“My Beautiful Monster, you’re nothing short of incredible,” she said, eyes pushing those words into my brain like brands. “But you’re never allowed to play martyr again.”
Her words fizzed like bubbles in my aching head, dulling the pain.
“I thought you’d appreciate the heroics,” I mused, teasing tone lost to the thread of insecurity. I stared at the pink tinted washcloth at our feet. Her thumbs smoothed over my sticky cheeks, once again drawing my gaze back to her face.
Soft, open, vulnerable.
“You’re mistaken,” she rasped. “I’d take your wellbeing over anyone else’s no matter the cost. What kind of person that makes me is irrelevant. I’d let the whole world burn if it meant saving you.”
An entirely different ache seized my heart, squeezing until it lodged in my throat.I have- to tell- you.My own halting voice ringing in my ears.
I have to tell you.
I covered her hands on my face with my own, bending until our foreheads touched. Nose to nose, eye to eye. I gilded our hands, resting hers over my heart, releasing them to lay my palms flat over hers.
“I knew you’d change my life, but I never could have imagined how. You picked up each jagged, monstrous piece of me and cradled them in your hands like they were precious and beautiful, despite the sharp edges. You showed me that hope still exists in our bleak world. You chased my nightmares away with only your smile. I’ll never stop fighting to be the man you deserve, and I’ll never be worthy of you, but I hope my love for you is enough.”
Her lips parted on a soft gasp before grazing mine.
“It’s more than enough,” she whispered. “It’s everything.”
33
Courtney
Ollie’salarmbeganitsthird attempt to rouse us; I groaned, peeling out of our warm cocoon to snooze it again. The typical ruckus of campus was dulled on Saturday mornings like it was hungover with its students. No distant roars of laughter or nagging bike bells- even the sand cranes, who strutted around like they owned the place, kept their obnoxious calls to a minimum.
I settled back into the curve of Ollie’s body, wiggling until I got comfortable. The inked arm around my waist tightened, a muffled groan rumbling through my back.
“Keep grinding on me and I’m fucking your ass.” I purposefully pushed back into his crotch. He growled and nipped my ear. “Is that a:Yes please?”
I twisted to face him, slinging my thigh over his hip. An ice blue eye cracked open to peek at me hopefully. I smirked. “That’s a:nice try, but not happening.”
“I’ll wear you down eventually,” he huffed, burying his face in the pillow. I giggled and ran my fingers through his hair.
“Mmm,” he purred like a cat under my touch. I trailed down his bare back, following the curve of his spine as I bent to kiss his shoulder. His skin begged me to taste it. I’d never get enough of him.
Ever.
Kissing, lightly licking and sucking, I made my way slowly up to his neck. His eyes remained closed, a sleepy smile on his lips. When I reached the corner of his mouth, I whispered, “I love you.”
He blessed me by opening those otherworldly eyes.
“Say it again,” he said, voice rough with sleep as he shifted me beneath him. I inhaled his smoky musk, my core pulling as my legs parted wider for him to settle between. He rolled his hips lazily through the wetness that had been collecting since the moment I woke up in his arms.
“I love you.”
His eyelids fluttered, his moan burning through our kiss, though my veins. Caging my head with his forearms, he made another pass. I tipped my hips, desperate for him to fill me.
“I’ll never hear it enough,” he whispered as his tongue swept between my lips. I eagerly succumbed to his kiss, exploring the expanse of his back, muscles rippling with every movement. “I want to hear you say those words until we take our last breaths,” he murmured, torturing me again with another teasing glide. “I want you to brand those words on my soul, because it belongs to you. Every dark piece of me belongs to you.”
On the last word, he drove into mehard, stretching me exactly the way I craved. My nails bit into his ass as he set a teasingly slow pace. Matching the roll of his hips, I gasped, “More.”
His teeth sunk into the soft flesh of my neck, the shock of pain spiked the growing pressure in my core.
“Greedy little thing,” he purred, cupping my breast and pinching my nipple.
“More,please,” I begged into his mouth, clenching around to the point he cursed under his breath. With each thrust, he throbbed inside me, but he kept his rhythm agonizingly slow.
