by Sykes, Julia
I reached out and tentatively touch his hand. I marveled at the solid warmth of it beneath my fingertips. Clayton was alive. My friend was alive. And his actions had saved my life once again. Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks, and for the first time since I could remember, they were tears of joy rather than pain.
“Thank you,” I choked out.
“Anytime,” he said, smiling as he squeezed my fingers reassuringly. I gave a shaky laugh and wiped at my wet cheeks.
“But don’t think I’m not still mad at you for letting me think you were dead.”
Clayton gave me a long-suffering look. “Damn. I was hoping saving your life might make up for that. And taking a bullet for you. And keeping you out of jail. But you know, who keeps track of these things, really? It’s all water down the drain, apparently.”
I slapped him lightly on the arm, confident that he wasn’t injured there. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I don’t have a choice in the matter. Fine. I forgive you. But I might not be so magnanimous if you ever pull this on me again.”
He was smiling at me, but his eyes were serious. “I won’t,” he promised. “It was really unfair for me to put people through that. I’ve got a lot of apologizing to do. I’m pretty sure that dinner’s on me for the entire office for the next decade or three. Most people weren’t in on the secret. Sharon, in particular, was rather miffed.” He grinned affectionately, and I wondered if maybe happiness had been staring him in the face for a long time and he had been blind to it. I made a mental note to keep an eye on the situation.
“Well, I would say that you deserve it, but it seems that I’m in no position to talk,” I said lightly. “How long until you’re fully recovered?”
“It’ll be a few months before I’m fully fit again, but I should be able to leave the hospital in a week or so. Then I can tie up whatever loose ends Sharon leaves and finish de-briefing the two of you.” He addressed Sean as well now. “Once we get your preliminary testimony, we’ll need you to go into witness protection for a while until we can round everybody up. Then we’ll need to prep you to give your testimony at trial. After that, your lives are your own again.”
I frowned at the mention of witness protection. Hadn’t I been staunchly resisting the idea of going into hiding for weeks now? I glanced over at Sean. Maybe hiding out with him wouldn’t be so bad. Especially if we weren’t confined to the house all the time. Relocating would give us the opportunity to come and go as we pleased. I decided that it was a good idea.
“So where are we going?” I asked Clayton.
“There’s this great town I know in Iowa called Indianola.”
Clayton’s sleepy little hometown. I returned his grin. “Sounds perfect.”
Epilogue
A little over two months later, Sean and I found ourselves settling into a happy rhythm in Indianola. Neither of us had jobs – we decided to wait until we found somewhere to settle permanently – but we had plenty to do to pass the time. I was rapidly becoming a pop culture whiz, especially when it came to all things nerddom. I had Sean to blame for that, as he was quite a biased educator. But I didn’t mind skipping over the chick flicks and soap operas in favor of the Game of Thrones TV series and the Lord of the Rings movies. I had devoured the rest of George R. R. Martin’s books, and Harry Potter followed quickly after that. Sean had seen and read it all before, but his eyes shined with boyish delight as he explored the beloved stories anew when he shared them with me.
But we didn’t spend all of our time cooped up in the house. We primarily had Shelley, our next-door-neighbor, to thank for that. She had knocked on our door the day that we moved in, offering us a tray of cookies. I didn’t think that people actually did that in real life. She was so friendly, and it was easy to pass the time chatting with her. Before long, she introduced us to several of her friends. We were all around the same age, and I had to admit that it was nice to spend time getting to know people. I was still rusty at remembering how to connect with people, but it was getting easier every day. Now we were on the regular invite list for Shelley’s Friday cocktail hour.
I often wondered what we would do when the final trials were wrapped up and the Westies were put away for good. Sean and I agreed that we wanted to stay together for a long time into the future, but we hadn’t made any concrete plans about where we would go from here. Most of the Westies had been convicted by now, including Bradley. His trial had been hard on Sean, and I knew that his betrayal of his best friend still weighed heavily on him. But Bradley would have gone down for his crimes regardless of Sean’s testimony; the evidence was heavily stacked against him. With the multiple counts of drug trafficking, kidnapping, assault, and two counts of attempted murder, his sentence had been heavy. He was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Bradley had cursed at Sean in the courtroom, railing at him for being a traitor. I held Sean’s hand through it all, providing what comfort I could. Even though weeks had passed since then, I still caught Sean staring off glumly into space on occasion, and then I would do my best to distract him.
Often these distractions ended with us lying naked in each other’s arms, gasping for breath as residual pleasure thrummed through our bodies. In fact, a lot of the time that we spent in the house involved such distractions. A girl can only focus on a book for so long when a gorgeous man keeps shooting her heated glances from across the room.
In the time that we had been here, Sean and I had fallen in love with our life in Indianola. Neither of us had ever known anything but the bustle of city life. Living here was so… peaceful. I had been turning something over in my mind for days now, and I finally plucked up the courage to ask Sean about it.
“Why don’t we stay?” I asked, rolling over on the bed so that I was facing him. He caught up a lock of my hair and rubbed it between his fingers absently.
“What?” He asked, clearly lost in his own thoughts.
“Why don’t we stay here?” I repeated. “I like Indianola. It has everything we need, and the people are friendly. I could get a job in De Moines and commute.”
Hope welled within me as I realized that Sean looked intrigued rather than taken aback. “And what would I do?” He asked.
“Well, you’re getting to be a pretty good cook. And you’re tidier than most men. You could be my house-husband.” I was teasing, but we both froze at the mention of the word “husband.” We had talked about a future together, but we hadn’t discussed marriage.
Sean moved past the awkward moment smoothly. “So you want me to stay home and do your bidding, then?” He asked, a dangerous, sexy edge to his voice. “I think we both know that that’s not the way things work around here. Don’t we?”
