Back River Quiver

Tears she’d been unaware of fell from her eyes, blazing a trail down her cheeks. What do I do? Common sense shouted in one ear that she couldn’t possibly live in the Everglades indefinitely. With her kidnapper. Those thoughts forced Morgan to her feet. Feeling as though her organs were being smashed in a trash compactor, she took one shaky step toward the police. Two. Three. Of course she had to go back to her life. She had parents, friends, acceptance to college in the fall.

The farther she got from Rixen, though, the more her entire being rebelled. A sob rose in her throat and shook her entire body on the way out. All those kisses, his body curved protectively around her in the night. His voice, his smile, even his unfounded insecurities. The way he looked at her, as if he couldn’t believe his fortune. Much the way she stopped and looked back at him now. This wasn’t some crazy rapid form of Stockholm’s.

No, she’d…fallen in love with Rixen.

Morgan had never been a believer in fate or some almighty power, but in that second she knew with total certainty that she had been sent here. Maneuvered here by some unseen force to be with this man, in this life. All along, she’d thought him crazy to call her a gift, but her heart knew it to be the truth now. She and Rixen weren’t meant to be apart. Couldn’t she feel that now when her heart was trying to rip itself clean from her body to find him?

“I’m staying,” she murmured to the cops, more tears leaving her eyes. “Tell my mother I’ll get in contact as soon as I can, but…I can’t leave. I’m n-never leaving.”

Rixen had been slumped in the dirt, fists bunched, his jaw ready to crack from the agony of letting her go. At her words, though, he rose slowly to his feet, his expression one of a man who is afraid to believe. “My gift. You…are staying?”

“Yes,” she called, running back in his direction. “Yes, yes, yes.”

He caught her up in his arms, swinging her in a circle. “I can’t believe it.” He dropped hard kisses all over her cheeks, eyelids and mouth. “You will not regret it, Morgan. I will live to make you happy. Every day of your life.”

“I know. I know you will.” She took his face in her hands. “I love you, too, Rixen.”

Still holding her, he fell to his knees, whispering prayers of thankfulness to his maker, rocking her in the dirt. And that’s where they stayed, long after the police gave up and left, leaving the soul mates to their happy ever after in the bayou shade.

Epilogue

Rixen

About a year later…

Rixen cradled his sleeping baby girl in one arm, pushing open the screen door with the other. As soon as he had Morgan in his sights, he relaxed. She’d been living with him in the Everglades for almost a year, but he still worried whenever she left the house. When she’d decided to stay with him, he’d begun training her to protect herself. His adorable little wife was now packing heat in the waistband of her sexy jean shorts and could name every kind of species of plant and animal in their bayou home. Upon learning she was pregnant, she’d been determined to know everything she could to protect their child and herself.

God, Rixen was proud of her. She was more than he could have hoped for in a wife and mother. Resourceful, sweet, nurturing. Sometimes he lay awake at night and crept out of their room so he could pray on hands and knees on the porch to the forces that brought Morgan to him. More often than not, he would reenter their bedroom, full of hunger, needing to worship her for becoming his world. For choosing him.

In the distance, Morgan raised her camera and clicked, capturing one of the muskrat scampering past on an overhead branch. No doubt, like all her photographs, it would be extraordinary. He’d added the dark room onto the side of the house the same week she’d decided to remain in the swamp. Best thing he’d ever done with his hands, besides touch his wife. She never failed to emerge from her workspace exhilarated. Happy. Wanting to tell him all about her newest shots.

She’d once told him her dream was to live in a place, learn its secrets and take pictures of them. That’s exactly what she’d done. Last month, she’d submitted her picture book to a publisher in the mail and received serious interest. Now she was working on completing the work for publication. Had he mentioned he was proud of her?

It took some time, but her mother was also proud and approved of her daughter’s decision to remain with Rixen in the bayou. Anyone who spent longer than five minutes in their presence knew they were in love and could not be separated—her mother was no different. When she’d come to visit, she’d been visibly alarmed at the depth of Rixen’s devotion to Morgan, but as her visit wore on, she admitted to dreaming of finding the same in a man someday. Even Rixen’s own brothers were beginning to come around more often with their wives. They still occasionally ribbed Rixen, but thanks to his wife, he now had the confidence to joke right back. Another aspect of his life strengthened by his gift.