Epilogue #2
After dinner, Che pulled out a tarot deck and offered to do readings for all of us, something I’d known he could do but had never been around for, so I eagerly accepted.
I wasn’t sure how much I believed that a deck of cards could predict my future, but when the World showed up in my three card spread and Che told me it was basically saying that I had everything I wanted for the moment, and it was time to start thinking in terms of bigger and more long term goals, I was forced to agree.
I was so comfortable and so settled, I almost couldn’t even remember my first year at BBU, which I’d spent feeling incredibly lonely and isolated, despite all the casual sex.
I’d been sure then that my entire four years of college would be miserable, with no money and no real friends.
But the reality had become so different it made me want to curl into a ball and weep with gratitude, tearfully thanking every single one of them for how they’d accepted me and actually made me feel like a human being again.
Especially Aspen. No one meant more to me than Aspen. I didn’t know what my life would have been like without him, and I had zero interest in ever finding out.
MUCH LATER THAT night, after everyone had retreated to their respective bedrooms to sleep or fuck (and I wasn’t going to check if anyone had done anything sneaky and crept into a bedroom that wasn’t designated for them), Aspen and I tiptoed out onto the deck, with towels slung over our shoulders.
He was wearing these sexy little swim shorts, in black of course, that cut off high on his thighs.
With his long lashes and sculpted lips and colorful tattoos glowing in the moonlight reflecting off the snow, he looked like an otherworldly being, like too beautiful for this world. And he was all mine.
He hissed out his displeasure as our bare feet touched the chilly wood of the deck, and we scrambled over to sink into the steaming water.
“Mm,” he groaned out, the water rising up to his chest as he slowly lowered himself. “You were right. This is really nice.”
“I told you.”
Scooting over to wedge my thighs under him, I lifted him up a bit so he could settle onto my lap, his bare back plastered to my bare chest. To my surprise, he relaxed against me, his head falling back to rest on my shoulder.
He basically never sat in my lap, but maybe in his mind it was different because of the water.
I wasn’t going to look into the horse’s mouth…
Or whatever that expression was. I wasn’t going to complain.
Slipping my hands around his waist, I held him tight against me, kissing his wet shoulder.
“I needed this,” I murmured against his skin, nuzzling it with my lips. “The slopes really beat my ass yesterday.” My muscles were sore all over, and the hot water felt heavenly as it loosened up the tension.
“It wouldn’t be so bad if you’d ever come to the gym with us.”
“Hey,” I chided him lightly, giving him a little poke in his side.
“The gym is boring. I’m keeping fit in my own way.
” I’d gotten back into playing tennis after my exile from my house had been lifted and I could grab more of my stuff.
The courts at BBU were actually pretty nice.
“What, you think I’m out of shape or something? ”
“I definitely did not say that,” he denied, sounding like he was stifling a laugh at my wounded tone. “You know I love your body.”
“Good, because if you said that then I might have to spend all night proving you wrong.”
“Hmm.” He made a contemplative noise, shifting on my lap like he was trying to remind me that his perfect ass was planted right on my cock. “That would really teach me a lesson, wouldn’t it?”
“You’re asking for it.”
“I don’t have to ask for it,” he reminded me, tilting his head back a little more so he could press an open-mouthed kiss to the side of my neck, right over a mark he’d left on me the night before.
After he’d shoved my face into a pillow and pounded me until I’d practically sobbed. “It’s mine whenever I want it.”
“Are you trying to make me break the no sex in the hot tub rule?” I wondered, and felt his abdominal muscles twitch under my fingers with his laughter.
“You can contain yourself until we’re back in the room, can’t you?”
“No,” I said, flexing my hips a little to prove how stiff I was.
“But I want to relax,” he said, bringing his own hands up under the water to link with mine, lacing our fingers together.
“Okay.” Whatever Aspen wanted, I would give it to him. I tried to make that a general habit in every aspect of my life now. “I can wait. But once we’re back in the room, I can’t make any promises.”
“I love how much you want me,” he purred out, melting onto me like hot, sticky, clingy honey.
“Always. Like, every minute basically.”
“I love you.”
“I love you so much, Cupcake. You make me so fucking happy.”
“You make me happy, too,” he said, the gorgeous little rasp in his voice more pronounced with the way he’d gone totally limp in absolute bliss and relaxation. “This trip was such a good idea. My brain has been so fried lately.”
He’d been busy as hell all through the fall semester already, but in his own words, it was a good kind of busy.
He wasn’t exhausting himself with long hours at the café and up late at night stressing over his home life anymore.
Now he could mostly focus on keeping his GPA flawless.
I used the term mostly, because we were deep in the trenches of our junior year internships, both at Vane Corporation.
Of course, I was interning in the marketing department, and Aspen’s internship involved working directly with my father, literally in his office and metaphorically under his wing.
I was pretty sure there was some kind of ethical issue with that, but who was going to tell Faulkner Vane that they had an issue with the way he ran his company?
He had Aspen sitting in on meetings and poring over spreadsheets and campaign data, and everything he would need to absorb to become a successful CEO.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure my dad is fast tracking you to get you ready to take over the entire company when he eventually retires.”
Aspen chuckled, but shook his head. “I don’t know about all that. I think he just wants someone who he feels like he can really trust under him.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Once we’re married I’ll own half of everything of yours anyway.”
