He may not have been that same person, but no matter how many times she saw his ship upon the horizon or felt the touch of his hand she fell in love with that man all over again. They fought like lions in those first few years and it separated them with enough secrets to fill the space between the heaven and horizon. She could not hold those times against him, as now he closed the distance between them over and over again. 

The storm held her attention only until he was at her side and though she wanted nothing more than to reach to her toes to kiss him, she wouldn’t dare in public. Instead her gloved hand came to take his arm, a place she fit so perfectly, and she put the storm behind them. 

Perhaps had he married someone a bit more easy with matters of her heart or a bit more complacent she would have commented on the storm and welcomed him home. She would have let go of the social standards and let every ounce of her frustration out on his body then and there, but all she had to say was…

“Your son.” Lucian was only his son in matters like this. 

More McKenna than even she preferred, Aurore couldn’t let go of that fear that the man that had a hand in his earliest years left scars deeper than her own. It shouldn’t have been the first thing she said to her husband, but the last few weeks at home had been hell and she wanted to prepare him for what he was going home to. 

“He broke a boy’s nose yesterday, and before you get that proud grin of yours, Husband, know that this has been an ongoing situation and he is facing being denied a place the coming year in school.” The horrors!