The REASON Series - the Complete Collection (58 page)

He senses her desire and gently slides himself inside. His need to be in her takes over and he slides in and right back out, again and again.
 

She can feel every throbbing inch of him enter and leave her. Her eyes roll back in her head and she relaxes.
 

Mikah keeps ahold of her hip as he slides himself in and out from behind.
 

The full feeling is so amazing that Vivienne starts to cry, and although he can’t see her face, he somehow knows and he can’t stop the tears that form in his own eyes.
 

Having Vivienne back in his arms means so much to him that he realize he loves her even more.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Mikah and Vivienne stay spooned on the bed for some time after they’ve finished, he still resting inside her. They let their breathing return to normal and he wraps his arms tight around her, holding her close.
 

After a while she rolls onto her back, dislodging him from her sex, and he groans at the loss.
 

She smiles at him and moves the hair from his eyes so she can look into them. Her fingers trace the black lines on his right shoulder, down his arm and across his chest to where the scorch marks were originally.
 

“I’d often wondered where this came from. I wish I’d known beforehand,” he whispers.

“Me too. I’m so happy you’re home.”

“Me too. Have I missed anything?” He smiles at her. “Well, besides you?”

“No, I managed to keep you pretty well up to date. I do have an appointment with Dr. A tomorrow. It’s the third of our weekly check ups until she—“ She places her hand on her belly. “—decides it’s time to show up.”
 

Mikah’s hand covers hers. “I’d like to go with you.”

“Please? Those were always the hardest days. I knew that you wanted to be there.”

“I did, and in a way I was.” His hand moves up to rest against her chest, against her heart.

“Why did you have to stay in Elysium for so long?”
 

“I had to heal. It was unclear what would happen if I crossed back over if I wasn’t completely healed. I didn’t want to take the chance. Better to be locked in Elysium than never to come back at all. At least that was the way I saw it. But every day that I was away from you was harder than the day before. By the end, I was driving Seraphina crazy.”

“I haven’t heard anything from Zirah since before that night.”

“You won’t. You’ve learned all you need to know. And Zirah is not the best with secrets. Elizabeth was afraid she’d let it out that I’d be coming home. A part of me was scared, when I crossed the threshold, that I’d be kicked back into Elysium. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if I couldn’t come back.”

Vivienne thinks about that. “If I’d known that you were going to come back and then suddenly you couldn’t, I think that would’ve been worse. I guess I had more hope than I thought that you’d return.”
 

He brushes a strand of hair out of her face.
 

“I know you were only trying to protect me,” she says.

He kisses her forehead. “You give me more credit than I deserve. You were left here to suffer alone, just so that I didn’t have to see and feel your heartbreak.”
 

“But didn’t you have your own heartbreak to deal with? You had to watch me vanish when I woke up.”
 

His face falls and his eyes glaze with tears.
 

“It killed me every day.”

She reaches up to cup his face, her thumb wiping away a stray tear. “See, we both suffered in our own way. But it’s over now. You’re home, and in my arms.”

She stretches up to kiss him and he meets her halfway. Their kiss is passionate and heartfelt, all the anguish over the last two months pouring into this one kiss.

THIRTY-NINE

“What time is it?” she asks him.
 

“It’s ten minutes to one.”

“Crap. Aubrey will be here soon.”
 

Mikah cocks his head at her.
 

“She’s my yoga instructor. At Dr. A’s urging, Celeste found a personal trainer for me. She comes three times a week. Ironically, Celeste wanted me to cancel today and go shopping with her. Did they know?”

He shakes his head. “No, no one did. Let me call downstairs, have them tell Aubrey that you’ve had to cancel. I want to spend today with you.”
 

She smiles at him. “You can’t hide in here from everyone all day, you know that, right? Besides, I have a couple of things to show you.”

“Sounds great to me. Let’s take a shower, then we can get dressed.”
 

She nods her agreement and he sits up.
 

