Didi
The basement is dark, and I can hear stomping and hushed voices through the vents and the smell of bacon is wafting through the house. I could get used to this—waking up to the smell of bacon with Tommy.
My eyes pop open. Tommy… Just Tommy?
The lava lamp’s slow, flickering glow still fills the room, and my memories of last night come rushing back: the house fire, the chase in the woods, the marking.
They fucked me all night and eventually took me to the bathroom to clean me up, and then we crawled into the bed.
The lava lamp was the last thing I remember before falling asleep tangled together.
My pussy is burning, and I’m sore from head to toe, but I’m fresh. A sense of calmness and ease washes over me.
The pain, darkness, blood, and hellfire.
The heavenly euphoria of such profound sin.
Except there was no hellfire. God didn’t strike me down as Mama always told me he would. They both claimed me, finishing inside me multiple times, and the thought of that makes me feel so powerful. It was dirty, raw, and primal.
Tommy’s still inside me now, and his cock thickens as he begins to fuck me from behind. I revel in his warm body wrapped around me as he starts to thrust.
I know it’s Tommy because I recognize the warmth of his arms. I’ve memorized every inch of their bodies and the subtle differences between them.
Tommy fucks me with a desperation and a need so deep it fills my soul, while Remy is intense with a dangerous edge that makes me burst. I’ve fallen so deeply for them—given my soul to them. Now their love is the only thing preventing me from going insane.
Their choice now…either keep me or kill me.
Tommy’s lips brush my neck, and a smile spreads across my face. “Morning, firefly.”
My heart races. “What time is it?” Not that I care, I don’t want to leave this bed, especially with the stomping happening above us.
His lips find my neck, and he pulls me on top of him, kissing the soft spot on my neck. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t care about societal structures in this house, remember?”
I giggle. “You’re starting to sound like Talia.”
Speaking of Talia, we hear another door slam, and I cringe at whoever is on the other end of her fury. She has no idea the depths of what transpired last night, and I truly don’t know how she will react.
I wipe the sleep from my eyes as I fully adjust and realize someone is missing. “Where is Remy?” I ask, looking around the dark room. I don’t remember him leaving, but I suppose it makes sense.
Tommy tenses, just for a moment, but I notice it.
“Remy had to go to campus,” he says.
My heart sinks. “Oh.” After last night, I’m not sure I will be able to go to campus again.
News of my presence was all over the party last night.
They will be talking about me at school, blaming me for both fires.
While I’ve gone to great lengths to hide myself, I’m positive Cindy already recognized me.
Since bad things keep happening, it’s only a matter of time before the witch hunt commences.
Tommy runs his finger along my arm. “He’ll be back later, baby. He’s studying to be a lawyer, and he’s been missing too much school lately. He won’t admit it, but I think his grades are slipping.”
I roll my body on top of him, our limbs intertwined like they were all last night since we came down here. “What about you? What are you studying to be?” Putting Remy aside.
He shrugs, moving a strand out of my eye, looking so boyish and innocent. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
I frown at him. “It does matter, Tommy. Why do you think it doesn’t matter?”
“Nothing I do really matters. Not when you have my last name and your father is the mayor of a corrupt town.”
He has a point.
I bite my lip, then trace my fingers down the bridge of his nose. “I want you to be proud of who you are. I think you’ll make a wonderful father someday.”
He arches his brows and tickles me. “I’ve always wanted to be a dad. I think I could be a better father than my old man. I really want a son. I’d teach him how to jam on the guitar or fish.”
I smile at the dimple that forms on his cheek. “Maybe you could become a high school coach, or a music teacher. I bet you’d be good at that.”
His teeth find his bottom lip, and we can’t take our eyes off each other.
Both dreaming of a perfect life in one of those pretty houses with a white picket fence—a life unlike the one we have.
This idyllic image is shattered by Talia’s shrieking voice, which echoes throughout the house.
She’s screaming at Lucy about something, and it sounds as if she’s having a fit.
“She sounds mad,” I whisper.
Tommy chuckles. “Yeah. She gets like this sometimes. I usually try to avoid her.”
I exhale slowly and break the silence. “Do you still love her?”
“Not the way I love you. I’ll never love anyone the way I love you, Didi.”
I kiss him hard, and my entire body aches with burning pleasure as I grind on top of him. He fills my pussy with his heat, and his hands are impossible to ignore as he runs them all over my skin. “Good answer,” I murmur.
“But a part of me will always love her, Didi,” he finally says, and the way he says it is like an icy wind on my bare skin. His eyes radiate a dark look, his face serious. “I’m supposed to marry her. Our parents arranged it a long time ago.”
“But…” I whisper, and he presses his fingers over my lips, not letting me continue my thought. He squeezes me and turns me over, pinning himself on top of me. “Didi, it’s not like that. Talia doesn’t love me; we’re not in love, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t burn the world for her.”
My body bristles beneath him. I’ll never have the same level of loyalty they show Talia. “Remy is loyal to her, too, isn’t he? Above all else.”
He presses his cherry lips together and grabs my waist, rubbing his thumb over my burn mark lovingly.
“You need to understand something about Remy and Talia. He’d kill for her, Didi.
He’d kill me if I hurt her. I’ve never understood their relationship, but his loyalty to Talia is deeper than anything I’ve ever seen.
Something happened to Talia; I don’t know what it was, but it has something to do with the Order.
She has the same mark on her thigh as you.
Promise me you won’t ever try to get between those two. ”
My chest constricts thinking of those words he made me say last night. “You’re mine, little sacrifice.” Tommy says it like Remy will have to pick a side one day.
Heat rushes through me. How na?ve of me to believe Talia doesn’t know I’m down here, or that I’m not merely a pawn in her game anymore.
I shift to face the dark hallway, refusing to look at him. Refusing to cry for all the broken promises…
Tommy and Remy are nothing but liars.
He grips my hands and presses them above my head. “Firefly, look at me.”
“Tommy, how do you expect me to act?”
Fire burns from my eyes as we make eye contact. “I’m just a sacrifice. I won’t be around long enough to matter. You will marry Talia, and Remy will go off and become a lawyer and girls will flock to his feet. I’m nothing…I don’t matter.”
His jaw clenches, and he drops my hands. “You’re not nothing, Didi. We all love you, even Talia.” He rises and heads to his dresser, and instantly the space beside me is cold and empty.
I lift my head to my hand resting on my elbow, watching him, wishing those words were true. If I could make Talia fall in love with me, that would change everything.
He pulls on a pair of sweats and gives me his cute smile under that mustache. I understand on a deep level why Talia would want his attention. He sighs, running a hand through his hair while I lie naked on his bed. “We should head upstairs. I’m starving, and I smell bacon.”
I smirk, loving him even more. Tommy is a simple guy with simple needs, easily distracted by things like bacon.
Sensing my hesitation, he sits on the bed beside me. Deciding not to push the subject further, I lay back, pressing my chest out, teasing him. A low growl escapes his lips as he eyes me like dinner.
I giggle as he jumps on top of me. “If you keep looking at me like that, firefly, then I’ll have to eat you up.” He tickles me, digging his fingers into my ribs.
“Tommy…” I laugh hysterically, squirming beneath him. “That hurts.”
He stops digging his fingers into my ribs and moves his hand to my face. The love pouring out of his eyes makes this all worth it. He loves me, not Talia. He doesn’t look at Talia the way he looks at me. And Remy certainly doesn’t, either.