“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He slipped two fingers inside her, still rocking his body against her, and groaned when her muscles clenched around him.

Kincaid stopped talking, which let him know he was doing his job. He curled his fingers inside her and picked up the pace, stroking her until she was gasping. He watched as a sheen broke out on her skin and the pleasure hit her like lightning. She arched and cried out, cutting through the quiet in the bookstore and sending a wave of heat through him that nearly sent him over the edge.

She called out his name and reached for him blindly with her free hand. He didn’t deny her this time. He shifted his position and pushed inside her, shuddering when her body enveloped them and they joined. Her arms wrapped around him, her nails digging into his back. She pressed her face into the curve of his neck, letting his skin absorb the sharp cries of her orgasm.

She wrapped her legs around him, and he let himself go, drowning in the scent of her, the feel of her, losing himself in the knowledge that she was now his and he was hers, and this, this was real. This was love.

Kincaid started murmuring I love you I love you like a desperate mantra, like a prayer, and that was all it took. He cried out in pleasure and held her against him as they peaked together and went to the place that had no words. Where it was just the two of them. No pretending. No rules. No more secrets.

Together. Finally.

* * *

The store was quiet as she and Ash lay next to each other in the tent, cuddled close under a blanket he’d stolen from the storeroom, heartbeats slowing after a second round of lovemaking. The twinkle lights looked like stars through the canvas of the tent, and the world around them had faded completely.

Kincaid felt as if they were in a dream. Had she fallen asleep? Time seemed to shift back and forth in her mind. She could picture the store around them, could see their younger selves moving through the aisles, laughing with each other, teasing. With new eyes, she could see things she hadn’t before, could see her and Ash’s love story unfolding. The way a teenage Ash looked at her during the in-between moments, when her eyes were squinted with laughter and he didn’t think she was looking. The way he pulled books off the shelves that he knew she would like and made a monthly stack for her. Could recognize it in the times she’d work late just to hang out with him longer, felt it that first night when she’d crawled into his bed after the bad date and he’d held her with no other intention but to make her feel protected. Could see it in the pain she’d felt when she’d heard his father hurting his mom, the way her heart had ached for Ash.