Page 173 of When Hearts Surrender

Heat swirls over my chest and down my body, my heart pounding in an erratic rhythm as he deepens our connection before he pulls apart.

The beginning strains of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” sound from the speakers. We smile at each other, and my heart skips a beat. I’m brought back to when I first heard this aria with him in his car, the night that is forever emblazoned in my mind.

How much things have changed since then…and yet, nothing has changed the way my heart pounds for him, an ancient rhythm created long before I walked this earth.

My lips curve up and I murmur, “I love you, husband.”

He tucks me against him. “I love you, wife.”

We stare at his masterpiece, the painting that captures me so perfectly, all the while listening to the evocative melody of hope and victory.

Silas’s words float to my mind.

Your image dwells eternally in my mind, though I could spend the rest of my life attempting to capture your likeness on canvas, nothing will ever compare, for my skills can never do you justice.

Yet I vow, one day, when we are reunited in another life, when my heart is made whole, I shall attempt to portray you once more, my love. Perhaps then, I will finally be able to capture your essence.

Yes. He did capture my essence.

Completely, irrevocably, whole-heartedly.

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