Atonement (Master's Protege 2)

She bends closer to me and kisses me. Silencing me. Hearing me. Maybe even forgiving me.

I gather her to my chest, and we stay like that for long moments.

I finally break the silence. “So… are you still leaving?” I ask in a teasing tone.

She exhales. “Leaving?” she says, as if the very idea’s preposterous. “And leave that sweet puppy and truck behind?”

“They’re yours, though. Take them with you.”

She laughs. “Surely not. I’m not taking anything with me that reminds me of you.”

She lifts her head and braces herself with a hand on each of my shoulders. “Every day, I’d remember you. Every day, I’d want to be with you. Every day, I’d fight the urge to come back.” She shrugs with forced nonchalance. “So, I decided it’s best to not even leave to begin with.”

It feels as if I can breathe again. As if I can see again. I feel as if she’s given me new life.

“Cain,” she whispers. “You say that it’s hard to forgive yourself. Maybe if I’m here with you… and I’ve forgiven you… then we can teach each other how it’s done?”

“Now that is a deal I can handle.” I hold her face in my hands and take my time brushing my lips across hers. I groan at the taste of her, the feel of her so close to me like this. “I’m sorry, baby. I love you.”

“And I love you,” she says. “No more apologizing. This is all behind us. Everything. Now we’re just two people who can’t stand to be apart from each other. Deal?”

I grin. “Deal. I thought you’d leave when this was all said and done. I thought maybe once you’d gotten what you needed and had no reason to be here anymore, you’d maybe leave. You’re too strong and independent to be held in any one place for too long.”

“Oh, you give me plenty of reasons for staying, and it has nothing to do with your dogs, your amazing team, the location of this house, or the fact that I can train whenever I want to and go to bed at night properly fucked.”

I groan. “Violet…”

“I worried that when this was all done, you’d have no more need for me anymore, too,” she admits. “Wow, we make quite the couple, eh?”

“Oh, yeah. Trust me, babe. I need you. You’re the one that makes everything clearer. And there’s no fucking way I’m letting you go.” I snort. “No need for you? Jesus. You’re my world, Violet. Without you, I lose my center. I lose everything.”

“I love you, Cain.”

“And I love you.”

She grins and gets that wicked gleam in her eye I know all too well. “Then show me, baby.”

Epilogue

Violet

Six months later

Cain stands with his back to me, his hands shoved into his pockets, staring at the blue, blue sky over the ocean. I take a moment to admire him before I walk over. From here, the blue sky outlines his large, masculine frame. His shadow on the ground before him could be a giant. I remember thinking of him as the fabled Paul Bunyan. His thick, dark brown hair is tousled, and I know exactly how it got that way after this morning’s romp. He never bothered to fix it. He knows I like it a little on the long side so I can tangle my fingers in it.

He looks to his left, but not at me, and I can see the ruggedly masculine face and square jaw, still darkened with a five o’clock shadow that never seems to go away. When he looks at me, I feel the power he holds, his intelligence and wit. But as I’ve gotten to know him… as I’ve grown to love him… a bit of the hurt he carries has seemed to dissipate. Maybe it’s only my imagination. Or maybe he’s found a way to heal.

Healing.

It’s a wonder that two people so capable of love could hurt one another so easily. It’s a wonder that the very same people are the ones that bring healing.

I marvel at his strength, his power, and all that makes him whole, before I come up behind him.

“Cain.” He startles when I call his name. That’s unlike him.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you jump when someone came up behind you. Are you losing your skills in your advanced age, sir?”

He smirks, his eyes twinkling. “No, babe. I think you’re the only one who could do that to me.”

“Oh?” I come up beside him and nuzzle my head on his shoulder. He drapes a heavy arm around my shoulders. “And why’s that?”

“Because you’re such a part of who I am, it’s as natural as breathing to have you with me.”

“Now, as romantic as that sounds, it’s a lie, Mr. Master.”

He chuckles, the sound rolling through me with a delicious heat.