Epilogue #2
Doris’s eyes soften, and the corners of her eyes crinkle as she refills Maisie’s glass. “You darling girl. He’s doing great. Thankfully, no one else got sick but him. Thank you for asking.”
My heart kicks.
Fuck, of course she remembered Doris mentioning last week that her grandson had the flu.
Maisie’s goodness never ceases to amaze me, no matter how much light she’s shining on everyone around her.
She’s not asking out of necessity but because she genuinely cares.
Maisie nods. “Oh, good. I was thinking about him earlier this week. I’m so glad to hear it.”
“You’re an angel, my girl,” Doris murmurs with a soft smile. “Chocolate milkshake, I’m betting?”
When I nod, she gives us a wink, then saunters off to put our order in.
As Maisie puts the book away, I notice the tabs lining the pages, and I grin. “Light reading?”
Her cheeks blush furiously, and it makes me chuckle.
“Yes. This one is about a duke who falls in love with his captor, who is a woman that’s a pirate. Very interesting.”
I hum. “Bet so. Looks like you tabbed the hell out of it, Sunshine.”
That blush deepens into a furious shade of red, and she looks away, stuffing the paperback into the bag beside her before turning back to me.
“I’m just glad that classes are done so I can catch up on reading.
Oh, did I tell you that I found the cutest lamp earlier when I was with Len? I talked them down to ten dollars!”
Excitement morphs her beautiful face, and I steal a kiss… right before I steal a french fry.
“Nope, but can’t wait to see it, baby.”
She scoots closer and slips her arm over mine, leaning into me, the contact always something she craves. “I’ll show you when we get home.” A brief pause lingers between us before she asks, “Do you want to talk about it?”
It being the session.
I exhale and shake my head. “Not much to talk about, Sunshine. We talked about my mom and how I feel about her being back in prison.” My gaze drops to the necklace around Maisie’s neck, the small silver whistle that I saw one day while tagging along while she was thrifting.
I got it mostly as a joke, but she loves the damn thing and refuses to take it off.
“I told him that it’s the most secure I’ve ever felt, knowing that she can’t contact me and that she’ll never get anywhere near either of us again.
It feels like I’m going to finally be able to…
I don’t know, move on for the first time. To try and heal.”
Maisie nods, squeezing my arm tighter. “I’m proud of you, Wilder. I hope you’re proud of yourself too.”
I… am proud.
If there’s anything that the woman beside me has taught me, it’s that I’ve got to treat myself with the same respect with which I treat her.
And I’m fucking trying.
It’s hard erasing a lifetime of the shit that I’ve been telling myself, but one step. One foot forward. That’s the only way I’m going to move on from the past and let myself live.
Yeah, that’s what my therapist says, if you couldn’t tell, but I think he’s right about that.
“Thanks, baby. You know I couldn’t do this without you,” I murmur, dipping my lips to hers, my voice dropping low. “I love you so much, Maisie. So fucking much.”
Her lips find mine, and she kisses me in response, fingers moving to my hair and threading at the nape. When she pulls back, she’s breathless and her eyes slightly glassy. “I love you. More than you know.”
It’s moments just like this where I feel more hope for the future than I’ve ever dreamed possible.
These quiet moments that exist between just the two of us, when I feel her goodness wrapped around me.
She said she’d love me enough for the both of us, and she’s spent every day showing me exactly that. But she doesn’t have to because I love her the same way.
My sunshine girl.
And I’m never taking it for granted.
One Year Later
Wilder
Sometimes I think about that little boy I used to be.
Late at night, when Maisie’s asleep, safe in my arms, her soft, warm body curled against mine.
When her breathing is slow and even, our house is quiet, my stomach full and our bed warm. When I’m left alone with my thoughts.
I think about all of the nights when I had none of these things and what I would’ve done for them.
I think about how different life may have been for that little boy if he could see where we are today. If he knew that there was hope in all the hopelessness surrounding him.
I wonder if it would’ve changed anything. If that little boy could’ve seen that there’s a light, so warm and so fucking bright, that’s going to guide him out of the dark. If he could’ve seen that love isn’t the weakness he believed it was, but what ends up saving him.
Maisie Delacroix saved me.
I don’t think she truly realizes just how broken I was before her.
She knows everything about my past, my mother, the neglect and abuse I suffered, the abandonment, every painful detail that I kept buried in fear of it pulling me under completely.
