Epilogue
ASHLEY
Katie: Thank you so much for inviting me. You have no idea how much it means for me to see these milestone events for myself. My heart is full today, and it’s all thanks to you. Congratulations, Ashley, you worked so hard to get here and I couldn’t be more proud to call you family.
“ S quirrel! Are you ready to go? The car will be here in five minutes!” Royce’s voice echoed through the halls of the gorgeous villa we were renting in Mauritius. I groaned, pausing the video I’d been watching on my phone.
“Should we—” Nate started to ask, but I silenced him by grabbing a handful of his hair and pushing his face back between my legs.
“Shush, Essex,” I breathed, arching my back as he returned to work. “I’m almost there.” Unable to help myself, I pressed play on my phone again, watching the wobbly video with hungry eyes as Nate tongue-fucked me like he didn’t need oxygen to live.
“Really?” Royce drawled, appearing in the doorway with his arms folded and a brow quirked. “We are going to need to make a new video. You must have watched that one a hundred times already.”
I grinned lazily, my breathing quick and shallow as Nate’s mouth coaxed out my orgasm.
“It’s my favorite,” I replied honestly. We had made plenty of other videos since that first one, but nothing could compete with the feelings stirred up when I’d watched this one for the first time.
When I’d realized that my guesses of who was who that night in the woods were all wrong.
Somehow, they’d all silently agreed on swapping energy while masked and anonymous, confusing the ever-loving fuck out of me until I watched the recording months later.
It hadn’t been Carter smacking my ass and fucking me rough—it was Heath .
And that was Nate who’d not even hesitated for a moment before coating his dick in cum to fuck my ass.
Naughty boys.
“Oh my… Nate! ” I moaned as I climaxed, my thighs locking around his head and my grip on his hair brutally tight.
Royce just waited patiently, arms folded, his gaze hot, while I whined and writhed, soaking up every last quiver before releasing Nate from between my legs.
“We’re going to miss our reservation,” Royce reminded me when my knees fell open and I gasped for breath. “And you know we’ll lose Carter if we don’t do it today.”
“Shit,” I puffed. “Okay, two minutes, maximum. Come on, Essex, you’re not exempt from this.
It’s a team activity , remember?” I clambered over him, snatching up my clothes that I’d already set out to wear before ducking into the bathroom.
There was no time to shower properly, so I settled for a high- speed rinse before pulling on my leggings and T-shirt.
My hair went up into a high ponytail, and I stuffed my feet into socks and sneakers just seconds before our driver pulled up in front of the villa.
The five of us piled into the back, and Heath shot me a smirk. “You look positively glowing, Ashes. Sleep well?”
I grinned back, not embarrassed at all. “Sure did. Waking up was even better. Are you guys excited?” I was so pumped, I was basically bouncing in my seat as our driver transported us to the small private airstrip where we had an appointment.
“I’m…quietly curious,” Heath replied honestly, giving a little grimace.
Carter, on the other hand, was pale and chewing at his thumbnail nervously.
It made me smile, even as a stab of guilt shot through me that he was clearly not into this activity.
Maybe I had been too forceful when I insisted we do it together…
but when Royce and I had graduated a week earlier, they’d told me I could pick anything and we’d all do it.
Together. A shared experience to celebrate the end of our degrees.
This was what I’d picked.
“You’ll be fine,” Royce drawled, giving Carter’s shoulders a rough massage from the seat behind him. “Besides, we all know your ego won’t let you back out if Squirrel is going through with it.”
“True,” Carter agreed with a strained voice. Then he forced what was probably intended to be a reassuring smile onto his face. “It’ll be great. I’m so excited.”
“You’re an awful liar,” Nate laughed, shaking his head. “But it’s too late to back out now. We’re here.”
Our car slowed to a stop, and I was the first one out.
My excitement could only be matched by Royce’s right now, and it was an incredible feeling.
It’d been six months since my last check-in from Abigail, letting me know that Jocelyn was still under her watch.
That she was still exactly as she’d been the day that she’d tried feeding the imaginary ducks at Orpington Psychiatric Detention Center.
I’d never officially met Abigail. Every time I tried to meet her, it was like chasing a ghost. But she routinely sent me reassurance and photos from within the facility, so I’d given up trying to speak with her directly. All that mattered was that Jocelyn was no longer a threat to us.
We were free.
As was Royce’s mom. It’d taken almost a full year after the night I’d shot Jocelyn, but with the efforts of Henry and Mike both, she’d eventually been released on time served. Twenty-five years she’d spent in prison, one of the first victims of Jocelyn’s manipulations, but now she was free.
Colonel Mike was still a dick. Nothing was going to change my opinion of him, no matter how hard he kissed Royce’s ass now. Too little too late, sir. The fact that Royce had grown into such an incredible man despite his father’s negligence was a damn miracle.
“I feel like Dr. Amina would have something to say about all of this,” Heath murmured, looking apprehensively at the aircraft parked outside the hangar. “Did you tell her we were doing this?”
I grinned, because surely he knew my therapist better than that by now. We’d done enough couples and group sessions over the last two years, after all. “I did, and she thought it was a fantastic idea. Come on, it’s going to be great.”
It took some time to get everything prepped, but eventually we were in the plane, on our way to ten thousand feet above the sparkling, turquoise ocean of Mauritius.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Carter yelled over the roar of the engines, looking a whole lot like he wanted to throw up. “Have I mentioned I have a fear of falling out of planes?”
“A few times, yes,” Royce yelled back. “Don’t worry. This is what we did all that indoor training for! You were great during certification!”
We hadn’t wanted to do our jump with instructors riding tandem on all of us, so we’d gone through our certification within a wind tunnel, meaning we could jump independently now.
Was that technically the way to do things?
Probably not. But money talked…as did the ironclad waivers of responsibility the skydive company had us all sign.
I also loved that, although we’d given Carter no end of grief about his fear, everyone was also being really encouraging.
The professionals on board with us gave the signal to get ready, and all five of us shifted into position along the side of the plane, where the sliding door was completely open.
I put my hands out on either side of me, linking up with Royce on my right—who grinned wide—and Nate on my left.
Nate raised my hand to his lips, kissing the ring that I still wore, before shooting me a love-filled smile.
They linked hands with Heath and Carter, turning us into one united being.
Then we jumped.
Free-falling was exactly as I had imagined it. Exactly as I’d expressed to my therapist over the past few months. We were leaving all our messy shit behind and hurtling forward toward our future. I was heading toward making more core memories with the four men I loved more than life itself.
In a way, I was thankful to Jocelyn. She’d inadvertently given me the greatest happiness a person could ever experience, made so much greater through facing our own mortality over and over.
Ducking psychopath still deserved to be haunted by quacking for the rest of her days, though.
THE END