Page 97 of The Lies We Tell Ourselves

Tears stung my eyes and my bottom lip wobbled as I nodded. “I know, it’s just…”

Dillon pushed the table away and sat next to me. I collapsed into his arms, seeking the comfort only he could offer. He was my home. It wasn’t a place or a memory anymore. It was a person. My person. Dillon.

“I know, baby.” He cupped my nape and pressed my head against his formidable chest, his steady heartbeat soothing me. “I do have some good, albeit morbid, news to share.”

I sat back and blinked away my tears. “Do tell.” I laced his fingers with mine as he got this faraway look in his eyes, and his grip on my hand tightened. I stroked my thumb over his knuckle and traced the patterns in the rose with the other.

“I got a call from the sheriff back home. He told me d-dad was involved in a drunk driving accident. He was the only casualty, thankfully. He drove into a tree and died instantly. They think the high blood alcohol level coupled with the icy road conditions and lack of skid marks, that he didn’t have a chance to react,” he said clinically. “Just drove eighty miles per hour straight into a tree.”

“Are you okay?”

Dillon’s face was a war of conflicting emotions. “I… I don’t know, to be honest. Am I sad he’s dead? Not really. The guy was a controlling asshole, but he was my dad.”

“And you miss who he should have been?”

His sigh broke the shackles holding his emotions back. It was a palpable thing, like a current moving through him. Dillon buried his head in the crook of my neck and wrapped his arms around me, holding on like I was a fragile thing that was going to be ripped away from him. Oh, my sweet baby. “Something like that.” His gravelly voice cracked as he choked on a sob.

“Let it all out, babe. You’re entitled to feel your feelings without having to explain or justify them to anyone.” I ran my fingers through his hair as he shuddered in my embrace. His tears slid down my neck, and I clutched him closer to me. I’ll never let you go.

“I-I’m so glad you gave me another chance, Jamie.” Dillon looked at me through wet lashes, and it was like seeing through a window into his soul. He wasn’t perfect—he’d made mistakes, but I loved every part, even the ones he hated.

“I love you so much, Dil. Broken pieces, mistakes, shitty dads, and all. I don’t want to live another day without you by my side. You complete me in every way. You’re my home.”

He sealed his lips against mine, and I lost myself to the drugging sensation of his tongue wrapping around mine. I drowned in the depths of the feelings his possessive touch invoked. He was the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins, and the marrow in my bones. We had been to hell and back together since we’d met as kids and again as adults. We’d faced more challenges than most couples did in a lifetime, and it only served to make us stronger as individuals and as a couple. Even death had knocked at our door, and we’d sent him packing.

We had a lifetime of memories to capture, and we would—one day at a time. This was our new beginning, and I couldn’t wait to see what our futures held.

EPILOGUE

DILLON

Five Years Later

“Tell me something,” Jamie said, his fingers teasing down my chest, making my heated skin prickle with goosebumps.

“Anything.” I looked at him with wonder, the same way I’d done since the day I met him, and the way I planned to for the rest of our lives together. The scent of sex and cum filled the air as Jamie ground against me. He still had the face of an angel, but no one but me knew the nympho living beneath the surface.

“I’ve always wondered this.” He bit his slick bottom lip. I pulled it out with my thumb and kissed him, because I could never get enough of his lips. “Why little crow?”

I gave him an indulgent smile. “Because a murder of crows is a dangerous thing.”

Jamie rolled his eyes at me, crossed his arms over my chest, and peered up at me with those beguiling blue eyes. “Why? And I want the truth this time.”

I sighed and ran my hands through his wild curls. Even all these years later, they were still a force of nature. “Because…because crows are seen as a symbol of transformation, positive change, and intuition. And I knew in my heart that you changed me the day I met you. Even if it took me years to truly understand what it meant.”

“I have no idea what to say to that. I never…I never knew it meant that much to you. I just thought you had a thing for birds.”

I gasped in mock outrage. “A thing for birds? You little shit. I’m going to get you for that.” Jamie burst out laughing and jumped off the bed, running toward the bathroom with me hot on his heels. “Don’t think the shower will save you…”

I stepped into the bathroom and froze. My little crow was on his knees in the shower, water droplets kissing his golden skin as they slid down his chest and clung to the hard nubs of his nipples. His eyes glowed with a heat of their own. “Unless?”

“Unless you’re on your knees, willing and waiting for me.” I stepped into the shower cubicle that was big enough to hold at least six men, and tapped my straining erection against his lips, teasing a bead of precum across them. Jamie’s tongue lapped it up before dipping into my slit.

“I want you on the field today knowing I can still taste your cum when you make your first pass. I want you hot, sweaty, and hard for me when you meet me afterwards. And I want you to fucking ruin me when we get home.”

I wrapped his wet hair around my wrist and thrust into the tight wet heat of his mouth. A guttural groan rumbled in my chest as his tongue teased the vein on the underside of my shaft, the crown nudging the back of his throat. I was already a throbbing mess, thanks to his filthy words. I wouldn’t last long. This needed to be hard and fast as I had to get to the stadium for today’s game.

“I’m going to fuck your face, baby, and fill you with my cum because I need to go.” Jamie moaned as I set a punishing rhythm, pulling out until the tip rested on his lips before snapping my hips and bottoming out. Nothing beat the feeling of his throat constricting around me. His slick fingers teased along my taint, rolled my balls, and gave them a tug.

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