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Page 29 of Challenged By the Rugged Lumberjack

"Don't," I urge, tightening around him. "Let go inside me. I want to feel you."

With a deep, broken sound that might be my name, he drives into me one final time. I feel him pulsing inside me, the throbbing of his release triggering my own climax. I cling to him as pleasure washes over me in relentless waves, my body arching beneath his, my cries mingling with his ragged breathing.

For several moments afterward, we remain joined, our heartbeats gradually slowing, our breathing evening out. Josh presses his forehead to mine, his eyes closed, an expression of such profound peace on his face that it brings tears to my eyes.

"Was that okay?" he asks finally, his voice a hushed rumble in the quiet room.

I laugh softly, cupping his cheek. "That was perfect. You're perfect."

He moves to the side, careful not to crush me, keeping one arm draped over my waist. I turn to face him, our bodies still pressed close, legs tangled together.

"I've never felt anything like that," he admits, brushing a strand of hair from my face. "Never knew it could be like that."

"Like what?" I ask, curious about how he experienced this moment.

He considers this, his thumb tracing the curve of my cheek. "Like... coming home. Like finding something I didn't know was missing." He shakes his head slightly. "That sounds ridiculous."

"No," I assure him, pressing a kiss to his palm. "It doesn't. I felt it too."

We lie together in comfortable silence, the moonlight painting silver stripes across the bed, our breathing synchronizing without conscious effort. His hand rests over my belly, a gesture so natural it seems he's been doing it forever, not just for the first time tonight.

"I feel safe with you," I whisper, the admission slipping out unbidden. "I haven't felt safe in... I can't remember how long."

His arm tightens around me, pulling me closer. "You are safe. You and Mason and the baby. I promise."

I believe him. Despite knowing him for only forty-eight hours, despite all logic and caution, I believe him with a certainty that should frighten me but somehow doesn't. Perhaps because I've seen the man he is—with Mason, with me. A man of principles and unexpected gentleness, of steady strength and careful consideration.

"Stay," he murmurs against my hair, the word somewhere between a request and a prayer. "Not just for now. Stay for good."

"Yes," I answer, the simplest and most honest word I can offer. "Yes."

As sleep begins to claim me, cradled in the warmth and safety of his embrace, I realize something with startling clarity: This cabin on a mountainside in a town I barely know has becomemore of a home in forty-eight hours than anywhere else has been in years.

Because home isn't just a place. It's a feeling. A certainty. A knowledge that you belong somewhere, with someone, in a way that defies explanation but feels irrefutably right.

And here, with Josh, I belong.

Epilogue - Josh

Eighteen months later

I adjust my tie for the fifth time, frowning at my reflection. The black suit feels strange after a lifetime of flannels and work clothes but today isn't an ordinary day. Today, I'm marrying Elisa.

"You're going to strangle yourself if you keep messing with that," Riley says, stepping up behind me in the small room at the back of Cedar Falls Community Church. "Here, let me."

I drop my hands, allowing my brother to straighten the tie I've managed to mangle. It's still a wonder how easily we've fallen back into brotherhood after so many years apart. Not that it's been perfect—we've had our arguments, our setbacks, moments when old wounds reopened and needed tending. But we've done the work, both of us. And standing here now, with Riley as my best man, feels right in a way I couldn't have imagined eighteen months ago.

"There," Riley says, stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Now you look like a proper groom instead of a lumberjack playing dress-up."

I roll my eyes, but there's no heat in it. "Lumberjack is still more comfortable."

"Yeah, but Elisa deserves at least one day where you don't smell like sawdust." He grins, the expression so similar to mine it's like looking in a mirror that shows a slightly older version of myself. "You clean up good, little brother. She's a lucky woman."

"I'm the lucky one," I counter, and we both know it's true.

The past eighteen months have been a whirlwind—Elisa giving birth to Sophie five months after she arrived in Cedar Falls,the cabin expanding with a new nursery and playroom, Mason starting preschool, the four of us becoming a family without anyone quite noticing the moment it happened. All I know is that one day, I woke up and couldn't remember what it felt like to live alone, couldn't imagine a life without Elisa's laughter, Mason's endless questions, Sophie's determined crawling across the floor.

"I never thought I'd see this day," Riley admits, his voice softening. "You, settled down. A father. A husband."


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