While Vivienne crawls off the bed he reaches for the bedside phone and calls the front desk. Now that she mentioned the yoga classes, he can see it in her arms. Though she’s gained weight since the last time he saw her in person, it’s good weight and he likes it very much.
 

Vivienne heads toward the bathroom and turns on the shower. After a minute more Mikah joins her.
 

Celeste returns to the condo to find the foyer and hallway lined with candles. She hears the shower kick on and she can feel that Vivienne is not alone. Remembering when she’d set up the candles for him back in November, she realizes quickly that Mikah has come home. She whips her phone out to call Red.
 

“Come on, pick up.”

“Hi, Celeste,” a woman’s voice answers.

“Kelly, is Red there?”

“He is, one second.”

There is a pause while Kelly gives the phone to Red. “Celeste, you just—”

“He’s alive. He’s here. In the apartment.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know, but get your butt up here quick. Bring the boys, I need your help.”

“On my way.”
 

The phone clicks dead and Celeste goes about blowing out all the candles. She wants to clean them up before they come out. Dressed, she hopes silently.
 

Red, Andrew and Connor arrive in no time, having taken the stairs.
 

“Help me clean these up. They’re in the shower.”

“Have you seen him?”

She shakes her head as she continues blowing out candles.

“How do you know it’s him?” Connor says.
 

“You know, you can stop being a pessimist now. What is your deal anyway? You’re always so grumpy. You didn’t used to be like this.”

“Lay off of him, Celeste,” Red steps in.
 

“I just don’t understand it. You scare Vivienne sometimes and I don’t like it.”

“I don’t try to scare her intentionally. I just don’t like to get attached. Sometimes keeping my distance is the best way to avoid that.” That’s the easiest explanation he can come up with; the rest of that story is a lot harder to tell and not worth the effort. Suffice it to say, he could relate more to Vivienne these last two months than anyone else could.
 

“That’s a load of bullshit, Connor, and you know it. You ran up here just as fast as these two knuckleheads when I called Red,” Celeste bites back. “Now, help me.” She smiles at the three men just standing there.

About five minutes later they hear the water shut off in the shower and they scramble to finish picking up the candles.

When Celeste bends over to pick up the last of the candles, Andrew is quick to notice. This isn’t the first time he’s looked at her over the last couple of months. Before, he was too occupied with the task of protecting Mikah and Vivienne, but there’ve been no sightings of Riley or any of Link’s other minions since the night of the battle, and since things seem to have settled down, all the worry has settled too, allowing for other emotions to bloom and blossom.

After the battle, Celeste had become so emotionally closed off that her longtime boyfriend had broken up with her. It hadn’t helped that she couldn’t explain anything to him. She thought she would be destroyed by it, but in the end it had been the best thing for her.

“Now what?” Andrew whispers.
 

Celeste looks at him. He’s practically bouncing in his skin. She stops for a minute, just to look at him. She’s never really looked at him before. Such a professional relationship they’ve had, but something is different about him today. Maybe it’s the beard he’s grown over the last month or so. As she moves to put the candles in the hall closet, she smiles at him.

FORTY

“You know they’re all in the condo, right?” Vivienne whispers as they get dressed. Right before they’d stepped into the shower, she sense Celeste entering the condo, and while they were in there she felt the other three come in too. “All your candles were a dead giveaway to Celeste. She helped with them the last time, remember?”

He smiles. “I remember, and it’s okay. Like you said, I can’t hide from them all day, though I want to.”

“They’ve missed you too.”

“I missed you more.”

“Come on, let’s go say hi.” She smiles at him as she leads the way to the door.
 

“Let me get that.” Mikah comes around her and reaches for the knob. When he swings it open, standing near the breakfast bar are Celeste, Connor, Andrew and Red.
 

“The candles gave me away,” he teases, and Celeste comes running, bounding into him. Mikah hugs her back, though he refuses to let go of Vivienne’s hand, which makes for an awkward hug.
 

