“You really want this?” she asks, as if she needs more confirmation.
I move my hand up and cup her face, tilting her head a little more. “I really do.”
A smile slowly spreads across her face, and I see all of the tension she must have been holding drain from her body.
“Then yes. Yes, let’s do it.”
My heart lurches at her words and I lock my lips to hers, kissing her slowly, our tongues merging together.
I lift her up and hold her to me, her legs wrapping around me in a move that I absolutely fucking love.
This is it.
This is us.
Our life.
Our happy ending.
She was my wrecking ball, and she smashed my ice-cold walls down, taking my heart and holding it tight in her grasp.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Five years later
Nate
“Daddy,” comes the sound of my daughter, Gracie, as she runs at me and launches herself into my waiting arms.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I say as I hug her to me, never taking any of these moments for granted. She’s already three––nearly four––and time is passing by too damn quick. Seems like five minutes ago she was a baby, and sometimes it feels like I’ve blinked and missed the last few years.
“Mummy is mad,” Gracie whispers in my ear.
“Oh? Why?” I whisper back, because I appear to have turned into the soppiest sod alive since Gracie came into our world. I play games with her, spend as much time as I can with her, and becoming a dad was my greatest moment.
I’ll never forget the way her tiny body felt in my arms when I first held her, and the first time she grabbed my finger in her hand, holding it tightly like she would never let go. Cold-hearted Nate is a thing of the past, and he has been replaced by a man that is totally under the fucking thumb. Dear God, who would have ever thought it?
“Because you left the wet towels on the floor again,” Gracie says with a chuckle, her eyes twinkling. She really is a little version of her mother but with my sea-green coloured eyes.
“Oh sh––” I stop myself from finishing that word and replace it with, “Dear.”
“She’s really mad, Daddy.”
“I’m not too worried, I can sweet talk your mum,” I tell her, to which I hear a clearing of a throat behind me, and I wince. Gracie laughs at me, and I smile and give her a quick wink before turning around to look at the woman that takes my goddamn breath away every single day.
“Sweet talk me, huh?” Kat says as she tries to hide the smile that wants to break free.
“Why don’t you go and get your swimming costume on, sweetheart, and then we can go in the pool,” I say to Gracie before I lower her to the floor.
“Yay,” she screeches as she runs into the house and disappears to go find her costume.
I fix my gaze back on Kat, and the fire that we had from day one is still there. It still burns bright, and fuck, I still can’t get enough of her.
“So, how are you gonna sweet talk me, husband?” she says, her arms folded across her chest, her eyes raking up and down my body.
“Oh, I think you know how, wife,” I tell her as I step towards her.
