Page 128 of The Vow

“You…what…how…” My eyes whipped over him in a frenzy of disbelief. This couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be real. I was hallucinating.

“I promised you I’d come back to you,” he said, piercing the panic of disenchantment, his words a balm over my beaten, broken heart.

In shock, I watched his hand extend toward me, and I wanted to resist, so afraid that if he wasn’t real, I wouldn’t recover. But before I could stop myself, my hand reached out and landed in the warm strength of his.

“Damon,” I choked out.

“I’m here, Robber,” he murmured, eyes twinkling. “God, how I’ve missed you.”

With a strangled cry, I reached up and grabbed his collar with my other hand, catching his look of surprise a second before I pulled him into the pool, the water gobbling him up.

His hat remained on the surface, floating away as his head brokethrough the water.

“What do you think you’re doing, wife?” he growled and gripped my arm, hauling me to his chest. His suit was plastered to him, but I still felt the heat of his body underneath.

“Making sure you’re real.”

He cupped my cheeks, the warmth of his eyes skating over my face. “I don’t know about real, Robber, but I do know I’m yours.”

Tears mingled with water running down my face. A small cry bubbled from my throat as I wrapped my arms around his neck and crushed my mouth to his.

Real.Mine.

“Damon…”

“I told you I’d come back to you.”

“How?” I breathed out.

“I have a lot of information to barter, Robber. A lot to trade to be able to live the rest of my life with you,” he said, his hand brushing my wet hair back from my face. “And I have new ankle jewelry to prove it.”

A watery laugh sounded from my chest, the ball of my foot brushing against the ankle monitor on his right leg.

“I can’t believe they let you go.” I pulled his face to mine.

His chest rumbled into mine. “Oh, they didn’t let me go. I am most assuredly indentured to the US government for a very long time. They did realize I’m much more valuable as an asset rather than a prisoner.”

Questions spilled like marbles through my mind, running in all kinds of directions for what this arrangement meant for him. For us. But I didn’t care about collecting the answers tonight. I didn’t care about anything except that he was here.

“Was this your plan all along?” My eyes searched his, our lips a breath from touching.

“Not my plan, Robber. My promise,” he said low. “I promised I’d come back to you.”

I breathed fully as though for the first time in months, and then I felt it, the steady thump in my chest. The warmth of relief. The bloom of hope. The end we’d fought for had come and gone, and now, it was time for our beginning.

“I love you, Damon.”

“As ever.” I was smiling as his mouth came for mine again, my final vow sealed to my lips.

“Forever.”

Epilogue

Damon

One year later…

“Robber? I’m home,” I called into the house, pulling my hat off and hanging it on its hook on the wall.

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