“You were always mine,” I murmured. “And I would have let you go. I would have let you work for me, and when it was time for you to move on, I would have let you go.”
“Elliot,” she crackled out. “Oh…”
“For me, it was our conversation in the car after Luca told me you were pregnant. I could no longer look away from you, and the only thing I wanted to do was take care of you.” I exhaled against her slick skin. “The weeks you were gone were torture. I found any excuse to contact you.”
“I remember. You were more outrageous than ever and made me smile. My house was literally falling down around me, but your grumpy, complaint-filled emails were a bright spot.”
“Catherine…” My heart thumped as hard as a knockout punch. “I almost let you go.”
“I hear you.” She shook her head, her eyes locked on mine. “You didn’t, though. You let me in instead, and now I’m part of you, right?”
“Right.”
“That means what came before doesn’t really matter. We’re here, this is our life, and we’re going to do this together. You don’t have to look back on the might-have-beens because they didn’t come true. We’re true. I love you, and that’s true. Joey loves you, and that’s true too.”
Her fingers slipped through my hair and down my shoulders and arms until she found mine, weaving our fingers together. She kissed my skin and the tip of my nose.
“I’m here, and I love you,” she murmured. “We’re in this together.”
I watched her move around my face, kissing me everywhere but my lips, quietly reminding me I chose her. My dad’s favorite saying echoed in my mind, “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Almost missing this didn’t matter because I hadn’t.
I had her.
We had each other.
Her lips finally landed on mine, and I was found.
As we kissed, I helped her rise higher on her knees, then she lowered onto me, taking me as deep as her body would allow. Relief loosened the vise around my chest.
This is it.
My beautiful Catherine was home, in my arms, and she had no desire to be anywhere else. We’d said the words to each other that should have been said before we’d spent a torturous night apart. I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut again, not if there was the slightest chance of repeating the eviscerating feeling of leaving my two loves behind.
I cupped her breasts to my mouth, lapping at the sweet droplets on her tightened nipples, sucking one between my lips. She moaned, head falling back, arms locking around my shoulders.
Shower water misted us. Our warm, slick skin slipped and slid. Hips rolling, colliding, slow and needy rises and falls. Releasing her nipples, I buried my face in her throat and gripped her hips to push her lower, keeping her seated on my thighs and my cock locked within her.
She ground against me, my name like velvet on her lips. Her love for me was a caress of whispers in my ear, a promise made with intention.
I ran my hands down her spine to the wide flare of her hips and cushion of her ass and dug in, laying claim to her outside with my touch and her inside with my cock, to her soul with my love that was an unbreakable vow.
“I’m close,” she murmured. “Fill me, please.”
“Mmm.” Circling my palm to her front, I splayed my fingers over her soft stomach. “You’re going to give me so many babies.”
“How many?”
“At least three or four more.”
“Okay.” Her forehead fell against mine.
“Need you pregnant again so I can take care of you properly.”
She tightened around me, moans spilling from her lips.
“Oh, you like that?” I squeezed her ass and took hold of her waist to direct her movements, bringing her down harder, faster. Breasts bouncing, dripping, soft belly sliding over mine, the ripple of her ass when it hit my thighs—she made me crazy for her. “You’re going to give me more beautiful babies? As many as I want?”
“As many as you want, Elliot,” she breathed, her inner walls fluttering and coating me with her pleasure.
“Oh god, sweetheart. Your pussy is melting around me. I feel how wet you are. Need you to come for me so I can make good on my promises.”
There was no chance of getting her pregnant right now, but holy shit, it turned us both on to fantasize that there was. That my seed would take root and she’d become ripe with child for me. I’d fuck her then too, bring her to orgasm as often and in any way she needed. Hold her, rub her aches away, tell her how exquisitely beautiful she was. The way I would always regret not being there for her the first time.