Page 65 of Weatherman

Another squeeze.

Another heartbeat.

Another breath.

Another flex.

When the orgasm came, it didn’t flash like lightning but rather rolled through me like thunder, booming and deep. I let out a small cry, as it was more than I could contain. Our eye contact never wavered, and his palm pressed harder into my chest as he reached his own climax. We were linked with a strong, powerful force that neither of us could control on our own, but together we could hold the world. There was a bond here that had no limits and simply would not be broken. Some would call it love, but that tiny word sounded insignificant to all I’d experienced tonight. I felt him shoot inside me, fillingthe condom that I admit I resented, as it was the only barrier between us.

He reached up to brush under my eyes, and only then did I realize there were tears flowing from them.

“You okay, baby?”

“Yes.” I had no other words. Nothing else came to my mind to say.

He leaned in to kiss me. “I get it.”

As much as I wanted to stay like this forever, we had to move sometime. My legs tingled as I shifted off him, and he stood us both up. I smoothed over the muscled planes of his chest and abs, marveling that this was mine.

“You need the bathroom while I deal with the condom? There’s a toothbrush I haven’t opened in the medicine cabinet. Help yourself.”

Once we were both back in the bed, he wrapped us up in a dark blue comforter covered in stars. I recognized some of the constellations he showed me from our night at the Lair. It had been a long, stress-filled day, but it had ended with hope for a better place.

Sleepy words gurgled from my mouth as he took up the spot behind me and spooned into my naked body. “Will it always be like this?”

“I’ll do my best to make it that way, babe.”

I don’t knowhow long I slept, but I woke up to a heavy darkness. Not scary or pressing, but more like the blanket I used to hide under when I was a kid. Bryce still lay behind me, fitted exactly to my body. His breath tickled across my neck as he slept on.

Then another awareness came to me. Something almost tangible with a gentleness I’d recognize from only one source.

“Camo?” I whispered lightly, barely forming the word.

“I said before, sweetness, he’s a good man. I trust him to take care of you and Pearl, and he will for this lifetime. I’m good to go, ’cause I’m leaving you in good hands.”

A tiny prick pierced my heart. “Do you really have to leave?”

“Yes, my love, it’s time.”

Tears formed in the corners of my eyes. “You’re not mad?”

“Oh, darling, I’d never be mad at you. Life always moves forward, and you have many changes ahead of you. Pearl will grow up and move on. You’ll keep adding to your career, touching people’s lives and changing them for the better. You may even have more children, as you have so much love to give them, and you’ll do it with a strong man by your side. He’s your support. A solid anchor who’s not there to hold you back but to let you soar as you were meant to.”

“I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll always have a place in your heart, a special one that’s just for me. Now, go do great things, sweetness. Never hide the love you have inside you.”

A soft, cool puff of air brushed over my forehead, as if a small kiss had been placed there.

Then he was gone.

I expected a tearing grief to hit me as it had when I heard the news of Camo’s death. Instead, I was filled with an almost joy that he’d found his place at last.

And I’d found mine.

Bryce shifted behind me, and his arm around my middle pressed inward. “You okay, honey?” his sleep-sated voice rumbled in my ear.

“I’m very okay.”

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