to forget you. But I never did.”
Those dreamy hazel eyes softened with love.
“I don’t have enough days to spend all the time I want to spend with you. I could live to be a thousand years old, and it would still be a passing moment. Because that’s how I really feel about you, Kelly. I love you. I want to keep you in my arms forever.”
He placed a possessive hand over her flat abdomen, causing her to flush. “Make babies with you and then sit on a rocking chair when we’re old and gray, and watch our grandkids play at our feet.”
Kelly slid her arms around his neck. “What about your job? What if I lose you, Sam?”
Resolve shimmered in his hot gaze. “I love you, Kelly. And being a SEAL means everything to me. I can’t promise that I’ll be there as often as you’d like, but when I’m home I’ll never leave your side. And I promise I’ll try my damnedest to always come home to you.”
“It’s good enough.” She pressed a finger against his lips. “I think we both need to stop talking.”
He captured her mouth in a swift, demanding kiss that claimed and conquered. Then he rested her palm against his rapidly beating heart. “I was dead inside, Kel. Until you walked back into my life. I’m never letting you go, no matter who frowns at us because we’re different classes of Mage. I’m not giving up another chance to be happy and to make you happy for the rest of your life.”
They fell back to the blanket, kissing and entwining together like snakes. Sam caressed her bare breasts with a tenderness that equaled his ardent passion. He nuzzled and kissed his way over her body, igniting her arousal to a fever pitch. Then he sheathed himself with a condom and lay back, his penis rising thick and full from his groin.
Hand securely on her hips, Sam guided her atop his shaft. Inch after delicious inch she sank onto him. Fierce need blazed in his eyes.
Slowly she rode him, rising and falling as he fondled her breasts, the gentle wind caressing their naked bodies. Trembling violently, her core clutching him tight, Kelly placed her hands on his chest and let the wild sensuality take over. For a moment she fully understood what drove him to become a feral wolf. She felt abandoned and joyful, wildly free as they joined together.
They shattered together, their cries piercing the valley.
Afterward, Kelly lay naked in his arms. With quiet bliss she watched the clouds lazily chase each other.
Sometime later, they dressed. As Sam packed away the blanket and carefully placed his mother’s diary inside the picnic basket, Kelly went to the weeping willow. A breeze ruffled leaves as swallows chased each other in the dusky gray shadows.
Time had faded the initials carved on the tree’s shaggy bark but could not erase them.
P.S. Was Here.
She felt the breeze lift and caress her hair, like a mother’s loving hand. Tears burned the back of her throat as she remembered Annabelle watching her youngest son gleefully dig into the bark, a memorial to childhood. So much deception and loss.
She and Sam had much to overcome. The past mustn’t be forgotten, but it could be forgiven.
Feeling someone tenderly touch her head, Kelly turned. No one there. But a soft breeze touched the bells on the nearby Chinese pagoda.
Smiling through her tears, Kelly touched the willow tree.
Time to leave her own mark. Rust had dulled the knife left in the small hollow. Kelly struggled to dent the bark and succeeded only in chiseling out small chips of wood.
“Let me try.”
Sam stood beside her. With his help, Kelly began to carve below Pete’s lopsided scratches.
K.D. + S.S.
No longer would her feelings remain in silence and secrecy. The declaration stood against the tree in stark relief.
Sam smiled. “Pete would like us sharing his tree.”
Then he set the knife in the hollow and took her hand.
“C’mon. Uncle Al has supper waiting.”
As they walked away from the tree, Kelly could swear she heard the distant sound of boyish laughter floating across the meadow grass.
* * * * *