“Come now, lass, let the man out of his room.” Red smiles, but Mikah can see the tears in his eyes.
 

Next comes Connor, surprising both Vivienne and Mikah by giving him a hug. “Welcome home.” He backs off but then punches Mikah in the shoulder. “You could’ve given us a warning.” He steps aside.
 

“And ruin the opportunity to get a hug from you?” Mikah laughs.
 

Andrew comes up to him and hugs him next. “I never gave up hope that we’d see you here again. Welcome home.”

“Thanks, Andrew.”
 

“Anytime, sir,” Andrew replies.
 

“No more of that. Mikah is just fine.”
 

Vivienne can’t help the smile that spreads across her face at their exchange. Andrew has been like a big brother to her, especially these last few months. She also senses a change in Mikah’s demeanor. He’s happier than he ever was before. At least when it comes to these four. Maybe fighting Riley together changed the dynamic of their relationship. She smiles again at the idea.

Red comes a little more slowly, and Mikah meets him halfway. Finally releasing Vivienne’s hand, he takes Red into a big hug.
 

“Welcome home, lad. Things haven’t been the same since you left.”

“I know, but I had no choice.”

“I know. I always hoped, but as time went on and your mother got more and more insistent that you couldn’t be seen, it became harder.”
 

“I know, Red. I made her do that. I’d have never been able to live with myself if she or I made a promise we weren’t sure could be kept.”

“I understand. Glad you’re home.”

“I’m happy to be here. Let’s all have dinner tonight.” He turns to Celeste. “That okay with you?”

She smiles so wide it spreads to everyone in the room. “Absolutely.”

The guardians all leave the condo, giving Mikah and Vivienne a little more time to themselves, with the agreement that Celeste will be back in a couple of hours to start making dinner.
 

“Sydney will be happy to hear from you,” Vivienne says.

“You guys didn’t tell her I was gone?”

Vivienne shakes her head. “We all felt that telling her would make it final, and none of us were ready to do that. We all held out a little hope, hope that you would be allowed to return. Red and Andrew have been communicating with her via email, dealing with what few important business matters needed addressing. I’d imagine she’ll be excited to have you back in the office again.”
 

They both go into the TV room. The couch is more comfortable.
 

“Red has been handling the finances,” Vivienne continues. “I didn’t feel I had the right to do it. Not only that, but I would probably pass out from the amount of money spent each month.”
 

Mikah laughs. “Maybe,” he says.
 

“Except for morning walks with Celeste and sometimes one of the others, I never leave the condo unless she drags me, usually kicking and screaming, to go shopping.”

“How are things with Red?”
 

She takes a deep breath. “Strained, but I imagine that things will get better between us now that you’re home. Kelly is ecstatic over Madison. She’ll make an amazing grandparent. Red will too. I think he sees Madison as a chance to redeem himself for what he missed with me, and that’s okay. It wasn’t fair to him what my mother did, and I don’t blame him at all. It’s just hard to go from no father, no parent, to now there is one. Same for Red, he has a twenty-two-year-old daughter that he didn’t know about.”

“So you’ll give it time?”

She nods. “I will.”

“What about your mother?”
 

Vivienne shrugs. “I haven’t decided yet. Nothing she can do or say will make it right. She won’t be able to stay in Elysium, and I can’t cross over to see her in heaven, so it seems a little pointless to try and build a relationship now.”

“No, you can’t, but at some point she might want to apologize to you.”

“When that times comes, I’ll listen to her. But I came to accept who she was and what she did to me a long time ago. I don’t know that I need her apology like I thought I did.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Come on, I’d like to show you something.” She gets up awkwardly from the couch and heads toward the door.
 

He grabs her hand. “I didn’t say it enough before, so forgive me if I make up for lost time.” He kisses her forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mikah.” She touches her other hand to his cheek, enjoying the feel of the light stubble against her palm, and he leans into it. “Never doubt that.”