Chapter 22
EDDIE
Tyler shivered, and I dragged him into the house and shoved the door closed. He was solid in my arms. Relief wrapped around my heart. I’d been so fucking worried when he took forever getting home. I’d thought he was fighting last-minute shoppers.
“You’re back.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’m sorry. Did you say . . . ?”
He nodded, eyes squeezed shut. “Yes, I killed Chuck. He’s dead.”
“Are you sure he’s dead?” My heart was going so fast I was about to pass out.
He leaned back to stare at me as if I was stupid. “Don’t you know when you kill a guy?”
Laughter clawed its way out of me and I hugged him. “Yeah, but are you serious?” I shook him a little. “Dad is dead? For real?”
His bottom lip wobbled. Tears glistened on his cheeks, and I brushed them off.
“Hey, I have you.” I peppered kisses across his face until he was taking deeper breaths and seemed a little more like his usual self. “Tell me what happened.”
He snorted. “I was with Ari.”
He still didn’t look okay, so I rubbed his back. “I’m here for you. Just tell me what went down.”
The whole sordid tale spilled from him with a few small interruptions from me—“Where the hell did Ari get chloroform!?”—but other than a couple of details, such as the water tower, I wasn’t truly surprised Tyler had offed Dad or that Ari had helped.
Ari didn’t seem to care about dead bodies more than as a passing inconvenience.
But Tyler? He wasn’t cold and calculating. He wasn’t a bad person who hurt others. But he took Dad out anyway. He did exactly what I wasn’t able to do for him. I didn’t know I would feel like swooning for my knight in shining armor until this second. The kiss I planted on him left my head swimming.
“So,” he said, gripping my arms too hard. “Do you hate me?” He shook me, and the spot where his fingers dug in ached.
The entire time he’d been talking, relief had been my only emotion, but now that my brain was ticking along again, my stomach sank.
“No, but I’m sorry. I’m such a bad boyfriend. I should’ve been able to do this for you. I should’ve gone out there and taken care of him. This was my fault—”
“How?” he snapped, fire burning in his eyes.
“I left you, and then I didn’t have the guts to do anything.”
This time Tyler hugged me. “You did what you could, and I never thought about how long you dealt with him. I did this for us. For me, because I deserved my own revenge. And for you, because you should’ve had someone taking care of you, and all you had was that fucking monster.”
I couldn’t talk. I poured all my gratitude into a harsh kiss to his lips. It was sloppy and frantic, but it showed him how much I adored him, far better than any clumsy words I could put together.
When I pulled back, there were more tears.
“Please stop, baby.” I kissed a wandering path over his salty face.
“But do you forgive me?” he asked.
I tugged him in and wrapped him up in my arms. “Nothing to forgive. Absolutely nothing.”
He held on tight, and we swayed together in the hall like we were in a high wind while our hearts synced up and he sniffled.
“We’re a good team. Thank you for killing him.”
He snorted out a watery laugh. “We’re so weird.”
“Yeah, but it’s a good weird because it’s us.”
He used the back of his hand to wipe at a few stray tears as he dragged me down for a kiss.
“We’re free,” I whispered between our lips. “Finally free.” And, for the first time, I could see a future for us. Not in some vague, hazy outline of things I hoped for, but in things I knew could definitely happen.
Tyler would go to school. He would manage a café for Red.
I would keep moving up the ladder at my company.
We would do all the normal couple stuff. I would propose someday, or he would, or hell, maybe both of us. We would get married. Get cute dogs. Go take silly pictures together with them.
We would live a beautiful life.
I couldn’t wait to get started.
He laughed, a bright, happy sound, and nodded.
“I was waiting for you,” I murmured, then attacked his throat with my lips, sucking and nibbling. “I wanted to surprise you, but you were taking so long.”
“Murder isn’t quick. Well, body disposal isn’t. I suppose murder itself might not take too long.” He chuckled and palmed my hard-on. My knees nearly buckled.
“Love that you’re not afraid to go after what you want.” I thrust into his palm.
“You taught me that. Bet you love that what I want right now is your dick.” He stuck his tongue out at me.
“Yep.”
He yelped and giggled as I hoisted him up, and we both moaned when he wrapped his legs around my waist. I thumped him lightly against the wall.
“Eddie,” he said, stripping off his coat and throwing it. “You’re going to kill us both. You’re not coordinated enough to fuck me against this wall.”
“Challenge accepted.”
He whooped as I tugged cranberry spice lube out of my pocket, along with a condom.
“Naked? Let’s get naked. Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Tyler smacked my shoulders, but his wood was pressed in a very enticing way against my abs, and I wasn’t quite ready to put him down yet, despite this being my idea.
I captured his lips again. With every swirl of my tongue, I tried to show him how thankful I am.
Teasing him was a delicious way to edge myself, and I rocked my body against him, using the friction to make him whimper and cry out.
All at once, my cock was too hard for this screwing around and he tasted too good to keep our clothes on.
“Off. Naked,” I whispered, out of my mind with the need to touch him.
His feet hit the floor, and I stumbled back far enough to peel off my shirt and shove down my pj pants and boxers. I hit my knees and tugged at his boots, almost sending him toppling over, then dragged down his pants and underwear while he snickered.
He slapped my cheek with his dick. “While you’re down there.”
“Now that you’ve murdered someone, you’re full of yourself.”
“More like full of cum.” He grinned and there was an easiness to it. Despite the red rimming his eyes, he looked genuinely happy.
“Turn,” I demanded.
His gaze heated as he whirled, bracing himself against the wall.
“Don’t just stare.” He shook his ass at me, and I laughed.
