakes her head at her mortified daughter. “I’ve always known you were a lucky girl. Butthis?”
Skyla beams a tiny stuffed elephant at her mother, and Lizbeth vacates the premises, shutting the door behindher.
“I’ll make brunch!” she shouts from the other side. “Take your time! Get back to whatever it is you weredoing!”
“Aww,sick,” a faint female voice rises alongside hers. One of Skyla’s sisters nodoubt.
Skyla falls against my chest and gives my leg a light scratch. “Welcome to my fabulouslife.”
“It is fabulous.” I pull her up and steal a kiss off her lips. “It’s our life, and I’m damn glad to be init.”
“You are?” Her clear eyes tear up, making them shine ten times brighter. Skyla is the only person I know that has a shooting star buried in her eyes. She’s magnificent, spectacular, and has the power to take my breath away with something as innocuous as aquestion.
“I am.” I pull her over me, and her body molds to mine. “How about we hit that brunch, then maybe we can get the boys and get lost for a fewhours?”
She looks up, and her wild hair fans out over my face. “Sorry.” She brushes it away with a soft giggle locked in her throat. “How aboutfirstI make your day?” Her knee grazes over myballs.
“I’m afraid our powers combined aren’t enough to barricade your mother from the bedroom. I had that door locked.” I wince at the thought of Skyla deep-throating me and Lizbeth providing the cheeringsection.
“Who said anything about the bedroom?” Her fingers drip down my chest until they hit home, and my entire body comes to life at her touch. “I’m in need of a serious shower—and after last night, so areyou.”
