Epilogue #2
“Need more lube,” Jason whispered against my ear. “You’re wet but not wet enough for how hard I want to fuck you.” Oh god.
He dropped my hip, fumbling in the couch for the bottle of lube we kept there. His hand came back slick as I rose up, only the tip of his cock staying inside me as Jason liberally coated his dick. So much that the next slide down was so loud it made my face burn.
“There we go,” he purred, petting my palate again.
I swallowed around his fingers, drool slipping down my chin as I stared at him.
“I love when you look at me like that,” he growled as his hips snapped into me. “Like I’m your god. I’ll never get over it.” His movements were brutal. Cockhead slamming right against the spot that sent stars exploding behind my lids.
I moaned, and Jason’s grin turned from sappy to sadistic.
“That feel good, baby?” he said, snapping into me again. “Fuck.” Again and again. The harder he fucked me, the more sound I made. Muffled around his fingers, but still loud. Embarrassingly loud. It’d been a year of this.
A year of him playing me like a fiddle.
And I’d still never get over it.
Never stop being embarrassed by the sounds he was able to pull out of me.
Jason sank deeper into the cushions, rutting into me. My hole clenched around him, hot and wet, clinging to the shape of him as his crown popped through over and over again. He loved to do that. Pull all the way out. Just to watch my face pinch as he pushed back in.
My dick was heavy between my legs, sticking straight at him, leaving a mess on his sweater as he fucked me with a brutality that made all the anxiety in my head disappear entirely.
“I know you can come from this,” Jason groaned, biting my shoulder. “I know you can—c’mon, baby. Come on my cock. Come on Daddy’s—”
I came.
Made a mess of him.
Streaking his sweater, his chin. Eyes falling shut again as I howled around his fingers.
Jason came right after, filling me up. We’d discovered we preferred that. No condoms. I enjoyed the evidence of him left behind. It made my skin get hot and tight when I couldn’t move without a little of his cum dribbling out.
Nothing felt like it.
Jason held me afterward. Held me till I came down from my high, my head against his chest, his fingers still inside my mouth, giving me something to do—something to hold.
“Better?” he asked, his other hand rubbing up and down my back.
I made an affirmative sound, full of him.
Full.
Content.
When he pulled his fingers free, then his cock, I scowled at him. Jason laughed. He wasted no time grabbing my discarded plug and gently fitting it against my hole till I bore down and took it inside me.
“I took care of everything,” he promised me, pulling me back against his chest. He grabbed the comforter to our left, bundling it around me as I smashed him into the cushions. He didn’t complain about my weight. He never did. “We’re good to go tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I sighed, kissing his pulse point. Enjoying the prickle of his stubble. It was longer than usual. He’d told me he was debating growing a beard for the winter, and I hadn’t complained. He looked sexy no matter what he did.
Jason fucked me one more time—me bent over the arm rest, him pounding into me from behind as I saw stars—before we found ourselves upstairs.
He fell asleep before I did, tuckered out by how thoroughly he’d fucked my brains out.
For a moment, I drank him in.
Ogling the way he sprawled out, drooling, still dressed in his cum-streaked sweater like he was proud of the mess he’d made me make, and I counted my lucky stars that we’d met.
Quietly, sneakily, I crept into the closet.
Behind my underwear, I’d stashed the ring I was planning on giving him during our time away from home.
The velvet box was familiar to the touch as I pulled it out, flipped it open, and inspected the ring like I had a hundred times since I’d bought it.
Jason’s snoring stopped.
“Joe?” His voice was sleepy and confused. “Where’re you?”
I fumbled with the box, trying to get it back in the drawer. I dropped it. The damn thing rolled out of the closet and into the bedroom. Fuck. Hopefully he hadn’t—
“What?” Jason’s voice was louder now.
I turned around slowly, cheeks flushed, shoulders up to my ears. He was out of bed. Bent over, hands picking the damn thing up. It took him a second to figure out what he was holding. When he did, he simply stared at it.
Ogled it like he’d never seen a ring before.
