Page 64 of Keeping Penny

Still connected intimately with her, Pyro lifted his head and smoothed her hair away from her face. “I’m sorry I scared you earlier. By telling you we needed to talk without giving you an idea of what it was about. I won’t do it again.”

“Thanks. And now that I know the true impact of those words, I won’t do it to you either.”

“I love you.”

Penny blinked.

Pyro looked sheepish. “Probably not the best timing, but I needed you to know. If I knew you were out in the world waiting for me when I was a teenager, I probably wouldn’t have been as cynical growing up. If I knew I’d someday find a woman who made me feel as if I’d finally found a home, it would’ve made everything I was going through so much easier to endure.”

“Kylo,” Penny whispered, feeling overwhelmed.

“Make no mistake, I know what I’ve got. I was a kid and then an adult who had nothing and no one. Yes, now I have great friends who are like family, but it’s not the same as actually having a family of my own. Being with you and Bowie? I feel as if I’ve finally found the family I’d hoped for growing up. And I’m not expecting the words back. I can be patient. I don’t want you to say them until you’re absolutely sure. Until you know deep in your heart that I’m the one you want…forever.”

Penny didn’t hesitate. “I love you too, Kylo Mullins.”

The look on his face was one she’d remember for the rest of her days. Full of love, and hope, and disbelief. Probably the same expression she had.

They were two foster kids who’d never experienced unconditional love…until now.

She felt him harden inside her, and she smiled.

His hips began moving even as he lowered his head and kissed her. It was an emotional vow, a promise both given and received. He made love to her slowly and tenderly, all the while peppering her face with kisses, saying “I love you” over and over.

Penny repeated it back every time he said it. It felt amazing to share her innermost thoughts with him. To finally say out loud what her heart was screaming every time she was near him. It was freeing and cathartic. To be loved by this man was…everything.

By the time they both came again, and Penny had gotten cleaned up, it was time for Pyro to go get Bowie.

He hugged her, holding her against him for a long emotional moment as they stood by the door to the apartment. Then Pyro smiled. “Today’s the first day of the rest of our life.”

“Cheesy,” Penny pointed out. “But true.”

He grinned. “Go log in, do your thing. I’ll be back in about two hours with Bowie. That work?”

“Perfect.”

He kissed the tip of her nose and reluctantly dropped his arms from around her. Penny stepped back and watched the man who’d blown into her life and upended it in all the best ways, as he walked down the hall toward the stairwell.

She was still smiling as she logged into the program on the company laptop she’d been given, and when the phone rang with a call from a concerned mother-to-be. The day seemed brighter, the weight she’d been carrying on her shoulders for over two years was lifted, and she felt incredible. More optimistic about the future. There was still a long road to walk before she was financially stable, but she had a roof over her and Bowie’s heads, food in their bellies, money in the bank, and a man who loved her as much as she loved him.

This was the beginning of good things. Penny knew it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Pyro kept in regular touch with Tex, who told him that Colvin was still in Washington, and from what he saw while monitoring his electronic footprint, hadn’t mentioned Virginia or Penny. It was a relief…but Pyro was still being extremely cautious.

Why would a man who’d adamantly told Penny that he’d collect on her husband’s debt suddenly decide he wouldn’t bother anymore? Was it simply because she was back in the States? Was it more difficult to extort money from her in a country where she might have more support from the authorities? Or had Tex’s man really made that much of an impression that he just gave up so easily?

Pyro didn’t know, but he wasn’t sure he completely trusted the man’s word that he no longer had any interest in Penny.

Though he could admit, things in the last two weeks had been amazing. Pyro would always remember the moment when Penny said that she loved him. How he’d felt. How he’d wanted to find all those foster parents who’d returned him to the state, saying he was cold and unlovable, and show them that they were wrong. He’d believed them for a long time, until he’d found his Night Stalker family.

And then fate had sent him Penny and Bowie.

Anytime he had a bad day at work, all he had to do was think about Bowie’s smile and her uninhibited joy for life. A joy her mom had given her. Because, there was no way around it, life was difficult for the little girl. She had to work twice as hard as everyone else in a world built for people who had no disabilities.

But she did so with a smile on her face and an enthusiasm that positively affected everyone around her. If someone had told Pyro that he’d be perfectly content to sit at home every night and read children’s books, or learn braille, or stand in the kitchen and teach a little girl who couldn’t see how to measure ingredients and cook, he’d have told them they were crazy.

And yet, here he was. Happier than a pig in mud.