His blue-black hair fell over his face when he moved, like tiny arrows pointing to pronounced cheeckbones. "Starting to think you were going to bail on me." "Didn't know you were expecting me," she said in what she hoped was a casual voice. He gets sexier every day. "Not Expecting, but hoping. Always hoping

Going backwards is never an option.

You're killing me here, Ash. Good, she said. She'd bend a few rules, but they both knew she wasn't going to push him beyond where he chose to go. Love wasn't to be based on trickery. But reminding him what he's refusing isn't trickery.

He'd given her his vow: to take care of her, to keep her from hurt or pain, from wanting for anything. Her leaving didn't negate his promises; they weren't conditional.

He tipped her head up. "Don't give up. Don't leave me before you're even here.

If you fail me, I'll kill you. I swear it, Keenan. If you fail me, I'll rip your heart out with my own hands." "If I fail you, I'll cut it out for you.

Everything I could want in eternity is possible because of you," he thought, and then he stopped thinking and simply enjoyed being in the arms of the one person in all of forever who made his life complete.