EPILOGUE - NICOLE
ONE MONTH LATER - MARBELLA, COSTA RICA
Our tropical paradise was just as beautiful as I’d remembered it, except now it was just the two of us. Classes started up in ten days, and thankfully Callum and I had both gotten the green light to return. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen with the investigation, but as it turned out, the Dean had received a large financial contribution, and soon the newest courtyard would be named after Courtland. Daddy and Jonas had been so happy that I’d survived Travis. I still got sad whenever I’d thought about what had happened. At one time, I had considered him a good friend, and although it’d been a lie, a small part of me still mourned his demise.
I might’ve been mourning much more than that had I perished myself. The police had been ready to leave his apartment which would’ve spelled the end of me. If I’d been up there any longer, I might have frozen to death on the rooftop. My hero had been the man I’d loved the whole time.
Callum noticing my butterfly charm on the floor was a stroke of luck. I didn’t think I’d ever get it back because it’d been inventoried as evidence, but Detective Falloray came through, and now it was back on my neck where it belonged. Nicolai had even bought a new chain for it on Christmas, and I suspected my mother would be very happy about it.
This was the first holiday without her, but I had spent it with my brother and father, the latter of which stopped working for two days straight to spend time with us. We had a holiday meal catered this year, just as we usually did, and others flew in from out of town to celebrate with us. I’d gotten to see my aunt and uncle, grandparents, and a host of cousins, including Victoria. It wasn’t the same without my mother, but the mood was definitely not as somber as it’d been on Thanksgiving. All in all, it was a start in the right direction.
The same could be said about my relationship with Callum. Since the Dean had found out about us, there was no real need to hide it any longer, so we’d started dating again, and I couldn’t be happier. We had both talked freely and openly as most couples would do. It was only then that I realized the secrecy of everything before had been the catalyst for our break-up to begin with. I hadn’t been mentally strong enough which he understood, especially seeing as my mother’s health had been so poor.
After her death, I’d found it hard to be happy about anything. The world I once knew had tilted on its axis, but when it stopped spinning, I was home once more. Not in Los Angeles, but in Chicago with the man I had always loved. With Callum. Every time I thought about him, a smile would appear and stay well after my thoughts drifted elsewhere. He hadn’t joined my family, because his own parents had come back to town, but we did decide to meet up in Costa Rica on the twenty-seventh, and now, I’d been here with him for two whole days. We had full use of his house, and outside of the staff who stopped in a few times a week, we were basically secluded away from the world which I had realized wasn’t a bad thing.
“Mmmm,” I murmured as he came up behind me and started to nuzzle my neck .
Privacy was definitely not a bad thing. I dropped my head back against him while the water sluiced against us. As his mouth drifted up and down my neck, his large hands cupped my breasts. I wasn’t wearing a bikini top, or anything else for that matter. Since arriving at the house, he had mostly kept me naked, as promised. I’d never complain about that, though. I raised one arm and roped it behind my head to wrap around his neck.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do when we get back to Chicago,” he said, and I tensed up.
“What do you mean?”
He nipped at my throat, collarbone, then chin as he kissed his way back up to my ear. “How in the hell am I going to resist keeping you naked and under me all the damn time?”
“Well,” I said, then moaned when he nipped at my ear lobe. “I was actually thinking the very same thing.”
“You were?” he asked. “You’ll just stay naked in my bed and the problem will be solved.”
I pulled away from him, then turned to face him. “If only it was that easy.”
“It can be,” he suggested, and I smiled.
“Spring Break is just around the corner, then there’s summer, and...” My voice trailed off as he pulled me back against him. His cock was hard, and pressed between my belly and him. “And once the week starts, Saturday and Sunday are not that far away.”
“Good point, although I wish you’d reconsider and take me up on my offer to move into my place with me.”
“Yes, I will.” I told him, then watched him drop his head back.
“Yes, you’ll think about it. Or yes, you’ll move in with me. ”
I leaned in and pressed my mouth to his before answering. I ran my tongue between his lips and giggled when he tried to bite it. “Yes, I’ll move in with you.”
“Nicole,” he rasped seconds before seizing my mouth with his.
I clung to him and returned his kiss. Our tongues tangled with one another, as he ran his hands up and down my body. I parted my legs enough to allow him to slip his hand between them, then moaned against his hungry lips as he toyed with my clit. I would say that I was now aroused just like that, but it seemed to be a perpetual state for me. This man had nearly lost everything because of me, yet he still came to my rescue when I’d needed him the most. If I hadn’t already been so madly in love with him, I would be now.
Eventually, the kiss ended and his mouth moved away from mine, then down my neck and across my shoulder. “I love you,” he told me, which made me smile wider.
