Epilogue – Abbey
The alarm went off and I groaned as I turned over to switch it off.
”Ugh,” I grumbled, lifting my head from the pillow and squinting against the morning light pouring in through the window beside me. I was still getting used to these early morning starts – but that was the price you had to pay for having a real job, right? Worth it in the long run.
It had been about a month since I had first started my new position at the Atwood Chronicle, a newspaper that ran out of the city and covered news and features all over the state. They had seen the article I’d published about the treatment of women who were dealing with abusive partners and former partners, and they had reached out to me to ask me to publish it in their supplement – I had agreed at once, glad to get it to a wider audience.
And then, when it had been received well, I’d gotten another call from the editor, asking me to come in and interview for a permanent position covering women’s issues in Atwood, producing longform articles on just about anything I thought was important. I had doubted that I would actually get the job, but to my surprise, they had called me back in the next day, and told me they wanted to hire me to start right away.
So far, it had been an incredible boost to my career – and, more importantly, to the goals I had set myself about helping other women survive the nightmares they might have been trapped in, too. I had followed up on a few of the cases I had helped work on, and even pulled together a petition to make a change to the way the police handled these cases – it was still early days yet, but it had received a lot of support, and I couldn’t believe how many people had rallied around to help me. I knew there was so much more for me to achieve in this job, and my head was spinning with ideas when I woke up every morning.
Well, most mornings. I hadn’t exactly slept well last night, having headed out to the Kennels with Star for a drink. Or three. The two of us had grown close since I was spending most of my time around the Dogs now, and she was a fully-fledged member – tough as nails, after what she had been through with her father, but always ready to kick back and have some fun.
I was about to throw back the covers and climb out of bed, planning to feed the cats before I went to work, when I felt Chuck’s arm slide over my waist.
”You have to go so soon?” he murmured to me, and I grinned and flipped over to face him.
”I guess I could be convinced to stay in bed a little longer,” I remarked, cocking my head at him playfully. Even as sleepy as he was, I could see that glint in his eyes, a sure sign of what he had in mind right now – what he wanted to get up to.
”Good,” he murmured, and he lowered his mouth to mine slowly, pulling me into a deep, slow kiss that sent shivers pulsing along my whole body at once. Oh, fuck, okay – I could already tell that I was going to be a little late to work, if this was how he was kissing me.
I pulled him on top of me, parting my legs and hooking my feet around his calves – it was warm now, nearly the height of summer, so neither of us had bothered to sleep with clothes on. I could already feel his erection nudging up against me, pressed to the crease of my hip, as he buried his face in my neck and inhaled the scent of me. I grinned, skimming my fingers down his back. I would never get tired of this, of feeling him so obsessed with me – even after all this time, he seemed just as attracted to me as he had when we first met, and it did wonders for my ego.
He shifted so that his cock was pressed to my entrance, and then, slowly, he guided himself inside of me. I let out a long sigh of pleasure as I rested my head back on the pillow, smiling as he pushed all the way into me.
”That feel good?” he murmured, his breath hot on my skin. I nodded, unable to keep the smile off my face.
”It feels perfect,” I breathed to him, lifting my hips so I could guide him even deeper inside of me.
He rocked himself into me in deep strokes, gazing into my eyes, the corners of his lips turned up into a smile as he watched me take him deep inside. Oh, this pleasure - this pleasure was something that never got old to me. Not just the physical sensations, but the intimacy of being this close to him. It turned me on like nothing else in the world.
”You look so good right now,” he murmured into me, tilting my hips back a little so he could fuck me right into the bed. His eyes were pinned to me, drinking me in, lost to me, as though he couldn’t imagine anything better in the world than being here with me in this moment. I cradled his head with my hands, just staring at him for a moment before I kissed him again.
I wrapped my legs around him, hooking my ankles around his back, pressing our naked bodies together till we were nothing but one mound of flesh, moving together, taking each other, needing each other.
The way he was fucking me, he was grinding up against my clit with each thrust. I could feel the orgasm building fast inside of me – I always came quickly when we had morning sex, something about being snuggled up next to him all night that had me close to the edge from the moment I opened my eyes.
I gasped against his mouth as I came, grinding my hips into his, inviting him deep inside me so he could feel my pussy clenching around his cock. He growled, a sound rising up from deep inside of me as he felt me reaching my release – the waves of pleasure coursed out across my whole body, filling me from my toes to the very top of my scalp. I wriggled my feet against him, smiling as he planted his mouth to my neck, holding himself steady inside of me.
A few seconds later, he reached his own release inside of me – buried up to the hilt within me, his cock twitched, and I felt the warm rush of his seed as he came. I sighed against his mouth, drawing his bottom lip between my teeth for a moment, and then releasing.
He pulled back slowly, grinning as he flopped down on to the bed next to me.
”Good morning,” he murmured.
”Good morning,” I giggled. ”I think you’re way better than my alarm. You want to wake me up like this for work every morning?”
”Oh, if I had my way, you wouldn’t be leaving for work at all,” he teased.
”You just want to keep me all to yourself,” I pouted.
”You’re damn right...”
Before he could sink his mouth into mine again, an insistent squeak came from the end of the bed, and both of us groaned.
”Clove, please, give us a minute – ow!”
I exclaimed as Clove bit my toes, that were sticking out from under the covers. I really should have figured by now that he was always going to start chewing on my feet the moment he got the chance – I kept hoping he would grow out of it, but I swear, him and Cinnamon brought out the worst in each other.
”Okay, okay, I’ll feed you,” I grumbled, but Chuck swung his feet out of bed before I could.
”You rest a little longer,” he told me. ”I can handle them.”
”Thanks,” I replied, and he leaned down to kiss me before he attended to the cats.
”I love you,” I murmured to him. Sometimes, the sheer intensity of my emotions got the better of me, and there was no way I could deny it – the amount I adored him, the amount of joy he brought into my life. He smiled and brushed his nose against mine.
”Love you too, baby,” he replied, and he stole another kiss before he straightened up. ”Now, what the hell do you two little demons want...?”
I laughed as I heard Cinnamon and Clove meowing back at him and laid back in bed. I needed to get up soon, but for now, just for a little longer, I wanted to lie here and enjoy the comfort of my bed.