Page 99 of Love Beyond the Illusion
A tight murmur slips out before I hear her sweet voice. “I love you.”
“I love you,” I say into the softness of her bottom lip.
I love Piper with everything I have and hearing her feel the same is the most indescribable feeling I have ever experienced. Finding your best friend and soulmate in the same person is a rarity that I will not let slip away.
As we both stand in the middle of an airport in the city that I escaped to so many years ago, running from a life already charted for me, I will now be returning to the place I desperately ran from. But this time, I’m leaving this city eager to start a new yet familiar life back in Dupara, another thing I never thought I’d do.
She slowly pulls away, leaving me pining for more. “And you flew all the way out here to tell me this?”
“Absolutely.”
She smiles brightly.
Placing two fingers under her chin, I raise my wife’s face to mine and kiss her softly once again.
“Let’s go back to my place,” she says, threading her fingers through my hair.
“I want to do nothing else besides get buried inside you for the rest of my life.” I reach into the front pocket of my jeans. “Oh, and I almost forgot,” I say, carefully pulling out a rolled-up straw wrapper.
Piper covers her mouth in shock. “You still have it.”
I smile, grab one of her hands, and place the delicate circular-shaped piece of paper onto her ring finger. “I promise to give you a real one very soon.”
She stares down at the paper ring, then looks up at me with the flame in her eyes that I love so much. “Does this mean we won’t be getting a divorce?”
I shake my head. “Not a chance.”
“Good, because you’d never be able to get rid of me that easily.”
“I’m never going to.” I interlace my fingers through hers.
“Lina, Bailey, and Avery dropped me off, so we’ll have to take a rideshare back to my apartment.”
“You should probably tell them you’re not getting on the flight, so they’re not worried, and I’ll order the ride from my phone,” I tell her.
Piper pulls out her phone from the pocket of her cross bag and then peers behind my shoulder. “Where’s your suitcase?”
“I didn’t bring one.”
“Were you not planning on staying?”
“I was. I didn’t think that far ahead. When I walked back into our bedroom at the villas, I realized I didn’t want to be there without you. I returned as quickly as possible and hopped on the first flight out.”
“You can be quite impetuous, you know that?”
I arch an eyebrow. “Me? You’re the one who married a guy on the first date—in Vegas and drunk, I might add.”
Piper hangs off my shoulder as we walk. “I guess we both are.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re going through the door of Piper’s apartment.
I glance around the space while I wheel her luggage across the hardwood floors, setting it next to the corner of the wall. It looks exactly how I thought it would be. Natural tones of green, brown, and beige, a couple of snake and spider plants are scattered throughout the room, and a large tapestry with the moon phases printed on it hangs on the far wall behind the couch.
“This is my place,” she says, opening the blinds.
“It looks like my wife.”
Piper grabs the flaps of my jacket, yanking me into her. “I love it when you call me that.”
