Into the Light (University of Isles #2)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Years Later

My wife frantically paced by her phone while she glanced down every second to make sure she wasn’t missing a call. She was standing in our library, surrounded by what she called her comfort objects. She’d told me when she was younger she was obsessed with smelling her blankets for comfort, and being by her books gave her the same feeling.

“They are going to call,” I told her as she shot me a warning look. A low chuckle came from within as I went to our kitchen and grabbed some of the homemade cider I’d made her with our recent harvest this fall. The countryside was already getting cold, and while it wasn’t as freezing as it was at our hunting cabin, it still was gloomy weather.

The perfect writing weather.

As I walked toward the kitchen to admire the rain tapping against the glass, I saw the photo of us on our wedding day. We didn’t do anything big, just something small out in the cabin the summer after Ember graduated.

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I reminisced about the day that had forever changed the course of my life. It was the day I had persuaded my now wife to join me for what she thought was a regular date, only to surprise her with a heartfelt proposal. I still vividly recalled the amazement on her face as we sat in the restaurant, and I poured my heart out, asking her to be my wife. Her quick and eager agreement filled me with joy, even though I had secretly contemplated marrying her right on the spot. Eventually, we compromised to wait until her graduation the following year.

Our wedding day turned out to be a private affair, attended solely by Pico, Marissa, Walsh, and her dad. My mother declined our invitation. She firmly believed I caused her failed marriage and shattered family. Mr. Ortiz had somehow settled his score with the Cartel, and although I refrained from prying into the details of his actions, my mother remained resentful, blaming me for what she perceived as the ruination of her life.

I took a deep breath. Ember often thought I should be more upset about these circumstances, but she couldn’t fathom that I, too, held my mother accountable for her choices, chiefly her decision to marry Mr. Ortiz and then effectively abandon me and Ash to his perilous fate. After enduring years of therapy, I had learned to come to terms with the fact that I couldn’t change their behavior. Instead, I had learned to coexist with it, establishing the necessary boundaries.

All of a sudden, the ringer went off and she practically ran back into the living room. She looked shocked while she stared at her phone.

“Go on, pick it up,” I encouraged as she clutched the phone in her hand before swiping to answer.

She got up from the vintage couch that she’d thrifted a couple years ago when she dragged me to Dansport’s monthly flea market. There were a few photos, including some from our wedding, hanging up behind us. I bought her a house, but she gave me a home.

“Hello?” I could hear the hesitation in her voice but only because we’d been together for the last four years. She was speaking in a hushed tone, which gave me the perfect opportunity to watch her. The way her long black hair hit the center of her back. Her curves were still fucking utter perfection, and I could literally bend her over the couch right now with how hard she constantly made me.

But the most attractive thing about Ember was her brain and emotional strength. The ability of how she takes everything in stride, so I know that even if this phone call doesn’t have the best of news, she will take it with ease.

“I did?” she squealed. I huffed a breath out because I took back that thought. And while there was little doubt she would get this, I was definitely the realist in our relationship.

“Thank you so much, Sera. I will talk to you soon,” she said before hanging up and throwing the phone on the couch.

“And so?” I asked her.

“I am officially a published author,” she screamed as she ran into my arms. I whipped her around as I pressed a million kisses on her forehead.

“Harper Frank Publishing picked you up?”

“Yes,” she said, completely out of breath, pride beaming brightly from her smile.

“God, I am so fucking proud of you.” I didn’t know how many times I’d said that to her in the past, but I knew it wasn’t the last time because I was always in awe of Ember Fortin.

“I cannot believe that in just a few short months, everyone in the world will have access to my story—to our story.” She laced her fingers in mine as she stepped away from me. “To his story.”

A tear formed in her eye, and I gave her a little twist of my lips. “I never doubted they would.”

The front door busted open, and I grabbed Ember, pulling her behind me.

“Are you expecting anyone?” She shook her head as I made my way to the front of the house.

“And so?” Santiago’s booming voice echoed around the house.

“Jesus Christ, Santi, you scared us,” Ember said, moving in front of me and walking toward him.

“I did it.” Her smile was contagious, even her eyes couldn’t hide the pure joy she was experiencing.