And she stayed. She never once wavered, no matter how heavy it got, and it means everything. More than I’m capable of articulating.
More than I probably ever will be able to.
Maisie’s love saved me, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life, every second of it, giving her everything I have.
Showing her how much I love her back, even when I can’t find words.
I’ve spent the last year and a half working on healing the broken, splintered parts inside me so I can be the kind of man that Maisie deserves.
A better man. A whole one.
Not only for her, but for myself.
It’s taken a lot of fucking therapy. A lot of days where it felt like I was taking three steps forward, just to take five steps back. Where I had to gather my pride while I fucking sobbed because I couldn’t stop, and Maisie only held on tighter, giving me strength when I had none.
I’m not sure I’ll ever fully heal from decades of trauma.
But I’ll never stop trying to be better than I was.
I made myself that promise, but I also promised it to Maisie.
And one thing I’ll never do is break my promises to her.
“Wilder?” Her soft voice comes from beside me, a little husky from sleep as she turns over and blinks up at me groggily. “Are you okay?”
A small smile pulls at my lip. “Yeah, baby, I’m okay.”
Maisie sighs sleepily, her eyes fluttering shut again as she nuzzles her face into the inside of my arm she’s lying on.
Christ, she’s so fucking beautiful that it steals my breath.
I reach out and run my thumb along her cheek, curling my fingers into her hair and watching her breathe.
The moonlight streaming through the window dances along her smooth skin, illuminating her thick lashes and the smatter of freckles along the bridge of her nose and cheeks, the curve of her full, sensual lips, which are still slightly swollen and flushed from my mouth.
Sometimes I can’t even believe that she’s mine. That out of her choice of anyone, she chose me.
I feel like the luckiest motherfucker on the planet.
“Why are you staring at me?” she murmurs with her eyes still shut, a sleepy little smile beginning to form, her fingers sliding up my chest.
I love her this way.
Safe and happy in my arms, but even half-asleep, she’s trying to get closer to me, touch me everywhere she can reach.
I can’t get enough of her.
Even though we’ve been living together for over a year, I still have the same overwhelming need for her that I did back when she was sleeping next to me on a mattress on the floor, in my shitty apartment that she never should’ve stepped foot in.
If anything, it’s worse now. It’s not just her body that I’m obsessed with, but also her heart and her mind. Every fucking thing about her makes me a little more unhinged.
“Staring at you because you’re beautiful, Sunshine,” I say, sweeping my thumb along her cheekbone. “Because you’re mine, and I love watching you sleep. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
She giggles quietly. “That sounds like something a stalker who breaks into a girl’s apartment and sniffs her bedsheets would say.”
Fucking hell.
“So, that’s what you’ve been over there reading and giggling before bed, huh? Probably why you climbed on top of me and rode my cock until you were screaming.” I drag my fingers along the bare skin of her arm, watching goose bumps trail behind them.
Her eyes snap open, and they’re bright, shining with heat as she pulls her lip between her teeth.
I had her only hours ago, but I already want her again. To slide into her warm, wet heat and fuck her until we’re both exhausted enough for sleep to finally take me.
I used to lie awake for hours and fight for my life with nightmares before I met her, but now it’s her that keeps me up half the night, wringing orgasm after orgasm out of her. And if it’s not that, then I’m watching her sleep, thinking about our future.
I can’t help being obsessed with her.
“How do you have this much stamina for someone so old?” she whispers with a sweet laugh that dissolves the second my fingers press into her side.
All this time, and she’s still a damn brat, and I love every damn second of it.
I glide my hand down her side and over the curve of her ass, grabbing a fistful. “I played professional hockey for ten years, baby. You think I can’t fuck you?”
Those blue eyes sparkle, and she shrugs, taunting me.
Always fucking taunting me.
She loves provoking me, pushing my buttons until I snap and throw her over my shoulder and fuck the shit out of her.
“It’s all fun and games until I have you on your knees with your mouth stuffed full of my cock, your thighs rubbing together because I won’t let you touch your needy little pussy.
” She whimpers as I ghost the front of my knuckle over her pussy, barely grazing her clit.
“Now, how about you be my good girl, and I’ll eat you.
Make you come on my face so you can go back to sleep.
You’ve got a big day tomorrow.” I repeat the motion, this time with the pad of my thumb, spreading her arousal all along her clit.