Epilogues #2
The night murmured its comfort.
Nelly was downstairs in her room, and Finn had been long asleep in his right down the hall.
I leaned down and grabbed the last shirt from my suitcase, situated it on a hanger, then hooked it on the rod.
I zipped up the suitcase and tucked it into the corner where Theo kept his.
My chest expanded when I realized I didn’t ever have to use it again.
Not unless I wanted to.
I no longer had to run, and if I traveled and wandered, it would be because I was exploring with my family.
Beside Theo.
That energy suddenly washed over me from behind.
Powerful.
Profound.
So perfectly overwhelming as it wrapped me whole.
I glanced back to find Theo leaning against the doorjamb of the closet with his hands tucked in his pockets.
So brutally beautiful he never failed to rob the air from my lungs.
“You gonna miss that thing?” He dipped his attention to the suitcase.
I looked back at it. “I think I could never leave this house and be just fine.”
Then I lifted my gaze back to him. “But honestly, it doesn’t matter where I am. As long as I’m with you, then I’m happy.”
Theo pushed from the jamb and slowly moved my way.
The ground trembled beneath my feet.
He curled those muscled arms around me, and he burrowed his nose in my hair.
“Good, because that’s exactly where you’re always goin’ to be. With me.”
I glanced at the duffel that was also on the floor. The one that had held my darkest secrets.
I had talked with Colt Astersen about our situation. Gave him the whole truth since Theo said he could be trusted. He urged that the best course of action was my coming back out into the light.
Telling the world what had happened so we wouldn’t have to get new identities and forever be worried about being discovered.
Apparently, Justin had already been wanted for the murders of the man and my family, and with all the information I was able to give him, he believed I wouldn’t be charged as an accessory, something I’d been terrified of, terrified of what would happen to Finn if I were to go to prison.
He believed I was a victim myself.
Though as long as Finn was cared for, I told him I would face that consequence if it was required.
I’d made that fateful mistake, and I would no longer run in fear from my responsibility.
Colt had told me not to be afraid of that happening. Not after the atrocities Justin had committed were exposed. How I’d been running from him for all this time.
The jewelry and the rest of the money had been returned to the man’s family.
Now, the only thing that remained in the duffel was my sketchbook. The fragments of the dreams I’d carried with me, though they’d been skewed with sorrow.
But now.
Now I would stand.
Theo swayed me in the middle of the confined space. “Gotta say, I love your things hanging in this closet. Smells like you.”
I leaned back, holding onto his shoulders as I grinned up at him. “And here I thought you were going to have a heart attack with all my pastels up against that row of black.”
I gestured to the entire rod of black tees on the opposite side of my shirts.
He chuckled, and his hands spread wider around my sides. “Nah, like having your light written on all my dark.”
Moonlit eyes gleamed.
My fingertips dragged down his chest. “You’re the light, Theo. A beacon when I was lost.”
“And now that I’ve found you, the ways I’m going to have you.”
I yelped when he suddenly picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “Theo, put me down. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Nah, Pipes. I could run a fuckin’ marathon, and I plan on running one with you.” He grabbed a handful of my ass, making it clear exactly what type of marathon this was going to be.
Exhilaration rushed through my senses.
Glee and need and this unending joy.
I clung to him as he carried me out into the lapping shadows of his room.
Strike that.
Our room.
The only light came from the flames that danced in the fireplace, glinting against the giant panes of glass that overlooked the lake.
Silvered rays of moonlight spilled from above, shimmering over the placid lake, striking like black diamonds over the surface.
The same as Theo’s eyes as he set me onto my feet and turned me to face him. “Fuck me, Piper. The way it feels when I look at you. Like I’ve been busted apart and completely rearranged. This heart making room for you.”
A shaky breath rolled out of me, and desire whisked through me like a dream as I stared at him standing in the middle of the room.
The man carved in dark menace.
But I saw the most vibrant patch of goodness sewn on his soul.
“My match,” I whispered as I reached out and touched the spot where I belonged.
