Page 159 of Temporary Vows

He takes my hand and brings it up to his lips to kiss. “If I could truly start over, I’d go right back to the past.”

I smile, despite the steady stream of tears I can’t seem to stop. “Would you?”

“Yes. Or at least when you walked into me in the coffeehouse.”

“I think it worked out in the end.”

“End? No, Lamb. This is just the beginning.” He gives me a genuine smile and pulls me closer. “Come here.”

I move to him, meeting his lips for a kiss that warms my soul.

At least I know the deeper I fall, he’ll be right next to me.

Because he’s mine.

Chapter 35

Dorian

Iturn the page on the Whitfield contract and take a slow pull of my coffee. It's strong, borderline bitter, just the way I like it.

The office is also the kind of quiet I like. Great for getting a head start and sorting out your mind before the commotion of business meetings and contract negotiations begins.

Nevertheless, I’m only here at work at this hour because Elodie had to get into school early. If that wasn’t the case, the two of us would still be in bed, wrapped around each other.

We got back from England two days ago. The real world came back fast, too, but it didn’t change the experience.

I set the coffee cup down and lean back in my chair, swiveling it around so I can stare at the skyline through the glass.

Going to England turned out to be everything I needed, and more. But what stayed with me was her.

Elodie.

Watching the way her face lit up when she saw something beautiful. The way her smile would reach her eyes before it reached her lips. Making her happy made me happy—a concept so foreign to me it might as well be a new language I'm only just learning to speak.

The havoc that existed before we left seemed so distant now it was hard to imagine it had ever existed at all.

I’m not entirely sure what changed me and set me on this path where I confessed my undying love to my wife. Honestly it was perhaps a little of everything, but I’d have to admit that the faux date with Parker pushed me.

The crazy thing was, it wasn’t just because it was him. I imagined someone else being with her and every other guy who could have been with her if I’d stood by my separate lives rule.

In that instant I realized I didn’t want that. And I didn’t want her to hate me either.

That turnaround was a big deal for a man like me who lives by the rules of control.

I know some things were still a work in progress—like Jack—but Elodie and I connected in a way I didn't know I was capable of. It ran deep, past all my carefully constructed bullshit.

That said, not everything that happened in England was enlightening. The darker parts still crept in.

I didn’t intend to talk about Jack, but I had to give her something. Just enough so she knew there was more to the story. She deserved that much, even if the full truth is something I'm not ready to lay at her feet yet.

And then there was my mother. That conversation carved something out of me I didn't know was still there.

Talking about my mother has never been easy. At the best of times, I avoid it. At the worst, I lock it away and pretend the box doesn't exist. But telling Elodie what she tried to do to me—saying those words out loud—unearthed the rawness that still sits in my gut like poison.

We went through so much, my brothers and I. Things no child should have to carry. Things that shaped us in ways we're still discovering. But now life seems to have softened. Knox is married and so madly in love with Isla it's almost sickeningto watch. And now there's me. A man who swore he'd never lose himself to love, sitting here thinking about his wife with a warmth in his chest he never wants to lose.

A knock sounds at the door. I turn back to the desk and straighten in my chair. "Come in."