I watched him then flick his eyes into the crowd, settling his gaze on someone in particular. I followed his line of sight to a pretty blonde haired girl. Isla, I realized. She caught his look and immediately turned away from him and made a show of kissing some buff guy that had his arm around her.

What the fucking shit, Isla?

Marko’s shoulders tensed, and he ran his hand through his brown hair and looked away from her. I watched him clench his fists and I nearly laughed at the obvious anger rolling off of him. He’d went on that Isla was hard as nails, but that right there took the cake for being an ultimate bitch.

“Who is that?” Allie asked me when we were out of Marko’s earshot. Of course she’d noticed. She was a little hawk, like me.

“You don’t want to know,” I answered.

“They’d clearly be a fucked up pair if I’m getting the right vibe.”

I chuckled again. “That would be putting it lightly.”

She leaned into my side and sighed contently. “It’s nice to just be Allie sometimes. Not Allie the mother. Or Allie the student.”

“What about Allie the sexy minx in my harem?” I said with a smirk.

Her jaw dropped and she gave me a playful smack on the shoulder. “I’d say that’s a part of normal Allie too.”

“I agree. Some of the things you do… Fuck. I’d take you right here and now if I could.”

She bit her bottom lip and muttered quietly, “Why couldn’t you?”

Why couldn’t I indeed? It took me barely a second to decide to ditch being Marko’s support. He had plenty of people cheering him on and with Isla in the crowd, I probably didn’t exist to him.

When the fight finally began, I grabbed her hand and led her out of the crowd. She didn’t resist when I took her into my office and locked the door. She didn’t push away my advances when I kissed her. When I pinned her in the corner. When I grabbed at every inch of her. She wrapped her arms around me and let me pick her up and fuck her against the door. She moaned in my ear and tugged at my hair and I bit at her lip and panted against that delicious mouth of hers.

It was erotic and warm, and I didn’t want it to end. I slowed down as we neared our peak, and I looked into those brilliant beautiful eyes, watching her slowly come. Just the sight alone prompted my own release, and it was a long and mind blowing orgasm. I sagged against her frame and kissed softly along her neck.

“Heath,” she breathlessly said.

“What?”

“I’ve been very forgetful lately.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And I forgot to take my pill.”

“So?”

“So…you didn’t use a condom.”

I smirked, licking a path up to her mouth. “Whoops.”

Whoops indeed.

Epilogue

Allie

Heath spent a lot of his time at his gym, or at home, or in bed nailing me to the wall with his insatiable appetite.

He spent whatever time there was after that asking me to marry him.

I told him no. I wasn’t ready yet. Even when I graduated school and got a job as a counsellor at a rehabilitation centre, I didn’t say yes. I wasn’t sure what was stopping me. I knew one day it was going to happen. The yes inside of me would want to finally come out and make his day.

But it was because of Ryker, I eventually came around.

As time passed, he had faded into the background in the news. Nobody found him. Nobody knew where he was. But every so often, I’d get a card in the mail, and it’d have gibberish written all over it that only Heath could decipher.

Sometimes they were one liners; quotes that most likely related to him in that particular moment. Other times they were short paragraphs. Sometimes, they were both.

Three and half years later, his latest card put me at peace.

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. – George Bernard Shaw

I am fine.

But it gets hard sometimes.

Maybe one day you’ll let Kayden know about me. And maybe one day he’ll find me. I know it makes no sense, and the odds of that happening are close to nil. But the thought of meeting him keeps me going at times. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect. A lot of time to pick up the pieces. I’m bettering myself in the hopes that if that day were to come – 20, 30, even 40 years in the future – I can be proud of who I am and feel worthy of being in his presence.

-R

Heath was too broken apart by that letter upon reading it, but I smiled. Ryker was changing for the better. This card was proof of that. Any contact from Ryker was always in regards to Kayden, and I knew one day Kayden would come and demand the truth of what had gone on. I was already teaching him to be strong. To tackle on the criticisms he was born into with his head held high.

And when the day did come that he demanded the truth, I’d give him these letters, and he would have a piece of Ryker somehow.

Kayden was a happy boy, and he was even happier when his brother was born into the world a year ago. Dominic Lawson came out into the world screaming at the top of his lungs. But the second he saw Kayden and heard that little voice he’d heard talk against my stomach for the months prior to his arrival, he stopped completely and stared at him with big blue eyes.

They were inseparable.

Two peas in a pod.

Experiencing, learning, loving, sharing – they did it all together.

And now we were here, watching them play in the backyard as we rocked on the porch swing. Heath’s arm was around me, nestling me to his side. He stared fondly at them, and I could see the pride shining out of his eyes.

Heath had come back to me. He had softened for me, though he was hard around everyone else. He, too, was at peace.

“I just want them to love each other forever,” he said to me quietly. “I want them never to be apart. To never have to go through what we did.”

“They will,” I reassured him. “Because despite everything that’s happened between you and Ryker, I’m sure you both love each other as much as you did before it all went pear shaped. That’s the power of brothers. You’re there for each other, even when you don’t want to be. That kind of love is unbreakable.”            

He smiled wistfully. “And what about the love between you and your mother? Is that unbreakable too?”

“No,” I replied, leaning back in our porch swing with his arm wrapped around me. I watched the kids play in the backyard and said, “Mom can’t be helped. She refuses to change, refuses to open her heart to me because she’ll forever be reminded of my father. Even when she learned the truth and accepted it, she was too stubborn to let me back in. I’ve accepted that. Some people don’t want to change. They’re tethered to their pasts.”