I bit my lip. “Hmmm. I suppose I could allow you to have a profession. You know, just something small to occupy your time when I’m not around.”
He growled and pressed his weight against me, flipping me onto my back and settling his body over mine. His hands were around my wrists, pinning them against the pillow above my head. “Now sub,” he said, his voice low and rumbling. “I’m going to be merciful and give you a chance to reconsider your response.”
“Well, yes. On second thought, I think that you’d be better off at home. We wouldn’t want to put too much strain on you. You’re so delicate. I would worry about you.” I smiled up at him sweetly.
He grinned back at me, but there was a decidedly dangerous edge to his smile. “I’m pleased to see that I haven’t stamped all the disobedience out of you. I do enjoy our lessons.”
“I enjoy them too,” I agreed. “It seems I know just how to play you to get what I want.”
His grip tightened around my wrists with almost bruising force, and he reached between our bodies with one hand to pinch my nipple sharply, twisting it. I cried out at the pain. It was harsher than what I had expected. He rolled my hardened bud deftly between his fingers, soothing the sting to a dull, burning ache that made my sex pulse to life. My breathing turned shallow as I stared up
into the twin dark flames of his stunning green eyes.
“Back to basics today, then,” he said calmly. “It seems that we have forgotten who is in control.”
He took my body roughly, possessing me completely with each harsh touch and demanding word. By the time he was finished with me, I was a quivering mess. He had made his point well and thoroughly. And I had loved every second of it. My body was draped across his as I slowly came down from my high.
“I love it when you make love to me by fucking me,” I sighed happily. He chuckled.
“That is an interesting yet accurate way of putting it.” He kissed the top of my head affectionately. We lay in silence for long moments, our hands lightly tracing the contours of one another’s bodies. It was as though we were addicted to one another. And Sean was a drug that I never wanted to quit.
Eventually, Sean idly picked up our earlier conversation. “I think I’ll start my own carpentry business,” he said. “If that’s okay with you, ma’am,” he amended hastily. I smiled, refusing to rise to his bait.
I propped myself up on one elbow so that I could see his face. “I think that’s a great idea,” I said seriously. “I would love to see some of your work.”
He beamed at me. “I’d like that. And yes, I think we should stay in Indianola. The people are great, and we’ll have an excuse to see Clayton outside of official FBI business when he comes home to visit his parents. Besides,” his eyes twinkled, “it’s a great place to raise a family.”
My jaw dropped at the astounding words that he delivered so casually. Before I could begin to formulate a response, he sat up abruptly, pulling me up with him. He seated me on the edge of the bed while he got up to retrieve something from his sock drawer.
“What are you doing?” I asked, puzzled. When he turned back to me, he was hiding something in his closed fist. “What’s in your hand?” I was getting slightly nervous. What devious plans did he have in store for me now?
He pressed his finger to my lips, silencing me. “It’s my turn to ask a question,” he said softly. My breath caught in my throat as he dropped to one knee before me. The circle of precious metal that he held between his thumb and forefinger glinted in the light. I was suddenly grateful that I was sitting down, because there was no way that my knees would have supported me in that moment.
“Dr. Claudia Ellers,” his delicious, lilting voice caressed my name in that way that made me melt. My attention snapped from the ring in his hand to his eyes. They were burning into mine, and the love and longing that I saw there took my breath away.
“You have given me a life that I never dreamed I would have. Would you do me the honor of sharing it with me?”
I was overwhelmed with emotion, and I couldn’t seem to get any words out through the lump in my throat.
“Marry me, Claudia.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes!” I gasped out. “Yes!” Tears of joy wet streamed down my face as I held out my left hand. He slipped the ring onto it, and it fit perfectly. It was a simple gold band adorned with a single diamond. It was simple and classic.
Sean brushed his thumb against the physical sign of his devotion to me. And my acceptance demonstrated my own devotion to him. “I know it’s not much,” he said, “but it was my mother’s.”
“It’s perfect, Sean. I love it.” A wide grin broke out on my face as joy enveloped me. “I love you so much.”
He stood quickly and pulled me up into his arms, holding me against his perfect, hard body. “I love you too.” He returned my smile. “Are you tired of hearing that yet?”
“Not even remotely.” And I knew that I never would tire of it.
Sean bent down and pressed his lips against mine. The kiss was slow and tender at first, but it quickly became more intense as our hunger for one another was once again enflamed. His tongue demanded that I give him my mouth, and I ceded it to him willingly. He was everything that I needed, everything that I had never even known that I wanted. He had come into my life and changed it irrevocably, ruthlessly tearing down my protective walls and building me back up from the inside out. And somehow, I had done the same for him. We had healed each other, had set each other free from the weight of our pasts. Now we were finally in control of our own destinies.
And the first choice that I made with my newfound freedom was to spend the rest of my life in the arms of Sean Reynolds.
The End
Thank you so much to my wonderful readers! You have made Sean and Claudia’s journey all the more special to me through your support. Love y’all!
xxx
Also by Julia Sykes
The Impossible Series
Monster
Traitor
Avenger
Dark Grove Plantation Stories
Awakened
Taken
Broken
Dark Grove Plantation (The Complete Collection)
The Dark Submission Series
Switched
Dangerous Desires
Bratting
Secret Submissive (Coming Soon!)
The Captured by the Billionaire Series
Pursued
Captured
Teased
Bound
Tested
Collared
Captured by the Billionaire (The Complete Series)
Torn: Caught between the Billionaires
Book 1: Lucas
Book 2: Jonathan
Book 3: The Choice
Book 4: Consequences
Torn: Caught between the Billionaires (The Complete Series)