He reached out and touched mine. “My match.”
Then he smirked. “Now peel yourself out of those clothes, Pipes. I want to fuck you in our room.”
Heat skimmed through my veins, and I stepped away, swaying my hips as I slowly peeled the long-sleeved sleep shirt over my head. “Like this?”
“Just like that,” he grunted. “Though don’t stop there. Gonna need to see that pussy.”
Lust clouded the air.
That energy that bound us alive.
Greed and need and this dedication that could never be undone.
“I think you’re going to have to return the favor.” It rasped off my tongue.
Theo cocked his head. Arrogance rose to the harsh contours of his face. “You been missing this, baby?”
He peeled his shirt over his head. My knees wobbled at the sight.
The man a tower of sinewy strength.
Cut and carved and hewn.
Covered in all that ink.
“Meh. One-star, remember?” I shrugged a coy, indifferent shoulder.
Delight ripped through me with the growl that crawled up his tremoring throat.
“Little Liar,” he said as he flicked the button on his jeans then shoved out of them and his underwear.
Quick to kick them off his feet.
Leaving him bare.
His cock hard and jutting for the ceiling.
He stroked himself once, and I nearly came apart.
Breath escaping me on a wheeze.
My core throbbed in a fit of need.
“That’s what I thought,” he grumbled. “Now peel off those panties and show me how wet you are for me.”
I couldn’t even pretend I wasn’t desperate. Winding out of them with the air jutting from my lungs.
“Turn around and show me.”
I turned around and gripped onto the back of the leather chair that faced the fireplace, bending over so he could see what he did to me.
A groan rolled from him. “Drenched.”
He dragged his fingers through my center.
I bowed forward at the frisson of pleasure.
“Theo,” I whimpered.
He drove two fingers deep inside me. “What is it, Little Liar? You need me filling you full?”
“Yes.” I rocked back against his fingers. Knowing it wasn’t close to being enough. The only thing that could satisfy was all of him.
“Good, because you’re about to have me.”
Theo
I gazed down at my girl bent over for me.
Cunt soaking wet. Need shaking her quivering thighs as she hung onto the chair.
Locks of white hair cascading down her back and the perfect round globes of her ass begging for attention.
Naked and wanting.
She arched in my direction. “Theo.”
“Needy girl.”
“Yes, I need you. I always need you, and I’m never going to stop.”
Lust spun through my being.
A need unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
More than physical.
It was elemental.
This woman the life-beat that raged inside me.
I gripped myself and rubbed the tip of my cock through her pussy. “You want it? You ready for it?”
“I’ve been ready for you for my whole life.”
“Because you’re mine.” I thrust deep when I said it.
Bliss streaked through my being.
The feel of her was almost more than I could bear.
This mind-altering ecstasy that only she could deliver.
My hands curled around her waist as I raked, “Fuck, Piper. The way you feel wrapped around my cock. Nothing better in the world than my dick buried in your cunt.”
Her pussy throbbed and clutched, and she writhed and squirmed as she tried to adjust to the feel of me.
Filling her so full she could hardly breathe.
Air ripping from her lungs as she rambled incoherently, “Theo, I…I can’t…I don’t…I need...”
I smoothed my hands over her ass, spreading her wider. “Know what you need, Piper. You have it. All of me. Every day for the rest of my life.”
I pulled out then thrust back in. Pleasure ripped up my spine and tugged at my balls. “Will never get enough of you. No matter how many times I have you. You’re it, Piper. This tight little body and your glorious, beautiful heart.”
“It’s yours. All of me. Take it,” she pleaded as she squirmed and edged back, trying to get me deeper.
She didn’t have to ask twice.
My eyes locked onto where I pulled out to the head, my cock wet with her, her scent invading.
I thrust back in.
So hard that she rocked forward and her front hit the chair.
I didn’t slow. I pulled back out and did the same, fucking into her heat again and again.
Possessing her in the way she needed me to.
Writing myself so deep on her that neither of us would ever be the same.
