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They had built on to the cottage over time, adding space for their family, but still maintaining Great-Aunt Rosemary’s cozy aesthetic. Tonight, they ate together out beneath a trellis wrapped in wisteria, breathing in the glory of the Provence summer. Just as Kendra’s favorite great-aunt must have done herself.
And after the children had gone to sleep, Kendra and Balthazar sat out there together. Beneath the quiet stars, Kendra took her favorite seat. His lap.
“You seem particularly pleased with yourself,agápi mou,” Balthazar murmured, though his attention was on the line of her neck as he tasted his way down the length of it. “It makes me wonder what you can possibly be thinking about.”
Kendra was thinking about that gazebo, long ago. How overwhelmed she’d been. How thunderstruck.
She was thinking of the night she’d surrendered her innocence on that desk in New York that they had returned to again and again over time. Christening it repeatedly, because they could. Because the heat between them only grew.
God, how it grew.
She was thinking of the island, where they spent as much time as they could, grounding themselves in the quiet. In the peace.
And using the altar where they’d made their vows, first to a priest and then to each other, as a touchstone. A talisman. A way to remind themselves who they were. Who they wanted to be, come what may.
“Tell me,” Balthazar urged her, his voice dark and hot, and she could feel his smile against her skin.
“What am I always thinking about?” When he lifted his head, she smiled at him, more in love now that she’d ever known a person could be. And she could see the same reflected back at her, always. “Revenge, Balthazar. Sweet, sweet revenge.”
“I love you,” he told her.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
And then he showed her exactly how much he loved her, the way he always did, muffling her cries against his chest.
Just as Kendra showed him the same in return. The way she always would, until he groaned into the crook of her neck.
Because, as always, love was the best revenge of all.
