If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(53)
Author: A.L. Jackson

I trembled at his touch, shook with his words.

How was it possible he still made me feel this way?

He took me by the shoulders and guided me to turn. His breath washed against the back of my neck.

The fine hairs at my nape lifted, and chills sped down my spine.

Adept fingers worked on the tiny pearl button at the top of the gown’s zipper. Goosebumps flashed across my flesh as Christian freed it and began to drag the zipper down, my skin slowly exposed.

The gown pooled in a heap at my feet.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

I wore a white bustier that dropped low in the back, the satin-lined bodice pressing my br**sts together in the lift, matching panties that were all satin and lace, and a pair of white heels I’d slipped on when we left the beach.

For a moment, we just stood there, Christian’s presence burning into me from behind.

Finally, he touched me, his palms gliding down my hips to my thighs, before he trailed them back up, applying pressure as he turned me around. His mouth curved in gentle affection when he took my hand and helped me step from the mound of fabric bunched on the floor.

Christian took a step back, let his eyes wander as he contemplated every inch of me.

A blush blossomed across my chest and spread all the way to my cheeks. The man had seen me at my worst and seen me at my best, and he’d made love to me countless times. Still, his gaze slipped over me in a slow appreciation, as if he were undressing me for the very first time.

A strip of bare skin was exposed between the bodice and my panties, and Christian’s attention dropped to it. He reached out, his right thumb making a tender pass over the tattoo that rested on the front of my left hip.

The tiny black bird had spread her wings, her spirit free.

My Lillie.

Christian had one that matched.

We’d gone together, another step that felt as if we were slowly healing. I’d come to realize that I was scared that moving on meant I had to let her go. Now I knew that wasn’t true. Even though we hadn’t been allowed to keep her here, she would forever live in our hearts.

Our forever.

She would always hold a piece of that.

I would always feel the loss of Lillie. Her memory would always hurt, but I’d learned to find joy in her, in the love that Christian and I shared for her, in the unending hope that I realized we needed to carry on in her name.

Christian cupped my face between his hands, a storm of intensity brewing in his eyes. “I love you, Elizabeth. More than you will ever know. You have absolutely made me the happiest man alive.”

I smoothed my fingertips against the sharp angles of his jaw, let them flutter up to trace the curve of his lips. “But I do know, Christian. Because there is no way to love you more than I love you now. No greater joy than this.”

His hands slid down my neck and over the cap of my shoulders. He leaned to reach behind me, ticking off the little clasps that held together the lingerie.

A rush of cool splashed against my skin, and my ni**les pebbled as they met with the air. Christian dipped his head, took over my mouth, his kiss strong and slow as he circled my br**sts with the pad of his thumbs.

A tiny moan slipped up my throat. Christian devoured it as he intensified his kiss, stroked my tongue with his.

I nipped at his bottom lip as I sought out the button on his waistband, worked it free, rushed through the buttons on his shirt. My palms came flat to his chest, and I pushed his shirt free from his shoulders.

Kicking off his shoes and socks, Christian twisted out of the shirt. I edged down his pants, taking his underwear with them.

My eyes wandered and traced, adoring this beautiful man that I loved with every ounce of my life.

He scooped me up and placed me in the center of the bed, his muscles rippling as he crawled up to me. He grasped me by the knees, slowly pressing them apart as he ran his palms up the inside of my thighs.

A trail of fire burned in his wake and throbbed between my legs.

He twisted his fingers in the edges of my panties and dragged them down, leaning in to brush his lips in a tortuous path behind them.

“Christian, please.”

The man was always making me beg.

A soft chuckle rolled from him as he moved to hover over me, dipped down to kiss me, long and hard. He hummed, the sound a vibration from his mouth that shot straight through me. He let his fingers wander between my thighs, brushed his knuckles across the sensitive skin.

I moaned.

“Look at you,” he whispered as he settled between my legs. His erection slipped against my folds. One hand cupped my jaw, and he tilted my chin up to him. “My wife.”

Then he took me whole, body and soul. All of me. Always.

Our bodies bonded, we moved slowly. My fingers were woven in the promise of his, and he kept them nested between our chests. We were nose-to-nose, breath-to-breath.

Christian stared down at me as he made love to me for the first time as my husband, the man I was giving all of my days.

Our lives had taken us in so many directions. We’d been granted so much joy and burdened with so much sorrow. We’d been forced down roads we didn’t want to take, blinded by the unforeseen, taken detours that had led us to the unexpected.

My eyes were locked on the one who waited at the end of my every path. My destiny. The one I could never escape.

“I love you, Christian,” I whispered, a promise, an oath.

Christian nuzzled me beneath my ear, then tipped his mouth to whisper in it. “We made it, Elizabeth.”

And Christian loved me, the way only he could.

And I knew it. Knew he would be my forever.

Christian ~ One Year Later

I stood at the large window, peering out into the near dark.

When the night had grown deep, I’d climbed from bed where I’d lain for hours, unable to sleep. I’d crept across the bedroom, drawn to the peaceful scene painted outside.

The quarter moon hung low in the sky. It glinted across the murky waters of the raging sea. Tree branches beat at the walls, a squall of heavy wind lashing at the earth. In the distance, waves rushed up the shore and crashed on the beach.

I could stand here for hours. Just listening, lost in my thoughts.

Five months ago, we’d finally found the perfect house. It was a beautiful structure, five bedrooms, a kitchen Elizabeth would be happy to live in, and a sweeping backyard.

Yeah. It backed up to our beach.

Lizzie spent entire days out playing on the lawn, pumping her legs furiously on her swing, walking hand in hand with her mother, barefoot in the sand.

As much as we loved it here, Elizabeth and I knew the walls themselves meant nothing. It was what filled them that counted, the laughter that echoed from them, the happiness they contained.