Epilogue
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Josh
T here really was no place like home, I decided, as I slid into Dove’s warm, tight heat.
She cried out under me, and I swooped down to swallow it, needing to know what every sound that came out of her mouth tasted like.
This one tasted like fresh starts, even if we were technically in my apartment in Marleysville.
But that hardly mattered. As long as this woman was by my side, I’d call anywhere home.
But there was another reason for muffling the sounds she made.
Dove was loud, which I loved, and back at the farm I’d encouraged her vocalness, but here with neighbors above and below us, I wanted to keep these sounds for myself.
I didn’t want them hearing what she sounded like as I slid into her and gave her what we’d both been desperate for since arriving late last night.
Every whimper, every moan, every gasp—they belonged to me and me only.
Since that day I’d left and come back, promising her forever as a storm raged around us, I’d laid it all out on the table.
Holding nothing back, I shared everything—the lawyer’s updates, the bills addressed to Gareth with red stamps across the paper, the delays in insurance money, and the fact that the farm had struggled to sustained itself for some time.
We’d just barely made it this year from the harvest profit alone and a bit of my own savings thrown in.
We were still working on what to do for next year, but we’d talked to the local farmers utilizing my father’s fields.
Some of them were willing to buy them from us, jumping on the chance to own rather than rent.
It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it staunched the bleeding.
For now. At the very least, it gave us time.
Not much, but enough to take a breather and enjoy some time together.
I hadn’t kept Dove in the dark for any reason other than I wanted to protect her. I always did. It was why I left all those years ago, why I came back, and why I was still here.
If I could save Dove from any measure of suffering, I would.
Because I loved her with every fiber of my being. She fed the lonely heart inside me that had been starved for affection for too long.
I groaned as she clenched around me, and I collapsed over her, burrowing my face in her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her. Her legs wrapped tighter around my waist, and I slid my hands down to hitch her hips higher so I could find that perfect angle.
The one that?—
“ Josh,” she gasped, head thrown back, nails digging into my back.
I smiled into her neck, nipping at tan skin. Dove turned such a beautiful bronze color over the summer, it made me want to suck and lick at her like she was the sweetest piece of toffee.
Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to bask in the feel of her against me and around me.
When I come home all those months ago, I never would have imagined this to be the outcome.
At best, I’d hoped for us to resume the sibling-like relationship we’d always had.
At worst, she told me to fuck off, and I stubbornly stayed around until she gave in.
While it had started off as the latter, discovering Dove had feelings for me was a turning point I could have never seen coming.
But I was thankful beyond measure for it. I couldn’t imagine my life without the girl beneath me. Couldn’t imagine nights spent without her tucked in my arms, or early mornings without her addictive kisses to wake me up.
The day I’d left to gather my stuff, to prove to her I was all in, that she was my home, I’d brought her in out of the rain, dried her off, and lead her upstairs. We’d laid in her bed, pressed together head to toe, and whispered our greatest dreams to one another.
I’d never envisioned anything greater than being able to call Dove mine . Now that I had her, everything else was extra.
But my little dove was an overachiever, and she’d confided in me that she wanted to go to school to be a veterinarian.
Seeing Dr. Sterling help Clover had rekindled that spark she’d lost when her mom got sick and she had to quit school to focus on the farm.
It never failed to bring a pang of guilt to my heart knowing that she’d had to give up on her dreams because I wasn’t there to help.
If I’d been around, Dove would have been able to continue her college courses. I would have made damn sure of it.
But I was here now, and here we were. Staying for the next few days in my apartment in Marleysville because it wasn’t a far commute from the college she was looking at later today.
If she liked it, we’d likely move here while she went to school.
Something she was still fighting me on because she was worried about the farm.
I told her to let me worry about that—she just had to figure out if Jeraco University was where she wanted to commit to or not.
I was hoping it was, though. It made it so much easier knowing I already had an apartment nearby and the campus was only fifteen minutes away—it also meant I had a built-in job.
Ollie would never pressure me, but I know he’d be happy to have me back at his gym.
