Epilogue
NASH
“Maybe that’s finally Vaughn,” Noah says as the front door tilts open.
But when it swings inward, it’s not the grumpy goalie who walks through the doorway. It’s a capybara. Cheesecake saunters into the house, drawing amused and surprised looks from our guests.
Piper and I are hosting team dinner tonight, and this is the first time my teammates and other team staff have been over to our house. They’re not yet accustomed to the fact that a capybara moseying indoors like she owns the place is just a basic feature of our daily lives.
“Uh … what’s going on?” Hayden asks, bewildered, as Cheesecake confidently struts around the room.
“That’s Cheesecake,” Piper explains. “She’s uh … well, not our pet, exactly, but she stops by now and then. From the petting zoo.”
Ines and some of the girls from the training staff and front office have all crowded Cheesecake, fawning over how cute she is.
It’s fun having our little rancher packed to the brim like it is tonight.
Most of the players are here, and plenty of the staff.
The get-together is spilling out of the front and back doors onto the lawns.
It’s sort of like those house parties Piper used to throw that annoyed me so much when we lived next to each other.
A tiny tug of regret pulls in my chest. I wish I’d been less uptight back then and gone over and joined one of those parties some time. I would’ve enjoyed them if I’d taken the stick out of my ass. And I wouldn’t have been at odds with Piper for so long.
But then again, if our relationship had been any different back then, who knows if things would have worked out the way they did.
Who knows if we’d be where we are now. I wouldn’t trade how Piper and I ended up for anything in the world. So maybe everything was just the way it was meant to be, the stick I had up my ass in college included.
“You have all kinds of animals at that petting zoo, right?” Adriano asks, walking over with a spicy ranch water in his hand. Cooper’s been making them to order since after dinner, and they’re delicious. He’s got a talent.
I’ve only had a sip, though. Just in case, as host, I suddenly have to drive somewhere.
“That’s right,” I answer.
“Horses?”
I nod, “Yep.”
Adriano nods, brow rising with thought. “Damn, I bet I’d look pretty cool riding a horse. I should stop by sometime and learn.”
“The horse would throw you off in less than five seconds, and you’d land right on your head,” Ines interjects. Then excitement pops on her face. “Actually, let’s all go to the stables right now so Adriano can try.”
“Eager to see me ride something?” Adriano says to her with an ironically flirty purr.
“Eager to see you ride away in the back of an ambulance and never return.”
Piper and I exchange a knowing look across the sharp words that Adriano and Ines throw at each other. They’re so wrapped up in the verbal duel that they don’t even notice when we walk away.
We get back to making the rounds of the party. In the kitchen, we have to squeeze past each other as she goes for another spicy ranch water, and the curve of her ass brushes hard against the front of my pants.
Heat and arousal ignite through my veins, and it’s suddenly everything I can do to keep from slinging her over my shoulder and marching us into the bedroom, not giving a fuck what our guests can or can’t hear through the door.
I expect the arousal pounding through me to subside, but fuck me, it doesn’t. I can’t stop stealing glances at her across the room as I try to distract myself with conversations, and every time my gaze alights on my wife, my balls draw tighter with want.
Finally, Vaughn does arrive, hours late.
“Sorry, it was a nightmare finding a sitter for Aiden,” he explains.
I’m sympathetic. Obviously, I am. But I can’t help answering, “Well, yeah, when you fire the fourth nanny in a row with zero notice, logistics get more complicated.”
Vaughn just hums gruffly, sliding his gaze away from me avoidantly. I have a bad feeling that Vaughn’s going to go through double-digit numbers of fired nannies during the next season. He can’t seem to hold onto one for more than two months.
“Vaughn, get over here!” Hayden calls from across the living room. “We’re having a history debate and need you to weigh in.”
Some of the stress washes away from Vaughn’s expression.
Interest lights up his eyes. Vaughn’s a big-time history nerd.
I’m not sure if Hayden and his conversation group were actually having a history debate or if Hayden just knew exactly what to say to Vaughn to distract him from the bad mood he’s in.
Hayden has a sixth sense about how to do that.
When Vaughn steps away, I try to find Piper in the crowd. I see her just as she’s bending over to pick something up from the floor, and her tight jeans frame the heart shape of her ass in just the right way to saw through the last of my self-restraint.
I need to get her out of this house right now, and more importantly, out of those jeans.
I find Cooper mixing a couple drinks. I put my hand on his shoulder. “You’re in charge while I’m gone. Piper and I have to …” My brain reaches for an excuse. “Go get some extra trash bags.”
Cooper’s eyebrows knit. “Now? Both of you?”
“Yeah. The cans are filling up. And … she has a particular kind she likes that I always have trouble finding. And I have to drive because I haven’t been drinking.”
Damn. Good fucking work, brain. I really didn’t expect I’d be able to come up with a halfway plausible excuse.
The skepticism in Cooper’s eyes tells me it’s still only halfway plausible, though. But he just shrugs. “Sure, all good. I wasn’t planning on leaving soon.”
I approach Piper from behind. “Come with me,” I rasp into her ear, and the low heat in my voice is suggestion enough.
