Chapter 35
thirty-five
QUINN
The second Declan’s lips touch mine, I melt into him. This is exactly where I want to be—in his arms, pressed against him.
His lips trail over my cheek, to the spot behind my ear, back down my neck, and up to my lips again. His hands roam all over my body, almost like he needs to make sure this is real.
“I love you,” he whispers against my lips, bending slightly, placing his hands on the backs of my thighs, and lifting me.
“I love you,” I say, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist.
“I’m never letting you go now,” he tells me as he moves toward the stairs.
“Good, because I’m not letting you go either.”
Everything squeezes when I see the look in his eyes. It’s so clear to me now, how deeply he feels. I should have seen it weeks ago.
“God, I love you.” His lips crash back into mine as he stumbles slightly at the top of the stairs.
I’m never going to tire of hearing him say those words. And I can’t see myself tiring of saying them to him. The peace I feel in his arms is unlike anything I’ve ever felt, and I don’t want to give that up.
He opens the door to his room, spinning us and pressing me back into the wall next to the door.
“I want to take my time with you, but I don’t know if I can right now,” he rasps against me as his lips travel down my neck, following the collar of my shirt. His hands playing at the hem, slowly traveling up my sides.
“We can go slow next time,” I moan as his hands travel over my pebbled nipples. “I need to feel you inside me.” I reach between us, trying to unbutton his jeans.
“Quinn, give me a minute. I need to make sure you’re ready.”
“Declan, I’ve never been more ready,” I moan, grinding my hips against him. His hand slips in the front of my leggings, finding me soaked.
“Quinn,” he moans my name, spinning us again and stalking toward the bed. “Strip and get on the bed,” he commands, setting me down at the foot of the bed.
It shouldn’t be so hot, the demanding tone, but it has me clenching my thighs, needing some kind of relief. I follow his order, but I take my time doing it. I make sure he’s watching as I shimmy out of my leggings, slowly lifting my shirt over my head, leaving me in my bra and panties.
“All of it.” He stands before me in just his boxers.
“What about you?” I ask, slowly reaching behind me to unclasp my bra, letting it drop to the floor beside me.
“Quinn.” His voice is stern, almost a warning, sending a shiver up my body.
I slowly push my panties down my legs and climb onto the bed, the both of us watching each other the entire time.
“Good girl,” he says, moving to the nightstand and reaching in before coming back to the foot of the bed, tossing a condom next to me.
Watching me, he lowers his boxers, his dick bobbing free. He grasps it, stroking once before climbing onto the bed, slowly moving up my body. His head dips, his tongue flicking out over my clit in a couple of quick strokes, making me moan.
“Declan, please.” My body arches as I reach for the condom, ripping it open, ready to roll it on his hard length.
He grins at me as he kneels before me. Instead of immediately rolling the condom over him, I lean forward and take him into my mouth, humming at the feel of him.
“Quinn,” he groans, his hand coming to the back of my head, holding me in place before pumping twice and pulling out. “Not right now. I need to be inside you.” He grabs the condom from me, rolling it on himself.
His gaze rakes over my body, his hands following the path of his eyes, using every sensation to devour me, making goosebumps spring up all over my body. I reach for him, pulling his weight on top of me.
His eyes find mine as he grinds his hips against mine, his dick brushing my clit. “I promise to be gentle next time.” He reaches down between us, angling himself at my slick entrance, and pushes inside in one hard thrust.
I immediately tense at the abrupt intrusion but slowly relax when Declan pauses, holding himself buried deep. “Move. Please,” I moan, bringing my knees up to his waist, adjusting the angle so he hits me in just the right spot on every thrust in.
“You always feel so amazing. Like coming home,” he groans, his forehead falling to mine for a moment before lifting and kissing me fiercely. He swivels his hips, stretching me, preparing me for the punishing pace I know he wants to set.
“Declan,” I beg, needing him to give me all of him.
“Trust me, Bug” he whispers hoarsely in my ear.
He reaches between us, his fingers finding my clit as he pulls back and slowly pushes back in once before he breaks. His hips move faster, his dick hitting me exactly where I need him, bringing me right to the edge.
“Eyes on me,” he rasps, knowing my orgasm is right there. And sure enough, my thighs tremble, my entire body tensing as my orgasm hits with Declan’s name on my lips and my eyes locked on his.
He thrusts three more times before he follows me over the edge, a whispered “I love you” on his lips.
