50. Dan
DAN
Flopping onto my back, I stretched out next to Lincoln, sore and sweaty and in no way ready to leave the cocoon of his nice, comfortable bed to shower. Plus, I really loved the feel of his cum dripping out of me. That was a new one.
I could do without the whole wet patch thing, though. Ah, well. Worth it. I grinned up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to walk properly tomorrow.”
Lincoln rolled onto his side to press a kiss against my cheek. “Do you feel okay? I…I don’t know what came over me. I lose my mind when we fuck.”
“Dickmatised,” I said. “We have the best connection when we have sex. I dunno, it’s like you somehow know how to push every single one of my buttons, and they’re buttons I didn’t even know I had until you. Does that even make sense? Probably not.”
“It makes sense because it’s the same for me.” He nipped at my jaw before drawing back to study me. “Do you feel okay, though? Are you sore? I went hard.”
“Mmm, yeah, you did. And I’m sore in the best way. That was exactly what I wanted. There was literally nothing I would’ve changed.”
“Me too.”
“Best you’ve ever had? Ruined you for anyone else?”
“Stop fishing for compliments,” he growled in my ear, sliding his hand onto my chest and tweaking my nipple.
“Hey!” I twisted onto my side, ducking down and biting his nipple in retaliation. He hissed through his teeth.
“Hoyton.”
My head rose, and I gave him my most innocent smile. “Bellingham. Back to last names, I see, and all because I asked a simple question.”
“Nothing’s simple with you,” he muttered. “Yes, you were the best, you egomaniac.”
“I ruined you for anyone else forever and ever?”
“Do you ever stop?”
“Nope.” Shifting up, I slid my mouth over his, feeling him smile against me. Yeah, I knew him. He could pretend to be annoyed, but I knew the truth. Lincoln Bellingham was just as into me as I was into him. It was a real-life, actual miracle.
“C’mon. Let’s shower,” he said when we broke apart, and I sighed heavily.
“If we must. I’d prefer not to leave this nice, warm, comfortable bed. Although…I guess it’s a good excuse to get my hands all over you again.”
“You read my mind.”
When we were in the shower, he pulled me under the warm spray, carefully angling us so our faces were out of the direct line of the water flow.
“Baby,” he breathed. His mouth brushed against mine, and I slid my tongue across his lip before I kissed him as softly as I could. He sighed, or maybe I did, our mouths moving together in a slow slide that set me alight with hundreds of fucking butterflies.
Lincoln was right here in front of me, and he was mine again.
Dipping my head lower, I mouthed at his jaw. “I’m gonna mark you up.”
“Fuck, yeah. Do it, baby. Want everyone to know that I’m taken.”
“Taken?” I jerked back, staring at him. Now was not the time for guesses. “Like taken, taken?” I was almost certain we were on the same page after everything we’d confessed to each other at the mansion, but I wanted his words.
“Yeah.” He hesitated for a moment, and then his mouth curved into a proper smile, filled with affection, and my heart skipped a beat. “I know we still have a lot to sort out—”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Maybe a little.” He leaned in, kissing me softly. “But as far as I’m concerned, I’m yours. Even if you’ve changed your mind about choosing me, I choose you. I don’t want anyone else.”
I drew back to look at him, taking in the red flush to his cheeks and the almost shy look in his eyes.
I could never get enough of seeing him this way.
Was he ever this vulnerable with anyone else?
I fucking hoped not. This version of Lincoln Bellingham was all mine.
“Well, that’s lucky, because guess what?
I haven’t changed my mind, and I’m not going to.
I don’t want anyone else either. Just you. ”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I know we said it before, when we were at the mansion, but I want to make sure we’re on the same page. No more secrets. No more subterfuge.”
“Open, honest communication.” Lincoln’s fingers wrapped around mine, and then he placed our joined hands first over his heart, then mine. “All yours.”
I shivered, huffing out a laugh. “Fucking hell. I thought swooning was a thing that happened to Victorian ladies in corsets, but I’m literally weak. It’s ridiculous.” I buried my face in his shoulder, and he chuckled, running a hand down my back.
“Are we agreed, then?”
“That we’re together? Yeah.”
“Boyfriends?”
“Boyfriends,” I confirmed, and Lincoln pressed a kiss to the side of my head.
“Good. I seem to remember you saying you were gonna mark me up.”
“Mmm.” Mouthing at my boyfriend’s throat, I slid my palm onto his ass. “I’m gonna make sure there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that you’re all mine.”
