The whole room goes silent, and it’s clear the question has got Nathan a little vexed.
Or so I think, but he’s really just searching for the right words.
“That’s a great question,” he starts after a long pause. “And one I know a lot of fans, even my agent and publishers have asked too recently. Although it’s done nothing to hurt sales, so I’m not in any real trouble,” he jokes.
There’s a ripple of low laughter through the crowd.
“Truth is, I guess I dared to live a real part of myself through a character in a book for once,” he continues.
“I won’t lie. My life’s always been lonely and I’ve kind of kept it that way by choice. The books were a way to explore what would happen if I met the perfect partner. The one,” he says, his voice breaking off with emotion. Hitting a cord with the crowd of fans who know his yearning within his recent stories.
For me, I let out an audible sigh. Knowing that he’s talking about me.
He’s talking about us.
“Will your main character ever find her, the one?” the questioning voice asks through the darkness. Probably speaking for the whole room but only annoying me, only getting in the way as I feel myself starting to stand up, moving the few steps towards the stage.
He opens his mouth to answer, but I call out his name instead. A thousand heads and sets of eyes turning to shush me, daring me to interrupt their show again.
“Lucy?” Nathan asks, narrowing his eyes and finding me in the darkness with them as I call out to him again.
Nathan barks for the light to be brought up, his eyes meeting mine as they blink, filling with tears once he spots me. He jumps down from the stage and grabs a hold of me, pulling me into his huge arms as his lips urgently seek mine.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he says, finally letting us both come up for air after a long passionate kiss.
“I thought you’d gone,” he says, his voice drowning out over the huge applause as the lights come all the way up.
Before I know what’s happening, he’s scooped me up into his arms and found the stairs back to the stage.
He walks me over to the lectern and leans over to speak before kissing me again.
“This should answer any questions, Lucy here is the reason. She’s the one. She’s mine now and I never thought I’d meet her in this life but it was only coming here… to this convention that it finally happened,” he says, his voice thick with emotion strong before he kisses me again.
Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop kissing me, Nathan.
I don’t feel shy or embarrassed anymore, and I know I never will again. Nathan Cartwright is prepared to show the world I’m his, and I know it’s all I want to be from now on, no matter what.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nathan
It turns out to be the longest speech/meet and greet I’ve ever done, going on well into the night.
But with Lucy by my side again, and the whole room lit up with so much positive energy for us both, it’s like I’m reborn or something.
We take turns answering some questions and avoiding others with a polite smile, but it’s clear to everyone including me that she really is my girl now.
More than that, she’s a writer too, with her own ideas and her own thoughts on a million different subjects.
By the time the promoters are ready to tell people to leave because their own time has expired, everyone that came has a signed book and more than that, like me they have a new place in their heart for new things.
My spy-thriller readers, for the most part, have accepted their hero can find love, and the new readers who wanted more romance are promised that and more. I make sure of it.
Announcing that Lucy is not only mine now, but also my newest co-author for my next book.
Long after the applause, photographs and so many questions until we’re both hoarse.
Longer still, after I make love to her until the sun rises and casts a long, soft light over our nakedness.
I tell her again, never tiring of hearing it now. And promising to tell her every chance I get.
“I love you, Lucy. My girl. Mine.”
The sound of it from my own lips makes me smile before we both nearly fall asleep. I almost ask about her dad, about everything else.
But a bigger part of me just wants her here, with me.
Now.
Always.
Hearing her repeat it back to me, and meaning every word too. It’s all I could have hoped for and more in this life.
But with things being the way they are now, I guess we both know we won’t get much peace for a while yet.