Chapter Fifty-Seven
SUNNY
Sitting on my couch, I look at the envelope placed on my coffee table. The embroidered silver words on the cream colored cover blatantly stare at me.
To: Ms. Sunny Mason
I bite the inside of my cheek while I contemplate facing it or throwing it in the trash entirely.
My phone is a useless distraction as another spam call floods my screen.
Denying the call, I toss the phone on the other side of the couch in frustration.
I prop my elbows on my knees and run my hands over my face, through my hair with an audible groan.
“Fine,” I say to my empty apartment and grab the envelope, tearing the pretty packaging to find an even prettier announcement inside.
We are pleased to announce the engagement of Shelby Marie Goodman and Tyler Michael Caddell. Please join us in the celebration of this union.
Even though I know what I’d see when I opened it, the blow still hits all the same. I read it over and over, each time hitting harder and harder.
It’s only been three days. Three days. And their families are already throwing an engagement party.
I fight off every urge to make this right. To reverse what's been done before it’s too late. However, in the same breath, I tell myself I need to at least stick to one plan. Clearly I’ve strayed so, so far from the one I had planned for Boston.
The detectives told me that at this rate, it’s important that I try to move on with my life. We still have absolutely no clue where Ryan is, but they don’t think it’s here. For now at least.
I know doing what I want to do will only stray me from my original Boston plan. But now that Tyler is about to sell his soul to the devil, I’m ready to formulate a slight detour. God knows I’ve already taken so many.
I’m the reason he’s stuck in this problem. So I’ll be the reason he gets out of it.
It’s time I even the debt between us.
Next thing I know, I’m at the front door of his townhome.
The red brick gleams in the string lights that hang outside his home. The ones I made him put up because I’d said you can’t have red brick without string lights, just like he said you can’t have a bedroom without glow in the dark stars.
The next day he had a box of lights sitting on his counter, and we’d spent the afternoon hanging them up while immersed in conversation or moments of silence.
That’d always been one of my favorite things about my time with Tyler, conversation wasn’t always necessary to fill up the silence, and we could sit comfortably in that quietness, knowing we both need it to calm our festering thoughts.
The small front yard is frosted over with ice crunching underneath my boots as I make my way to his door.
Walking up the few steps to his porch, my heart beats wildly in my chest. In Tyler fashion, he’ll be upset that I walked here alone, in the middle of the night, but that just may work to my advantage.
Standing in front of his door, the bite of the cold night gnaws at me while I contemplate following through with this plan. If I pay this debt, the hope is that he’ll drop everything with Shelby and I’ll call it even.
He is five-to-two in this game, and I’m a competitive bitch.
I need to make him put an end to it.
With a trembling hand, I knock on his door. Patiently I wait, despite the cold air biting at my hot skin.
A grueling few minutes later, he opens the door, baring a shirtless chest and gray sweatpants that hang low on his hips. His scars are stark against the moonlight that cascades the city. Those emerald eyes are a beacon in his dark home as they stare at me.
The warmth of his home blankets over my shivering body, giving me a brief smell of the citrus and salt that coats his skin, the familiarity of it beckoning me to step through the threshold of his door.
“Sunny, what are you doing here?!” His sleepy eyes become wide. “It’s freezing, and so late. Are you okay? What’s wrong?” he asks, pulling me inside his home by my arm in one swift movement. Rubbing my arms, he tries to warm me up, despite the fact he’s wearing less clothing than me.
“Why do you keep walking out here alone?” he groans. “Fuck, you’re so cold.” He pulls me flush to his body, trying to warm me.
“I came to repay the debt between us.” I look up at him.
Grabbing my chin, he makes me meet those darkening eyes. “What do you mean?” His voice is breathy because he knows exactly what I mean.
If there’s one thing I know about Tyler is that he’s possessive of me. He wants me to be his and only his. I know. I always have since the moment we kissed in the gym. His mouth on mine told me everything he couldn’t say.
He brushes a thumb over my lip, patiently waiting for my response. ”Sunny…”
“You’re an engaged man now. I’ll have to take care of things myself or get someone else to.” I trail a hand to my own waist band.
He snatches my wrist. “Sunny, no…” His voice is low, raspy from the sleep I woke him from. But pleading.
He doesn’t like the idea of anyone touching me. Or even myself for that matter, because he wants to be the one to do it himself. The only one. I’m stooping to a level I shouldn’t. I have to.
Maybe I am jealous for you too, Tyler.
“Maybe Connor can help me,” I say, looking up at him.
