Epilogue #2
Sighing again, he reached up and adjusted my hair as I set up the posts.
We’d both agreed that while Raf’s idea of doing OnlyFans might garner us a good chunk of change from people who’d love to see us naked and fucking, especially with the added ‘taboo’ of us being ‘brothers,’ but we had ultimately decided it wasn’t for us.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t post the occasional suggestive image that let people know we were still a happy and active couple.
Once upon a time, not that long ago, I would have believed such a thing would backfire on us, but instead, it was getting us all sorts of attention, and I was happy to soak that and the income it brought up.
“There,” he said after I was done and turned to look in the mirror. “Best I can do.”
“Close,” I said with a smile, leaning in to adjust it better. “You can never get it to look right.”
“I’m better at messing up your hair than fixing it,” he grumbled.
“You have a point,” I said, leaning back against him as he wrapped his arms around my middle and hugged me tight.
I could still feel his nervousness, but it was better now he’d gotten off, and because I was there.
We were still the rock the other needed, even though sometimes I wondered how I could have a steadying effect on anyone .
But that was what Eli needed from me sometimes, and I swore to him three years ago I would never let him need that from me and go without it.
At the time, I made the promise because I’d failed to keep it at what should have been the beginning of our relationship, and the guilt had threatened to choke me.
I’d made it thinking that, as easy as words were to speak, following through wasn’t as easy, especially when things started to get hard.
To my surprise, though, the temptation to repeat that part of our history never occurred to me, not even for a moment.
Maybe it was because nothing had been as terrifying as when I’d seen that video that prick had posted, but I liked to think it was because I’d learned my lesson.
Nothing had hurt as much as hurting Eli, and I would do whatever it took to take away his pain, not add to it.
“How did you get away from Moira? I know she was assigned to you when everyone thought I was trustworthy,” he chuckled. “And your original babysitter abandoned you for Marshall.”
I wrinkled my nose at the mention of Raf and his...plus one. “I drove her crazy enough to make her go see if she could get a hit off a joint being smoked out back.”
“Doing what?”
“Nothing.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It was nothing! She was just strangling me and kept accusing me of squirming. I was worried she was gonna try to kill me. I reminded her that orange wasn’t her color and she just...left.”
“You were you,” he said affectionately, kissing my cheek. “That’s enough for her...and me.”
“I really hope you meant that in two different ways,” I grumbled.
“I do...and I don’t.” He laughed, and I rolled my eyes.
He was teasing me, which meant my job here had been accomplished. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get back before?—”
The door crashed open, and we spun, Eli leaping back from me with a cry of alarm. What should have been a vision of white lace was instead a horrifying visage of rage in a beautiful dress.
“ What do you two think you’re doing?” Eva raged. “You were supposed to stay away from each other so my goddamn best man could get through this ceremony without getting groped!”
“We were hugging,” I protested because hey, as far as things looked, that’s what we were doing. She didn’t need to know what had happened moments before...and if we wanted to live, then we didn’t want her to know.
“I am getting married in...twenty minutes, and you two took a snuggle break?” she demanded, her eyes wide and blazing with a fire that made me really, really pity her soon-to-be husband.
Then again, I’d watched him whisper to her quietly during one of her rages and turn her into a soft, gooey puddle of kittens and puppies.
A puddle that would probably rip my skull out through my asshole if I were stupid enough to comment on its puddle status. ..but still.
“Hey,” Eli told her with a frown. “Look at us. Our hair is perfect...or his is as good as it ever gets. Our clothes are unwrinkled, not a stain to be found. Nothing.”
“Exactly,” I assured her, thinking there were no stains because I hadn’t wasted a drop, but again, not something I was going to mention.
I liked living. “C’mon, Eva. I was just making sure he was okay, you know how wound up he gets when something is important to him, and your wedding definitely counts. ”
She continued to glower, but I thought maybe her fangs were retracting. “ Fine. But Milo, you need to get your ass out there with the rest of the bridal party, and Eli? Stay here, I need to freak out. You have three minutes, hear me? Three minutes!”
I winced when the door slammed as she left, and I turned to him. “And that wasn’t her freaking out?”
He chuckled. “Personally, I think she’s doing great. No one’s bled yet.”
“Yet,” I emphasized.
Eli smiled, smoothing my collar and giving me another kiss. “We should probably get moving before she turns three minutes into one.”
“I guess,” I said, sidling closer and squeezing his waist. “You, me, a secluded spot at the reception?”
“I suppose that’s only fair after what you just did,” he smirked. “I wonder if we’ll manage to get through our own wedding without needing to get naked.”
I kissed him and stepped back with a grin. “I guess we’ll find out next year.”
He froze. “What?”
“Did I stutter?”
“How did...who told you?”
I frowned. “Told me what?”
He squinted. “Told you I was going to propose!”
“You were going to propose?” I asked in shock, my heart thumping furiously.
“I...then why did you?” He straightened, his eyes lighting with realization. “Fucking hell, Milo?”
“What?”
“Was that your version of proposing to me?”
“Sort of, the ring was going to happen after we left, or maybe in the morning.”
“You...that is the most?—”
My eyes stung. “You were going to propose?”
“Yes!” he groaned. “This weekend. I had a whole...thing planned, and then you shot that in the foot by doing your not proposal.”
“I didn’t know how else to say it,” I admitted sheepishly.
His face twisted and then fell with a sigh, his eyes darted to my face, and his lips twitched into a smile. “You’re honestly ridiculous, you know that?”
“I’m sorry,” I whined.
“No,” he said, pulling me closer, nuzzling his cheek against mine. “This is perfect. It’s very... us, actually. Tell you what, think about what you actually want to say in your proposal, and I’ll have mine ready. We can propose together this weekend.”
I vibrated with the very idea. “Oooh, I wonder what I’ll say when you ask?”
“Mmm, we’ll see,” he said, kissing me and deepening it momentarily. “We’ll find out, now won’t we?”
“I guess so,” I said with a chuckle. “Mine?”
“Yours,” he breathed, his fingers gripping me for a minute but letting me go. That would be a moment for us, but the day wasn’t it; there would be time for our romantic sweetness later when it was just the two of us. “Mine?”
“ELIJAH!” came Eva’s monstrous roar from down the hallway. “You had better be alone!”
“Always,” I told him before darting out, leaving him to laugh as Eva came down the hallway to give him hell.
“Always,” I repeated as I ran my finger along the base of my left hand's ring finger. “And forever.”