Epilogue
REESE
THREE YEARS LATER
“Can I take the blindfold off now?”
Something warm and soft touched my lips—
Oh.
Dakota’s tongue slowly glided along the seam of my lips as he slid his fingers into my hair, and his low, raspy voice made me shudder.
“I dunno, it’s kinda turning me on,” he murmured.
I moaned when he bit my bottom lip, sucked it into his mouth, and trailed one hand down my back and over the curve of my ass.
“I really hope no one can see us,” I chastised when he started biting along my jaw. I tilted my head as he pressed soft kisses down to my neck, then jolted when his teeth sank in hard.
“Fuck!”
Dakota laughed into my skin,
He moved my hand until he was pressing my palm against his hard cock, and fuck, the feel of it made me want to strip him down right here and take him in my mouth.
“I bet you were hard before we even came in here,” I said, squeezing him through his pants.
His forehead bumped into mine, his shallow breaths puffing against my lips. “Yeah, you caught me. I’m never not hard when I’m with you. It’s your fault.”
“Oh, so I should take responsibility for it?”
“Will you? Please? Touch me, Reese.”
Fuck. When he begged me like that, I wanted to give him everything. I moved my hand lower, trailing my fingers over his balls and savoring his hitched breath as he stepped closer.
“I thought you brought me here to show me something, not to fuck around.” I didn’t pull away, though. Just kept holding him, slowly massaging my hand into him as he lazily thrust into me. “I swear to god, Dakota, if there are people in here watching this, I’m going to eat you alive.”
“Ah, fuck, I should’ve brought an audience,” he rasped, wrapping his arms around me and trapping my hand between our bodies. “Can you do it anyway?”
He cradled my face in his hands and kissed me slowly. Reverently. Poured every ounce of his love into every press of his lips, every touch of his tongue, every beat of his heart against mine.
“Come here,” he said softly, drawing away and linking his fingers through mine, tugging me along.
As much as he joked around, he had a serious side to him. A deeply emotional, tenderhearted side that only came out with me.
“Here,” he said, stopping. I cried out when he scooped me up in his arms, any annoyance dissipating when he rubbed his cheek against mine. “You sit here.” He gently set me down in a soft, plush seat. The arms were like velvet, and I dragged my fingers down the material.
I had no idea what he was planning. He said he wanted to do something special for our three-year anniversary of the day we’d met in the cemetery, so he blindfolded me, carried me into the car, and then we’d spent five hours driving somewhere.
He hadn’t let me take the blindfold off, even when we stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom.
He was enjoying this way too much—but then again, so was I.
“Leave the blindfold on. I’ll tell you when you can take it off.” He traced a finger around my birthmark, and then was gone.
I was so, so tempted to move the blindfold, to watch him walk away, watch that ass in those sexy-as-fuck black dress pants he was wearing. I’d only gotten a glimpse of his outfit, but Dakota was fine as fuck in his formal attire.
Black jacket, crisp white shirt, black dress shoes, hair combed neatly.
I couldn’t wait to peel every piece of clothing off him later.
Dakota cleared his throat loudly, and it echoed around us. “You can take it off now.”
I reached up and ripped off the blindfold, then had to shut my eyes against the bright lights. I blinked, letting them adjust, then looked around me.
“What…” Was I dreaming? “Is this…?”
“Yeah, baby. It is.”
My heart pounded as I looked around the auditorium, at the rows and rows of seats, the balconies to the left and right, the stage with its gorgeous Italian Renaissance design.
“You once told me you promised your mom you’d make it to Carnegie someday,” he said softly. He held a finger up. “But there was no specification for performing at Carnegie. So.” He bent down and snapped open the case of his violin. “I wanted to perform for you.”
My lips parted, but I couldn’t think of a single word to say. I stared up at this beautiful, breathtaking, bighearted man and was so, so thankful that I’d found him. That he’d found me.
There was no body big enough to contain the love I had for him; I didn’t think there ever would be. But my soul would carry it forever.
“I wrote you a song,” he told me, those dark eyes shining with love and adoration.
“It’s called Lullaby of a Butterfly, and then in parentheses, (That Flapped Its Wings and Made It All the Way to the Sun, Who Swallowed It Whole, and Then They Were One).
