Free Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) by Morgan Kelley

I have scars in both shoulders, and I’ve changed too. To assume that I’ll always be the same size or shape, or have the same hair… it’s not going to be like that. We all change.”
    “You’re still as beautiful as you were the day I met you,” he offered. Part of the block of ice keeping him from reaching her was thawing.
    His heart was breaking free.
    “When I first saw you, Ethan, I forgot how to breathe. There you were in your black FBI suit and shiny boots. Your hair was pulled back and you looked so serious, and yet I saw so much when I looked into your eyes. They’re the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen in my life. They’re so dark, mysterious, and sexy. Your eyes are the epitome of the man you still are.”
    “I fell in love with you the second I heard your voice,” he offered. “It haunted me then and still does today.”
    Her hand slid up his chest to his hair. “I liked your hair long, but if you want the truth, you’re even sexier with it just like this.”
    Her words made him want to weep.
    “I don’t ever want it the way it used to be. I want it exactly like it is now. Right now, you’re perfect Ethan. At least I think you’re perfect for the woman I am , in this moment. I’m forty, and I have three kids. I’m different at this point in time. I don’t need the man you were. I need the man you’ve become. We evolved together on the journey. When we first met, we had no idea what was coming. Now we’re older, wiser, and battle scarred.”
    “Lyzee my love,” he murmured. It was as if she just knew what his heart needed to get through it all. Somehow, he found an odd sense of peace in the knowledge that if he had died, she would have followed. In spoke volumes of the depth of her love. They would have traveled together and that touched him. This is what his heart needed to come back to life.
    She was what he needed.
    There would be no one else, because he already found the pinnacle of love.
    “Do you love me enough to grow with me, Ethan? From here on out, are you willing to flourish in the now, and not live in the past? I don’t want the man that showed up in the diner that day. I want the man that’s sitting beside me here. He’s my husband and lover.”
    He ran the pad of his thumb across her lowe r lip. “Yes, baby. I think I am, and I miss us too.”
    “ I will always love you, Ethan. I just need you to find your way home, so we can move on and start our lives back up. Tell me what I need to do, and I will. Without hesitation, I’d die for you, so tell me how to live for you.”
    Ethan stared at her. For the first time in a while, he noticed something. She looked tired. No, make that exhausted. The weeks that had passed weighed heavily on her. Her eyes weren’t sparkling, and there were worry lines at the corners of her eyes. In fact, she lost weight and looked incredibly pale.
    He wasn’t the only one buried by the pain.
    Only before, he was too focused on him self to notice that she was a casualty in this too. Ethan hated that the killer was hurting them from the grave. He was giving the man, who took him, so much power over them, and that needed to stop.
    Here and now.
    For them.
    Blackhawk was done hurting the woman he loved.
    “I’ll find my way back, I promise you.” Already, he was on the journey, and it was merely a matter of time. Ethan Blackhawk wasn’t going to be kept down.
    Not ever!
    She lifted his hand to her cheek and kissed the inside of his palm. “I trust that you will, Ethan. In my mind, there was never a doubt that you can beat this and save us all. I may have had moments of weakness, but I believe in you.”
    No one spoke for a few minutes. Before long, he knew what he needed to do.
    “Let’s go home, Lyzee.”
    Lovingly, she ran her fingers through his hair.
    “Absolutely, handsome.”
     
     
     
                            *     *     *
     
     
    He followed him home and gave him time to relax. After all, he