Page 124 of Till Death Do Us Part

As the crowd chattered and came alive with me, Vera squeezed me just a little tighter into her side, a small, quiet gesture that felt bigger than the world in that moment.

Me, my wife, and our family.

I never thought that would feel so right.

Chapter 63

elaine

The manor was a lively place once we made it back. We spent two weeks recovering in the Whitecliff stronghold, while some of Rail’s people swept the manor and made sure it was safe—as well as cleaning up all the blood. Although I was sure the Blackbirds’ remaining loyalists would be out for revenge, and their hacker was still out there, for now, Vera’s house—our house, the Penumbra Manor, was safe.

And it was home.

Petra was back to working in the garage as soon as we were set up again in the house. Caitlyn got a dedicated computer setup in the server room to help her do her work, even though she spent a lot of time out in the garage as well, seemingly mostly just to argue with Petra. Jenna brought one of the physicians from the Whitecliff stronghold, a young assistant that had taken to Jenna’s work and wanted to hone her craft under Jenna, and they set up together in the house as well, both of them always kept busy. Yulia came and went, an honorary member of the family even though her loyalties lay with the Whitecliffs, and she would come as a liaison as we worked together on securing things from any remaining Blackbird insurgents, making sure Horizon was completely shut down—always here for business, but of course, every time, she wound up staying for dinner while Vera argued with her about something that didn’t matter.

And of course, Vera came home with us, too. She relaxed in a way I’d never seen before, a light coming into her eyes, even alongside a vulnerability that came to the surface when I found her in the music room one quiet evening after dinner, playing Moonlight Sonata. The song that was always just for me.

She gestured me to sit with her once she’d finished playing, and I squeezed onto the end of the piano bench next to her. She put her hand in my lap, and I held it in mine, squeezing.

“I finalized everything with Rail just now,” she said. “We’re officially working together. Strange seeing the man back in action… he retired right when I joined the Blackbirds, so it feels almost like…”

“Almost like a new beginning?” I said quietly, and she looked down.

“Elaine… I’ve trained for anything and everything. I know how to handle any mission, how to handle any target, how to handle anything gone wrong. But I’ve never trained for this. I never trained to… love somebody.” Her voice fell into the softest, tenderest whisper. “Let alone someone like you.”

I squeezed her hand, my heart pouring out love for this woman, this woman who had put everything on the line for me, who had been reborn for me. “You don’t need training to love somebody,” I whispered. “It’s in your heart. In the human part of you that they could never get rid of. You’ve always known how, Vera. It’s just that nobody let you before.”

She laughed thickly. “Clearly I don’t. We did it backwards. You don’t typically get married first.”

“Well… we chart our own path, don’t we?”

“We do.” She turned and kissed me, her lips finding mine and claiming me, gentle but strong, confidently possessive. That I was hers, and that she was mine.

“You know,” she breathed against my lips, her fingers curling in my hair, “this is going to be dangerous. Even now that things are settled with the Blackbirds and the Whitecliffs, it’s not going to be easy.”

“Then all the more reason I won’t leave you to go it alone.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“And I don’t want anything to happen to you, either,” I said. “Whatever comes next, we’ll face it together.”

She smiled against my lips. “You’ve made quite a showing. You’re going to be involved in a lot of different events, with a lot of different people. And if anyone so much as looks at you for too long, I’m going to break them.”

I slipped my hand to her hip, holding her against me. “You can stake your claim on me for all the world to see. However you like. I want everyone to know I’m your wife, and nobody else’s.”

“Penumbra is going to gain quite the reputation if it involves me stabbing everyone who looks at you.”

“Well… hopefully people will learn soon to stop looking at me too long.”

She laughed, kissing me again, and then down to my jaw, her hand caressing my side. “So, you mean it, then,” she said. “You’ve seen everything there is to see here. Every side of me… and you’re still here. You really intend to keep up.”

I blushed, softening into her touch. “I do,” I breathed. “I don’t need a contract to… belong to you.”

“And when I want to make you mine?” she growled, her lips on my neck. “When I take everything I want from you?”

“It’s yours, Vera. Everything here belongs to you. Use my body as you would your own.”

She pulled me up into her lap, pulling my dress straps down and feeling her hands over my breasts as her mouth crushed against mine, taking what she wanted from me. I moaned, my body reacting instantly, the way it always had for her.