I arched up and kissed him. “I love the door. I love the house. I love you, and I’ll go wherever I have to so I can be with you. I used to think that home was a place. Walls, and windows, and home-baked brownies, but it’s not, Grayson. That’s just a house. You are my home. So where you go, I’ll go.”
His mouth met mine in the sweetest kiss we’d ever shared. “I promise I’ll always put the coffee on the bottom shelf.”
“That, or you always have to be around to catch me when I slip off the granite.”
His smile was brighter than the sunlight streaming through the windows. “I told you once—I’ll always catch you.”
I lifted an eyebrow and ran my hands down his naked back.
“You are pretty good with your hands.”
He scoffed. “Pretty good? We’ve been apart for what, four months, and now I’m only pretty good?”
I brought my leg up to hitch around his hips. “I guess I could use a reminder.”
“Oh, I’ll remind you.”
“I might forget pretty often.” I gave him my best wide-eyed stare.
“I’ll remind you every fucking day, Samantha.”
Yes. Every day. He was my future, my home, my universe, this phenomenal man who’d altered my world and claimed it for his own. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Epilogue
Seven years later
The hangar doors opened on Butts Army Airfield and the crowd roared above the music of the army band playing. They marched in, all one-hundred-and-twenty-five of them, filling the empty floor with row after row of camo.
My eyes swept the front of the line until I found him, and my heart started to race. He was here. Finally. After the longest nine months of my life, he was finally home. No, this hadn’t been our first deployment, but it had been the hardest.
Then again, after three of them, it always seemed to feel that way.
He faced forward, standing at attention at the head of his company while the General took the podium, but I could see Grayson’s eyes scanning the bleachers looking for me. For us.
“Daddy’s here!” I said to Delaney as I adjusted all forty pounds of her on my hip.
“Daddy!” she shrieked, breaking the silence to the laughter of those around us.
Who could blame a four-year-old?
I tucked one of her long, caramel spiral-curls back over her ear. “We have to wait a minute, baby.”
When I looked back to the formation, Grayson’s eyes had locked on to me. My stomach clenched. Five years of marriage, and he still had the power to knock me to my knees with just that look.
I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
The general dismissed the troops, and the crowd rushed from the stands in a tidal wave of joy, until the hangar floor became a sea of welcome-homes. Careful in heels with Delaney in my arms, I picked my way down the bleachers until we reached the last row, where Grayson had just arrived.
“Daddy!” Delaney cried and lunged. He caught her tiny frame easily and crushed her to him, his eyes closed in bliss for all of two seconds before he yanked me into his chest with his free arm.
God, he smelled like tangy metal from the aircraft and freshly applied deodorant. Nothing had ever been more of an aphrodisiac. I held on as tightly as possible, savoring the feel of him, the steady beat of his heart beneath my ear.
Contentment overpowered every other emotion.
I met his mouth in a crushing kiss, and just like that, the taste of him flooded me, consumed me. Our lips lingered, but we pulled back reluctantly and gave our attention to the gorgeous green-eyed spitfire who was already chatting Grayson’s ear off.
“And we made you signs, and they have glitter. Lots of glitter. Mommy said that you wouldn’t mind, even though you’re a boy, you like the sparkly signs.”
“Daddy loves sparkles, Delaney-bug.” Grayson smiled and kissed her cheek, gathering us all tightly together. “Oh, my girls. I missed you.”
“I missed you, Daddy. Can we go home?” She yawned into his neck.
“It’s an hour past her bed time,” I explained, rubbing her back.
“Let’s get her to bed,” Grayson said, then leaned to my ear and whispered, “so I can get you to bed.”
Oh yeah, we needed to find his bag now. He located the one labeled CPT Masters, and we headed to the car. I offered to carry Delaney, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
He hefted the huge duffel over his shoulder and cradled our daughter in his other arm, careful not to crush the tulle of her skirt.
My hormones went into overdrive. There was never anything as sexy as watching Grayson being so careful with our little girl.
I buckled her into her car seat while he loaded his bag and then shut the hatch. As I passed by on the way to my side of the car, he caught me, and pressed my back against the hatch of my SUV. The August breeze lifted my skirt slightly, and he slipped his hand discreetly up the back of my thigh before he kissed me.
This kiss left me raw and wanting in two seconds flat. He took possession of my mouth, his other hand tangled in my hair and slanted over me, finding the best angle. Our mouths joined perfectly, like they hadn’t spent the last nine months apart. Within a minute, I was ready to climb him in the parking lot.
“Take me home,” I whispered against his mouth, and arched my hips against his raging erection.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with another kiss. “God, I missed you, Samantha.”
“Good, because I missed the hell out of you, Grayson.”