Page 91 of Riding Hard

“You got my name on your wrist and my ring on your finger,” I murmur. “How in the fuck did this even happen?” I ask.

She pushes up, straightening her arm as her eyes find mine. Her cheeks are red, her face is flushed, and I have to admit that she looks goddamn amazing when she’s freshly fucked by me.

I glide my fingers along her jawline as I stare into those blue eyes that fucking own me. She turns her head, her lips touching the center of my palm before she shifts back, resting her cheek against my hand.

“I came stumbling into town, and you saved me.”

“No,” I grunt.

“No?”

My lips twitch into a smirk as I continue to search her gaze with my own. She’s wrong, though. So goddamn wrong. I never saved her.

“You saved yourself, Jules. I’ve just got your back. Always.”

She smiles, and then, before I realize what’s happening, she’s crawling over me, her legs widening as she straddles my hips. Curling my fingers around her hips, I hold her there, keeping her where she is.

My cock twitches. Her warmth pressing against my cock is almost too much. She’s silent as she lowers her head, and her lips touch mine. I expect the kiss to deepen, but it doesn’t. Her lips barely brush mine before she speaks.

“It’s fate, Slade. I was always meant to be here. It’s always been you. I just had to find my way to you. And I did.”

When I flex my hips, we both groan, and I wonder if I can fuck her again this soon, and then she rocks her hips along my length, and I realize I just might be able to. “Jules,” I groan. “I would have found you one way or another. I was always going to find you.”

And I sure as fuck was. I didn’t spend fifty years living in goddamn misery to not fight for the light at the end of the tunnel, and Juliette is that light. I don’t deserve her. I know I don’t, but I’ll never give her up. Not fucking ever.

I will fight for her until the day I fucking die. And then I’ll come back and fight from the fucking grave, because she was meant for me—made for me. And only me. She’s my woman. My old lady. My future wife.

EPILOGUE

JULIETTE

TWO MONTHS LATER

Chewing on my bottom lip, I look over my shoulder and wonder what the hell I’m thinking, not that I did much thinking when I got into this predicament. But then my gaze lands across the room.

Releasing my lip, I feel my mouth curve up into a smile at the sight of Cade standing next to the dessert table.

He’s smiling as he looks over at some girls dancing. I don’t know who they are. Hell, I don’t know who half of these people are, but that doesn’t stop me from grinning like a fool, and it’s because I’m ridiculously happy… for several reasons.

One being that Cade is in my life. I don’t know how I even lived without him in my life. Without cartoons in the mornings, animated video games on the weekends. Stories. My god, how did I live my life without the amazing stories he has to tell?

Every day is new and exciting because he’s part of it. I didn’t think children were ever going to be in the scope of my life, not with the way I was constantly on the run, and I refused to bring a child into the world that had Victor as a father.

But being a mother to Cade has given me joy that I didn’t even know was possible or plausible. It’s only been a few months. Everything is still very new, but it’s been the best few months of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Not for a single thing.

“They are seriously having a blast. Who would have thought a sixth-grade pool party would be this fun?” Elodie asks.

“I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever attend a sixth-grade pool party,” I murmur.

Cade reaches for a dessert. It’s a cookie, and I watch as he leaves the girls he was standing beside, then walks over to one who is sitting by herself on a chair underneath an umbrella. We’re at Elodie and Alex’s neighborhood pool, a place I’ve discovered both Elodie and Alex will find any excuse to rent, including an end-of-the-school-year sixth-grade pool party.

“Now that is freaking cute,” Elodie whispers.

I know what she’s talking about, because we’re both focused on Cade sitting beside the girl who is alone and sliding a cookie over in her direction. She looks at the cookie, then slowly brings her gaze up to meet his. Her cheeks tint pink, and it’s not because it’s a million degrees outside.

“Cute or not, he needs to stay away from her,” a deep voice growls behind me.

I look over my shoulder to see Slade standing behind me, his arms crossed over his chest and his focus on the two kids. I start to ask him why, when he continues speaking. His focus never leaves the two kids.