“I don’t own anything, so you’re kind of getting a raw deal on that one.”
“Well, once you inherit Vane Corporation.”
He snorted again. “I’m not going to own Vane Corporation! You’re crazy. You’re his son, not me.”
“Not in his mind.”
My dad was still, and even more so now, nuts about my boyfriend.
My own fractured relationship with him was slowly coming back together, piece by tiny piece, but Aspen was an excellent buffer between us.
But on the opposite side of the coin Aspen’s mom, Rochelle, pretty much completely freaking adored me.
And not just because I’d helped get her life back on track in terms of her addiction.
She’d taken up baking as one of her hobbies to help distract from any urges to drink.
When we’d spent the first week of winter break with her, she’d stuffed me full of holiday cookies and brownies and eggnog.
“Do you think if we really did get married, he’d make me sign a prenup?” Aspen wondered, and I scoffed.
“He’d make me sign one so I can’t take half the company from you if we ever get a divorce. No, scratch that,” I corrected myself. “If he suspected we were getting a divorce, he’d just take out a hit on me to spare you the trouble.”
Laughing again, he shifted, lifting himself off my lap a bit so he could twist around and straddle me, hooking his arms around my neck as he leaned in close. Arching into him a little, I stroked my hands down his slick back to grip onto his waist.
“That is so not true, Caelyx. Your dad loves you. He asks me about you all the time.”
“And what do you tell him when he asks about me?”
Aspen smirked a little, tilting his head as he stared into my eyes. “I tell him…” He dipped his head down to kiss my neck. “That you’re perfect.” Another trail of kisses down my collarbone. “And amazing.” And then over my shoulder. “And you are everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“That’s good to know.” Okay, maybe I couldn’t wait until we got back in the room.
“Anyway, we’re way too young to talk about getting married yet.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “If we got married now, people would think you accidentally knocked me up or something.”
Snorting, he cocked a brow. “Yeah, I’m starting to think we might be in the clear on that one.”
“No,” I insisted. “You just have to keep trying. It’ll take.”
“You are such a pervert.”
“That’s the second time I’ve been called a pervert today.”
“Only two?” He asked, blinking in surprise, and I laughed.
The water bubbled up around us, lapping at our chests as he settled on me.
I was more than hard now, basically throbbing, my cock pressed up into the hot little spot between his legs, which was where it tended to want to be most of the time.
“Well, you were gone a lot of the day,” I explained, leaning forward so I could nuzzle my face into his throat.
We were already pressed together, our bodies intertwined like a pretzel and I still couldn’t get enough of touching him.
“It’s been a really good trip so far. I want to do St. Barts this summer. You think everyone will go for that?”
“I don’t even know where that is.”
“That’s okay. I’ll show you,” I promised him, and he smiled, stroking his fingers through my hair. “I’ll bring it up to everyone tomorrow to feel it out.”
“You miss living with them, don’t you?” He asked, the look in his eyes suggesting that the idea was incredibly sweet to him.
We’d ended up moving to a different house, just down the street from the one I’d shared with Maddox and Cyprian for the first two years of university.
One reason was because Aspen had wanted to live together instead of going back and forth between his dorm room all the time, and there wasn’t a ton of room.
Another reason, the one I was pretty sure had been the straw to break the camel’s back, had been Maddox and I trying to out-moan each other through the wall while being topped by our respective boyfriends.
He hadn’t been too happy about that one.
And once he’d brought up the space issue to my dad, it’d been a wrap. The new place had been procured within the week. My dad also seemed committed to the habit of giving Aspen whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it.
We’d warned the landlord early, so he could get someone in as a replacement to cover my part of the rent, and the new guy was… Well, none of us were exactly sure what to make of him yet. He definitely didn’t seem interested in joining our ragtag group of weirdos.
“Eh, a little,” I admitted. “But we’re over there at least once a week anyway.” Movie and board game nights were still in full swing. “And I really, really love living with you.”
“I love it, too.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t gotten sick of me yet.”
He chuckled, sliding his wet hands around my face to cup my jaw, forcing me to stare up into his eyes.
“I will never, ever be sick of you, Caelyx. I love you more than anything.”
“Let’s be careful,” I suggested, smirking a little. No matter how much money or material possessions I acquired throughout my life, I knew his affection would be the most valuable thing I could ever obtain. And I’d earned it. “I’ve heard the line between love and hate can be very fine.”
Scoffing, he attempted to give me a stern look, like he always did when I reminded him of how he couldn’t stand me for the first year we’d known each other.
“You don’t need to worry,” he told me. “I could never, ever hate you.”
“And I’ll make sure you can’t. Every day.”
“Thank you,” he said, his tone suddenly serious. “I feel like I don’t say that to you enough.”
“What are you thanking me for?” I asked, my brows drawing together at the shift in his emotions.
“This trip. The house. This life. You’ve given me… Everything. You don’t know how much you’ve given me.”
“Cupcake,” I said, pulling him in close so our lips were just a breath apart. “I’ve barely even fucking started.”
A chalet in a ski resort and a little house down the street from our school were nothing compared to what I had in mind. He had a very, very sweet life ahead coming up. And as long as he let me hang around and bask in all his love and affection, then I was beyond thrilled to give it to him.