I kiss him back like I’m finally allowed to. Allowed to want. Allowed to have.
“Forever with you sounds perfect,” I whisper against his lips.
His eyes soften.
And then he drops back down, pushing up my white sundress gently, his hands careful around my stomach like it’s sacred.
Right now it’s the tiniest bump. If you didn’t know I was pregnant, you’d have no idea. But we know.
We know our baby is in there.
His lips press to my skin.
“Forever with both of you,” he murmurs, voice low and wrecked, “is all I need in this life, Lily.”
I run my fingers through his hair, my whole body shaking with emotion I don’t even have a name for.
He grabs my hand, kisses my knuckles, then slides the ring onto my finger with a devotion that makes my heart feel too small to hold it all.
He looks up at me, eyes burning. “Mine,” he whispers.
I grab his hand and try to pull him up to stand, my ring catching the sunlight as it flashes between us like proof that this is real.
“Can we try out that pool now?”
A smirk tugs at his lips, the kind that makes my stomach flip even when I’m trying to act brave. “Only if you’re suggesting skinny dipping,” he says, his voice lowering.
My cheeks heat instantly.
“Race you there,” I tease, biting my lip as I start to back away.
His hand catches me before I can escape, fingers wrapping around my throat. His eyes burn into mine. “You can run, baby,” he murmurs. “But never out of my sight.”
I swallow, my pulse fluttering beneath his thumb. “I wouldn’t dare,” I whisper. “I’ll only ever run to you… never away from you.”
And something inside me goes quiet.
Not the world. Not the danger that still exists somewhere out there. But the part of me that’s spent my whole life bracing for impact.
I’ve never felt like I belonged.
Not really. Not anywhere that mattered.
That little girl who spent her childhood craving love that always came with strings attached… she still lives inside me. The anxious part that screamed for safety, that built walls and called it independence, that learned how to smile while drowning.
I thought that meant I was broken. I thought it meant I was too fragile for real love.
But when I look into Drago’s eyes, I realize something so sharp it almost hurts.
I was never broken. I was never something delicate that needed fixing.
I was lost. I was afraid. And all I was doing was surviving.
Until him.
The man who was protecting me this whole time, from the shadows, making sure it was safe for me to get through the day. The man who dragged me out of the darkest moment of my life and never asked for a single thanks. The man whose scent I was searching for without even understanding why, like my body remembered him before my mind ever could.
Now he’s right here. Looking at me like I’m the most precious thing on this Earth. Like he wants to love me—scars and all—through every moment of our future.