“Yes,” he exclaimed, wrapping her in his arms. “I knew it.”

“I didn’t,” she whispered. I used to be envious of how close they were together, but with what the two of them went through together, they shared a deep bond and he loved her. I just couldn’t help but be possessive over what’s mine.

“I am going to need a signed first edition,” he joked with her before telling us he would head to the city to meet with a “friend.”

“Really?” Ember questioned.

“She’s just a friend, mija.” He laughed as he left, and she just shook her head at him.

She pressed the door close and locked the door before turning toward me. I sensed the change in atmosphere as she languidly walked over to where I was standing.

“Rain?” Her eyes darkened with desire as her fingers started to trace circles on my chest.

“Yes, my beautiful wife?”

“I think I need a reward for this,” she mused, and I only let out a small laugh.

“Oh, yeah?” The corners of my lips twisted in a devious smirk. “And what is it that you want?”

“You,” she said without missing a beat.

“You have me,” I murmured.

“No.” Her tone was so fucking raspy I swear she could’ve been one of those sex phone operators and I would’ve come listening to her talk about her grocery list.

Her fingers touched the bottom of her sweater as she pulled it over her head revealing a black lace bra. God, I loved my wife’s curves, and time only made her look more beautiful and enticing. She was everything I could’ve ever dreamed of.

“What’re you doing to me?” I demanded as she let out a little giggle before slipping out of her jeans.

“Come here,” I commanded, but she shook her head, a mischievous glint on her cheeks.

“If you want me, you have to find me.” She looked beyond me at the door before her plump ass ran outside in the cool fall evening.

“My fucking wife.” I laughed before shedding my sweater. A game we’d been playing for years now. I hated chasing after my wife in any other way, but in the bedroom? Game. Fucking. On.

I opened the door and called out for her and laughed when I heard the crunch of the leaves on the ground behind the orchard.

I ran toward her. I was her predator.

“All mine,” I growled into the wind as I searched each row of trees to try and find her.

“Come on, mi reina.” She was my queen, and I, her king.

I stalked each row, careful when treading on the earthen ground below when I finally saw her sprinting in the open, grassy area between the orchards and our house. The pines provided a gloomy backdrop as her black hair flowed wildly in the wind.

Just as I walked in her direction I heard a splash and chuckled. I took the long way around the house before discarding my pants and my shirt. She was frantically looking out into the woods, when I stalked up behind her, jumping into the pool and covering her mouth.

“Surprise,” I murmured into the shell of her ear. It was warm in the pool, but not scalding hot. Well, not until my beautiful wife turned around and I got a full view of her bare tits moving gently with the water, her nipples just above the surface. I rolled them between my forefinger and thumb, watching as they hardened at my touch.

“Fuck,” I groaned, and her hooded eyes met mine. My mouth was on hers, pushing my tongue inside her warmth as I flicked it around sucking her dry. Even in the gentle movement of the water, I felt her body against my own. My fingers trailed down her neck to her wet shoulder where I pressed gentle kisses on her clavicle.

“This,” I murmured before moving to the next spot.

“Is.” Another kiss.

“Mine.” I finally concluded before I shoved her legs apart, thrusting my fingers inside of her cunt.

“Oh, fuck.” She moaned, an erotic noise that made my cock so hard that it was fucking twitching, begging to touch her sweet little cunt.

I lifted her by her ass out of the hot tub before I continued to fuck her with my mouth. I walked through the open door before depositing her upstairs in our bedroom.

“Spread your legs wide so I can taste your pretty little cunt.” I groaned, watching her delicate folds open for me.

“My desperate little wife looking to let Daddy lick you dry?”

“Clean me up,” she begged. She was my naughty little minx.

My tongue carefully caressed the outside of her folds as I held onto the back of her thighs for support.

“My favorite meal,” I choked out as my tongue continued fucking her damp cunt. Her sweet liquid spilling into my mouth as the hunger within me increased.

“Fuck . . . me” she demanded as she writhed away from me.

“As you wish,” I responded before grabbing her ankles and in one swift movement flipping her around so her stomach was against the bed.

“Get on your knees and lift your hips for me.” She gasped at my demand as her plump ass slid up high in the air for me.

