Page 98 of Shameless Vows

“You’re here,” I mumble, noting the distinctive slur of my speech that makes me sound like I’ve got a mouthful of marbles.

“Yeah.” Isla smiles sweetly and combs back my hair. “Your parents are on a plane. They’ll be here soon, too.”

“Fuck my parents,” my filter-lacking mouth blurts out.

She laughs lightly. “Don’t say that, Malachi. That’s awful. They’re worried about you.”

“I mean…” I blink a few more times and rub my eyes. “I don’t care that they’re not here yet. I care that you’re here.” I lift my hand to rest it on hers that’s still resting on my chest. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Of course I’m here,cariño.” I’m now one-hundred-percent positive that I’m back in the real world, and she’s calling mecariñoagain, and that has to be a good sign. “I’ve been here, and I’m going to stay here, and when they discharge you, we’re going to settle you in at the summer house, and I’m going to stay with you there.”

My face melts right alongside my heart. “You are?”

The tip of her nose turns pink, and her eyes are glittering a bit. “Of course I am.” She sniffles, and tears well up on the rims of her eyes. “We’ve had a really bad run. More than bad. But… Malachi…” Her bottom lip trembles. “Your heart stopped right under my fingers. And all I could think of was our whole lives. And these amazing people…” She lifts her hand briefly to gesture out the hospital room door before laying it back on my chest and curling her fingers between mine. “They brought you back, and I would be lying if I didn’t say it feels like they brought you back to me, and I don’t want to waste that. Everything that went wrong, and every bad thing that happened while we were married… it just doesn’t matter. I forgive you for all of it, and I hope you can forgive me for everything I did, because I just need you. I need us. I love you. You are so much a part of me that I don’t think there is a me without you. I just want to try.” She blinks, and a tear trips over her black eyelashes to slide down her weary face. “Will you try with me? Can we try? Can we fix all of this together? Please?”

My eyes shift slowly because it feels too good to be true. To the point that I can’t tell for sure if this is actually real, or if it’s a hallucination from the copious amounts of drugs I’m definitely on right now.

Nevertheless, even if it’s a hallucination, I’m prepared to drown myself in it, and answer with a simple, “Yes.”

Isla offers a small nod back, brows lifted. “Yeah?”

I’m suddenly very aware of how dry my mouth still is, and I swallow. “I can’t think of anything I need to forgive you for.”

She lifts one shoulder. “I was hateful to you a lot. Especially after I learned that it was all a lie. I was psychotic.”

“You had every reason to respond the way you did.” I let my head sink deeper against the pillow as I incline my face upward to see her better. Literally every part of me aches like a mother fucker, but I couldn’t be more content andhappy. “Isla.”

She combs back my hair. “Yes,amor.”

“Thank you for not hating me anymore.”

Her lips pull into a small, impish grin. “You’re welcome.”

I lift my hand to thread my fingers through the tips of her ponytail. Just as soft and silky as it always has been. “I wish I had words to tell you how much I love you.”

Her grin relaxes into a content, amorous smile as she leans close to my face, our fingers still laced together at my chest, and she presses a kiss to my lips that feels a hell of a lot like the first one she gave me when I was only fourteen.

“You don’t need them,cariño.I already know. I always have. I always will.”

EPILOGUE

ISLA

Eight Months Later

STARING OUT THE WINDOW of a suite in the Bellagio, I take in the view of the Las Vegas Strip all lit up against the black desert night, and then coyly turn to look at Malachi, who is momentarily stark naked as a jaybird after a shower. He’s minding his own business, picking up a pair of black boxer briefs off a chaise lounge where his suit is laid out, and we have impending plans with Joaquin and Liliana, as well as Elle and Colin, but I think all of that can wait for a bit.

I point at him with my flute of champagne. “Stop what you’re doing.”

Malachi cuts his pewter gaze up to me and arches an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon.”

I set my glass on a nearby table and place my hands on my hips, returning his arched eyebrow. “We’re about to do something very naughty,” I remind him. “But I want to do something even naughtier first.”

His dick goes hard and erect instantly, and then he tosses the boxer briefs aside as he approaches me with a chuckle that shakes his large shoulders. “There’s nothing naughty about either of those things,” he says with a smirk.

I lift my chin toward his face as he wraps his hands around my waist and pushes me against the window. The glass is cold on the skin of my back, exposed by a low-cut, white-beaded cocktail dress, and chills scatter my arms. “Pre-marital sex isvery naughty, Malachi. Sex against a window is evennaughtier.” I nip his bottom lip. “But we have always been a couple of sinners, haven’t we,amor?”

He laughs heartily. “I guess when you put it that way.” With both hands, he grabs the hem of my skirt and shimmies it up to my hips, flicking his gaze down and then dragging it back up to my face, his silver eyes darkening with heat. “Speaking ofsin. I see that my ex-wife-slash-bride-to-be has forgotten a very important part of her wardrobe.”

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