~Eli~

"So this is your place? Or at least, while you're in New York?"

"Yeah, me and Matthew are roommates, but he kindly offered to stay in a hotel for tonight, so we could have some privacy."

"How...courteous of him."

V's words came out soft and nervous, and as she stood off to the side by the kitchen island as I deposited my suit jacket on the arm of the sofa and I took a moment to take her in.

She hadn't changed at all since I last laid eyes on her, except for the makeup and fancy clothing, she was still V...my V.

I didn't waste any time going to her and grabbing her hand, pulling her with me to the couch. I desperately wanted a shower, but that would happen with her, later, and we'd take turns washing each other off.

But first...I probably needed to explain myself.

"V...about why I was acting so-"

"Rude?"

I cringed at her supplemental word.

"Argumentative? I don't know. The reason I was like that was because I had no idea if you were only there out of pity for me or if it really was because you wanted to be with me. I went without you for nine months, total radio silence, and when you came out with new music and everything it felt like you were getting along so well without me. I thought that there was no way you'd still want to be with me after all that."

Her hand came down on mine, interlacing them together and the warmth from her skin warmed up the rest of me that still needed thawing from the frigid hospital.

"It wasn't easy, though. I might've shown it to the outside world, but I was suffering on the inside. Besides, it looked like you'd moved on with models and your career after a few months."

"I never went home with a single one, we were only photographed leaving clubs at certain times. I took up drinking, though, that's something I really need to kick...it was just easier to forget the world when I'm fucked up. I don't know, I just... at first I thought you weren't even real. Like you were some sick joke made up by the bump on the back of my head, but then everything you said, and touching you again, holding you in my arms, I knew this had to be real."

"Y-you wanted it to be real? I was so scared that-"

"That what? I wouldn't want you? I'd have to be insane not to. I was on my way to that game tonight to tell you exactly that."

"You were?"

"Of course. Got a little held up, though..."

We shared a shaky laugh, but then the tension erupted. It was like a match was struck, or we had been shuffling barefoot across a static filled carpet, and I couldn't keep my hands off her, trailing up her sides, her face, through her hair that she'd taken down on the car ride over.

The pain of not being able to see her again was so overwhelming that the moment I could see her again, touch her again...it was almost too much to handle.

She was soft and curvy in all the right places and her dark skin under mine looked so good to me, like we were two pieces of a puzzle finally coming together.

"I feel like I need to tell you again, because I didn't say it earlier," she started, but I knew right away where she was going with it.

"I love you, Eli. I'm so sorry for waiting so long to tell you that, and I'm sorry it took me running into your freaking friend at the airport to realize how much I missed you, how much I needed you in my life. I don't know where your head is at right now, but I'm all in."

Her confidence was all I needed to hear, the conviction in her tone as she told me she loved me something that I'd been dying to hear since the moment she walked away from me.

"I love you, too, Virginia. So much that even a rejection and nine months of silence couldn't keep me away. Maybe that's crazy, or maybe that's just what you make me."

She brought our heads together with her hand on the back of my head, fingers threading through my hair at the nape of my neck, and the memories of us doing exactly this flooded my mind.

There were no more words, there wasn't a need for them.

Her mouth was ravenous against me, hungry and searching for the answers that I was giving her.

Her teeth nipped my bottom lip and I groaned against her mouth, pulling her into my lap immediately and her legs settled on either side of my thighs, both hands in my hair and mouth slick and hot beneath mine.

I slid my own hands up and down her sides, grounding myself in her, unaware at how exactly I had become so damn lucky.

She was everything I'd ever wanted and more-a shining light in an otherwise shitty existence.

My stepfather tried to break my spirit, but all he did was hold me down while I was on my way to becoming the best man that I could be, all for this woman writhing and moaning and whispering my name, because she was all mine and I was all hers in every sense of the way someone could belong to another.

It was like the first moment our eyes locked across the court, she stole a little piece of my soul and never gave it back, but I'd never ask for it in the first place.

Even in the end when she'd left, I was glad that she held it for herself, because the pain from that loss at least reminded me of how real it all was.

But now, in this moment with her panting with need forming inside of her, I didn't have to be reminded of the pain her loss brought me, only the sheer ecstasy that her return could bring.

I didn't know what lay ahead of us in the future, but one thing was unchanging in my mind. I would do it all over again, the heartache, the pain, the ache in my chest where she should've been when she was gone. I would do it all over again just to have her in my arms even one more time.

That kind of love didn't happen often, and I didn't hear of it happening twice, so I was going to hold onto her with all my might and never let go.

I stood up with V's legs wrapped around my waist and strode into the master bedroom, laying her down gently on the plush white sheets and admiring her body, sprawled out and heavy lidded, lust-blown pupils with her lips swollen and plush from the force of our kiss.