It was the most perfect view as I spread her cheeks, letting my needy cock press into her tight little cunt.

“You were made for me.” I groaned just as I pushed all the way into her. Her hips slid back onto my cock, and I held onto her while she thrust on me.

“That’s it, mi reina. You are doing such a good job.” I praised as her head rolled back, grabbing onto a handful of hair as I reared her deep onto my cock. Her moan was deep down and guttural as I reached around, giving her nipple a pinch before continuing my assault on her tight little cunt.

“Such a good girl,” I repeated. More thrusting.

“My good girl.” I complimented as she let out a symphony of moans and groans.

“Come for me, baby,” I demanded, and in a second she clenched around me. She would explode all over me soon, so I let out the last few movements, giving her ass one final slap as I detonated inside of her.

She collapsed onto the bed as I slipped my cock out of her before lifting her and walking her to the shower.

“I love you,” she murmured as I placed her on the little seat inside the shower as we waited for the water to heat up.

“I love you,” I commented back, lifting her chin up so she was eye level with me and gracing her lips with a quick kiss. “Come on.”

We spent the next half hour cleaning each other off and basking in the warmth of the water.

“Do you think you’ll ever be sick of this?” she asked as I grabbed her a towel to dry off before jumping out and getting one for myself.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her words. “Never.”

“How come?”

“You are the only thing I’ve ever wanted. From the moment I tasted your lips, I knew I was totally fucked.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “It’s like drinking another milkshake aside from the diner. There is nothing that compares to the chocolate milkshake in Isles. Everything else tastes like shit, right?” She nodded.

“Same thing.”

She giggled. “That’s weird, Rain.”

I shrugged. “It’s true.”

She leaned over to the basket I’d gotten for the bathroom where I left my T-shirts that she liked to wear to bed and plucked a worn black one from the pile before throwing it on. It was one of those things that had never changed from our time in Isles.

“Turn around.” I told her before grabbing the Aquaphor and dabbing it behind the ear.

“It’s been months already, I think it’s healed.” It was. I just liked seeing it. When she came to me suggesting that she would get a matching F on the other side of her ear, my heart literally sank . . . in a good way. I begged her to reconsider it because I didn’t want her to feel pressured to, but she insisted. She told me she wanted both of the greatest loves in her life to be known, so she’d gotten an ‘F’ behind her other ear.

I put a little Aquaphor on it, not listening to her and loving the way it looked branded onto my wife.

“Now it’s your turn,” she mused, and then I laughed while turning around. I had gotten a similar tattoo that Ash had with a cave and a few bats coming from it, but there was a sun shining onto the cave. “Mi sol.”

It was both a representation of everything that we’d gone through, coming into the light from the darkness, a memento to the saying that she used to murmur from her mother and a little memory of their daughter, Sol.

When she finished, I shoved my shirt and some gray sweats on before walking into the bedroom and lifting the covers.

“You are always mine, mi pareja,” I whispered as she crawled into bed with her back tucked tightly into the crook of my body.

“Hey, Rain?” she asked in a sleepy tone.

“Mm-hm?” I responded.

“Why do you call me that? Mi pareja. Will you finally tell me?”

I chuckled.

“Because in Spanish, it means my partner. But not just any partner, it’s the kind of partner you share a space with—a life with. A partner you’re intimate with on all levels. When I met you, calling you my love seemed so trivial because you were so much more to me than that. I always knew you were my partner in this life.”

“Wh-what?” Her tears were imminent, but I continued, wanting to explain to her.

“Yeah. I just thought calling you my partner was more intimate than calling you my love or even calling you my life. Being my partner means that you’re my equal—the one I lean on when I need support. It means that you’re mine.”

“Mi pareja,” she repeated. I reached over to wipe away the tears already trickling down her cheeks.

“Go to sleep,” I whispered into the shell of her ear as she let out a delicate noise of satisfaction.

I gave her a kiss on her lips before tucking her tightly into the crook of my body, where we’d spent the last four years together. We were writing our own story, one that spoke of resilience, courage, and love. I couldn’t wait to see what the next chapters would hold, knowing that with Ember by my side, it would be our adventure.

“I love you because the entire universe

conspired to help me find you.”

–Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist