out a low laugh and holds up two fingers like a hippie at a peace walk.
“Twice?”
Candy bites the inside of her lip. A third finger joins the second.
“Damn, darling, you drive a hard bargain.” I come up behind her and wrap my arms around her, burrowing my face into her hair. “But, I think you deserve at least four orgasms tonight for having to deal with that prick Quinten.”
“Deal.”
I turn her to face me and cup her face in my hands. For a moment, all I can do is drink in the sight of her until my entire body fills to the brim.
I should be devastated at the cost of my happiness, but I’m not. In fact, I may just be a selfish prick, but I’m convinced the universe still has a fuck load of making up to do. For the shit Candy and I put up with, we both deserve a happy ending bursting with happiness, and life…
And love.
All the love we can bear.
Epilogue - Candy
“Jo. Jo! Wake up!” I grab Josiah’s shoulder and drag him onto his back. He grunts at me, slinging a hand over his face to shield the sun from his eyes.
“Christ, what? Is there a fire?”
I bark out a laugh and straddle him, bouncing up and down on his lap like a kid on Christmas morning.
“Candy, God.”
I stop bouncing the moment his dick hardens. Biting the inside of my lip, I try to slide off him with a mumbled, “Sorry.”
He grabs my hips, keeping me in place. “Too late for that, darling. Now tell me what was so important you had to get my dick hard?”
I giggle at his serious expression, knowing he’s just being grumpy for the sake of it. I don’t mind. I love it, in fact. Sex is off the charts on any regular day, but when I make him angry…
He bucks into me, and I squirm around in delight as a delicious ache ignites my core.
But all that can wait.
“Guess what I found?” My toes curl against the silky sheets as I wait for Jo to answer.
That sullen expression slides off his face. His eyes widen as his fingertips sink into my flesh. “We got mail?” He pushes up to his elbows, slapping the sides of my thighs when all I do is nod furiously at him. “And?”
I hold up the envelope from Cornell University. Jo’s eyes dart to it, then back to me. “Open it!”
The envelope trembles. “I’m too scared.”
“Scared for what?” Jo snatches it from me. “You graduated with full honors. They’d be fucking idiots not to have you.”
“But what if—?”
Jo pauses in the act of tearing open the envelope, and then puts it down on the bed beside us. Unsurprisingly, it’s easy to keep my eyes on him and not on the envelope.
Yes, getting into Cornell means the world to me…but a life without Jo isn’t a life worth living. I knew that back then, and that knowledge has only grown stronger.
“That there—” he points at the envelope “—that’s an acceptance letter.”
I draw my lip into my mouth, watching him with wide eyes. He sits up in a rush, hugging me so hard I squeak. But I’m gripping him too, clinging to him like he’s my life raft.
I guess, in a way, he is. If it wasn’t for him…
“In fact, we’re gonna celebrate before we even open it,” he says, leaning back from me. But as soon as he catches sight of my face, the pride on his face melts away. “Hey…what’s wrong?”
I sniff, shaking my head and then nuzzling into the side of his neck, so he won’t see me crying. “I’m so happy,” I mumble.
“Me too,” he says. He strokes the back of my neck, shifting my hair aside so he can rain tiny kisses on my skin. “But I want to make you even happier.”
I giggle through another sniff when he tickles the side of my neck with his stubble. It’s been weeks since I took my last exam, and we’ve been laying low in the beach house the entire time. Honestly, there’s no reason for us to leave this place. We’ve got cable, satellite Internet, a pantry that could see us through the apocalypse, and a very reluctant babysitter who stops by once a week with groceries and silent reprimands written all over his aging face.
Quinten Dench likes to make out as if he gives a shit, but he still cashes our checks every week, so…
Jo leans to the side, grinning at me