Page 148 of Endgame
“My parents—err. Winston and Molly.”
I’m pleased for all of a second that she corrects herself.
The warmth doesn’t last. My dead sister’s bright smile shines back at me. Aurora has her picture.
Why?
“You wouldn’t talk to me. I figured…” She blinks back tears. “I assumed that Winston might’ve known who she was. He could’ve told me. I could’ve understood why you’d ignored meand fixed it. Fixed us. I was desperate, Everett. I’m sorry. I just wanted to fix us.”
Winston.
He beat my wife.
He beat my fucking wife.
Black dots dance around the edges of my vision. I’m aware, barely, that my fingers don’t just hold Aurora anymore. I’m bruising her.
“Who was she?” she whispers, not flinching at the change in me. I’m about to detonate, and this beautiful creature stays. “He wouldn’t say anything. You’re shutting me out, all of you.”
My life has been flipped upside down over the last two weeks.
Hate has blended with lust. Guilt has been polluting my soul.
My heart has started beating all over again.
I don’t have the faintest idea of what to do with myself.
Only one thing’s stayed the same. My unwillingness to share my secrets.
The picture goes into my jacket pocket.
My past, for now, is behind me.
My present is right here.
With the woman whose cheeks I’m cupping.
“Please, tell me who she was. Winston saidwas.”
One shake of my head, then my lips are on hers. This kiss isn’t meant to hurt Aurora or dominate her. I’m gentle and desperate. Searching and sure.
I’m relieved when she doesn’t fight me. When she feels how much I need her, she grants me access to her mouth, parting her lips. Rubbing her tongue along mine.
She gives me even more by grinding her sex over my cock. Her moans are delicate compared to my feral groans.
I tug on her hair, my lips trailing a path over the exposed parts of her neck.
Pleasure blinds me as she rocks harder on top of me, my name on her lips.
Fucking her will be so easy. Quick, rough, and hard.
Fucking her will have to wait.
I’ve wasted too much time here already.
“No.” Aurora grasps for me when I deposit her on the bed. She watches me as I adjust my cock in my pants.
Her eyebrows scrunch when I remove the collar from her neck.
