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She s her heart swell in her chest at his words “Tell me about your injuries, Sam Tell me about this one” She bent her head to tenderly press a kiss against the scar below his rib cage

“Lacerated spleen It won’t be a probleh Erin sensed the underlying anger at himself in his words “I don’t have it anymore”

“And this?” She repeated the kiss with the scar on his jaw

“My cellphone, oddly enough Funny thing when your car is forced to stop rapidly You and everything else in it don’t” He shifted his hand to rest on his thigh “And this was a coery, ensured er than either I or the medical staff were happy with”

“Not a good patient?”

“Not patient, period,” he said bluntly “Too much time to think about what choices I should have made that day, rather than the ones I did I learned a lot about myself while I was in hospital, and I didn’t like most of it Eventually I decided, if I had to survive, I had to change I will never again put my work or myself before my family”

There was a steely undertone to his voice now that resonated with Erin She knew exactly how he felt Nothing and no one would get between her and her son Ever

“I’h all that,” she whispered, stroking her hand across his belly with featherlight movements

His recovery iven up on it was a strong measure of the in to hope that the rest of his journey ht be with her?

Sa love with Erin tonight had been a temptation he simply couldn’t resist He wasn’t ready for this, for the feelings that being with her aroused in hi her the way he had—the way he still did His feelings for her went beyond the physical attraction they so clearly shared It was so he hadn’t anticipated and he had no preselected ence of emotions

He’d thought he’d learned to shut himself down To be the quintessential ices were concerned He knehat it was like to go through the wringer Senti he welcomed into his life anymore And yet, with Erin, and with Riley, he’d found an awakening of hope A small kernel of a dream he’d once had A dreaht of his role in her death, he’d decided he was no longer entitled

He still didn’t believe he deserved to find happiness, but fate had thrown hiht be his son Was it possible that, together with Erin and Riley, he could have that chance of a faht he’d lost forever? Could he reach for the happiness he so wanted, yet deep down didn’t believe he deserved?

Maybe he could

He reached down to his jeans on the floor next to the bed, sliding the other condom he’d put in there—just in case—into his hand Whatever happiness there was to be taken, it began now—here, with Erin The ice in his veins had begun to thaw, leaving in its wake a hot dru warmth

He rolled over her, loving the sizzle of sensitivity that sparked between the

This ti to her the crest of a peak, then letting her slowly dip before he allowed her to launch again His need was strung so tight, by the time he ripped open the foil packet he’d shoved under the pillow he al the condom on But then finally he was there, his erection arrowed straight toward her body

Their joining was slow as he fought to prolong every second, his hands holding her hips when she would have pushed against hi back, of teasing her as he withdrew only to enter her again, slowly, oh, so slowly, took every ounce of concentration he had Concentration that went flying to the four corners of the room the minute he allowed his body to penetrate her fully She closed around hiht Her arth for length And as he began to rock gently within her he knew they had no beginning, they had no end They just had each other in this perfect moment in time

Nine

Sa foam from his jaw and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror He could barely keep a smile off his face these days Over the past teeks, since the first night he and Erin had hts had slid into an easy rhythone to her lawyer’s office for the supervised sa, and why, had driven his were really in motion, his kind of motion