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“So fucking sweet,” he murmurs against my skin before devouring the other nipple. My body bucks and writhes beneath his. It’s been so long since I’ve felt this alive, so filled with need and passion, I’m afraid I might burst.

“I can’t take it anymore,” he groans in my ear. “I want you so damn much, Grace.”

Clawing at his shirt, I pull it over his head. “Then take me already. Please.” Nearly crying now, I can’t convey to him in words how much I need this moment.

Whatever reservations he may have had are washed away when my hand slides down his shorts, grasping his hard length in my palm. He calls out in pleasure, resting his forehead against mine. “Oh, fuck,” he curses, pushing his body into my waiting hand. Moisture leaks from his tip and I know he’s willing himself to hold back.

Demanding hands push down the elastic waist band of his shorts. His cast gets in the way and as he kneels up to pull them the rest of the way off, he falls to his side, rolling onto his back. Not one to waste an opportunity like this, I climb on top of his hard body.

Hovering over him, I ignore the shaking in my legs. “I need you,” I murmur, lowering my wet flesh to his cock beneath me. Rocking back and forth, I coat him in my wetness, not taking him inside yet. I know I couldn’t handle it. My need is too much, my desire too full.

His wide, swollen crown flicks over my clit with each pass. An electric storm brews low in my belly, threatening to burst into a million streaks of brilliant light, white hot and impossibly bright. His strong hands settle on my hips, pushing me back and forth even faster. “Come, Gracie. Come all over me. Let go. I’ll catch you when you fall.”

Those words are my undoing.

Not because my body explodes into impossibly small shards of pleasure.

But because he’s said them before. Time and time again, he’s promised me that he’d be there for me when I fell.

And here he is.

Holding me steady as my body convulses in a pleasure only he can give me.

“You’ve told me those words before. You always promised to catch me.” My voice is a garbled mess of need and near sobs.

He wars with his words, and rather than saying anything, seals his lips over mine, promising more than anything spoken ever could have.

Before I can catch my breath, I pull myself up, reach in between our bodies, and guide him into my still-spasming core.

“Oh, fuck,” he calls out, pushing deep inside. “I can’t,” he cries, the veins in his neck bulging with his restraint. “Oh, shit, Grace.”

Twining my fingers with his, I stretch our arms above his head. Pressing my soft body against his hard chest, I move back and forth, loving how he grows harder and harder with each push and pull.

Wrapping an arm around my back, he holds another steady in my hair. Locking me in place, he shifts his hips, swiveling them, bringing me right to that delicious edge once again.

Smoothly, he rolls us over, never once severing the connection between us.

In that moment, I realize we’ve never been disconnected. Darkness may have separated us for some time, but it only dimmed our light. It never extinguished it completely.

Resting his elbows on the pillow under my head, his mouth covers mine. His body drives into me, filling me, pulling me into an abyss of pleasure only he’s capable of rescuing me from.

“Oh, God, oh, God,” I pant, clawing at his back. Another orgasm barrels through me, blinding me with its ferocity.

“Gracie,” he calls out. His movements grow more frantic and frenzied, less rhythmic and controlled. “Oh, fuck,” he growls once more, burying himself deep inside of me.

Collapsing on top of me, his breathing is erratic, his heart pounding in his chest. Resting his cheek on my chest, I don’t mind the scratchy stubble one bit.

Combing my hand through his almost inky-black hair, a peace like I’d never known glows around me.

“You’re right,” he says out of nowhere. Rolling from my body, he lays on his side, looking down at me. “It’ll never be enough.” He combs his fingers through the tangled mess of my hair. “Being with you, like that, it’ll never be enough.”

My stomach sinks. My heart begins to crack in half. Preparing myself for the worst, I wait for him to tell me he can’t be with me.

Instead, he smiles down at me, pressing his lips tenderly to my forehead. “It’ll never be enough because I’ll always want more.”

That admission is the first brick of the foundation on which we build our new beginning.

Sitting in my chair on the stage, I look out into the crowd. The faces of the people who have loved me when I was at my lowest smile back at me. The commissioner speaks words about our bravery and dedication, about how committed we are to protecting the life and welfare of the people in our city. But all I can think of is how brave they’ve been.

They were there for me when I was broken, when I was someone who was barely even alive. Tethered to the darkness, they were my beacon of light. All I had to do was open my eyes.

And at the heart of it all is my Grace.

She catches me staring at her and the rest of the room fades away. It’s the exact same thing that happened when I saw her walking down the aisle at the church on our wedding day.

The organ played in the background and our friends and family gasped in awe as they watched Grace walked arm-in-arm with her father. She may as well have been an angel floating toward me in a sea of white and sparkles. I can’t remember much about what she wore, or how she looked except everything was perfect.

Beautiful.

