Page 67 of Deceit

Day sixty-two. Tallinn, Estonia.

I want to give you new memories of the snow. To teach you how to make snow angels. Yours, Ren.

Tears leaked out of her eyes as she read this one, and then them all, over and over again. How could she explain to him that she had long since made peace with the fact that he’d just been doing his job when he’d tricked her. That after talking with the people from Omega—and having experienced Damien’s horrific violence herself—that she understood that Damien had to be stopped no matter what.

She was just afraid she was too broken to ever be the woman Ren deserved to have.

Day one hundred and five. Bari, Italy.

We don’t have to have all the answers now. We will figure them out as we go. Yours, Ren.

She painted. Day in and day out. Scenes of the ocean. Of Cream. Of people. Of storms she witnessed. But mostly of that beautiful spot in the wilderness looking down on the river. When she finally got enough guts to show them to a gallery they surprised her by immediately wanting to put on a private show of just her work.

The show came and went the next month and Natalie was flabbergasted by the fact that nearly every single piece had sold and at quite a hefty price.

She was going to be able to make it on her own.

And that was when she realized she didn’t want to. She wanted to be beside Ren—to share every part of her life with him. She could paint anywhere. And where she really wanted to paint the most was at a farm in Montana that she’d never seen.

It was time.

The next day she senthima postcard.

Santa Barbara. Montana. Any of the places on your postcards. As long as it’s you and me together. Yours, Peaches.

When a knock came on the door that night, she opened it, never expecting it could be Ren. But it was.

“What—How—I just sent the postcard this morning!”

His fingers were in her hair, pulling her close. She breathed in his scent, arms slipping around him.

“I ran out of patience—and postcards—last week. I was here to beg, grovel, do whatever I needed to do to get you back into my life. We can take it slow, or we can drive to Vegas tonight and get married. But please, Peaches, just tell me you will be with me.”

She smiled. “Yes. Like you said, we’ll work out the details as we go. But...yes.”

His arms wrapped around her hips, pulling her up to him so he could kiss her. Gently. Reverently. Kisses that stole her breath. Stole her heart.

“As much as I’d like to stay here doing this for the rest of the night—hell, the rest of mylife—there’s something nibbling on my ankle.”

Natalie giggled. “That would be Cream. I think you’re to blame for him.”

A smile full of reverence softened his face. “I’ll take the blame for anything that causes you to make that sound and your face tolight up like that. I plan to take every bad memory you have and replace each one with a dozen new good ones.”

He set Natalie down so she could pick up Cream.

“That might take a long time.”

He kissed her. “That’s okay, Peaches.” Then smiled at the pup who was busy licking both their faces. “And Cream. We’ve got forever.”

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