"You are so intimidating" I said as Brittock came within earshot.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, looking down at me.

"You can't even walk in the beach casually. You know, hands in your pockets, billowing shirts open to the breeze, bare toes in the sand? No, you walk out here, arms stiff at your sides, long legs making even longer strides, in a business suit with a brooding face" I said, gesturing to each part of his attire.

He tilted his head to the right and looked as if he was pondering something before he reached down and pulled off his shoes, throwing them in the sand a few feet away. He then unbuttoned his shirt completely and ran his hand through his neat combed hair, ruffling it.

Looking like a sexy beach god, he spread his arms out wide and asked "better?"

"Definitely" I responded with a chuckle.

He sat down next to me and looked at the sunset.

"You are going to be a terrible influence on me" he said with a sigh.

"I know I am! It's been less than a year and look how much I've got you talking" I teased, poking his rib cage.

"Only because I am always having to chastise you" he used his massive hand to bring my head to his chest. He nuzzled his face in my hair and I relished his closeness.

"I'm a trouble maker" I replied. After a pause, I continued, "You know I was very nervous and... upset... when I found you dead in the truck" I muttered.

"I called out to you multiple times before I died" he whispered.

"That makes me feel terrible" I said with a nervous chuckle as he forced our eye contact.

"Imagine that feeling one hundred times over and then you will know the pain and sorrow I have felt after watching you die by my sword that day" he admitted.

"I can't-" but Brittock did not let me finish before he captured my mouth in a deep kiss.

"I am tired of you dying on me, Katherine Buchanan" he said quietly, "if you're going to die, you should die as Katherine Calder."

I took that statement in the best way I knew how...

"You're a little old for me, don't you think?" I teased.

"I am a man of 69 lives now, if that is not youth, I do not know what is" he said with a smile.

"Then, mainly because you smiled, I agree to be Mrs. Brock Calder" I said before kissing him again.

"Little Dove" he replied with a warning smile.

"Brittock" I corrected, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Good, because you were not going to have any other option" he admitted, pulling me into his embrace, a place I felt the safest and the calmest. Perhaps the world is violent, evil, destroyed place, but now it's nothing more than we can handle.