My words unravel him. The predator that is normally calculated is losing it before me. The rage that flames in his eyes gives me all the validation I need. I see something in him I’ve never have before.
“Sunny,” he warns me. “No.”.
“Why?” I challenge him. Still holding my wrist in his hand, his grip tightens.
“Because you’re mine,” he growls.
There it is. The words that will bring a crashing end to the short-lived engagement of him and Shelby.
I rip my wrist from his grip and taunt my fingers around his waistband.
“Sunny…” he whispers with a hard swallow. But he doesn’t stop me. He keeps his eyes on me, intently watching each move. He won’t stop whatever will go on tonight between us. Because it’s me. Because it’s him. Because it’s us.
I push him against the wall and my knees meet the ground. I’m met with the large press of his dick in his sweatpants. Fisting them in my hands, I pull them down, being greeted by his length springing free.
I don’t start there. Instead, I trace my tongue through every groove of muscle, every line, every curve that builds his chest. I kiss the inside of his neck, inhaling all that is Tyler. Citrus, salt and need. His head leans back, hissing in pleasure.
Yes.
This is what I want. I want him unraveled by me. I want him begging for more of me. Slowly, I work my way back down, nipping, biting, licking to tease him in any way I can. I trace my tongue from his base up to his shaft, feeling him tremble by my touch alone.
“Baby...” he murmurs as I glide my tongue along the long length of him. Then I stop, making him look down at me in confusion. I give him nothing when I meet his stare. His chest moves up and down with labored breaths, and I can see the way I make his pulse grow faster in the base of his neck.
“Beg,” I demand.
“Please, baby,” he whimpers. “Please.” His hips thrust the air, his need taking over.
I smile, because I want him to become undone for me. I want him to scream my name. I want him to end it all because of me.
His hands weave into my curls, grabbing me so firmly to keep my eyes on his.
“Again,” I demand, taunting him with a flick of my tongue. The way his body trembles has me intoxicated with power.
He swallows hard. “Please, little fire,” he rasps. “Please, just put my fucking cock in your mouth.”
Satisfied, I trace my tongue along him before taking him entirely into my mouth until he hits the back of my throat. This undoes him so deliciously. From the way a feral groan leaves his throat, to the way his fingers tighten in my hair, to the way every muscle in his body flexes under me.
It’s addicting.
“Fuck,” he mumbles. His head leans forward as his emeralds watch me. “You take me so well, baby. You’re doing such a good fucking job.”
His words only encourage me. I continue my mouth along him, using a gentle glide of my teeth that have him practically bucking and thrusting while his hands hold me in place.
I want him to fuck my mouth. I want him to tell me how good I’m doing. How I’m his good fucking girl making this predator of a man unravel and fall to his knees for me. I want him to see stars as he fills my mouth with him. I want him to own every part of me.
Groaning, he bites his lip and his head leans back again against the wall. So I let out a loud moan to encourage him and let him know he’s fucking my mouth perfectly. His mouth falls open in desperate breaths, brows creased as he tries to keep his composure he’s losing so quickly.
He continues beating his hips, slamming in the back of my throat. Tears sting my eyes, but I don’t want him to stop. I feel them trickle down my face, and my body fights the urge to gag, despite the fact I love the way he fucks my mouth.
“You look so fucking gorgeous choking on my dick,” he growls as he pulls my head back to get a good look at me. He swipes the tears that roll down my face with his thumbs, meeting his emeralds with my watery eyes.
Just as I wanted, he becomes undone and unhinged. My mouth fills with the warmth of him. Hot, thick, and heavy as it rolls down my throat and I swallow every bit, drinking him.
His knees buckle as he continues to thrust, groaning as he cums and releases everything he has to me. His trembling body is proof that I’ve done my job. The fucking predator taken down by his goddamn prey.
The score is even.
“Fuck, Sunny,” he whimpers.
Removing my mouth from him, I keep my eyes on his as I swallow what’s left of him. I stand on my feet and use a hand to wipe my mouth clean.
He lunges for me, pressing his lips to mine possessively. His tongue laces around mine, describing all the ways he wants me to be his. Linked by that unavoidable, undeniable string between us, not only woven through our hearts but through every fiber of our being.
That might be the only explanation as to why we are always in this dance, this labyrinth of us, because fate simply won’t have it any other way. Our souls forever threading together in this life, and all the rest.
It takes everything in me to step out of his embrace, no matter how much I want this. He lets out a snarl as I remove myself and tries coming for me again, but I raise up a hand.
He stops instantly.
“Consider my debt paid.” I turn around and leave into the night before he can protest otherwise.