Epilogue
Devlin
I took a sip of my water and placed it back in the very convenient cupholder in my hot-pink pool float. I squinted down my body and pressed on the skin over my stomach. A white spot let me know it was time to flip over before I roasted.
The plastic stuck to my sweaty back as I rolled over with an ungraceful flop.
Water splashed up the sides of the float as it rocked.
Lying on my stomach, I let my hand hang off the edge so my fingers dipped into the warm water.
My roll attempt had sent the float toward the side of the pool, and it bumped the edge gently.
A shadow fell over me. A very familiarly-shaped shadow.
I jerked to my elbows, my head whipping to the side, “Don’t you d—”
The figure cannonballed off the edge to land two feet away me. A wave of water capsized my float and sent me head over ass into the pool. As soon as my feet touched the tiled bottom, I surged to the surface with a sputter. “Jace!”
He howled with laughter as he slicked back his hair, which he’d recently dyed a soft pink that looked ridiculously good on him. I refused to tell him that, though. Even if he was the closest thing I’d ever had to a friend in my adult life.
With a swipe of my hand, I sent an arc of water in his direction. “Asshole.”
“Blame your boyfriend.” He splashed me back. “He told me to get you off that float before you fry.”
I sensed said boyfriend behind me and whirled around with a glare. How he just apparated places was a mystery that I’d never solve. He wore nothing but a pair of athletic shorts, unlaced sneakers, and his tattoos. His skin glistened with a thin sheen of sweat that let me know he’d been working out.
“I’m not burnt.”
He crouched down at the side of the pool. “Come closer and let me see.”
“No,” I snapped, and yet I walked over to him anyway. I folded my arms on the tiled edge.
It’d been two months since we came back from the beach, and in that time, Cian had managed to hire a company to install a heated in-ground pool.
That timeline had seemed insane to me, but Cian had some pull around here, especially with contractors.
I planned to get as much use out of it as I could before the cooler fall temperatures hit our state.
He pushed my wet hair off my forehead. “How long have you been out here?”
“A while,” I answered vaguely. Jace had begun to swim laps behind me, and he was not quiet about it. Every stroke slapped the water like a shot.
I let my legs float behind me, and Cian’s gaze went to my ass below the water before returning to my face.
I’d gained weight in the last few months from finally eating well.
When I couldn’t fit into the youth XXL frog swim shorts anymore, Cian had emailed the manufacturer and asked them to make the same pattern in adult sizes.
At first, I’d questioned his audacity, but then everything about it had been perfectly Cian.
A month later, we’d received three pairs in the mail that fit perfectly. I wore one today.
Voices drew my attention, and I turned to see Mads and Dylan emerge from the house with Jeremy. He hadn’t known how to swim either, so for the last month, the two of us had taken lessons together from a girlfriend of one of the crew.
“Hey, swim buddy!” I called out to the kid.
He grinned with a wave. “Dev!”
The kid’s mom had signed over full custody to Dylan, and Cian had helped him get a job where he didn’t have to travel as much. Dylan lived closer to the university in a townhome with Jeremy, but they both visited often, especially since we’d had the pool installed.
I was fond of Jeremy, and sometimes when I looked at him, I saw my nephew, Holden.
Guilt sank into my bones sometimes, when I was feeling vulnerable.
Holden would grow up knowing I was the villain, and I was okay with that.
He wouldn’t be wrong. I didn’t let myself play the what if game.
That wasn’t fair to Conrad or Tav. I’d fucked up years of their lives, and no matter what I did now, karma would come for me one day.
But I didn’t tempt fate anymore. I was never going to absolve my soul, but I could stop punishing other people for my own pain.
I could be a good influence on a kid who’d had a rough start in the hopes he didn’t turn out like me.
As the day wore on, more men from Frank joined us at the pool.
Hack and Rhys. Starla and a few of her friends.
A couple other servers from O'Shea’s. Because Cian didn’t do anything small, the pool was huge with a waterslide.
He’d also had an entire patio built around it with a small pool house that held a TV, bar, bathrooms, and a lounge area.
As the day stretched on, Rhys manned the grill to cook enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed an army.
Cian and I stood along the side of the pool in the shallow end while Jace and a few of the other guys played with a floating basketball hoop.
Cian had both arms wrapped around my shoulders and his chin in my hair.
