As I led Elijah through the front door of our old house, a sense of nostalgia washed over me. So much had changed since we were last here together, but it felt like only yesterday.

“Wow, Ems, you’ve been busy,” Elijah commented as he looked around. “Not only have you been perfecting that bad ass side of you, but I barely recognize the place. You turned our little evil lair into a respectable home. Congratulations.”

I shrugged. “Well, I had to do something with all the evil supervillain garbage you had lying around. I mean, who needs a ray gun when you can have a toaster?”

“Evil supervillain garbage?” Elijah playfully huffed. “I see that you’re still holding a grudge, but I bet you’re kicking yourself now. You could put that ray gun to good use on the Wonderful Wons.”

“Nope. I’m not kicking myself. I don’t think that ray gun ever worked.” I chuckled, remembering the brightness in his eyes when he brought that beast home and tried to disintegrate a cupcake on our kitchen table. Needless to say, we ended up full of frosting and had to buy a new table. “Enough about the past. Let’s focus on the present. Do you need a tour to refresh your memory? Or just to remind you of all the ways I’m awesome?”

“Oh, my memory doesn’t need refreshing, but I’d love to see what you’ve done to this place. Show me everything.”

As I led Elijah from room to room, he marveled at all the changes I had made: the new paint, the modern furniture, and the updated appliances.

“You really went all out.” Elijah nodded with sincere amazement. “I can’t believe how different everything looks.”

I smiled. “Well, I had to do something to keep myself busy after you left. And besides, I wanted to make the house my own. I mean, I never expected you to be back here.” Suddenly, I felt my eyes tear up. No, no, no. I wouldn’t think about the hundred ways I missed him. That was the past and once we set our master plan in motion to take down the Superzeros, I couldn’t guarantee either of us would stay out of prison.

As we reached the bedroom, Elijah’s face lit up with his sinister grin and the tears I almost shed had evaporated. “But it looks like you kept one thing full of memories.”

I tilted my chin at the room. “I kept the nightstands.”

“Nope. Not them. You kept the bed. We had some good times there.”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t stop my cheeks from heating with a memory of the first day Elijah tried on his SuperBoom costume and the hilarious strip tease he did for me in this room, showing off each little modification to the leather that would help him rid our city of the Superheroes.

Elijah’s voice lowered. His words were soft. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed that sexy smile of yours. The one you used to always give me when you were pretending to be impressed with my ridiculous plans?”

“Or humoring you while you danced around in leather?” And God. he had been sexy back then, but now, he still stood in front of me without a shirt and he was a hundred times hotter. Honestly, I’d probably find him sexy no matter how he looked. It was that damn personality that could take my shit and dish it back. My heart raced as he took a step closer. I should have turned away from him, grabbed a blanket and a pillow for his bed on the treadmill in his lair, and sent him out of the room, but he had almost kissed me in the forest and I wanted to know if his touch would excite me or repulse me after all this time.

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After all, he had killed a man.

He had left me to seek revenge.

But, for some reason, I felt like I understood why. Here I was, out to seek my own justice for what the superheroes did. No, murder wasn’t right. But sometimes, bad things happen.

When Elijah’s powerful arms wrapped around my waist, I looked up into his emerald green eyes, filled with emotion. I had never forgotten the love we shared, or the pain of having to testify against him.

The moment he pulled me close, my senses overloaded, like waking up from a deep, dream-filled sleep by someone yanking the covers off. My body responded to his closeness exactly as it always had. His touch sent a shockwave through my system that started in my core and ran down to my fingers and toes. I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of being in his arms again.

He moved his hands up my back, gently caressing my skin through the fabric of my comfortable getaway clothes. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine, causing them to tingle and ache for more. My body melted in his arms, and suddenly he grew hungry, taking me with passion and longing.

We moved together in perfect harmony, our mouths meeting in a slow and sensuous dance. His lips were soft and inviting, and my heart swelled with the emotions I had been ignoring.

He pulled away, and our eyes met again. I could see the same love reflected in his gaze that I felt in my heart. Every part of me knew I should push him away, but I didn’t want to. There was no turning back now. His hands cupped my face, and he kissed me again.

Oh, how easy it would be to take him to bed.

But there, I drew the line, and he didn’t push.

When our kiss finally parted, he held me close until I pulled away. With the warmth of his touch still radiating through my body, I looked into his emerald greens and saw the man I had fallen in love with. “Wow.”

“That good, huh?”

“You could always kiss.”

“Admit it. You find me irresistibly sexy.” He smirked and gave me a playful flexing of his biceps.

I laughed. “I think I’ll find you sexy when you’re far enough away that I can admire it without getting a restraining order.” I turned my back to him and gathered the blankets and a spare pillow from my closet and tossed them over. “For the treadmill in the basement… in that secret lair of yours.”

“Right. Who needs a gym membership when you have a secret lair?” The hope on Elijah’s face fell, but I knew now wasn’t the time to chat about feelings. All the adrenaline from tonight was making my body and mind betray each other.

I faked a yawn. I had gone from tired to over-tired and over-stimulated. Sleeping would take work. “I’m going to go to bed… but maybe you can bandage my ass better before I make all my sheets bloody.”

Elijah chuckled. “I’d be happy to check out your ass again.”

“Some things never change.” I couldn’t help but laugh at Elijah’s comment. Despite all the drama and heartbreak we experienced, it was nice to see that we could still joke around and reminisce about the good times, even knowing there was that passion between us that never was extinguished.

After a very platonic bandaging, I ended up cuddled safely in bed while Elijah slept on the soft sofa instead of the basement. Yeah, I was weak. I figured he deserved something better than the hard surface of that running machine I never used.

Did Elijah still have feelings for me, or was this all a flirtatious game he was playing? Was it more than a deprived man who was hungry for a good love-making session?

And the biggest question of all was if I still had feelings for him? I hadn’t thought about my feelings for the last eleven months because he was tucked away in jail and I was mourning the loss of my sister. But now that he was so close, I had to figure out my thoughts.

Did I still love him? Of course.

But did I still want him as my husband? Not if he was going to treat me as second fiddle to his evil ways. Plus, he had killed someone. What kind of man does that?

Even if it was to protect me.

As I drifted off to sleep, I was left with two conflicting thoughts. One was a sense of contentment. No matter what the future held for Elijah and me, it was nice to have a common goal of overthrowing the superheroes.

The other was turmoil. If Elijah and I went after the superheroes, I didn’t know what was next. If we failed, it could mean prison…or worse.

And if we succeeded? What was next for us?

I had no idea.