Page 2 of Forever Yours

He was having another nightmare. They always came for him as soon as he closed his eyes. For the past three months, I’d had to watch the man I love spiral into darkness. I felt helpless. Nothing I did eased the pain he was in. His torment was unrelenting.

Rolling over, I crooned soothingly in his ear. “Shh, baby. I’m right here, Julien.”

I knew better than to touch him when he was in the throes of his nightmare. My cheek was still sore where he clocked me a couple of nights ago. He didn’t know he’d done it.

It took several minutes for my hushed words to ease his harsh pants and bodily shaking. Once they subsided and he roused fully, he curled into a ball and sobbed into the pillow.

“Liz,” he whimpered, weeping uncontrollably, and it broke my fucking heart. It always broke my heart.

What happened to Liz and her family… I had nightmares about it, and I wasn’t even there. Someone broke into the Fairchild house and murdered her entire family. Her mom and dad. Her sister, Hailey. Liz was stabbed several times and barely survived. It happened sometime during the night after Julien and I told his parents about our relationship. We had been right next door and didn’t hear a fucking thing.

Ryder and Jayson were the ones to find Liz when they went over to get her for school. Two days after Liz was taken to the hospital, she disappeared without a trace. Her parents and Hailey were buried, and Liz was nowhere to be found.

Julien and the guys had been trying to find out where she had been taken. It’d been nothing but roadblocks and futile attempts. Liz was a ghost. And Julien was suffering not knowing if his best friend, the girl he’d loved since first grade, had survived and was still alive.

“Liz, I’m sorry,” Julien wept, his fists clenched around the bedspread, like it was the only lifeline keeping him from drowning.

I kissed his ear, then his shoulder. “I’m here, baby. Everything’s going to be alright.”

“Take the pain away,” he pleaded.

There wasn’t much I could do for him that seemed to help. Trust me, I had tried. So I gave him the only things that I had left to give that he would accept. My body and my love.

Placing a soft kiss on his neck, I slid down the bed and opened his legs. His cock was already hard.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart. I’ll take the pain away,” I said, my hand wrapping around his turgid length and guiding it into my mouth.

He moaned when I took him to the back of my throat and tightened around his tip.

I love you.

I cupped his balls and began a slow bob up and down his shaft.

Don’t give up.

My tongue streaked up his cock, lapping at the precum leaking out the slit, then circled around the underside. My fingers curled around the base of his length and squeezed.

I’m here.

I sucked the tip, then took him deep again, hollowing my cheeks with each drag of my tongue.

Please come back to me.

His cock thickened and pulsed right before his release spilled into my mouth and down my throat. Julien never made a sound. His orgasm was hollow, devoid of any emotion or feeling. I loved this man so damn much, and every day, I felt him slipping further and further away from me.

Climbing up his body, I took his lips, kissing him softly. “I love you, Julien.”

He rolled over to his side, his face wet with tears that continued to fall from his beautiful pewter eyes.

I watched over him like I had been doing almost every night for the past several months and waited for his breathing to even out, telling me he had fallen asleep.

As carefully as I could, I eased my legs over the side of the bed and sat up. My damn eyeballs felt gritty and my brain sluggish from too many sleepless nights. Scrubbing my palms over my face a few times, I gingerly stood and pulled on a pair of boxers I’d left on the chair. I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again, so might as well get the hell up. Julien wouldn’t be out for long anyway. He’d rouse around five and go for a ten-mile jog. Just another thing he did every day to help block out the world.

Our summer was quickly coming to an end. The first day of college was just around the corner in a few weeks. And I had a decision to make.

Padding barefoot into the kitchen, I left the lights off and went straight to the coffee maker, grabbing a pod from the carousel and popping it in, then adding water from the sink. Bracing my hands on the counter, I hung my head and closed my eyes while the single-serve brew dripped and spluttered into the mug. A curl of my blond hair fell forward and reminded me I needed to get a haircut. So did Julien. I’d make sure to book us a double appointment for this coming weekend.

The Keurig hissed its finale. I picked up the coffee cup, swiped my phone from the counter island, and quietly walked into the dark living room. Sitting down on the floor in front of the large window that overlooked the backyard, I placed the phone on the carpet and held the steaming mug between my hands. A line of tall pines and stout oaks greeted me, illuminated like a backdrop from the outdoor lights of the neighbors who lived on the other side of our back property line.

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