Sometimes, I still woke up in the middle of the night in a panic that this entire life was a dream. I knew I didn’t deserve the happiness I’d found, but Cian did. I turned my face into his arm and kissed his skin.
“Pool was a good idea,” he said. “Everyone likes it.”
“It was a great idea.”
With a hand cupping my shoulder, he rubbed his thumb over my collarbone. “Let’s go back to the beach in September. Before the cold weather comes.”
I smiled. “Okay.”
“Jace will want to come.”
“Sure.”
“We’re getting separate rooms, though. I’m not going to the beach and not fucking you.”
“Of course. Heaven forbid.” I snarked.
He pinched my skin, and I yelped with a laugh.
We joined in on the basketball game, ate food, and lay on the loungers beside the pool until the sky darkened.
I was watching Starla and her friends play beer pong when Cian sat up and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”
“Come on where?”
“Just come with me.”
He led me into the house and up the stairs. When we reached the door to his apartment, I leaned against the wall. “Bedtime already?”
He punched in the code. When it unlocked with a beep, he held the door open for me. “Just get in.”
I rolled my eyes, because I’d been enjoying the social time. Most of the crew trusted me now, and some of them seemed to genuinely like me. We’d shared stories, and they’d introduced me to their families.
I walked inside the apartment and then stopped dead.
Because there was a glaring new addition.
A glass tank sat on a metal stand in the middle of the floor.
In the darkness of the apartment, the only light came from a fluorescent strip light on the mesh lid.
It made the contents inside glow—a few green plants, a hollowed-out log, rocks, and a thick layer of dirt.
Everything in the terrarium glistened with moisture.
I crept closer and bent to peer inside. I didn’t know what to expect, but I couldn’t see any living creatures.
Just leafy plants and a wet log. I looked over my shoulder at Cian, who stood with his hands on his hips. “What is this?”
He drew closer and pulled back half of the mesh lid, which opened on a hinge.
He poked around in the dirt with a thick finger until he found what he was looking for.
He reached into the dirt and scooped out a handful.
He gently blew some dirt off the top of the pile, until a slimy blob remained behind, sitting on a mound of dirt.
And when I saw what it was, my draw dropped. “What?”
His eyes shone brightly in the light, making them fluorescent blue.
“It’s a Pacman frog. I did some research, and it’s illegal to make a native frog your pet.
Not that legality is a hill I die on. But I didn’t think you’d want to do anything illegal with animals.
So I went to a local pet store and talked to them about wanting to get you a frog.
They recommended a Pacman. Neat name, huh?
Because they look like the video game character. ”
Cian didn’t usually say all that much at once, and his voice held a slight tremble, like he was nervous. I noticed that he hadn’t touched the frog at all, and that made my stomach flutter. “You… got me a frog?”
He blinked. “Yeah. I mean, he doesn’t do much. Not like you have to train it or anything—”
I held out my hands. “Can I hold him on his dirt pile?”
He exhaled with a relieved smile. “Yeah.” We managed the transfer pretty well, so the little guy remained perched on his dirt pile and free from any oils on my hands. “They said you shouldn’t handle him too much because it can stress him out. But I wanted you to get a good look at him.”
He was the fattest, roundest, and ugliest thing I’d ever seen in my life, and I loved him immediately.
His body was covered in brown and bright green stripes, and his little front legs turned in like a bowlegged cowboy.
His throat pulsed in and out as he breathed.
I closed my lips and pulsed my cheeks in time with his breathing until I laughed.
“Pacman frogs are from South America.” Cian pointed to a pamphlet on the coffee table. “The pet store gave me that, and I have a few YouTube videos they recommended we watch for care instructions.”
My heart was going to explode. My eyes burned. Was I going to cry over an amphibian?
“Oh.” He held up a finger and flipped on a light in the kitchen before opening the freezer. Reaching inside, he pulled out a Ziploc baggie full of little pink chunks. “He eats pinkies. Frozen baby mice. We just have to thaw them, and he snatches them right up.”
I stared into my frog’s bulging eyes. “I thought they mostly ate insects.”
“Yeah, me too.” He shrugged as he tossed the frozen baby rodents back inside the freezer next to our popsicles. “The more you know.”
I swallowed. “I’m going to put him back now.”
Cian came to stand next to the tank. “Yeah, sure.”