She smiled at me and everyone else ceased to exist. When Walter gave me her hand, a sense of duty like no other took up residence in my soul. I would spend the rest of my living days protecting this woman who stood by my side when I gave her no reason to have faith in me. Holding her hand in mine, I ran my finger over the engagement ring I bought her long ago. When the time came to propose, again, I told her I would get her a new ring. I wanted her to have everything she deserved and so much more. Of course, she wanted no part of that, telling me that her old ring was the perfect mix of then and now. Looking down at that diamond on her finger, she couldn’t be more right about it.

As the priest spoke on about honor and commitment, fidelity and loyalty, Grace smiled at me, a single tear tracking down her cheek. Stroking it away with my thumb, my heart nearly burst when she leaned into my touch.

We spoke our vows and exchanged our rings, mesmerized by the emotion of it all. And in the seconds between the priest saying, “You may kiss the bride,” and my lips pressing against hers, she said, “I told you I’d say yes. Every day, for the rest of my life, I’ll always say yes.”

Brought back to the here and now, the commissioner’s voice booms over the microphone, commanding us all to stand. “It is with great honor and pride that I present to you the newest thirty lieutenants in the FDNY.”

Lost in my own bubble of awe, I’m more than proud of my journey to this point. Getting to this point was not easy in the least. Needing weeks and weeks of retraining, I essentially had to complete the probie training all over again. Despite having already passed the lieutenant’s test, I needed to take it again. Yet, while some may have been discouraged at needing to begin anew, all it did for me was remind me how much I love my job.

The crowd erupts into a loud cheer, applauding us on our accomplishment. After we’re dismissed from our seats on the stage, I make my way through the sea of families greeting my fellow lieutenants. Camera flashes and words of praise fill the room. As I make my way toward my own family, I can’t find Grace.

“It’s about time,” Ian chimes in as he walks toward me. “I was starting to think they’d never promote you.” He received his prosthetic legs about six months after the attack that forced him out of active service. But his injuries haven’t stopped him from continuing to work. Now, rather than running into burning buildings, he runs marathons, doing charity work for the Wounded Warriors organization. That is when he’s not teaching here at the academy. He never misses an opportunity to rub it in my face that he was promoted before me. Not that it matters, I couldn’t be happier for him. And more thankful for the way he saved my life.

And his own.

I’d say he settled down with Jade, but that woman is far from
settling.
They’re a perfect balance for each other, a mirror of each other’s humor and strength.

Jade smiles from his side. “Congratulations,” she says, hugging me. “Don’t mind him.” She gives Ian the stink eye and elbows him in the ribs. “What he meant to say was that he was proud of you, too. Right?” She eyes him expectantly.

“Yes, dear,” he responds dutifully.

“Where’s Gracie?” I ask after greeting her parents and my own.

“You have to ask?” Her mother laughs.

“Bathroom, I assume.”

“I swear, I need to go like every five seconds,” Grace’s voice floats to me from behind. “If this kid doesn’t get out soon, I’m just going to live in there.”

Pulling her to my side, I place my hand over her rounded belly. Lowering my head a touch, I say “Did you hear that?” A gentle kick responds. “Mommy wants you out.”

“Stop making her kick. It’ll make me have to pee again.” Smiling at me, she pops a kiss to my cheek. “I’m proud of you. You know that?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m kind of a big deal,” I joke and everyone around us laughs.

“All right, all right. You think you can fit that giant head of yours through the door. We’re taking you out to celebrate.”

“I can turn sideways.” My joke is met with a light, playful slap on the arm from Grace and a snickering laugh from everyone else.

“This is where you took me on our
first
first date,” Grace says as she lowers herself rather clumsily into a chair.

In the years since my accident, Grace has told me some stories of what our life was like beforehand. But as the days moved on, the past became less and less important. The only thing that mattered was today, the here and now.

And here and now is pretty amazing.

Ian boasts about his latest run, telling me I need to get my ass in gear. “Yeah, well, I challenge you to a furniture assembling contest. That’s a real challenge.” Having spent the last few weekends putting together a crib and other assorted baby gear, I’ll never look at a completed nursery lightly again.

Holding up his hands in mock defense, he concedes, “Fine. You win. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with that. Babies and whatnot. That’s some real scary stuff right there.”

Slapping him on his arm, Jade says, “Don’t listen to him. He’s as excited as the rest of us for this sweet baby girl to get here.”

“Not as excited as I am,” Grace says from her seat. Standing up, she excuses herself to the bathroom once more, complaining about it until her voice melts into the rest of the noise.

As the crowd of our friends and family move around us in the small Italian restaurant, a warm feeling of happiness settles in me. When Grace returns, I rest my hand over her belly. I smile at her, knowing that choosing to bury my past, the parts I couldn’t remember at least, was the best decision I ever could have made. Weighed down by the
before
kept me from stepping into the
after.
It was only through Grace’s love that I was able to move on and stop thinking I was somehow broken.