“You’re mine, too,” she reminded him and kissed him, taking the lead, letting her tongue explore his mouth. When they broke, they were both panting. He braced himself on his elbows over her and stared at her as he moved in and out of her. They didn’t speak. For her, it would have ruined the connection between them. The promises their eyes expressed. The beauty of the man over her and the heat that smoldered so hot it engulfed her. This moment, this man, and this emotion were everything she never thought she’d have.
Her orgasm ripped through her, shattering with a tightness that snapped deep and hot. She knew Talon had finished; his breathless scream as he finished was the exclamation point on the love they shared. She held him, panting as he lay on top of her. He made a move to roll, but she held him tight. “Not yet.” She wanted to feel his body against hers. She needed to feel the weight of him, the weight of them together. It was perfect, and it was true. She kissed his shoulder. “I love you.”
He lifted and looked down at her. “I know. And you know I love you.”
“I do.” She blinked back tears. “I know.”
They laid togetherin comfortable silence as full darkness settled over the desert. Riley's head rested against Talon's shoulder, while stars emerged through the window in patterns undimmed by urban light pollution. The stars stretched across the sky like a river of light, ancient and constant and somehow reassuring in its vast indifference to human concerns. They’d talked over the day’s events. Talon helping her to process everything.
"My father's going to prison," Riley said quietly, the words emerging without conscious decision.
Talon’s voice rumbled under her ear, "Twenty-five years minimum under federal sentencing guidelines for this kind of material trafficking.”
“He could die there."
Talon's arm tightened around her, offering comfort without trying to minimize the complexity of the situation. "How does that make you feel?"
Riley considered the question, surprised to find that the answer wasn't as simple as she'd expected. "Sad," she said finally. "Not for him. He made his choices, and he'll face the consequences. But sad for … what we could have been. What we should have been. The father-daughter relationship that existed in my imagination but never in reality."
She was quiet for a moment, processing emotions that felt too large and complicated for easy categorization.
"And relieved," she added. "That it's over. That I don't have to carry the weight of his expectations anymore or worry about what other horrible things I might discover if I keep digging. That I can finally stop trying to earn love from someone who was never capable of giving it."
Talon pressed a kiss to the top of her head, the gesture gentle and unhurried. "You did the right thing. It cost you, but you did the right thing. That matters."
"Does it?" Riley asked, genuine uncertainty forcing the question. "Sometimes doing the right thing feels a lot like destroying everything you used to believe in."
"That's because the things you used to believe in were built on lies," Talon replied, his voice carrying the kind of hard-earned wisdom that came from years of operating in morally complex environments. "Breaking illusions hurts, but it's the only way to build something real."
Riley nodded, feeling the truth of that settle intoher bones. The pain of the past few years wasn’t meaningless suffering. It had been the necessary process of tearing down a life built on false foundations so something authentic could take its place. Which was what she had with Talon.
"What happens now?" she asked, though she thought she already knew the answer.
Talon's smile was visible in his voice. "Now, we figure out how to coordinate our schedules and get married."
Riley laughed, the sound carrying genuine humor for the first time in weeks. "You realize that isn’t as simple as it seems, right? Weddings can be daunting."
"Yeah," Talon said, his voice warm with affection and something that might have been anticipation. "I'm sure my mom will have ideas about it. She didn’t get a fancy white dress or the big reception."
“I’ve never dreamed of either of those things.” She sighed and leaned against him. “Do you think she’ll like me?”
“She’ll love you.” He lifted her hand and kissed her palm. “They’ll all love you.”
“All?”
“I should probably tell you just how big my family is.” She leaned against his chest and listened to him describe his family as the desert nightstretched around them. The future was vast and full of possibilities that neither of them could fully imagine yet. But for the first time since this whole adventure had begun, Riley felt like she knew exactly where she belonged.
Right here, in the space between chaos and justice, building something permanent with a man who understood that some fights were worth whatever they cost.
CHAPTER 25
The late afternoon sun spilled across the small lake like liquid gold, each ripple catching and fracturing the light into dancing shards of light. Each one seemed to pulse with its own energy. From the cabin's weathered back porch, Riley could see clear to the far shore where ancient pines cast long shadows across the water. There was a lone tent near the beach and a man fishing. What a wonderful life to have. Being here in the perfection of the mountains, alone, with the worries of the world so distant they could be forgotten—at least for a time.
She leaned against the railing, barefoot on sun-warmed cedar boards, her hair loose around hershoulders for the first time in months. The corporate uniform, pressed shirts, tailored jackets, and sensible shoes that could navigate both boardrooms and industrial sites had been abandoned in favor of worn jeans and a soft cotton t-shirt that had seen better days but felt like heaven against her skin.
Two weeks,she thought, watching a great blue heron wade through the shallows with unbelievable patience.Two weeks since I stepped off that eighteen-hour flight from Johannesburg, feeling like I'd been turned inside out and reassembled wrong.
The South African investigation had been everything she'd expected and worse. It took her away from Talon for three months. It seemed that investigating uranium processing irregularities, which had led her through a maze of shell companies and bribed officials, was her new talent. She'd found the evidence she'd been sent to gather, had delivered testimony that would likely result in criminal charges against half a dozen executives, and had personally ensured cleanup protocols were implemented before the contamination could spread beyond the immediate area.