When we were back in Lincoln’s bed, stretched out beneath fresh sheets, he turned to me.
“We need to work out what we’re going to do.
We’re together now, and I don’t want anything to change that.
” He paused, bringing his hand up to cup my jaw, his thumb rubbing circles into my skin.
“I won’t let anything change that. I guess I’m worried about what it means for my uncle.
I’m me, and you’re you, and as far as he’s concerned, we’re on opposite sides.
Then there’s the complication with my father… ”
His tormented expression killed me. It must have been killing him to keep it all inside for so long, unable to tell anyone for fear of what might happen. “Tell me everything he wanted you to do. I’ll tell you what it was like for me, too, if you want. Maybe knowing my side will help.”
His hand stroked up the side of my face and into my hair. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Do you want to hear?”
Our eyes connected, and he was so easy to read. Fuck, I felt dizzy when he looked at me like that, like I was the only thing that mattered to him.
“Yeah. I always want to hear.” Dipping his head, he tugged my bottom lip between his. “I want you to trust me, Dan.”
“I do trust you.” It was the honest truth, and he smiled, his gaze turning all soft and warm.
I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him into me so his head was resting on my shoulder.
“I guess…uh, a lot of this stuff obviously happened when I was too young to remember. But it all started with a loose business agreement that my dad made with the Culverhouse Network. I guess they got annoyed about the fact we were more powerful, or they wanted our assets or whatever. Frank Culverhouse got your dad involved, claiming we were skimming from the business, and it all went downhill from there.”
I recounted the events as best as I could, based on everything my mum and Neil had told me over the years, finishing up with a rundown of everything that had happened tonight at the rink.
Neil had sent me a simple text earlier that was just one word: Sorted.
I assumed I’d get the full rundown when the dust had settled, but for now, I was secure in the knowledge that he had everything in hand.
Lincoln was silent for a long time after I’d finished speaking, and I trailed my hands up and down the warm skin of his back while I waited for him to digest everything I’d just thrown at him.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “What was it like from your point of view? I know you hated me, but, like, what was it like?”
He buried his face into my neck with a groan. “My parents are hypocrites. They acted as if the world was black and white, as if we were good and your family was bad. They drummed it into me throughout my childhood. How you hurt people. Took from the innocent. Did bad things.”
“We didn’t… Yeah. Okay. I’m not gonna pretend we don’t have blood on our hands, because that would be a lie. I can’t justify some of the things we’ve done. But we never go after innocent people. We’re ethical criminals.”
“Ethical criminals.” He huffed out a laugh. “That’s not a thing, baby.”
“It is a thing. My mum and Neil are philanthropists.”
Lifting his head, he brushed a kiss over the tip of my nose. I grinned at my boyfriend. He was so sweet.
“Shut up,” he warned, even though I hadn’t said anything.
Mind reader. We needed to circle back to my witchcraft theory.
“Listen, I’m not the naive little child I was once.
Honestly, I’m not sure I ever was that child.
It was always clear to me just how hypocritical my parents were, happy to cosy up with the wrong side of the law when it suited them.
And when we were children and at the same social events, I always noticed the difference.
” He stopped, lowering his gaze, his throat working.
“The difference?” I said softly.
“In how your mum and uncle treated you, compared to the way my parents treated me. It was like— I remember once, when there was a charity event that we both attended. We were ten at the time. Right before it started, my father beat me—”
“He fucking beat you?” I am going to kill him. Slowly and very fucking painfully.
“Yeah. He, uh, my parents didn’t like me very much. The wrong son died, you know.” Lincoln shrugged it off, but there was so much pain in those few words, so much left unsaid, that I struggled for a minute to speak.
“Link.” I rolled us over so he was beneath me and I could look down at him. “You’re fucking amazing. I can’t imagine a world without you in it. You’re—you’re— Fuck. I can’t even say. There aren’t even enough words in my brain to say how incredible you are.”
“Dan.” His cheeks flushed, and he wouldn’t look at me.
“I’m the luckiest person in the world because I get to call you mine. Whether you want it or not.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “My little demon. Of course I want you.”
“Yeah. You want me, I want you, we’re boyfriends, and I have the best taste in the world. Ergo, you are basically the Crown Jewels of partners.”
His brows flew up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I smiled. There he was. My Link. I lowered my head, gently biting down on his soft bottom lip.