Say It's Forever (Redemption Hills 2)

My mouth trembled. Didn’t mean for it to, but there was no controlling the way every nerve in my body came alive.

I edged around the end of the counter.

The girl was five feet away.

Salem’s aura hit me in these overpowering waves that threatened to knock me from my feet.

Toasted coconut and sultry sin.

“Yeah, and what’s that?”

Thunderbolt eyes flamed when she lifted her scarred chin. “Me.”

That single word pierced me.

A confession.

A plea.

All the lightness fled from the room, and I swore I could feel her heart batter and thunder.

“Don’t know how you’re even standing there right now.” The words scraped from my mouth.

“On my own two feet.” She answered it without thought.

“But…”

“But what, Jud? But what? Can you honestly stand there and tell me you don’t love me? That you don’t want me?”

Shaking out a pained laugh, I averted my gaze. “Now that would be an impossibility.”

“Then what? Do you blame me for losing Kennedy and Kye?” Her voice hitched at that, a clasp of remorse and sympathy.

I surged forward a step, the words grunted from my mouth. “What? Are you kidding me, Salem? No. Baby, no.”

She crossed her arms over her flailing chest. “Then what?”

My head hung in shame. “I’m afraid you won’t ever be able to look at me without seeing him.”

Didn’t need to say his name.

It already shouted and banged from the walls.

Lucas.

Lucas.

I hadn’t known it before. I’d only known his weight and his shape and the piece of my soul he’d taken with him when he’d gone.

It’d only required one single moment for the child to leave forever written on me.

Emotion slicked across my flesh when Salem stole forward, when she scratched her fingertips into my beard, into my jaw, when she forced me to look up and meet her eyes. “You’re right, Jud. I will never be able to look at you without seeing him. Without thinking of him. Without recognizing the scars on your back when you tried to save him. Without remembering it was you who gave me the time to get Juni out. Without seeing the man who saved us. The man who saved us twice.”

Torment clutched my spirit. “I was there.”

Said it like a confession.

Salem smiled and ran the pad of her thumb over my lips, her voice so soft when she whispered, “You were there.”

My eyes dropped closed. “Salem.”

Her fingers slipped into my hair. There was no stopping it, nothing I could do to keep my arms from linking around her waist.

From tugging her against me.

From breathing out in relief.

In hope.

My head dropped farther, and my forehead rocked against hers. “We’re a mess,” I murmured.

Salem eased back an inch so she could gaze up at me. She touched my cheek. “A beautiful, fucking mess.”

I grunted a laugh and pulled her tight, burrowed my face in the sweet spot of her neck.

“Darlin’.”

She sighed.

I cocked her a grin, let the tease rain free. “So, you’re looking for a job?”

She bit her lip. “Mmhmm…I’m looking for a job. I’m looking for my home. I’m looking for my purpose. Most of all, I’m looking for my man, the one who promised me forever.”

Then she fisted both hands in my shirt, a gleam in those eyes. “And if he doesn’t kiss me soon, I’ll stab him.”

Rough laughter bolted out, and I had her off her feet and in my arms.

And I kissed her as my heart found its rightful place.

Kissed her hard.

Kissed her fierce.

Kissed her until she was the only thing I could see.

Black. Fuckin’. Magic.

EPILOGUES

Salem

He’d asked me once what I dreamed of most. My answer had come so easy yet had seemed impossible—a home.

A place where my daughter was free. Where we could put down roots so she could grow and flourish. Where we’d know we’d be safe and secure.

A place we could always return to because we knew that’s where we belonged.

I gazed out over the little backyard at the group of people who had become that.

A safe place.

A refuge.

A family.

Our home.

Affection pulled tight across my chest.

There was my mountain of a man angling back to throw the football to Logan who had broken around Trent and was in the makeshift end zone.

My wicked savior.

My rugged, sweet Jud.

So big.

So handsome.

His love so fierce and overwhelming I felt the ground shake.

Like he felt the crack of energy in the air, he stopped to shoot me a grin from where he played on the lawn with his brothers.

Gage and Juni were, of course, in the mix.

He winked at me.

“Well, look at that.” Mimi’s voice hit me from where she sat in the chair next to me on the porch. “That sly dog sure knows how to love a woman up right, doesn’t he? There you are, sitting all the way over here, and he’s still got my girl’s legs shaking.”

“Mimi,” I chastised quick.

Eden giggled from the chair on the other side of her. “Mmhmm…those Lawson Brothers have some tricks up their sleeves.”