In a puff of smoke, the necklace vanished.
Killian turned to her. "I was wrong," he said softly. "I'm here for you, baby. And I'm not going anywhere this time."
She stared into the hard, life-worn face of the man she loved more than life itself. At the sight of him, grinning and dripping wet, a sunburst of emotion exploded in her chest, filled her heart. Before she knew it, she was crying, happy, joy-filled tears that cleansed the last remnant of sorrow from her soul.
He kissed her, and she clung to him, losing herself in the sweetness of his mouth. "Oh, Killian ..." she whispered against his lips.
He laughed. It was a rich, rumbling sound that slid into her heart in a warm, steady stream. "I think you can call me John now."
She drew back, gazed up at him. "John ..." She tried the name out, liked it, and smiled. Emotion swelled in her throat, made it difficult to breathe. Suddenly it was important that she tell him the truth, everything that she felt. He'd given that to her, given her the freedom of honesty, and she'd never go back to what she'd been before. Never. "I love you so much. So much ..."
He stared down into her eyes, and slowly his smile fell. His eyes darkened, took on an edge of sadness that
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seemed inestimably old. Lainie felt a stirring of memory, a recollection of what it had been like always to be alone, always to be separate. He took her face in his big, rough hands and tilted her chin up, bringing her close enough for a kiss, but not kissing her. "Lainie," he whispered in a gruff, emotional voice. "I've been waiting for you all my life."
Then he kissed her?a fierce, passionate kiss that set off a flurry of butterflies in her stomach. In a single gesture, he swept her into his arms. Laughing, she threw her arms around his neck. "Where are we going?"
"I want to see our house." He surged across the doorway and kicked the door shut.
"This is the entryway. That's a painting by?"
He didn't stop in the entryway, just pushed through to the kitchen. "This is the kit?"
They were in the dining room. Lainie didn't even bother saying anything, they were through the dining room and upstairs to the bedroom so quickly.
The magical blue room curled around them, cast them in the flickering light of a zillion candlelights. "So, outlaw," she said, grinning up at him. "Are you going to ravish me?"
He tossed her on the bed and landed beside her, drawing her close. He grinned down at her, a wolfish, predatory smile that made her blood race. She knew then that no matter how long she lived, no matter how often she died, she would remember this moment, this man, forever.
You got to believe, child. Viloula's scratchy, sing-songy voice came back to her.
She smiled up at Killian, offering him everything with that smile?her heart, her soul, her life.
All at once, she understood what Viloula had said. She'd learned the lesson of her past; without even
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knowing it, she'd learned how to love and trust and believe. She wasn't afraid of being abandoned anymore.
"I love you, Johnny," she said quietly, and the name seemed suddenly the most natural thing in the world. As if she'd never called him anything else.
He stilled, then gave her a slow, seductive smile that filled her soul with light. "You always have," he answered, brushing a thick curl of hair from her eyes.
And she always would.
Forever.
Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature,
but only in contradiction
to what we know of nature.
?Saint Augustine