His arms came around my waist and I laid back into his chest, relishing the feeling of his strong arms encircled around me as I scrolled aimlessly through the countless emails that had pored through over the course of the day.

"What's that all about?"

Emmett's voice rumbled through my chest and a contented sigh escaped my lips. Never in my life had I felt so at peace, but laying on the couch cuddling with my boyfriend's arms holding me tight while I worked to put a criminal behind bars and he watched old tapes of his football plays was a pretty novel experience and I was having a damn good time doing it.

I curled up even closer into his body and inhaled his scent, the cologne that I had picked out for him making me weak in all of the best ways.

It had been three weeks since the interview with Julia and our impromptu talk afterwards had kept Emmett intrigued but he had never outwardly questioned me about what she'd said.

I had told her how much I appreciated her coming forward and that I was very impressed with her work as a social worker and that I was following a similar path, committing to a career that I was driven towards because of injustices I had encountered when I was younger, and I could see why Emmett was drawn to her in their youth.

She was gorgeous, light hair and skin and a saintly quality to her, but never once did Emmett make me feel threatened by her presence, and once the story had come out with her words printed for the world to see, Emmett's name was cleared and all of the angry Twitter rants about him finally ceased.

Then the Twitter sphere blew up about our relationship and his name was once again in the spotlight, but I didn't mind it much because this time it was positive. The whole media world was still going on and on about how badly Sofia Renault had treated him and they were glad that they had found someone else after she 'broke his heart'. We decided to just laugh at the rumors and the stories because there wasn't much else we could do to change our perception to strangers.

"I'm just checking my emails on the case. After I sent the pictures with proof that Christian had somehow escaped his house arrest, it wasn't long before the authorities couldn't hold up their case against the original defendant especially considering he had no motive and there was no murder weapon found. The authorities are trying to get a search warrant for Christian's house but they have to keep it quiet so he doesn't find out and try to stash the gun anywhere else, so far they have a warrant for his house they're just waiting on the one for their second house on Lake Charles and then they're going to hit them both at once."

"Wow. So they really think he is the guy. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

I smiled and snuggled up closer to him while he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss to the side of my head.

"I would have doubted me too, it was pretty suspicious and paranoid sounding," I said with a light chuckle and laughed out loud as Emmett physically flinched as he watched a repeat of him being sacked on the television, a memory that he told me he didn't want to relive.

Soon the television was turned off and my work was forgotten as his hand began drawing tantalizing circles on my exposed hip. Over and over, his expert fingertips trailed a burning path of desire across my skin, his fingers writing little words into my body as he did so.

"Are you tracing the alphabet on my skin, Emmett?"

He chuckled low and dark into my ear and I shivered at the sensations that it created inside of me. God, this man and what he could do to me.

"Pay closer attention. Here, I'll start again."

He began writing out the words 'you are' but stopped suddenly.

"What? What am I?"

I giggled as he shook his head and I turned slightly so I could see the expression he was wearing and I was not disappointed.

"Emmett Scott, are you blushing right now?"

"No. I just don't know if you'll be able to keep up with all of the things that I want to tell you."

"Try me."

"Why don't I just tell you?"

I playfully rolled my eyes but then turned around completely so that I was half in his lap.

"Go ahead, but I could have kept up."

An ear splitting smile stretched his cheeks.

"I know you could, but I just wanted to say this. You are so beautiful it hurts. I see you in the mornings and sometimes I swear it's like I just woke up to an angel beside me. You don't even notice it though, is the crazy part. You've told me before about how you think you look awful and you have bags under your eyes or something, how your past had made you think badly about your body before but its mind blowing to me how you could look at yourself in the mirror and not see what I see everyday.

"I see your strength and your compassion and your drive to do the right thing and to help everyone you can. You're so damn strong, Lydia, probably even stronger than me. You're incredible and hard working and so fucking smart you make me look like a third grader compared to you but I don't even care because now I can just brag that I have a smart ass girlfriend who is going to be a lawyer. You're a law student at Harvard, if you don't think that's an amazing accomplishment I don't know what is.

"You surprise me every single day and I can't get enough of that. You carry the weight of your past on your back not like a burden but something that you experience and came out on the other end stronger than you were before going through it. Everything that you've had to go through has turned you into the woman that I love, and I wouldn't change a damn thing about you. I'm so in love with you Lydia and I can't imagine my life without you and I want to marry you one day and have a ton of kids running around that look just like you, but I want at least one to look like me but that's beside the point."

I was speechless, but I was pretty sure that the tears trailing down my cheeks and grin that was splitting my face in half did the talking for me.

"Emmett...you are so amazing. You took care of me after the whole Nate situation, even though you didn't really even know me. You helped me do questionable things because it was for the greater good, you helped a girl who definitely didn't deserve it just because that's the type of person you are: good. You are a good man, a great man, and sometimes I feel like I don't even deserve you. You went through something unimaginable in your childhood and you persevered even when all the odds were stacked against you.

"You went to juvie for something you didn't even do, for god's sake. You have a successful career in professional football, the dream that you were shooting for your entire life, to prove something of yourself, but even if you didn't make it, it wouldn't make your accomplishments any less. You grew up to be the man that I love and your kindness and generosity is completely unmatched. I mean, we weren't even talking and when you heard about my heart condition and what happened to me, you came to be with me at my bedside. I loved you all this time, even when we were apart, and I love you even more now if that's even possible. Living without you was hell and I don't plan on ever having to be away from you ever again. And I demand that at least one of our kids plays soccer, we can't be a sports biased household just because Dad played pro football."

We were left staring at each other with love glistening in our eyes, our hearts synchronized with the weight of our future dangling between us in pure fashion, our truths displayed in front of us but neither of us were too scared to reach out and grab it.

My emotions swelled and never before in my life had I felt so happy, so pure.

I deserved happiness, didn't I? So then why did something have to come crashing into my life and ruin it every single damn time?

Though I was hopeful for what was to come, I was terrified that something was going to darken the horizon, and I wasn't sure if it was going to be Christian, or in the shape of one of Emmett's jaded family members.

Whatever it was that was going to inevitably come and try to ruin my happiness with Emmett, however, I knew that we would face it together, and while we embraced each other for the night as we did every night, I had never felt more ready to take on the storm than ever before.