"Today wasn't just about keeping Tommy. Today was about proving that what we have is real, that this family we've built deserves to be protected." My voice goes rough with emotion. "Today was about showing the world that I love you more than anything, that I'd fight anyone who tried to hurt you or take what's ours."
She's quiet for a moment, studying my face like she's trying to memorize it.
"I know," she says finally. "I saw the way you looked at Derek in that courtroom. Like you wanted to tear him apart with your bare hands."
"I did want to tear him apart. Still do." The admission comes out darker than I intended. "The way he talked about you, about Tommy, like you were obstacles to be managed instead of people to be loved. It took every ounce of self-control I have to let the legal system handle it."
"But you did let them handle it. Because you knew that was the right way, the way that would keep our family together."
"Our family," I repeat the words like a prayer. "God, Lisa, I love the sound of that."
She smiles, the first truly relaxed smile I've seen from her in weeks. "Me too."
The bath is still running, steam continuing to fill the air around us, but I can't bring myself to care about anything exceptthe woman in my arms. The woman who's finally, permanently, unshakeably mine.
"The water's going to overflow," she says, but she doesn't move to turn it off.
"Let it." I lean down to kiss her neck, taste the salt and vanilla sweetness of her skin. "I have more important things to worry about right now."
"Like what?"
"Like showing my wife how much I love her. Like celebrating the fact that we won, that our family is safe, that Derek Morrison is never going to threaten what's ours again."
She shivers at the possessiveness in my voice, her hands fisting in my shirt. "Sawyer..."
"Like making love to Mrs. McKenna until she screams my name and forgets everything except how good we are together."
The promise makes her breathing change, makes her pupils dilate with want and need and the same desperate hunger that's been eating at me since the moment we walked out of that courthouse.
"The bath..."
"Can wait." I lift her onto the bathroom vanity, step between her knees, claim her mouth in a kiss that's part celebration and part possession and completely overwhelming.
She responds immediately, her arms coming around my neck, her legs wrapping around my waist like she's been waiting for this moment as long as I have. Like she needs the physical connection as much as I do, needs to feel that this is still real and permanent and ours.
When I break the kiss to trail my mouth down her throat, she arches against me, her head falling back to give me better access.
"I was so scared," she whispers. "When Derek was testifying, when his lawyer was painting me as an unfit guardian, I was terrified that I was going to lose everything."
"Never." The word comes out rough. "You're never going to lose me, never going to lose Tommy, never going to lose this family we've built."
"Promise?"
"I promise." I seal the words with another kiss, harder this time, more desperate. "You're mine, Lisa McKenna. You and Tommy both. Mine to love, mine to protect, mine to keep safe from bastards like Derek Morrison."
"Yours," she agrees, and the breathless way she says it makes me want to beat my chest like a caveman.
I turn off the bath water without breaking our kiss, then lift her from the vanity and carry her to our bedroom. Our bed, where I've held her every night for the past week, where I've learned every sound she makes, every spot that makes her gasp and arch beneath me.
Where I'm going to worship every inch of her until she understands exactly how much she means to me.
"Sawyer." She looks up at me as I set her down beside the bed, her green eyes dark with desire but also something deeper. Something that looks like wonder. "I can't believe this is real. I can't believe that we won, that Tommy is safe, that I get to keep you."
"You don't get to keep me." I start untying the belt of her robe, my fingers steady despite the hunger burning through my veins. "You get to have me. Forever. There's a difference."
"What's the difference?"
"Keeping implies that you might lose me. Having means I'm yours permanently, no matter what." The robe falls away, and she's naked underneath, beautiful and mine and perfect in the lamplight. "Having means that even if you try to push me away, even if you get scared and build walls, I'm not going anywhere."
