Epilogue
Two Months Later
Grace
“Ican’t keep this up. My cheeks are aching,” I complain.
“Just a little longer, Angel,” Duke says, leaning to the side to grab the remote. “Look, there’s less than half an hour left, and we’re just getting to the good bit.”
Smug grins should be an Olympic sport because I’ve been smiling all the way through this movie, and Duke’s last comment threatens to undo me. The good bit is where Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack finally find each other. Their Serendipity moment.
“You’re such a romantic.”
“I am what you made me,” he whispers in my ear, pressing my back to his bare chest by splaying a hand across one of my breasts. His thumb flicks and strokes my peaked nipple. “Right here in this bed.”
We’ve finally made it back to the Exemplar, and naturally we were able to secure the exact same room as before because, you know, his family owns the hotel.
My family now. That’s taking some getting used to.
Duke and I were married two weeks ago. Ed was best man, Meri was maid of honor and Ash Griffin’s newly-found daughter was a flower girl.
Even the latest addition to the Griffins was there.
Baby James was very well-behaved and slept through the ceremony snuggled up to his toy griffin.
The only thing that would have made the day more complete was if Katarina had been there.
She would have stolen the show, obviously, but I hear she’s planning a wedding of her own.
She’s marrying some billionaire who owns his own island in the South Pacific.
I don’t know much about him, but the chances of it being a love match are slim.
In which case, I plan on sending Katarina a wedding gift, a certain personal item she left behind in a sparkly, purple box.
She missed Killian’s funeral. It was a quiet affair by all accounts, and his death remains unexplained.
The Griffins honored Killian’s wishes and the McConkeys have no idea that he died trying to rescue a Bratva princess.
Even Vasili won’t want the truth coming out.
He won’t want John McConkey finding out he’s responsible for his son’s death, nor will he want his allies to know his niece gave herself freely to his enemy.
Katarina won’t be allowed to grieve, that’s for sure.
That wipes the smile off my face.
I glance at my phone on the nightstand and catch the screen glowing. I know without looking that the message will be from Ed. He’s temporarily relocated to Brimstage to project manage work on Corbyn House.
Duke had finally followed through with his threat and fired Ed on his first day back at the office. Ed got over his shock pretty quickly when Duke showed him his new office, which is next to mine on the Executives’ floor.
Ed and I are combining our skills and knowledge to deliver the projects Duke and I have been developing. Noah DeVere reports to me now, which should be awkward but secretly, I think he finds it easier working with me than Duke. My husband can still be a surly pain in the ass.
“More photos?” Duke asks. He’s noticed my phone light up too.
“They’ll either be of Marmalade curled up in bed with him, or Levi.”
Duke reaches over and checks my phone. He chuckles. “It’s all three.”
Levi is one of the Griffins’ bodyguards and is currently accompanying Hunter and Maddie on a business trip to Brimstage. After Ed was shot, Levi had offered his services for Ed’s rehabilitation, with added extras. It’s another happy ending. And new beginnings.
Duke continues playing with my nipples and I wriggle backwards so my very naked ass is up against Duke’s groin. The bed creaks as I wriggle some more, seeking out a familiar hardness. Ah. There it is.
“The movie, Grace,” Duke growls. “They’re about to–”
I snatch the remote and switch off the TV. “It’s a stupid story. What idiot finds the love of their life then makes it almost impossible to find them again?”
Duke clears his throat. “You mean like the idiot sitting between my legs?”
I try to turn but Duke binds me to his chest with his arms. I settle for casting a glare over my shoulder. “Not just me.”
“I had your address.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. You’re the idiot who parked outside my house for a year, devising an elaborate plan to get me to move to Chicago instead of just walking up the path and knocking on my damn door.”
“Fair point,” he agrees, kissing my nose. “I just wanted to give you enough time to work on your list.”
His hold on me loosens and he starts mapping out every inch of me with his fingers. He starts with my neck and shoulders, my clavicle, the valley between my breasts. My back arches as he traces more circles around my nipples then moves lower.
I rest my head back on his shoulder. “This was the final item on my list. Being back here,” I tell him as he kisses my neck.
Duke’s hands travel down to my hips, my thighs. His touch sends tingles through my body and as I draw up my knees, he hooks his hands beneath my thighs and lifts them so my feet are planted on either side of his legs.
Fingers trail up my inner thighs and I shiver in anticipation. Duke opens me up with one hand while his other teases me. Fingertips move closer to the area throbbing with need, but not close enough.
“Tell me what you want, Angel,” Duke commands. “Use your words.”
We’ve done nothing but fuck, eat and sleep on a repeating cycle since we arrived yesterday, and the movie was merely an interlude. I ache for all the right reasons and I plan on suffering a little more.
My arms reach behind me, holding onto Duke’s hips that roll gently so his steel rod of a cock rubs up against my spine.
“I want to ride you. And I–” He slides his fingers through my center to my entrance.
Fingertips tease while his thumb applies a constant pressure on my clit that turns a low throbbing need into a thigh clenching yearning.
“I want to watch myself bounce on your beautiful, pussy-destroying cock.”
Duke slips two fingers inside me and it’s the heel of his hand rubbing me now. “You want to see how well I fit into this dripping wet pussy?”
“I know how well we fit,” I say through clenched teeth as the warmth flooding my core turns hot and molten.
“And I know how wet you make me. Oh, god.” My eyes roll back in my head as he curls his fingers and thrusts harder.
“I want to see it, and feel it, and…” My pussy clenches around his fingers. “I want to own it. I want what’s mine.”
Duke withdraws his hands and whips back the covers. “Then take everything you need, Angel,” he rasps, grabbing my hips and lifting me up to kneeling.
Still not high enough to position myself over him, I reach between my legs and wrap my fist around his shaft. I feel his cock twitch as I guide his crown along the crack of my ass to my soaking wet pussy.
I want to rub against him, I want to tease us both until our bodies are crackling with sparks desperate for release, but as soon as the head of his cock is seated at my entrance, my pussy grips him possessively.
“I think you’re ready to ride me, Angel,” Duke says and it’s all the warning I get as he brings me down onto his cock at the same time he thrusts upwards.
As I cry out, he bands an arm around my chest while the other wraps around my waist. He spins us towards the edge of the bed, bringing his legs around so he can plant his feet on the floor.
The mirror facing us has already born witness to much of our activities since we arrived, but this is the first time we’ve given it the attention it deserves. It’s been waiting for us for eighteen months now. Our reflected gazes lock. Suddenly there are no words. Only completeness.
Duke nips my shoulder then skates his lips across my shoulder blades. As he peppers kisses along my spine, I drop my head forward and moan as a delicious shiver runs the length of my body.
When I straighten, Duke has disappeared. He’s lying back on the mattress, out of sight. He remembers how this went last time. I don’t doubt he replayed it in his mind as often as I did.
I stare at my reflection and say hello to a ghost. The woman I used to be had never asked for much.
All she wanted was to be loved. To be safe.
To be seen. She and I are the same in that respect, but the difference is she waited for someone to give her those things.
The woman riding her man’s cock right now has learned to take what she wants and guard it with her life.
She won’t be satisfied with anything less. And she will be satisfied.
I refocus on the present and the thick cock that fills me like it was made for me and me alone. I rise up on my knees and meet Duke’s thrust as I impale myself on him. The roiling heat making my pussy walls quiver is a sign I’ve come to know well.
“Let me see you, husband,” I command. “Let me see the man who’s about to fuck me. Thoroughly.”
Thank you so much for reading BOUND and Bitter.