Hard and deep and completely.
Pleasure lapped and built. As hot as the flames that warmed us from the fire.
This thing that could only ever belong to us.
A connection that surpassed time and understanding.
Piper whimpered and gasped as I pounded into her.
“Look at you, Little Liar, taking my cock the way you were meant to do. Perfect. So fucking perfect the way you take me.”
The praises poured from my mouth as I drove us higher and higher.
Rapture stirring and spinning.
Winding us so tight as we reached beyond the horizon.
“Theo, I’m going to…” she choked.
I reached around her and strummed my fingers over her clit, pulling her up and against my chest so I could murmur in her ear, “Let go, baby, let me feel what I do to you.”
I rocked into her twice more.
“Oh…Theo…”
“Come, Little Liar. Come for me.”
Piper broke apart, an orgasm tearing through her. Her walls throbbed and pulsed around me.
She took me with her, and bliss exploded as I came in the well of her tight, delicious body.
This woman my ultimate pleasure.
Heaven.
And I was there.
With her.
In that unseen place that could only belong to us.
Something I’d believed an impossibility.
But Piper had proven this world was so much bigger than penance. So much more than penalty.
And somehow, in the middle of it, I received this treasure.
We both rasped and wheezed, and she sagged in my arms as we came back down.
I brushed back the matted hair from her cheek and pressed my lips there. “I love you, Piper. With all of me.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled it around her, snuggling into my hold. “It was you all along. The one beyond the blue horizon I was always driving toward. Unsure where I belonged or if I could ever belong anywhere.”
Pulling her closer, I breathed in her sweet cherry scent. “You will always belong with me.”
Theo - Six Months Later
“This it?” I asked as Cash and I set the two mannequins in the middle of Ivy Threads.
Both Piper and Emery squealed, clapping their hands like school kids.
“This is going to be epic,” Emery peeped. She reached out and squeezed Piper’s hand. “I’m so excited.”
Joy flooded Piper’s expression, redness heating those cheeks.
Tomorrow they were unveiling Piper’s very own line of clothing.
“I can’t believe this is happening. That you’re trusting me with this.” She squeezed her hand back, the two of them so close they couldn’t be separated.
“Are you kidding me? Those clothes are going to fly off the racks. And probably off these mannequins.” Emery laughed, and Piper bit down on her bottom lip, still unable to believe that the dream that she’d lost was finally coming to fruition.
I stepped toward her, took her hand, and pulled her to me. My voice was rough as I murmured, “So damn proud of you.”
My girl fucking beamed. “I’m so happy.”
“Me, too, baby, me too.” I dropped a soft kiss to her forehead.
From the side, I could feel Cash roughing a hand over his head, irritation bleeding from his pores. “Listen, I gotta run.”
Concern wound through me.
Dude was always a recluse. Grumpy as fuck. Dodging invitations and skipping out as soon as he could. But he’d been unbearable the last couple weeks.
Something was up.
Something big.
Without saying anything else, he started for the door.
A frown sliced into my brow, and I angled my head toward him as I quietly muttered to Piper, “Give me a second.”
I turned and followed him out. I had to shout at his back as he rushed down the sidewalk. “What’s up with you, man?”
Not slowing, he gave a harsh shake of his head. “Nothin’.”
I kept tracking him. “Don’t give me that shit. I’ve known you for a long fuckin’ time, and something is up.”
He stumbled to a stop. Turmoil rolled off his giant frame, before he turned around.
Had never seen his expression look so grim. “Found a trespasser on my property.”
My frown deepened. I knew he loved his privacy, but this reaction seemed extreme considering he owned forty acres, and it wasn’t uncommon for a hiker to stumble their way onto his land.
He paused then roughed both hands over his face before he dropped them like a rock. “It’s Daisy.”
Daisy.
His childhood best friend.
The girl at the center of his ruin.
The very thing that had destroyed him.
He blinked, and he barely choked out, “She’s in trouble, and she needs me to marry her to keep her kids safe. What the fuck am I going to do?”