"I love you," I whisper against the cotton of his T-shirt, my voice low and fierce and full of everything I never thought I’d be able to feel about another human being.
Levi turns his head toward me, his blue eyes catching the last bright glint of sunlight on the water, and smiles slow, lazy, and devastatingly tender. He shifts Jackson onto the blanket and wraps both arms around me, dragging me closer, until there’s no space left between us.
"Love you too, baby," he murmurs, his voice a low rasp that turns my insides to molten sugar. He kisses me slow and deep, a kiss that feels like a promise and a vow and a thousand memories stitched into one breathless moment.
Later that night as we stumble through the house to put the kids to bed.
The second I turn around in the hallway, Levi is there, pressing me against the wall like he’s been holding himself back all damn day. His hands slide up my sides, rough and greedy, like he needs to map every curve, every soft place, just to make sure I’m real.
"You’re killing me, Serena," he mutters against my throat, his voice low and wrecked, his body already hard and hot against mine. "All fucking day, watching you hold our babies, laughing like you built the goddamn sun."
I gasp when his mouth finds the sensitive skin just below my ear, sucking hard enough to leave a mark. My fingers clutch at his shirt, trying to drag him closer, needing him like air.
I nod, breathless, aching, already dripping for him.
"Bedroom," I manage to rasp.
But Levi just scoops me up, throwing me over his shoulder with a rough chuckle that turns my insides to molten need. He carries me through the house like I weigh nothing, kicking open the bedroom door and tossing me onto the bed with a bounce that makes me squeal and laugh breathlessly.
"Strip," he commands, his eyes dark, pupils blown wide with hunger.
I yank my clothes off without hesitation, skin burning under his stare, my nipples already hard, my thighs slick and trembling. Levi watches me like a man on the verge of fucking starvation. He tears his shirt over his head, drops his jeans, and fuck, he’s already thick and heavy, his cock standing proud, ready.
I open my legs for him, shameless, greedy, my hands slipping down to spread myself wide so he can see just how much I want him. Fuck I always want him.
He groans, low and brutal. "Jesus fucking Christ, look at you."
He stalks toward the bed, climbing up between my thighs, one hand wrapping around the back of my knee to hook it over his shoulder, opening me up even wider.
"You’re dripping for me," he murmurs, dragging the head of his cock through my soaked folds, teasing me, smearing my slick all over his thick shaft. "So fucking ready to be filled."
"Please, Levi," I beg, my voice wrecked, needy. "Please fuck me."
He doesn’t make me wait. With one brutal thrust, he buries himself to the hilt, stretching me wide, filling every desperate inch of me, until there’s no space left between us.
"Fuck, you feel good," he groans, bracing his big hands on either side of my head, driving into me with deep, filthy strokes that make my toes curl and my back arch off the bed.
I clutch at his shoulders, dragging my nails down his back as he pounds into me, relentless, savage, owning me the way only he can.
His mouth crashes onto mine, messy and desperate, tongues tangling, teeth clashing, and it’s too much, too good. I spiral higher and higher, my body tightening around him like a fucking vice.
"Come for me, baby," he rasps, reaching down to rub tight circles on my clit with his rough thumb. "Soak my cock. Fucking mark me."
It only takes a few more thrusts before I shatter around him, crying out his name, my orgasm crashing through me like a goddamn tsunami.
Levi’s roar follows a second later as he drives in deep one final time, spilling inside me, his whole body shaking with the force of it.
He collapses onto me, heavy and solid and perfect, our bodies slick and tangled, our hearts hammering against each other like a single, frantic beat.
He kisses my shoulder, my throat, my temple, whispering rough, reverent promises against my skin.
"My girl," he murmurs. "My fucking everything."
And as I hold him close, feeling the steady thump of his heart against mine, I know it down to my soul.
There’s no better ending.
Because this isn’t an ending at all.
It’s our forever. And this girl deserves her hero.