I came up with that last part just now. Good, right?
” He smiled down at me, looking so adorably self-satisfied.
I wasn’t sure there were even words for what I was feeling right now. I thought maybe he’d unlocked some new depth of emotion that was entirely boundless.
A tear spilled down my cheek as Dakota blew me a kiss, then readied his violin and bow. He closed his eyes and I fell in love all over again.
The song was achingly tender, delicate and pretty. He played with so much love that it was shimmering around him, a tangible, breathing thing that moved in sync with him.
Before he even finished the song, I was running up onto that stage and throwing my arms around him. I couldn’t contain these feelings, couldn’t stand being so far away from him.
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me, still holding his violin. “Yeah? You liked it that much?”
I trembled against him, so overwhelmed I couldn’t speak.
He kissed my head, and I felt him doing something behind my back.
“Let me put this down,” he said, curling his arm around me.
He was holding his violin and bow in one hand now, and I drew back enough so he could set it carefully on the floor.
And then he was up and pulling me against him, sifting his fingers through my hair and smiling down at me.
“I think she’d be really proud of you. Your mom and Lauren. You scored yourself a hottie,” he said.
I punched his arm and he just laughed. Then he said, “Come here,” and moved his arms under my ass, hauled me up, and let me wrap myself around him.
“Thank you,” I whispered, kissing his neck. Right over the love mark I’d left on him. The one that was always there. He never, ever wanted it to disappear, and whenever it started to fade, he’d make me do it again.
“I love you. Just wanted this day to be special.” He stroked up and down my back.
“If you’re here, it’s always special,” I murmured.
It was almost hard to believe that we were making a life together. That he was mine and I was his and we had so much more now than we’d ever had.
Nothing was perfect, but I thought the life we were building was pretty damn close.
Especially after the wreckage of that party.
The Voss family had been eviscerated by the public; Albert stepped down from his position as dean right before his affair with Ilsa got out somehow.
Evelyn and Albert had sold the manor and moved away somewhere.
Everett…actually, no one even knew where he’d gone or what he was doing. He’d spent a few months in jail, but after that, he’d disappeared entirely.
I felt pity for them now that everything was so far behind us. They were broken people who never knew how to love in the first place. And they probably wouldn’t ever know, which was the saddest part of it all.
Dakota knew how to love.
Dakota was love.
He was everything good in my life. Every moment of joy I experienced was because of him.
We lived in a little borough in upstate New York not too far from Ashbrook, but far enough. We had a house, we had each other.
Dakota was doing exactly what he wanted now: composing music on his terms. It helped that he’d been famous as a kid, so he didn’t really need to look around much when trying to sell his work.
He was wildly successful, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt more proud of anything or anyone in my life before. He worked so hard and loved every moment.
I’d become a private violin instructor and worked out of the sunroom in our home.
It was mostly kids, but there was the occasional teen or adult.
I even did virtual lessons, which was an interesting adjustment.
Sometimes Dakota would just stand in the doorway and try to distract me when I did those.
With his slutty jockstraps, the horny bastard.
Sometimes he would get lost in his work, and I would just stare at him. And the longer I looked, the more beautiful he became. Sometimes I couldn’t believe that he’d chosen me. Sometimes this all felt like a dream, like I’d wake up and be all alone again.
Sometimes I had nightmares, but he was always there to chase them away.
Sometimes I thought about Tagerton and Timothy Hatford and the sequence of events that had led to me being transferred. Sometimes I got the urge to find him and thank him, because I never would’ve met Dakota if he hadn’t been such a godawful prick.
Funny how one moment can change your life for the better. All it takes is a single second for things to go right. For everything to slip into place.
And he was no longer Dakota Voss. No, now he was Dakota Walker.
He’d taken my name, and so had Val.
I had a family again.
I had love.
I had happiness.
I had a million little moments, memories that I could hold firmly in the palm of my hand, memories that wouldn’t fade.
Like this one.
Dakota brushed the tip of his nose along mine. “You can eat me alive now,” he murmured, pressing his smile to mine, giving me all his joy.
There were some moments I knew would stay with me forever: the day I first met Dakota…and every second of the rest of my life with him.
THE END