Then his head snapped around and his eyes were on mine.
There wasn’t even a lick of the sleepy guy left. Jason was wide-fucking-awake. His eyes were alert, lips parted.
“Joe…”
“Damn it.” I sighed, strolling across the carpet. I took the ring from him. “It was supposed to be more romantic than this.”
“What…what was?” When I fell to my knees, Jason started hyperventilating. “What—”
“Jason.” I opened the box, turning it around so he could see the simple silver band inside.
“Ohmygod.” Jason’s jaw fell open. “Ohmygod.” Tears swam in his eyes, spilling down his cheeks. “Ohmygod.”
“I was hoping you could help me with something,” I said, stumbling over the proposal I’d had planned. It was supposed to be more suave than this, damn it. I’d had…god. I’d made George help me draft it up. Romantic. It was supposed to be romantic.
“Help you with…” Jason covered his mouth. He sobbed.
“I’ve been wanting to…to…” I stumbled. “I’ve been wanting to ask my boyfriend if he wanted to—”
“Yes.” He dropped his hand. “Yes.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“Joe—” Jason started. “Joe—” he tried again.
“Jason,” I couldn’t help but laugh. “You gotta let me finish.”
“But Joe—”
“I have the whole thing planned,” I complained. He tried to sober up. Tried to act serious, but he was smiling so big it took up ninety percent of his face.
“Okay, sorry. I’ll let you do your thing,” he promised. He mimed zipping his lips.
“Thanks.” I took a steadying breath. It took the pressure off, knowing he’d already said yes. But I was determined to get this right. “Okay.” I took another breath.
“You’re so cute and I hope you know that,” Jason gushed.
I glared at him. “Shut up.”
“Shutting up!”
“Jason…” I tried again. “When we met, you were hellbound on helping me. Doggedly…uh…”
Goddammit, now I was forgetting my lines. “Doggedly pursuing me. And um. I said no a lot when you offered. So I just thought…” Now my brain was blank. “I thought maybe it would be romantic to…to ask you for help with this.”
“Full circle,” Jason acknowledged, voice hoarse.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Full circle.”
He was smiling still. Tenderly. The affection he felt for me was so evident I’d never once doubted it. Not since we started this. He was steady. Comforting. The only thing I could truly count on. Things changed. They got hard. They evolved. But my love for Jason felt steady.
It never wavered.
“I’m…” I swallowed, my throat clicking. “This whole third-person thing George helped me write is confusing me.” I shook my head. “So just…so just. Will you let me spend the rest of our lives showing you what you mean to me? Will you? Will you…be my person? Will you choose me again?”
“Yes.”
Jason let me put the ring on. Let me have my moment. Let me feel as though I’d succeeded, because I had. When he pulled me into a kiss, my heart skipped and skipped and skipped. His hands curled in the back of my hair.
He held me.
Held me the way I’d held that magpie all those months ago.
And I knew, with surety, that I’d made the right choice choosing him then—choosing him now. Because Jason Harker was a good man. A good partner. Everything I’d never known I needed. He was the brightest light I’d ever encountered. I trusted him. Trusted him with every fiber of my being.
He made me unashamed to be who I was.
My perfect, wonderful tornado.
And loving him was the easiest thing I’d ever done.
The End
Thank you so much for reading and happy holidays to all of you!
This project was genuinely such a joy to create.
It was so much fun to return to Belleville and revisit a lot of our old friends, as well as bring some new ones into the mix.
Joe and Jason were hard to pin down at first, but I could not be happier with who they ended up becoming at the end of the final draft.
This book taught me a lot about my own perseverance. For that, I will always be grateful. I swear I started over four different times because I knew, deep down, I needed to do these two justice and I wasn’t sure who they were yet.
I know a lot of you adored the Christmas Daddies series, and I truly hope that Snowy Skies and Puppy Eyes made you smile just as much as spending time with the Montgomery brothers did. Queer joy is the best kind, especially around the holidays.
Thank you so much for all your comments, messages, and motivation.