Page 74 of Beautiful Lies
“Baby, ten years is a marathon, not a sprint.”
True. I smiled as I poured his coffee, got milk from the fridge and added it until it turned the color he liked it. Grabbed the bag of sugar on the counter and a spoon from the drawer.
“No sugar,” he said.
My hand stilled, the spoonful of sugar poised over his cup of coffee. “You don’t put three sugars in your coffee anymore?”
“Nope. Lean proteins, vegetables, Greek yogurt, fruit…”
I groaned and poured the sugar back in the bag. “You’re on the Killian diet.” I set the mug on the counter next to him. “You used to be a sugar junkie.”
“I’m not a junkie anymore, babe. But I still got junk,” he said, grabbing his crotch.
I snorted laughter while I fixed myself a cup of green tea.
“I didn’t hear any complaints about my body last night.” There was nothing to complain about. His body was amazing, the best it’s ever been. The last time we’d been together, at the tail end of his addiction, he’d been too thin and when he’d been with me, naked in my bed, it had felt like I’d been holding on to someone else. A shadow of his former self. Nothing is more heart-breaking than watching the person you love destroy themselves. His body. His mind. His personality. Changed by the poison he injected into his veins.
But I didn’t want to mention that now or do anything to spoil our day. I’d leave that memory in the past where it belonged. We were making new memories. Good ones.
“Your body is fucking fantastic, by the way,” he said, giving me a playful swat on the butt.
I accepted the compliment with a smile and carried my tea to the table as Connor served our food—a stack of pancakes topped with fruit, three strips of bacon next to it. I laid the bacon on top of my pancakes and poured syrup over it, laughing when I noticed Connor had done the same thing.
Eating breakfast together felt so right and so good. It had been so long since we’d slept in the same bed together all night. So long since we’d done any of the typical couple things. I wanted to bottle up this happiness and store it for rainy days. Over breakfast, we laughed and talked about nothing important and it felt as if we’d laid to rest everything that had happened with Jake and Lana and Zeke.
“So… what are you doing before work?” I asked after we’d cleared the dishes and stacked the dishwasher.
“Not sure. I need to check my spreadsheet.”
I laughed. Connor hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. “We need a shower,” he said.
“We?”
“Mhm. You’re a dirty girl.”
Connor lifted me off the ground, threw me over his shoulder and jogged toward my bedroom. I pounded my fists against his back, laughing. “What are you doing?”
He tossed me on the bed and stripped naked then helped me out of my clothes and led me into the bathroom. Turning on the shower, he checked the water temperature with his hand before we stepped into the tub and slid the glass door shut. Connor guided me under the spray and I tipped back my head, letting the water run over my hair while his hands soaped my body. I took the shower gel out of his hand and squeezed some into my palm, soaping his body the way he’d done to mine. A very thorough job. My hand wrapped around his hard dick and I slid it up and down. He groaned as he squeezed shampoo into his hand.
“I’ll have the cleanest dick in Brooklyn,” he said.
“All the better for me to suck on it,” I said with a wink.
“Close your eyes, wench.” I laughed as he lathered my hair with shampoo and massaged my scalp with his magic hands. I was purring with delight. Putty in his hands.
Connor tipped back my head, rinsing away the shampoo then repeated the process with conditioner. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him under the spray of the water, my hip pressed against his erection. He lifted me up and my legs wrapped around his waist as he pushed me up against the tiled wall and slid inside me, his hands squeezing my ass, our kisses wet and frantic.
My muscles clenched around him as the orgasm rocked my body. Connor came inside me, placing his palm on the wall for support. I opened my eyes and blinked as the world rushed back and Connor’s face came into focus. He gave me a big smile that reached his eyes and lit up his whole face and then we were laughing for no reason.
I’ve missed you, Connor. It’s so good to have you back.
21
Connor
Over the past two weeks with Ava, I was starting to believe that I could be her everything. I could be the guy she’d always deserved. The shop was successful, my cravings were under control, and my girl was happy. I knew it by the way she smiled every time she saw me. By the way she called me when she was at work and left adorable messages to let me know she was thinking about me. We hadn’t said those three words yet, but I tried to show her that I loved her so that when I did say them again, she’d know they weren’t empty. She needed to know that I was someone she could rely on. Someone she could trust. Someone who wasn’t lying to her or keeping secrets.
I knew I needed to tell her the truth about Miami, but everything was so good right now that I didn’t want to ruin it by bringing up more bad memories. Some days it felt like Miami had just been a bad dream and as my life got better, the dream got hazier. I’d tell her. But not tonight.