“I love you too, Cal—”
My words were cut off when he effortlessly lifted me from the water and placed me on the edge of the pool. I noticed when I looked somewhere other than him that the sun had set because the skies were now dark. They were very reminiscent of our first night together, but I knew there’d be no sneaking away in the morning believing I’d never see him again. When we were finished here, we’d go to sleep and wake up in the morning in each other’s arms.
Callum spread my legs apart, then pulled my ass to the edge of the pool. His gaze was focused directly on my pussy which ached to feel him inside. He lowered his head to my thigh, kissing his way up one and down the other before spreading my lower lips with two fingers. I clutched the same pool edge when he buried his head between my thighs and swiped his tongue over my needy flesh. He tongued my entrance, then my clit before attacking it.
“Fuck, Callum, I...”
He always left me at a loss for words, and this was no exception. I dropped my head back and tried to remain still as he ate at my pussy, but when he inserted two fingers inside of me, that feat became impossible. Callum continued to lick, suck, and nibble on my clit while assaulting my G-spot with his long fingers. It didn’t take long to orgasm, and I rode his tongue and fingers as wave after wave of pleasure took over. By the time he pulled away, I was shaking from my head to my toes.
“You’re so goddamn beautiful when you come, Nicole. I could stay down here for hours.”
And I would let him, too. I didn’t know anyone that wouldn’t. He was as wicked with his mouth as with other parts of his body, so when he pulled me back into the water, I released my hold on the edge and grabbed onto him instead. It wasn’t long before he was pushing inside of me. Callum wrapped both of my legs around his waist, then started to drive into me. As he fucked me, taking what he needed, I pulled his head back down to mine.
His cock swelled and twitched inside of me, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he came himself. I wanted so badly to come with him, so I dropped my head even lower and started to attack his neck much like he had done mine earlier. Callum then held me against him as he moved us toward the shallow end of the pool. He didn’t miss a step, or a thrust, fucking me without pause until we reached the steps. On the paved deck beside them was a bottle of lube. I knew what he wanted, and I would give it to him without question.
When he pulled out, I turned around and shimmied up to the top step so that my ass was now out of the water. He reached around me for the lube, and there was no longer any hesitation or worry as there’d been the first time we’d done this. He spread my cheeks apart, but instead of going straight for the lube, he lowered his head and bit his way across one cheek, then the other before finally dribbling some of the warm liquid between them. There was barely even a small bite of pain as he inserted two fingers, then a third, before stretching me.
“Please!”
“Probably the third most favorite word to hear from you,” he told me as he withdrew his fingers from inside of me. When he replaced them with his cock, I pushed back against him.
“And what are your two most favorite ones?” I asked, as inquiring minds wanted to know.
“Yes,” he murmured as he worked himself inside of me.
“Yes,” I repeated, then groaned when he withdrew until just the tip of his cock was still inside of me. “And the other?”
“I love you,” he told me. He lowered his mouth to me and nipped a few spots on my spine. After, he weaved a thick swath of my hair around his wrist and tugged roughly until I was mostly upright. His other hand ran up and down my back evoking a thin layer of goosebumps on my skin. “Say it,” he ordered, then smacked an ass cheek.
“I love you,” I repeated back to him before he slammed inside of me.
Callum fucked me for several minutes, and I knew I’d feel every bit of this in the morning, but I didn’t mind. There was no longer any shame when I was with him. There was also no regret, at least on my part. We loved each other, and it was all that mattered to me. When we returned to Chicago, I would now be officially moving in with him, and nights like this would happen often.
It wasn’t long before he stilled inside of me, and came. Mine followed his, but he dragged it on longer by strumming my clit. Eventually, he released his hold on my hair and withdrew completely .
Right after, he swept me up into his arms and carried me back inside. Once we dried off, we found ourselves back in bed. I was lying there with my head on his chest like I used to do so very often.
“Everything’s so different now. Are you sure that my moving in with you won’t have you getting bored with me?”
He stopped stroking my arm, then put his hand under my chin and tipped my head back until we were looking at each other eye to eye. “Life with you would never be boring. Why would you ever think that?”
I sighed. “Before when all of this was forbidden, it was exciting, but now—”
“You know what’s exciting to me now, Nicole?” I shook my head, sure he would tell me, and he did. “Nothing excites me more than lying here imagining all the new and creative ways I can make you moan...” He pinched one of my nipples and I did exactly as he just said. “Make you cry out in pleasure.” His hand moved lower and he quickly squeezed my clit, rolling and pinching it between his fingers. “Make you come...” and when those fingers went lower and he thrust them inside of me, I knew it wouldn’t be long before he managed that feat. “But what I’m most excited about is reminding you whose pussy this is.” His thumb moved to my clit as his other fingers did their worst. Or maybe their best because my entire body tensed as I shattered. Seconds later, he replaced his fingers once more with his cock, and this time, the lesson was received, and learned. “You’re mine,” he told me as he came again.
“Yours,” I told him, and unlike before, it was not forbiddenly either. I was just his, and he was mine.