I hissed out a breath, hands finding her hips…noticing the cool metal band on her left ring finger. She was smiling, her form melting against mine like it really was the most relaxing possible sensation.
“Mrs. June Ward,” she sighed. “I like the sound of that.”
“I like the sound of it, too,” I said, voice rough.
She moved slow at first, her arms coming around my shoulders as she kissed me again—soft, slow, like she was testing out how it felt to kiss me as my fiancée. My hands found her waist, holding her steady, anchoring us to each other.
Then she started to ride me…slowly, steadily. I thrust my cock up into her clenching, perfect heat, not caring that we were still on the floor, that we were making a mess of the place, that the tile was cold against my back. Her hands splayed wide across my pecs, her hair dripping onto my shoulders.
“I got…” she paused, taking a sharp breath. “…got off the pill,” she continued. “Silas…do you want…”
“Jesus, fuck yes,” I growled, gripping her hips tighter. “You want me to knock you up and make you my wife, June?”
June let out a laugh, breathless and beautiful—the kind that made her whole body tremble with joy instead of with fear or rage.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I want all of it. I want you, a family…all of it.”
“Then take it, baby,” I rasped. “Take it.”
She braced her hands on my chest…then she started to ride me in earnest, getting faster, rocking into me. I was so deep inside her that it felt like she’d found every inch of me, like she’d explored the corners of my very soul…and I let myself fall into it, groaning.
“Gonna…” I stopped, gasping. “Gonna come, baby.”
“Give it to me, Silas,” she begged. “Please.”
She clung to me, riding that edge—and I gave her everything. I filled her, gave her my love, my heart, my soul, my future. I promised her this was it, that we were permanent.
And she came right along with me, with my name on her lips and a look in her eyes like she’d never let me go.
For a long while, we didn’t say anything. June spreadherself across my chest, and I drew lines on her back as my cock softened inside her, my whole body spent.
Eventually, she raised her head to look at me.
“So…we’re gonna do this?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure if she was referring to taking on Abel or building the church, to getting married or having a baby…but I didn’t care.
My answer to all of it was simple.
“Yes,” I said. “We’re gonna do this.”
CHAPTER 27
June
The manin the church wasn’t Abel—or at least, we weren’tsureit was Abel.
No…Abel was too smart for that. When we looked back at the footage, and later sent it over to sheriff, the intruder was wearing a mask. They walked to the church from somewhere down Main, pulled some pantyhose over their face, then stepped into the church just a few minutes after I had.
It sent a chill down my spine to watch it again…but more than that, it made me angry.
Because these guys…they weren’t going to leave us alone until they were forced to. They were going to terrorize us until we made it clear this wasour townandour church.
And I was starting to think I knew exactly how to do that.
We gathered the best way I knew how: at our church, All Souls, over homemade desserts and coffee. Me, Silas, Rhett and Willow, Beau, Delilah, Whit. The church ladies, who had become maybe some of the best friends I’d ever had, despite the decades between us. Even a few folks from town came: Jasmine and Caleb Evers, Loretta’s grandson and his wife; Mabel, who couldn’t resist the inside scoop on towngossip; Cooper and Jamie Wright, who were eager to keep the Remnant outof the town where they wanted to live peacefully and raise their kids; and Flora Hardwick, Jamie’s cousin who lived deep in the woods, a witchy woman I’dneverexpected to set foot in my arguably very witchy church.
“This feels comfortable and all,” Silas said as we sat down at the edge of the circle of chairs we’d assembled, “but I’m still not sold on this bein’ a good idea.”
