this make it up to you?” He crooked his finger, hitting that spot, and my eyes rolled up in my head.
“You’ll... have to do that a few more times to earn forgiveness.”
“Then I’m not doing it with a finger.”
Rising up, he rolled the condom on and positioned himself at my entrance. I opened my arms, wrapping in his firm, warm weight as he carefully lowered on top of me.
“I love you, Belle,” he whispered. “I loved you even while I hated you. I was hard, unyielding, and angry, but you steadied me. I needed your balance then, like I need it now.”
“You have it, Carter.” Groaning, my body tightened as he pushed in. Carter rained kisses on me as I relaxed, opening myself fully to him. “You have me.”
He started pumping—unhurried and deliberate strokes that withdrew to the tip and then connected us as one. Hushed moans, whispers, and promises filled the room.
Carter Knight came to me. Our fate was sealed now. Our love story written in the stars.
I would never walk away from him again.
NATHAN
“Thank you for helping, Nathan.” Mrs. Lewis-Adler smiled at over the suitcase. The two of us were packing up Belle’s room. “It warms my heart to meet the caring, sensitive man you’ve become.”
“That means a lot coming from you,” I said. “Considering how Belle and I ended.”
She waved that away. “Why concern yourself with endings when new beginnings are so much better? I have a feeling you and I will be seeing a lot of each other,” she said. “Let’s have a fresh start.”
“I definitely hope we’ll see a lot of each other. I hope you see me across the dining table. Standing with Belle before a preacher, and in a few Adler-Princes.”
Laughing, she came around the bed and hugged me. “I do too.”
“Nathan.” Hendrix stuck his head in the room. “Your grandfather is here.”
“What? Why?”
“Mrs. Desai asked him to come,” he replied. “I’ve shown him to your room.”
I hesitated—part of me holding out hope Hendrix would say he was kidding.
He didn’t.
“I’ll be right back, Mrs. Adler.”
“Take your time.”
I walked one door down and pushed into my bedroom. The colonel stood in the middle of the room, eyeing the shattered pieces of beer bottle I had yet to pick up.
“Rosalie said you were doing well this summer,” he said by way of hello. “Seems she was mistaken.”
“I have been doing well.” I lightly closed the door. “Haven’t touched a drop in weeks, but I’m surprised to hear you were concerned. I didn’t get that impression since you didn’t bother to encourage therapy, rehab, or even talk about my issues at all except to highlight why they prove I’m a failure.”
The colonel’s blank expression didn’t twitch. “I was not concerned. It was your problem and yours alone to deal with. When will you learn no one is responsible for you but yourself?”
“I learned that at twelve. You made sure of it.” Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I leaned on the door. “What are you doing here?”
He sniffed. “Rosalie insisted I come. Preston shot. Carter shot. And that girl abducted and beaten. She felt you needed my support, and was most insistent.”
“She really is a force of nature, isn’t she?” I laughed. “Getting you to come here to check on me? I’m tempted to ask if blackmail or bribery was involved.”
Orion’s lips curled. “Don’t you dare use that tone with me.”
“Oh look, the grandpa-grandson bonding is over. Shame.” I cracked open the door. “You can go now.”
He reddened like I told him to leave by the balcony instead of the door.
“Ungrateful, spoiled brat. I flew all the way here to call on your friends and bring you home, and this is the welcome I get? You have no respect. No discipline. And no common sense. You three were fools chasing after that man with nothing but a flare gun,” he spat. “Your idea, I’m sure. Carter and Preston are good sons from good families, and you almost got them killed. Is it any wonder I treat you as I do?”
I listened impassively, and answered the same.
“You treat me as you do because you’re a racist.”
“Excuse me?!” he sputtered. “How dare you?! I am no such—”
“Save it,” I sliced in. “Didn’t think Mom would tell me, did you? Maybe she wouldn’t have if things had been different, but we’ve always talked, and Alzheimer’s hasn’t changed that. One night, she told me the full story of the day she brought the love of her life home. How her