I carefully placed him and his dirt back in his tank and surveyed his set up with new eyes. He had plenty of space, and everything looked clean and fresh. “Did you do all this today?”
“Yeah, this afternoon while you were sleeping at the pool.”
“I wasn’t sleeping.” I closed the lid and rested a hand on top of the tank. “I can’t believe you got me a frog.”
Cian gripped my hip and rubbed his thumb on the skin above the waistband of my cartoon frog swim shorts. “Do you like him?”
“Cian, I’d die for him.”
His whole face lit up as he laughed. “What will you name him?”
I thought for a moment. “DeCi.” I said it like deck-ee.
He raised his eyebrows. “What’s that for?”
“Our names combined. He’s ours.”
He kissed me, a mash of our lips before his tongue surged inside to lay claim. I braced my arms on his shoulders and cupped the back of his head. I loved the way the short strands felt on my palms.
He gripped my ass, and I pulled out of the kiss. “Not in front of our amphibian child.”
Cian snorted and walked me back toward the bed. “He’ll get used to it.”
Cian shoved me face down on the bed, prepped me, and entered me on a slow slide.
Before I could come, he flipped me on my back and fucked me into the mattress.
He still preferred to watch my face when I came.
My hand worked my cock between us, and I reached my orgasm on a wordless cry.
He groaned his release with our foreheads pressed together.
He didn’t bother cleaning us—he rarely did. He kept me pressed against him as he settled us against the pillows with my back to his front. I knew he’d be back inside of me before midnight. His cock remained half-hard, nestled along my crease. He pressed open-mouthed kisses to my shoulders.
“Your skin is hot,” he murmured there. “You got burnt.”
It did feel tight. “A little.”
He huffed in irritation and left the bed only to return a second later with a giant pump bottle of green aloe. I rolled my eyes, but as soon as he placed the cooling gel on my shoulders, I groaned. It didn’t feel as good as an orgasm, but it was close.
“Why do you have a sunscreen fetish?” I murmured into the pillow as he rolled me onto my stomach.
“Skin cancer is a real thing, you dumbass. And you having freckles is a sign of less melanin, which means a higher risk of skin cancer. I looked it up.”
“I’m going to take away your search engine privileges.”
He snorted and finished applying aloe to my back. He settled beside me in bed, and I stayed on my stomach, head turned toward him, while the gel dried. We’d done this entire routine many times over the last few months. “You take care of me so well, baby.”
He laid his forearm across his eyes with a sigh. “Fuck off. Take care of yourself, and I won’t have to.”
I’d gotten better at taking care of myself.
Not just for Cian’s sake, but for mine too.
We had a future now. Plans. I had a pet frog to take care of.
I couldn’t do anything stupid to jeopardize that.
I shifted until I lay on his chest, my ear over his heart.
He carded his fingers through my hair, and I closed my eyes.
His skin was warm beneath my cheek, and his chest hair tickled my lips.
His heartbeat pulsed a strong, steady rhythm.
“You forgot to put eggs on the list,” Cian yawned. We’d had groceries delivered yesterday. “We only have two left, so they’re mine in the morning. You’re on your own.”
I smiled, stomach warming at this mundane, normal conversation. I wasn’t sure I’d ever take them for granted. Arguing about grocery lists, who left beard hair in the sink—always Cian—and how often the sheets needed to be washed.
“I’ll get more tomorrow,” I said.
“You better,” he grunted.
His hand slid down to my back, and when he felt that the gel had dried, he switched our positions.
Me on my back, him on top of me. He pressed a kiss to my nose, then my lips.
He settled between my legs and barely had to work to slide his hard cock into my stretched, slick hole.
“You feel like mine every time,” he whispered into my hair as he fucked me slowly. “My devil.”
“Yours,” I whispered, digging my fingernails into his back.
After we both came, he cleaned us up, and we turned on the TV to a baseball game while discussing where to put DeCi’s tank. I wanted it near the bed. Cian thought that was ridiculous and wanted him by the couch.
We settled on a spot in the kitchen. And I fell asleep on Cian’s chest, my ear over his heart, with the glow of the TV on my face and the light of DeCi’s tank shining behind my eyelids.
And if I had a nightmare, I didn’t remember it.
Because my lion king fought them for me.
And he always won.
Thank you so much for reading THE VILLAIN!