“Do you want to talk about how the conversation with your mom went?” Declan asks a little later. The two of us curled together in his bed, my back to his front.
“There’s not much to tell.” I roll over to face him. “I needed to ask her why she chose drugs and alcohol over us and why she left us when she did.”
“Did she tell you?” he asks, gently running his hand up my spine.
“She didn’t want to live her life anymore.” I shrug one shoulder, my eyes falling to his chest. “She told me she never wanted kids, and essentially, she compromised her wants and dreams to make Dad happy. And she was done doing that.”
“Quinn.” He pulls me closer, his hand still rubbing my back.
“I don’t understand how she could leave us the way she did, but I understand her reasoning for the drugs, and that scares me most,” I tell him. “I understand wanting to escape the world you’re living in, especially when you’re unhappy,” I whisper.
“But you’re happy, right?”
“Right now, but what happens a year from now? Five years from now? We can’t know that we’ll always be happy.” I pull back, looking at his face.
“No, we can’t, but as long as we’re honest with each other, we’ll always be able to work together toward finding happiness again.”
“Yeah, that’s what Dad said.” I offer a small smile. “It comes down to what you asked for at the beginning of this. We have to talk to each other, every day, about whatever we need. If we can do that, then I think we’ll be okay.”
“I know we will. We both want this too much to let it fail.”
“Yeah, we do.” I press my lips to him in a tender kiss.
“I love you, Bug,” he says softly.
I press another kiss to his lips before pulling back. “Why ‘Bug’?” I ask.
“Took you long enough to ask.” He laughs. “In my head, it was short for shutterbug. For your love of photography, but now I feel like it could also be short for lovebug.” He nips at me.
“Lovebug?” I laugh. “That is so cheesy.”
“Maybe, but you love me, so you’re stuck with my cheesiness.” He nuzzles his face in the crook of my neck.
“Yeah, I do love you and your cheesiness.”
“Do you really not like the nickname?” he asks a few moments later.
“It’s grown on me. I can’t imagine you calling me anything else now.”
“Good.” He kisses me, and what starts as a soft kiss quickly turns heated. He rolls us, pinning me beneath him when we hear a knock at his door. “If we ignore it, they’ll go away,” he whispers, causing me to laugh.
“Not with the people we know.” I laugh. “Go see who it is.” I push him lightly.
He groans but rolls out of bed, pulling on a pair of sweatpants on his way out the door.
“Quinn!” Declan calls urgently a few moments later.
I jump out of bed, stumbling into my leggings, throwing on one of his shirts, and running down the stairs.
I stop in my tracks when I see Declan kneeling just inside the door, holding a broken and beaten Tyler in his arms. “What happened?” I rush toward them.
“I don’t know. He fell into me when I opened the door. Grab my phone and call an ambulance.”
“No, no hospitals,” Tyler groans.
“I can call Caleb,” I offer quietly.
Declan looks down at Tyler. “Who did this?” he asks, his voice gentle.
“It doesn’t matter.” Tyler’s voice has gotten quieter.
“We don’t have time for this. Grab my keys. We’ll take him ourselves.”
I do as Declan says, running to grab his keys and helping him get Tyler out to his truck. “Get in the back with him. I’m going to grab shoes and a shirt.” Declan runs back inside, returning in under a minute, my shoes in his hand.
I look down at Tyler’s head in my lap. His left eye is swollen shut, he’s cradling his right arm, and his breaths sound raspy and shallow—I’m instantly taken back to my attack.
“Tyler,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he repeats, his voice quiet.
“Of course it does.” I gently push his hair off his forehead and look up, catching Declan’s eye in the rearview mirror.
“It won’t change anything.” Tyler’s voice brings my eyes back to his.
“What won’t change anything?”
“No one cares what happens to me.”
“That’s not true. Tyler, you’re important. No matter what anyone else has said or done, you are important,” I tell him urgently.
He looks up at me through his right eye—a black eye forming there too—studying me, like he’s trying to decide if I’m telling him the truth.
“What happened, Tyler?”
“My mom. I-I didn’t fight back, but she just kept hitting me. She wouldn’t stop.” His voice cracks, and I see a tear leak out of the corner of his eye.
“Okay. It’s okay. It’ll never happen again,” I tell him, tears forming in my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. This moment isn’t about me, it’s about Tyler, and right now, this boy needs to feel seen. Something I don’t think he’s ever felt before. “We’ve got you now.”