I couldn't remember her ever looking more beautiful than she did in that moment. 

She had left to face her own demons, and it had left in her a lightness that blotted the rest of her darkness out, like she was a golden sunshine spray of light against the backdrop of everything she had used to run from--her father's manipulation, her mother's death, her family's indifference. 

And I met her in the middle, my abuse from my stepfather and the death of my real father staining me from the inside out until I felt I was nothing more than the terrible things that had happened to me...until her. 

She sighed out as I peppered soft kisses to her collarbone, her body arching and writhing beneath me at the temptation I was creating within her. 

Our lips met once more as she held me there with her hands, our connection zipping and sparking between us like a live wire, an uncontrollable electrical storm of love and heartache and trauma and ghosts that can't mind their own business so they're busy interfering in ours...but where would be have been with out them? 

Without 'Iris' being V's favorite song and mine as well, all because it was our parent's favorite?  Without a car accident finally forcing V to confront her feelings for me, and finally bringing us together? 

I was never one to believe in fate, but with all the odds turned against us...

Pulling away, she brought my hand to her lips and it was the look in her eyes that stopped me dead in my tracks, freezing and locking up like I had in the car accident only mere hours before. 

I wanted her to look at me like that every day for the rest of our damn lives. 

My wife, the mother of my child, I could see it all in quick succession, like this was my life flashing before my eyes and it was the end, but instead it was like I could see the future in front of us, the way paved out in stunning clarity and detail. 

"Promise me something, right now."

"Anything."

I didn't know who was talking and who was answering, only that my thoughts were running a million miles a minute and our mouths were moving against each other's once more. 

"Promise me that we'll play 'Iris' at our wedding.  First dance.  But first you have to teach me how."

She giggled and sighed against my lips and damn if it wasn't the sweetest feeling against me, my heart palpating so fast in my chest  it was about to explode out of me. 

"Deal.  But we have to name our first girl Emily, after my mom."

I could have cried right then and there if I wasn't afraid to uphold my manly status. 

"Well, technically she'll be our second girl because we're adopting Elodie."

"Duh, of course.  Okay, so that means you get naming rights for the first boy...and I'll have to keep my maiden name, for famous people purposes, you know?"

"Oh, 'famous people purposes', huh?"  I couldn't keep the smirk off my face as I leaned down again and brushed my lips across hers gently, pulling away when she tried to have more of me. 

"Not fair.  Fine, I'll take your last name, but I think I'm just going to go with 'V' as my name.  What do you think?"

The air for some reason lost its teasing quality. 

"I think you're perfect."

Maybe not in the way she was thinking, but in the way that she was absolutely perfect for me, like someone reached in my mind and molded her from everything I had always wanted...that kind of perfect. 

Her breath caught and we lost each ourselves in each other's eyes like we often did. 

"Is this everything you thought it would be like?"

Her words caught me off guard, and for a moment I was unaware of what she was referring to. And then I realized, just as she pulled away for me to see her more closely.  

With the dim lamps illuminating the amber within her almond eyes, her raven hair glistened against the stark white coverlet as if a moniker for two opposites coming together. Yin and Yang, her light to my dark, soaking up the worst of my demons.

Clad in white, her lightness was the epitome of my opposite, though I didn't fear what that might mean, instead welcoming the differences with open arms as she was the only one to learn my secrets and still love me for what I was. 

"No," I ground out, the word gritty and rough in my throat as though it didn't want to come out, but I didn't wait for her face to fall before I spoke again. 

"It's so much better."

The End.

***

A/N:

Hello my lovely readers!

I almost cried writing 'The End' and it never fails to make me a total bawl bag ending a book I've spent so much time working on!

I started this story in April and it's now July 24th, and it's over...I'm a little sad, but don't worry, there WILL be bonus scenes!

Basketball games, family times and secret surprises are in store for these characters and I can't wait for everyone to read it!

Let me know what you all want to read as far as bonus scenes go!

What was your favorite scene in the book? 

Who is your fav character? 

Least favorite character? 

Least favorite scene? 

How did you hear about this book? 

As always, thank you all for reading to the end (EEK!) and I want you all to know that I appreciate your support so much--more than you could all possibly know! Each read, vote, library add or reading list add and comment is meaningful, and I want you to know that I see you guys in my notifications!  I might not be able to thank each and every one of you individually, but just know that I see the love, and I appreciate it so much!

Well...That's all folks!  Stay tuned on my profile for bonus chapter updates and follow me on Instagram at  kristenoldhambooks for more behind the scenes content!

Until next time my lovely readers, 

Kristen :)