Owen wouldn’t have thought it possible to laugh or smile, but she showed him otherwise as she came down on him, taking him in until he was fully seated in her tight heat. Making love with her was as close as he’d ever come to heaven, and he couldn’t get enough.

She shuddered on top of him, proving that while he might’ve gotten more than his share, she loved every bit of what he had to give. Rocking in a slow, sensual rhythm, she drove him mad as he tried to remain still, to let her set the pace. He was always so afraid of hurting her, so he kept his hands on her hips and tried not to lose his mind as she rode him.

With her head thrown back and the faint glow of the lights from outside illuminating her pale skin, she looked like a goddess come to life. She was his goddess, the love of his life, his reason for being and the only one who could make him forget his painful past, even if only for a while.

“Owen,” she whispered.

“I’m here, baby. What do you need?”

“You. Just you.”

He sat up, wrapped his arms around her and held her as she came, taking him with her into bliss. There was no other word for what they found together. “Love you, Laura. I’d be losing my mind if I didn’t have you to hold me together.”

“I love you, too, and I’ll always be here to hold you together if you do the same for me.”

“Nothing else I’d rather do.”

Chapter 23

Adam danced with Abby to “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith, singing the lyrics in her ear as she giggled from the champagne they’d consumed over the course of the unforgettable evening. The wedding they’d thrown together in just over a week’s time had come together perfectly, with everyone they loved best in attendance, the winter wind howling outside while a huge fire burned in the fireplace in the dining room of the McCarthys’ Gansett Island Inn, which had been transformed by the hotel staff for the wedding.

“So how’d we do?” Adam asked Abby. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being the best.”

“I’d give this night a one thousand.”

“I was thinking more like one in a million.”

“One in a billion.”

He smiled down at her. “Are you happy?”

“You can’t tell?”

“Just making sure, since your happiness is my sole reason for being.”

Sighing, she rested her head on his shoulder. “Sometimes I still think I dreamt this whole thing—from that first day on the ferry and every day since then. There’s no way this can possibly be real.”

“Oh, it’s real, sweetheart. It’s as real as it gets.”