The Enigma (Unlawful Men)

“Hi,” he whispers, and I smile. “It’s me.”

“Hi, me.”

“How’s the sunshine?”

“Warm on my back.” I lift my butt up into his groin with too much effort, and he groans into my neck.

“I’m your sunshine?”

Warm. Bright. “You’re my sunshine,” I confirm, wriggling as best I can without spiking too much pain. But it seems every move hurts. He raises onto his toes and fists, and I turn over, trying to hide the discomfort on my face. He remains suspended above me.

“We’re still not done,” he says quietly, lowering and kissing my lips gently before rising again.

My sunshine. Warmth where there’s cold. Light where there’s dark. Happiness where there’s misery. “Then ask me again,” I say, reaching for the center of his chest and drawing a straight, light line down the middle to his bellybutton. I flick my eyes up to his, relishing his smile.

“If I asked you to marry me,” he whispers, “would you say yes?”

“Yes,” I reply, and he lowers again, placing another kiss on my mouth, this time remaining lowered. No weight on me, his strong arms and straight legs keeping him hovering above my body. For the first time in what feels like an eternity, he advances our kiss, releasing his tongue and finding mine. Swirling slowly. Lapping softly.

Glass.

I take all he is offering, indulging, feeling.

Loving.

“I have a condition,” I murmur around our lips, and he hums, lost. “You don’t kill Dexter.” As expected, he pulls away, and I smile, almost in apology. “I don’t think I could live with myself. I don’t think I could look Lawrence in the eye.”

His Adam’s apple rolls from his swallow, his eyes searching mine. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I can live with honest justice where he’s concerned.” The kind of justice Mom believed in, and which I did too, before I lost her. “I need to know why he did it. How he got in so far up to his neck that he saw that as his only out. I need that, James.”

His nostrils flare. He doesn’t like it, but surely he must understand. “He killed our baby, Beau.” He swallows and lowers again, burying his face in my neck, keeping my front free from his weight

“And he’ll pay,” I say, taking my arm around his back and stroking across his uneven skin. “Okay?”

“Okay,” he breathes, but it’s reluctant. “Anything else?”

“Yes. Once you’ve found The Bear, we leave Miami for good.” I can’t deny him that one kill. I won’t truly ever have James until he’s exorcized that demon. I know that. And, really, I need it too. It’s the missing piece of our puzzle. The path to our eternal peace. Dexter played a part, but he didn’t order the kill.

“Where do you want to go?” He lifts and looks down at me. I can already see his eyes darkening. Vengeance brewing.

“I like it here.”

“Then I’ll buy it.” A kiss.

“And what will you do with all of your time?” I ask.

“I’m going to be your constant sunshine, baby.” His tongue circles mine slowly, his kiss deep and long, before he starts pecking his way down my neck to my chest.

I sigh and drop my head to the side, looking out at the sea.

And in the distance, vivid and stretching across the horizon…

A rainbow.