Not only because I was a good friend and an even better employee, but because he was tired of answering my clients' questions on when or if I’d ever come back.
“Josh,” she gasped again, nudging at my shoulders.
Fuck, I’d never grow tired of hearing my name fall from her lips.
“What, baby?” I asked, lips skimming her pulse. I grabbed her hips tighter, sliding my knees under her a bit more as my thrusts grew more leisurely.
I didn’t have to rush; we had plenty of time before her tour later this afternoon.
“M-my phone,” she stammered out, her words ending in a groan as I thrust up into her.
I stilled deep inside her, lifting my head from where I’d been licking at her collarbone.
A soft vibrating noise filled the room, so low I hadn’t heard it over the sounds she’d been making. I guess I hadn’t been doing a good enough job at distracting her if she’d managed to hear it.
“Leave it.”
I reared back to gain leverage, pulling her lower half further into my lap, her legs spread out on either side of me while she laid out against the pillows. Her flushed chest rose and fell with deep breaths, making her breasts bounce so enticingly I couldn’t resist cupping them.
“I need to take it,” she argued, eyes fluttering as I pinched her nipples. “What if it’s the c-college?”
“They can leave a message.”
Her hands came over mine, pushing them away. It only encouraged them to migrate south, my thumb seeking out her swollen clit.
“ Josh.” This time my name was groaned more in annoyance than lust.
Dove twisted so fast I slipped out of her. She crawled to the other side of the bed, where her cell was on the nightstand.
I growled, lunging after her as she reached for her phone.
She let out a shriek as my fingers dug into her hips and yanked her back.
Dove tried to say something, but I ignored her, not caring that she was face down, practically stretched out on her belly. My knees spread hers as I slid back inside her to the hilt, her ass flush with my groin.
I kept one hand wrapped around the curve of her waist while the other clasped the back her neck, pinning her down firmly but gently.
“We’re busy, Dove,” I reminded her huskily, my fingers tangling in her long hair.
Her phone made a thud as it fell off the side of the bed, forgotten. She cried out, hiding her face in the covers as I pulled out nearly all the way and thrust back in, this time without mercy. She spasmed around me, and I couldn’t hold back my groan as she tightened around me like a vise.
We’d come a long way since the first time I took her—when I’d been half convinced I’d gone too far.
But she’d made it clear that she liked it when I took charge and enjoyed a little roughness.
I never took it to the point of actually hurting her, and she knew I never would, but she enjoyed playing with the edge of too much .
And I enjoyed taking her there.
We’ve had fun learning one another these past months. I had always enjoyed sex, but with Dove, it was different. Everything with her was. It was so much more, so much better, that I could never see myself tiring of her.
I wanted her to be the first thing I saw when I woke up and the last thing I saw before falling sleep.
She was it for me.
I was just waiting for the right time to put a ring on her finger and officially give her the last name she’d all but had since we first met.
But first Dove deserved to do something for herself. To experience the freedom of choice and get away from responsibilities she never asked for.
I just had to figure out how to do that first.
Dove spread her knees wider, inviting me in deeper, erasing all other thoughts away that weren’t of her under me right now.
I wound my hand tighter in her hair and tugged, guiding her up. She scrambled to comply, lifting onto hands and knees until my arm could brace under her breasts and bring her back flush to my chest.
I couldn’t move my hips much like this, but I didn’t have to. I could get her off like this.
Pumping my hips shallowly, the hand in her hair traveled to her neck. It was as if my hand had been molded to fit there, my palm resting on her throat as my fingers lightly squeezed either side. She rested her head back on my shoulder, eyes closed tightly as my other hand migrated down her front.
Maybe it wasn’t right that I got off on Dove’s blind trust in me, but what was one more thing added to the list of things wrong with me? Knowing she’d let me do anything to her and trusted me enough not to hurt her got me harder than anything.
“You’re my perfect girl, aren't you?” I rasped in her ear.
My fingers slid through her wetness, teasing her slit, feeling where I stretched her. She let out a needy whimper, reaching back for me. Her nails bit into the back of my neck where she grabbed me, and I choked off my own whimper into her hair.