Epilogue
Six months later.
“CASON!”
Well, shit.
That is not an I missed you Cason or an I want you Cason. That’s a…
“What the fuck is this?” Cason.
That’s what Reese says the moment I step into the bathroom that he called me from. He points toward the shower, and I follow where his finger aims. I grimace.
Okay, so I might’ve forgotten to put away the dildo I used this morning. It’s hot pink and suctioned to the wall of the shower, jutting out like yet another accusing finger. It’s almost as big as Reese but not quite.
“It’s uh…a stress-relief device.”
Not exactly a lie…
Reese just continues staring, arching a brow.
“In my defense,” I mutter, looking anywhere but at him now, “you were just gone for three days.”
Reese still does what he’s always done since he Ascended—tracking down other Ascended. Only now, he’s doing it for the Institute and to help them. They’re offered answers as to what’s happening with them, jobs, resources, pretty much whatever they need.
Unless he feels like they are a threat. Because even though Malcolm never gave any of them a chance to prove otherwise, there are Ascended who are too powerful to let stay out there on their own.
Fortunately, that’s rare.
We are not as bad as Malcolm. But we are cautious.
“So what you’re saying is that I don’t satisfy you enough to get you through three days without me.”
I huff as my gaze snaps to his, ready to argue right back with him and accuse him of being jealous of a toy. But the little smirk in the corner of his mouth gives me pause.
“Fuck you, asshole,” I grumble. “You’re not even mad.”
“Oh, I am mad.” He takes a step forward, forcing me to take one backward, my back hitting the shower door and rattling the glass. He crowds me, leaning in until his face is inches from mine. “I’m mad I wasn’t here to watch.”
My breath catches at the predatory glare in his eyes. He just walked through the front door all of two seconds ago, and he already has me panting.
So fucking unfair.
It’s Sunday afternoon, the only day I take off from the Institute.
Reese just got home from his trip, we made out against the desk in the study where I was working, and then he came in here to take a shower and change.
He hasn’t even removed a single article of clothing yet, even his gun still in the holster strapped over his shoulder.
He sees my gaze dip down to it, and his smirk grows.
“Since I wasn’t,” he says, “how about you tell me what you did with it? What you were thinking while it was in your ass?”
I bite my lip and avert my gaze again before mumbling, “It wasn’t in my ass.”
“What?”
I can practically hear the furrowed brow in his tone, but I still refuse to look him in the eyes. I’m not usually this embarrassed by something, but…well, this is awkward.
“It was…between…my legs.”
The silence lasts long enough to make me wince.
Then he fucking laughs. It’s soft and breathy, coming out through his nose.
I finally look at him and pout. “Don’t make fun of me.”
His gaze softens, and his hand comes up, gently taking my chin between his finger and his thumb. “I’m not, little menace.” It sounds sincere enough to have my face relaxing. The tender brushing of his thumb against my skin doesn’t hurt. “That was one of the hottest moments of my life.”
“Really?”
“It was my first experience with a man, with you. Of course it was.”
“Well, good to know my first impression kills.”
He narrows his eyes, but I see the amusement swimming in them. “Only temporarily.”
“That’s a good thing,” I say with a grin, shifting on my feet. “It was one of the hottest moments of my life too. I’d really love to keep having more.”
His gaze rakes over my face, then lower. The air between us becomes charged with something besides the electricity that’s always on a low setting under my skin.
“Now I’m curious about something.” His voice deepens, and his hand slowly moves to my throat, fingers wrapping around possessively. “What is it that makes you still think about it? Is it the way I used you? Your fear? My gun?”
By the time he’s finished talking, my chest is heaving again. My answer comes out quiet. “All of it.”
He replaces the hand around my throat with his other one so he can remove his gun from its holster. I hold my breath as he brings the tip of the barrel to my mouth, brushing it across my lips. My eyes flutter closed, and my jeans start feeling a little tight.
“Do you want to know what I still think about?” he asks.
“Yes,” I answer eagerly.
“‘Please, Reese. I can’t take any more.’”
My eyes fly open again, meeting the wicked glint in his.
The memory comes rushing back to me. It’s what I told him almost a year ago, when he was holding me in the basement of this house. The line meant to taunt him, the one that made him break for a second time.
Sure, he may have tortured me down there, but I choose to remember the positives.
