Page 123 of Only and Forever

I reach for her and draw her onto my lap, setting the book on her legs. Tallulah peers down at me as the cats tumble around us, meowing happily, leaping off the book onto the floor. “I love it,” I tell her.

“You didn’t finish it,” she says. “There’s four pages left.”

“I still know I love it,” I tell her.

She smiles softly, then kisses me. “I’m glad.”

I kiss her tenderly, slowly, wrapping my arm around her waist and tugging her close. “Now.” I tap the book. “How about you do the honors?”

“You want me to read to you?”

I smile. “Will you?”

Tallulah blushes, slowly opening the manuscript. “All right.”

“Excellent.” I smile at her, leaning my head back on the rocker. “I’m trusting you to take care of my delicate heart here. Those two have put me through a lot. This book better finish with an ‘and they lived happily ever after’ or I’m going to riot.”

Tallulah’s smile turns coy. “This is the end of a thriller, Bergman, not a Hallmark movie. I can promise you that while this story ends well, it does not end with the phrase ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ ”

I give her an exaggeratedly stricken look that makes her laugh. “What?!”

Tallulah leans in and kisses me, soft and sweet. “I guess you’ll just have to find your HEA somewhere else. Maybe in one of those hundreds of beautiful books in your store.”

“Ourstore,” I whisper, drawing her close. “But there’s actually somewhere else I plan on finding my happy ending.”

She leans in, her mouth brushing mine. Her eyes glitter, filled with love. “And where is that?”

“Right here,” I whisper against our kiss, “with you.”

EPILOGUE

Tallulah

Playlist: “The Power of Love,” Vitamin String Quartet

Three years later

Springtime in Washington State. Is there anything better? After that spring three years ago, lying in a sea of blue flowers, the man I love wrapped in my arms, I used to think not. But now I know, somehow, every part of lifedoeskeep getting better and better because I share it with him—

Viggo, my love, my forever.

Right this moment, I am keenly aware of that impossible possibility, better beyond best, joy even greater than I imagined swelling through me.

Sunlight spills across the field, warming my skin, lighting up his eyes. A warm late June breeze sways the blue lupines that dance around us. Legs straddling Viggo, I stare into his eyes, feel his love, in his gaze holding mine, in his hands on my hips, sinking into my softness, gripping me for dear life. “God,” he groans, throwing his head back, writhing against the blanket beneath us, rocking underneath me. “Ride me hard, Lu. Harder.”

A moan leaves me as I make a fist with his shirt, crashing down on him, teeth clacking, dancing tongues. Viggo sits us up, deftly pulls away, turns me, then hoists me up by my hips, careful of my pod adhered to my stomach. He runs his hands appreciatively over myass as he eases back inside. A groan tears out of him, and I glance over my shoulder, thrilled at the sight of him, head back, sunshine gilding his hair and his eyelashes, glowing on his skin. He opens his eyes and finds mine, a sexy, knowing smile lifting his mouth.

Viggo bends over me and cages me in, kisses my shoulder, my neck, my cheek. He turns my face and takes my mouth with a hard, slow kiss. “I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you, too,” I whisper. My mouth falls open as he thrusts into me, in that controlled, teasing, wonderful way he has now, that keeps me right on edge, until I’m begging him to give me relief.

“I need it,” I plead as his hand slides down, cups my breast, then trails over my belly, around my pod, until his fingers are where I need him, right between my thighs, circling, drawing wetness up and circling more.

“I know what you need,” he says quietly, kissing my neck, biting it softly.

I gasp as I feel him swell inside me, and I push my hips back, seeking even more.

“That’s it, Lu,” he grunts, rubbing me faster, circling his hips while he’s deep inside me. Heat, sweet and sharp, soars through me as he draws me closer, my back to his chest, and whispers, hot in my ear, “Come all over my cock, Lu. Come on. Give it up.”

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