She follows eagerly as I lead her out the front door by the hand, and into my truck. Everyone on the front lawn is too wrapped up in having a good time to throw any questioning glances our way as I start it up and pull out onto the road.
The sky is a mellow, inky dark blue as we drive away from the house. The sunlight is just a thin strip of pale yellow on the far end of the horizon. Plenty of places to park this truck and not be disturbed at this time of evening.
I pull onto a dusty side road. We’ll have plenty of privacy here.
As soon as the engine is cut, I reach over and unhook Piper’s seatbelt, then plant my hands on her hips and lift her onto my lap.
“I love these jeans,” I say, running my palms up and down her legs while I kiss her neck. “But I really hate the fact that you’re wearing them right now.”
“Easily solved,” she murmurs, nipping at my ear.
Laughter bounces around the cabin as we have to shift and contort into all kinds of positions while I try to tug the tight jeans off her legs.
Once they’re finally off, the rest of our clothes don’t last long. Finally, she’s back on my lap, our bare skin pressed together, and my cock is throbbing against her slick opening as her legs straddle me.
I groan around the taut nipple that I’ve just tugged into my mouth. Hot tension is curling through my balls, and the wet warmth of her pussy has my stiff length tingling with want from base to tip.
Piper tilts her hips, grinding herself against me.
The rush of pleasure and the stab of need to be inside her make me suck on her nipple harder, flicking the sensitive nub with the tip of my tongue.
A tremor passes through her body as a moan escapes her lips, and I feel the movement against the sensitive head of my cock again.
“Fuck, Piper. You’re about to make me come before I’m even inside of you.”
A grin tilts her lips. It makes me want to bite them. “I kind of don’t hate that idea,” she teases. “I’d have something to brag about.”
“Well, let’s put that on the to-do list, baby, because I do hate the idea of not fucking you right now.”
I grab two greedy handfuls of her ass and lift her, lining her opening up with my cock. “Ready?” I ask, my throat clogged with lust and want.
“Hurry up already,” she moans impatiently.
I drop her onto me. Pleasure bursts through me as I enter her, slick heat coating every inch of my aching-hard dick. I rumble a groan of relief into her messy hair that feathers against me as she whimpers into my ear.
The round curve of her ass feels like pure bliss in my hands. I don’t let go of it, using the leverage to bounce her on my cock.
“Nash,” she moans, and pride beats behind my chest hearing the ring of ecstasy in her voice.
I make sure she takes all of me, lifting her so that the leaking tip of my cock brushes her slit, then bringing her all the way down until I’m filling her to the hilt.
A pulsing throb of heat grows at the base of my balls. My chest hitches with groans and curses each time Piper’s unbelievably perfect pussy slides down the length of me. With each bounce, my cock grows more sensitive, the pleasure streaking through me already making me press my eyes tight.
Fuck, I’m really not going to last long.
I slide my grip from Piper’s ass to her hips. I press my fingertips into the soft, warm skin, grabbing hold to thrust into her. If I’m finishing so soon, I want to make sure she comes with me.
Moans, panting, and the furious slap of our bodies while my hips thrust upward fill the cabin as I rut into her with abandon.
Fire burns through my bloodstream, sharp pressure swelling and pounding between my legs.
I grit my teeth, trying to hold on, desperate to bring Piper tumbling over the edge of release with me, not willing to finish still leaving her wanting more.
“Nash, I’m going to, I’m going to—” she can’t finish her sentence from the moans and gasps that pull from her throat, but the way her walls are rippling around my length, she doesn’t need to.
I let go, knowing that she’s just one thrust away from orgasm. With that one last plunge of my cock, I come undone. My muscles tense, and splotches of light dance on the backs of my clenched eyelids as my climax shoots through me, wringing me dry.
Hot cum gushes from my cock, right into Piper. Endorphins flood my brain at the sensation of my release filling her, until it starts to leak down to the base of my shaft.
Piper collapses into me, her body rubbery and weak. I close my eyes and bask in the feeling of her against me, a luxurious drowsiness weighing down my limbs in the best way.
We can’t stay like this forever, though. Not here in my truck, parked on a dusty road at night.
“I think we’ll have to use the blanket to clean up,” Piper says.
I chuckle. “It’s overdue for a wash anyway.”
Piper and I spend the following day together. The weather is mild, so we go out for a walk around the property. When we get back inside, I push her up against the door and kiss her.
“I love you,” I murmur against her mouth. “When’s the last time I told you that?”
“This morning,” she whispers, nipping at my lips.
“Too long.” I shake my head at myself. “Way too fucking long.”
Piper laughs. “What, you want me to kick you in the shin if you go more than an hour without saying it?”
“Not a bad idea.”
I don’t want to ever take this woman’s love for granted, and I damn sure don’t want her to have reason to wonder for even a second exactly how I feel about her.
“Don’t tempt me.” She smirks. “These boots could use breaking in.”
I glance down at them, and my cock twitches. “That reminds me. You’re keeping those on tonight.”
“I wear nothing but the cowboy boots, you wear nothing but the cowboy hat?”
Fuck.
“Baby, I really love you.”
I’ll never be able to say or do enough to convey just how much love I feel for Piper. But I’ll still spend the whole rest of my life trying.