“Now you’re bossy.” I nibbled his right asscheek, and he pushed back.
“I was always bossy.”
My mouth watered. I spread his cheeks with one hand and smeared a huge dollop of the lube on his pucker.
He yelped, and I was in heaven as I teased his hole, adding more lube until he was fucking himself on two of my fingers. “You’re such a voyeur.”
“The mirror didn’t clue you in?” I waggled my eyebrows as he glanced over his shoulder at me.
This was so much fun, not that it wasn’t always good, but there was nothing better than being with someone who made me genuinely happy. I wanted to fuck him every day for the rest of our lives.
Somehow, like a magic trick, he’d ended up with the condom. He turned and leaned his shoulders against the wall as he opened the package.
“Come up here. Prove you’re up for this.”
“I’m always up for you.” I stood and slapped around my dick so that it wobbled just to show him how much.
Tyler groaned at my bad joke, but he was smiling as he teased the red latex onto my dick. I loved the way he took the time to toy with my balls while he scraped his teeth across my bottom lip.
“I’m not sure I’m going to keep murdering people for you if it results in puns.” He shook his head sadly.
“You’re not, are you? This is it, right?” I kissed him hard, ignoring the pain from the punch I’d taken earlier and loving the way his tongue tangoed with mine. He hopped up and wrapped his legs around me again. “We’re not offing anyone else? Accidentally or on purpose?”
“Yeah, unless someone hurts you, then all bets are off.” His warm breath swirled into my ear right before he nibbled on the lobe, sending heat streaking through my groin to pulse in my cockhead.
There were a frantic few seconds where I tried and failed to enter him, but then luck smiled on me, and he sank down onto my cock as I fucked up into his heat.
“I love you. Thank you,” I murmured, feeling feverish.
“Love you. So much. And I would. I would kill for you again. You’re mine. We protect each other.”
Moaning, I fused my mouth with his as my hips pistoned, chasing the high of knowing I was loved.
We were free and safe, perhaps for the first time ever.
It didn’t take long for him to start riding my body like I was a sex toy, and thanks to all our recent adventures, I knew how sexy he was when he did that.
I knew how his bottom lip quivered when he was close to covering me in his cum.
I knew the beautiful little noises he made when he was tipping over the edge.
And I fucking loved it.
Loved knowing everything about him.
“Come all over me. I need it.” I grabbed his cock and used the precum spilling out of him to tease him.
With the way I was thumping him against the wall, I was sure the drywall would give out soon.
My toes curled. I wasn’t very coordinated, but my dick must’ve been doing a good job because his thighs clamped around me while his hole strangled my cock.
Tyler yelled as his hot cum spurted against my abs.
He scooped some up and shoved his fingers between my lips.
My eyes slammed shut as the flavor of his orgasm rolled over my taste buds. I shuddered, burying myself deep inside his tight heat, and whimpered as I filled the condom. Kiss after kiss against his throat wasn’t enough to convey how fucking much I loved him.
My legs were shaking when he lowered his feet to the floor, and my body was hot from the exercise. His smile was worth every second of the sore muscles I would have tomorrow.
“Shit, Eddie, what was that for?”
“My Christmas present. It isn’t every day a guy gets a corpse for Christmas. It was exactly what I wanted.”
His eyes widened. “That isn’t your present!”
“It is. You said you were going to get me a present and that’s what you came home with.” I fought down a grin.
“No!” He grabbed a bag off the floor. “This is your present!” He shoved it in my face.
“No, let’s do this right.”
Tyler laughed as I dragged him naked into the living room and sat down on the floor near the glowing tree.
The decorative glass stars were long gone.
He’d said they were too dangerous, and after Andrews, I couldn’t exactly call him a liar.
I didn’t even care that the wood was chilly on my bare ass.
He settled cross-legged on the floor in front of me.
“I went all the way to California and never felt as free as I do now. Two thousand miles couldn’t do that. I don’t think an entire world could’ve done it. But you did. Thank you.”
Tyler stared at the tree, his left cheek pink. “I’m just glad you don’t hate me.”
“Never.” I shoved his present at him, and he took it with a shy smile.
He tossed his bag at me. Inside was a small box wrapped in shiny blue paper. I took it out.
“At the same time?” I asked.
“Sure.”
We attacked the paper. Once I flipped the lid off the box, I chuckled at the bronze watch inside. It wasn’t a brand name, but it was nice, and I happily took it out and slipped it on my wrist.
Tyler flashed me the watch I’d gotten him that was still in the box.
“You’re gonna be busy. It’s so you always remember to make time for us.” Embarrassment swamped me. “I hope you like it.”
“Watches are usually graduation gifts in my family. Maybe you should’ve waited.” He tried to hand the watch I’d bought him to me, but I firmly pushed it back.
“No, this was perfect. Great minds think alike.”
“So do slow ones.”
“Ha!” I hopped to my feet. “I’m going to get us some—” My shoulder rattled the tree and a handful of bulbs scattered to the floor. I felt pretty proud of myself for buying the shatterproof ones.
Tyler grinned and jumped up to help me put things right. “You’re lucky the glass penis decorations didn’t fall.”
“Candy canes! Oh hell.” I groaned. “I made sure they were attached really well. Sorry. This will probably always happen, you know?” I gestured at the mess.
He popped a kiss on my lips. “I love you just the way you are.”
“Same.”
I leaned in to claim a more thorough lip-lock and knocked one of the candy cane ornaments—not penises—to the floor. It skittered across the wood before shattering on a coffee table leg.
He pecked a kiss on my cheek.
“You won’t get sick of this?” I gave him my best smile.
“Not a chance.”