With that, the final piece of my shattered heart is stitched right back where it belongs.
Twenty-Seven
Avalee
I place the bouquet on the headstone and back up to link my arm in Ruin’s. It’s cooler today, and the leaves that have fallen while I have been too busy falling in love with Ruin are scattered about the graveyard and under the trees. Their yellows, oranges, and browns add some much-needed color to the scene, but their symbolism is far from lost on me. Death, birth, renewal—it’s just an endless loop that all of us living things endure together. Not even the trees can escape the cycle.
Ruin kneels and places his hand on the headstone, right on Tiffany’s middle name: Justice.
As we walk away from her grave, I nudge him with my shoulder playfully. “Her middle name is Justice, huh? I thought the tattoo stood for the code you lived your life by.”
He smiles down at me. “It does. But it really stands for one of the three women I wasn’t able to save.” His brows scrunch up, and he considers that for a moment. “I guess now it stands for the justice I did get for her—and you, sort of.”
Ruin takes me out to lunch and then shopping. We are currently on a mini, boss-insisted vacation. The Maysons were so relieved when they found out we were okay after the attack at his house, but they practically forced us to take a week or two to recuperate before coming back to work.
We’re standing outside a storefront as I am thinking about the Maysons’ kindness, when Ruin stops me and takes my hands in his. He glances through the window of the shop and then back at me. “Avalee, I’ve been thinking, and I never want to spend another minute without you. So, I want to make a pact that we will never part again.”
My heart flutters, and the little butterflies kick up their dance in my chest and throat. “Okay, let’s do it.” I feel so selfish when I think about all that I missed while I was away. I know it’s silly, but to know what all Ruin endured during those years while I was fine—at least, until the abduction happened—only makes me love him for who he has become. He didn’t let that evil twist him and warp him into someone different. He stayed the same kind and virtuous Ruin I knew so long ago. If making a pact never to part means spending the rest of forever with him, I am all in. But I wasn’t prepared for this.
Ruin smiles and chuckles nervously. “All right, then. Here goes.” He rubs his hands together and twists his shoulders as if to shake the nerves out, then gets down on one knee, still holding my hands. “Avalee Sumter, I know we haven’t been together all that long, but I have loved you for as long as I can remember,” he starts, and he pauses to lick his lips. His voice trembles as he continues, and my heart pounds so loud I’m sure he can hear it. “And I know that I promised you I would work hard to get a ring and do all of this proper, so long ago. And I know it doesn’t look like what we imagined, but will you do me the absolute honor of making me the happiest and luckiest son of a gun? Will you marry me, Avalee?”
My heart explodes, and I collapse into his arms, nearly taking us both out. We kiss and laugh, and I tell him of course. Giddy and floored with emotions, he opens the door, and we step into The Cut—a jewelry store famous for custom designs and imports. I don’t care what ring he gets me; I am so overwhelmed with emotions and excitement that any ring will suffice. After we select the perfect one and it is sent off to be sized, Ruin has one last place he wants to stop before we head home to celebrate—Carol’s Surveillance. After what happened with River and Snake, Ruin has made plans to secure and set up an elaborate security system around the house. I don’t think we needed it, considering both the Lautner men are headed to maximum security with no chance for parole. Still, I respect his concerns and realize he must have been planning on proposing for a while if he already has plans for protecting his house with me in it.
“I love you, Ruin Lautner,” I say.
He squeezes my hand and kisses my forehead. “I love you, my sweet, beautiful Avalee.”
Twenty-Eight
Avalee
“Fancy seeing you here,” he says, disarming me with his warm gaze and devilish smile. He’s asked me to meet him after hours at the newest construction site. A mini McMansion on the banks of a river. He said he had a surprise for me, but watching him now as he stands beside the bubbling water holding a picnic basket, it seemsheis the surprise.
His gaze travels up and down my body once, before he licks his lips. I know what lurks behind that hungry look, and the longing rushes through my body with every moment longer that his blue-gray eyes linger on mine.
He smiles and reveals his other hand, which holds a bouquet of flowers so large, I’m surprised he is able to hold on to it one-handed.
“Oh,” I gasp and lean in to inhale the arrangement. “They’re beautiful,” I whisper.
“I know something even more beautiful.”
His soft gaze melts my core. I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, pressing myself against him as much as I can, and kiss him firmly. Ruin lowers his full hands to my hips and returns the kiss.
We stay locked in the kiss, savoring the feel of our bodies pressed together before Ruin sets the basket on the ground and the bouquet on top. He can’t free his hands fast enough and is quickly by my side, picking me up and wrapping my legs around his waist like before.
I can feel his excitement pressing against my inner thigh, and a thrill ripples through me.
Ruin pulls back and looks into my eyes. “My Virtue, my heart. I’m so lucky I found you again. I plan to show you every day for the rest of our lives just how much you mean to me.”
Our mouths connect, hands roving over each other’s bodies. I squeeze my legs around him, and his grip under my butt is firm so I can rip his button-down open with my free hands. I take a moment to luxuriate in the firmness of his chest and ripples of his toned abs and biceps, running my palms over his bare flesh before planting soft kisses on his neck that bring out gooseflesh across his tanned shoulders.
Slowly, he lowers us to the ground, using his shirt as a makeshift blanket to lay me down on. I’m lost in ecstasy as his mouth carves a path from my neck to my thighs, unbuttoning my shirt as he goes. The breeze touches my exposed skin, and I close my eyes for a moment before opening them again. The world seems subdued through my heavy lashes as I succumb to Ruin’s tender touches.
I bite my lip as his hands make quick work of the lacy number I had on under my skirt, and his mouth finds my most sensitive part. A soft groan escapes my lips as his tongue draws slow and steady circles around my clitoris and he explores my depths. I clutch a shirt sleeve with one hand, draping my legs over his shoulders, and my other hand finds purchase on the cool dirt floor. I rock my hips up to meet him, the ache growing with each tantalizing rotation of his tongue.
He rises up, and I shift my heavy gaze to his eyes—pools full of lust and longing, reflecting my own desires.
“Ruin, I can’t… I want you so bad,” I whisper, trying to catch my breath as he switches from tongue to fingers. My mind goes blank as pleasure explodes in every direction. Curling my toes, I continue to raise my hips in wanting. “Please, Ruin. I need to feel you inside me.” I gasp, head turning to the side as he tries something new that he’s never done before and strikes a new level of pleasurable notes inside me. “Oh,” I murmur.
