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And I was going to fucking shout it from the rooftops.

I would no longer allow us to be carved in the shadows.

It was time to stand in the light.

“Okay.” She nodded again, then I was climbing up and pushing her onto the bed. She was giggling the sweetest, most delirious sounds, and I was sucking them down. Embedding them into my consciousness as I kissed her slow and tender.

“No okay to it, Little Apple,” I rumbled as I peppered adoring kisses to her mouth. “Wonderful. Phenomenal. Fucking heaven.”

I could feel her smile against my lips. Everything drifting and soft and so fucking solid as I held her close.

“Heaven,” she returned.

And that’s exactly where I wanted to stay.

SIXTY-EIGHT

ELENA

“Have a nice day,” I called to the woman who had just paid and was stepping out The Crimson Apple’s door, the bell jangling above her.

The second she disappeared, Trevan’s warm breath hit me on the back of the neck. “How are you feeling?”

His presence was a skittering of affection that wrapped me like a dream.

Joy twisted my mouth in an overindulgent smile.

How was this my life?

This man and this store and the hope of what was to come.

A slew of poopy diapers, but I was totally on board with that.

I took a risk and rocked back into Trevan’s embrace. The man hovered closer than he normally would in public. Not quite fully plastered to my back but close enough that I could feel every hard, packed inch of him.

Every divot and ridge that I’d memorized in the dark.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to start fretting over me.” I crammed as much teasing as I could into it. Really difficult when I was stuffed with fluttery euphoria.

He grunted. “Newsflash, Elena. I always fret over you. Now I’m going to be fretting for two.”

A tinkling giggle worked its way up my throat. “Why does this scare me a little bit?”

“Because I have half a mind to swaddle you up in bubble wrap and keep you locked behind closed doors for the next nine months.”

A playful scoff rolled out as I went to work reshuffling some paperwork that had gathered on the counter. “Now that I’m free, my wings won’t be clipped.”

A blaze of the connection we shared danced across my flesh as he let his hand wind around to my front. A big palm splayed wide across my belly.

“Never, Little Apple. I would never hold you back. Just gonna be there to support you in all that you do and in all that you want.”

Emotion rose and crested, and I released a shivery sigh when he pushed past another barrier and leaned in so he could run his mouth along the underside of my jaw. His rumbly voice rolled through my senses. “I need to head to the compound. I texted Silas and told him there is something I need to talk to him about in private. I asked Regan to come stand guard outside the store.”

Nerves scattered. Every littered obstacle that Trevan and I had strewn between us culminated in this.

Silas’s approval.

Not that I’d let him stop us.