He moves his gun, sweeping the barrel across my cheek. “’Your cock’s too big. Please stop.’”
“Oh, fuck.”
There’s no controlling my heavy, erratic breathing now. Or the rapid swelling of my dick in my jeans.
I know what it is he wants. Hell, what I really fucking want. So I place my hands on his chest and attempt to shove him back. But all my limbs feel weighed down by arousal, and he barely budges.
“Get off me.” The words sound weak.
Reese must agree because he just chuckles darkly. “Not a fucking chance.”
He steps back, but it’s not to let me go. He lowers his gun, grabs the front of my shirt in his fist, and forces me around. As soon as my back is facing the door to the bathroom, he shoves me. The second I cross the threshold and stumble into our bedroom, his shadows are on me.
They start to rip.
I swear I’ve spent nearly half my savings on new clothes this past year. His shadows are fucking animals.
The oversized T-shirt I was wearing is torn into tatters, floating down to the floor in bright yellow ribbons. I struggle against the shadows, writhing and fighting even though I know the only way to get them to loosen their hold is to use my own powers on the one who controls them.
Of course, my dick is already too fucking hard to want this to stop.
“Fuck you!” I shout, my bare chest heaving. “Too much of a coward to fight me yourself?”
Reese leans casually against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest, as though he’s just standing there enjoying the show. “I’ll fight you if that’s what you want, menace. But you’re going to do it without clothes.”
He continues watching as his shadows remove every single article of clothing.
First went the shirt, then the gray sweats.
They pause after that, letting Reese take his fill of me in nothing but my hot pink boxer briefs.
He tilts his head, smirking at where they’re tented by my erection for a good ten seconds before the shadows rip them at the seams.
“You’re going to buy more of those later.”
Before I can respond, the shadows release me at the same moment Reese darts forward, closing the distance between us and pressing the barrel of his gun beneath my chin, tilting my head back. My hands come up and grip his forearm, nails digging into flesh.
With his other hand, he grabs my cock, causing my eyes to immediately roll into the back of my head.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the feel of his hands on me.
“So hot and hard for me,” he says as he gives my length a slow, tight stroke, making me moan. He leans in more until his mouth is close to my ear. “Didn’t expect this as soon as I got home.”
I’m always fucking ready for him.
But I can’t let him know that. Even though my dick is literally throbbing in his hand…
“Stop it.”
“If you really wanted that, I’d be on the fucking floor.”
He lowers the gun again and lets go of my dick, and I can’t stop the whine that leaves me.
His hand goes to the back of my head, and he grabs my hair, forcing me to turn around until my back crashes against his chest. When he forces my head back, making my eyes close, I reach up to grab his arm once more.
My nails sink in again, not caring if—and maybe actually kind of hoping—I draw blood.
I know he’s going to mark me, and I want to fucking mark him too.
“Look,” he growls in my ear.
I open my eyes again and look directly ahead. There’s a full-length mirror across the room, and at first all I see are shadows. They surround us, pressing in close like a cocoon of darkness.
Then I see the gun in his hand. He moves it in front of me, and my breathing comes heavier and heavier the closer it gets to my dick. When the cool metal glides up the length of it, the air gets lost somewhere in my throat as I shiver.
“Look how much your cock weeps for my gun.”
Sure enough, a bead of precum leaks from my slit. He brushes the barrel over the tip of my crown, then brings it to my lips. Just like that time all those years ago. And just like that time, I stick out my tongue and lick my precum off his gun.
“Fuck,” he groans behind me. “I forgot how fucking hot you look doing that.”
“Now let me go,” I say in a breathless whisper.
He chuckles again as he forces my head to the side and licks up the side of my neck. “Keep begging. I fucking love it.”
Then he bites. Fucking hard. Hard enough to have me screaming out and cutting my nails even deeper into his skin. As he sucks on my neck, I feel something warm and wet on my fingertips. He releases his teeth and yanks his head back sharply like he’s having to stop himself from eating me alive.
He meets my gaze in the mirror. “Fuck, I missed you.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
The glint in his eyes just gets brighter.
Completely ignoring the fact that he’s bleeding—only a little; I should definitely trade up for claws—he wrestles me around again.
Facing me toward the bed, he shoves me so that I go tumbling onto the mattress.
I scramble forward, but my legs are already like jelly, not wanting to get under me.
I end up clawing at the sheets to try to pull myself toward the other side of the bed.