Page 168 of Resurfaced Passion

“I want to tell you a story.”

Another flashed grin. “Go for it.”

“It’s the day I met the most amazing boy. Golden lion eyes with messy sandy hair, shorter than it is now and a smile that made me feel like a goddess. And what an accent he had; my young heart was instantly smitten.”

The smile slid off Reaper’s face.

Goosebumps ran over flesh. She didn’t take her eyes from his face.

“I knew he was special; I told my friend about three minutes after meeting him that he was mine and would be mine forever.” A hitch in her breath didn’t stop Paige. “This story takes us to a wedding day so beautiful; I can still feel the sun on my face. Not from the weather, it was the way my beautiful boy looked at me. So in love.”

“Paige…you called me Judson…”

“Birthday celebrations with my boy. His face when I climbed a tree and he tried to entice me down. He did too, he always could. We decided to make a baby that day right there on a picnic blanket.”

“Oh, baby.” His voice crackled. Eyes flashed. “You remember.”

She nodded madly, smiling like a fool in love, eyes shining wetly. Before another word was said, Reaper took hold of the top rope and leapt himself over and landed competently on his two feet.

She was dragged into his arms.

“I remember, baby.” She breathed in his scent. Elated. Not just for herself, but for her man who’d been alone for so long, he’d suffered so much more. “Not everything. I don’t remember…that day. I don’t think I want to.”

Two hands cupped her head. “Are you good? Feel okay?”

“Oh, yes. I’m great.” She couldn’t stop sifting through all her lost memories of him. She loved that he loved her now, and to be told he loved her then was special but to actually feel it … it was the gift of a lifetime. Tears stung the back of her eyelids and she clung to him. “I don’t know what to say, Judson. How to express what I feel because you did all this, you quietly put a placeholder in our life, you held it all together. You were alone for so long just waiting for me to be ready to come back. You never gave up hope, you never gave up on me. You could have and I wouldn’t have blamed you one bit for wanting to be happy. You gave up everything to watch me andwait.”

She stopped to take a few deep breaths, as a tear tracked down her cheek. He quickly swiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

“I didn’t give up anything, ladybug. You’re my everything and you’re right here, you’ve always been here.”

So much love for him. “You will never know how grateful I am for your perseverance, my love.My only love.My Judson. The absolute light of my soul. You are the best man in the world and I’m so very lucky to know you and to have the privilege of loving you all over again.” She kissed over his face, tears running from her eyes. “I fell in love with you twice, Judson. I will always fall in love with you.”

And then she started bawling. Absolute uglybawling.

They ended up perched against the side of the ring and Paige half curled on his lap, with long fingers stroking in and out of her hair while she exhausted her emotions.

“You make me so happy,” she shared. “I was deliriously happy without remembering anything, I want you to know that. I love you endlessly already. But having those pictures in my head of falling for my boy and feeling how you fell for me? I’m so happy I could burst.”

Kisses rained over her face and Reaper laughed, a sound she took into herself because it meant he was happy too.

“I don’t think you understand how deep my love for you runs, ladybug. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to ensure your happiness.”

She was beginning to.

“You were the center of my universe, Judson, I’m so sorry I forgot the love of my life for so long.”

“Paige, my beautiful girl, love of my fucking life, I belonged to you the day I laid eyes on you. Absolutely nothing would sway me from feeling responsible for you. I loved you then, I adored you every single minute and my love for you now is all the bigger. I would always come after you. I would always chase my wife all over the fucking world if need be, I’m that kind of annoying prick, you can’t get rid of me.”

She grinned ridiculously wide.

Forcing her mouth open to take his tongue in deep, lustful strokes, they shared a kiss for then, for now and for the tomorrow they hadn’t lived yet.

“An inch is an inch, Paige. As long as we move forward, that’s what counts, right? I want this. You want this. I’ll go anywhere you want, take you anywhere you want to go, as long as you let me be with you because I’m a greedy motherfucker and would have you any way I can. I love you so fucking much.”

Inhaling, Paige pushed out of his arms, panting like she’d been running upstairs.

“Drop your skipping rope, Judson. You’re taking me home and showing me how this greed manifests.”

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