Chapter 67: ELENA

"Where are you? Have you seen this?"

"What? Did something happen?" I was barely awake when Sydney called, still caught in the throes of sleepy pleasure after the morning and night Ryder and I had spent together.

I felt the aches and pains as I tried to sit up in bed and couldn't help the smile that flitted across my face. I was almost afraid to be this happy or to admit to myself that our time together was so much better this time around than the last.

Don't get me wrong, our relationship had lots of good times, but the bad somehow had grown to overshadow them. But this time, for some reason, I feel it deep inside that things are different. That he is, we are.

Of course, we've grown, but it's almost as if he's a different person. I can't say that I'd imagined him becoming the man he is today, and though I wouldn't wish the last five years on my worst enemy, a part of me can't help but be grateful in a way for all that we'd gone through, if it meant that we could be here today. It's too