She tightens around me and her whole body goes rigid, her nails digging into my chest as she throws her head back and cries out. Her thighs tremble against my hips, her pussy clenching me so hard that I lose even the tiniest scrap of self-control. I snap and come inside her, thrusting up and holding her in place while I empty everything I have. I’m shaking, groaning, barely able to breathe, and she’s right there with me.
She collapses on top of me, breathless. My heart’s still hammering, but I don’t care, not about my back, not about the ache in my head, not about anything except her. I wrap my armsaround her and hold her so tightly I think I might bruise her, but she just burrows deeper, clinging to me like she’ll fall apart if she lets go.
“Are you okay?” I manage to rasp, running my fingers down her spine, feeling every little shudder that’s left.
She laughs, a little delirious, and nods, not even trying to move. “Yeah. Maybe perfect.”
I nuzzle her hair, still not believing she’s here, wanting me. “You were—are perfect.” I want to say more, but I’m so fucking spent I can only breathe her in and hope she gets what I mean.
She stays there, heartbeat slowly matching mine, and I feel the tension bleed out of her with each exhale. Every time I think she’s asleep, she shifts, kisses my collarbone, or squeezes my bicep. I could lay here forever. I don’t even care when I start to go soft inside her, or that we’re a sticky, half-naked mess. I wish I could freeze time, live in the seconds after for a year.
I don’t know how long we’re like that, but I realize at some point she’s snoring softly on my chest. I stroke her hair and whisper, “You’re safe, Hope. Always,” and try to believe it myself.
I wake up hours later to the sound of voices in the living room, and a headache from hell. Hope’s still draped across me, and I want to laugh but my skull might actually split open if I do. I force myself to get up, careful not to wake her, and throw on a pair of shorts.
I’m about to leave our bedroom when her phone buzzes. I turn and look around, and as it buzzes again, I notice it lying by her leggings.
Without a thought, I pick it up and my brows furrow as I see an unknown number sending her an image.
“Why should I look?” I mutter to myself and almost toss her phone on the bed. “This isn’t any worse than stealing her file,”I add and unlock her phone easily. The code 1234 isn’t made to keep people out.
My heart sinks. My ears ring as I stare at the photo on her phone and read the text.
“Only a matter of time,” I read aloud.
Twenty
DIMITRI
“So, how has my little bro been doing latterly, besides the injury?” Gauge asks as we round the corner back to our apartment building.
“He’s being his special self, you know how he is,” Knox answers.
“Special, yeah,” Gauge laughs it off and I can’t stop the slight twist in my stomach. We all know how Jaxon is, but it just doesn’t feel right if someone outside our… group says it.
“Never know what happened to him to make him so…” Gauge taps his temple once, then motions with his finger in a tight circle, making the universal sign for crazy. “Just be careful with him, you know.”
Careful…? “Why would you say that?” I ask.
“Well, you know what happened to our sister, right?”
The heat in my body fades as I think back.
“She committed suicide,” Knox says before I can form words. “Jax doesn’t talk about it.”
“He was very…protectiveof her. Our parents tried to get him out of the house more so Daisy would have some space. She was always hiding when he was home. I never figured out why. But I saw he got a new plaything.”
“Careful, Gauge,” I warn. Hope isn’t some plaything.
“Didn’t mean anything by it, man. I was just… she looks like her. That’s all.”
“Looks like her?” Knox asks before I can.
“Yeah, with the black hair and the blue eyes.”
I try to picture Daisy and can’t. She was younger than us, never came around the school, and anything I heard about her was third- or fourth-hand. I knew Jax had a little sister, and I knew she was dead, but nobody ever told the story straight.
Knox shrugs it off. “You’re saying Hope looks like your dead sister?”
