“I don’t think that’s how it works, man.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, it was worth a shot.”
“But I’ll let you lay claim to your bedroom if you want. It’ll still be here if you hate Italy and want to come back early.”
“Hate Italy?” He reared back in feigned shock. “I was only kinda joking when I said Faith was dating an insane person, but now I realize how right I was. A whole country full of hot babes with sexy accents? What’s not to love?”
Coming from any other guy, I would’ve believed it. But Corey had gone through a rough breakup over the summer and hadn’t dated anyone else since then. When he’d told me about the semester in Italy, I’d wondered if he was doing it to put half the world between him and his ex. He seemed excited, and I hadn’t wanted to ruin it for him so I kept my trap shut. But I still wanted him to know I had his back, even if half the world separated us too.
“Well, if you decide boring American accents are more your thing, the offer still stands.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” He slapped me on the back before picking up his backpack and rolling his suitcase to the door. “But if the impossible somehow happens, I’ll call first because I’d hate to come back and find out you’ve replaced me with a new roomie.”
“Do you really think I’m going to replace you?”
“With your hot-as-fuck girlfriend? Hell yeah, I do!”
“Dude,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “It’s been like six weeks. She’s not moving in any time soon.”
He swung the door open and turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. “I’m gonna remind you that you said that when I get back and you two are living together.”
I laughed it off at the time, but Corey’s parting words were all I thought about for the next two days. To the point where I almost convinced myself to wrap a spare key and put it under the tree for Faith as an extra present. But then I came to my senses. I figured if she wasn’t comfortable enough with me yet to have sex, then she would freak the fuck out if I asked her to move in with me. So when she came over on Christmas Eve—since I’d convinced my parents to settle for us coming over on Christmas morning—there weren’t any gifts for her to open that would send her running.
Everything else was as perfect as I could make it when I opened the door to her. Holiday music was playing through the sound system. The lights on the tree were lit. Christmas cookies were spread out on the kitchen counter. And I had eggnog spiked with bourbon in the fridge. It wasn’t a favorite of mine, but I had to get it because Faith had somehow never tried it before. “Ho ho ho.”
“Well, hello there.” Her entire face lit up with pleasure when she saw the Santa hat on my head. It had a sprig of mistletoe hanging from a ball on the end. “Is that a hint that I’m supposed to kiss Santa?”
“Definitely.”
“Earn your kiss.” She shoved a big, rectangular-shaped present into my hands. “By putting this under the tree for me.”
“For me?”
“Yup.”
“Maybe we should do presents first. Since I’m not sure I can handle the torture of wondering what’s under this wrapping paper.” I gave the package a little shake as I walked over to the tree, but it didn’t make any rattling noises. When I turned back around, Faith was standing just inside the door, laughing her ass off. “What?”
“I’m going to have to tell Christine to change your nickname from ‘hottie’ to ‘Mr. Hypocritical’ since you get so much enjoyment out of keeping our plans a secret for most of our dates.”
“Hottie, huh?” I flashed her a grin. “I’d hate to give up such a great nickname.
“It would be a shame,” she agreed.
“But it’s not just that I’m dying to know what you picked out for me. It’s also that I’d like to give you at least one of your presents now so we can use it later.”
“Fine. Twist my arm and make me open a present,” she sighed before moving into the living room and twirling around to take in all of the decorations I’d put up. “Holy shit. Please tell me you didn’t get me anything else because this”—she did another slow circle—“is the perfect gift.”
“I hate to disappoint.” I didn’t sound even the tiniest bit sincere since I didn’t mean it. “But plenty of those presents under the tree are for you.”
“What? No!” she gasped, going over to the tree and dropping to her knees. “You went overboard. It’s too much. Way, way too much.”
“Most of them are random, small things so you have stuff to unwrap in the morning.” Since we were heading over to my parents’ for breakfast, she’d agreed to spend the night at my place. For the first time. “But your real gift is what I want you to open now.”
“I guess we could each open one present now, and save the others for tomorrow.”
I didn’t give her the chance to second-guess her agreement and moved to her side. I pulled the biggest present out from under the tree and set it in front of her. “Open this one.”
She ripped into the wrapping paper and gasped when she saw what was inside. “An ice cream maker?”
“Yup, I thought we could make pumpkin ice cream for later.”
“Pumpkin, huh?” she laughed. “I guess I won’t feel bad about the extra presents in the morning since I have a couple more for you too, and it seems my big present is as much for you as it is for me.”
“I bought the ingredients for chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, too.”
“The same flavors from our ice cream making date,” she whispered, leaning into me and sliding her hand around the base of my skull to tug my face towards hers. When she pressed her lips against mine, I forgot all about the presents until she pulled away from me and handed me the rectangular package she’d had me put under the tree.
“Shopping for the guy who has everything and is so damn thoughtful that you want to give him the perfect gift because you know that’s what he’s going to get you is hard.”
I pressed a fingertip against her lips to stop her rambling. “I’m sure I’ll love it. Whatever it is. Because it’s from you.”
“And you clearly have excellent taste since you picked me.”
She narrowed her pretty brown eyes at me. “Stop being so cute while I’m super nervous about how you’re going to react to what I got you.”
“There’s only one way to fix that.” I tore the paper off my present, revealing a piece of artwork in shades of blue. It was a bit obscure, with vertical lines that had horizontal bars in staggered spots inside them. “It’s cool.”
“Remember when I asked you to do that cheek swab for my friend who was doing a research project on the efficacy of those ancestry websites?”
“Yeah.” It’d been an odd request, but I’d had people ask stranger things of me on campus.
“I lied. It wasn’t for a friend’s project,” she admitted, pointing at the blue lines. “It was for this; an artistic rendering of your DNA.”
“My DNA?”
“Yours.” She took a deep breath before she continued, “And Declan’s.”
I looked at the painting in stunned shock, reaching out to trace the lines with a trembling hand. “I didn’t know anything like this existed. I can’t believe you bought this for me.”
“Do you like it?”
I set the painting to the side and pulled Faith into my arms. “I fucking love it, baby.”
There weren’t enough words to explain to her how much her gift meant to me, so I showed her instead. I consumed her lips in a deep kiss, her soft curves molded against my chest. Her lips clung to mine, and she made a soft purring sound deep in her throat. I knew I needed to rein it in and pull away from her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not when my defenses were down because she’d blown them away with her gift.
14
Faith
Dillon and I had kissed many times before, but it’d never felt quite like it did right then. He sparked emotions in me that I wasn’t certain how to deal with,
but I knew I wanted to keep feeling them. And I didn’t want to hold back any longer. Not when we were alone in front of the prettiest Christmas tree I’d ever seen with the lights twinkling around us. After weeks of flirting, kissing, and making out, things were about to get real.
When I kicked my shoes off, Dillon followed suit and removed his too without breaking eye contact with me. Lifting my shirt and raising it over my head, I was anxious about getting topless with a guy...until he repeated the gesture. At that point, his naked chest and rippling muscles distracted me from my nervousness.
“I’ve wanted to see you with your shirt off ever since I saw you playing football in the quad my freshman year,” I whispered. “I could barely tear my eyes away from you to watch where I was walking.”
“I wish you’d have come up to me and introduced yourself back then.”
“Ummmm, no way.” I was still adjusting to life post-transplant and hadn’t been ready for him, but the timing was right for us now.
“I tend to forget that my tough girl is shy. Thank fuck I found you,” he rasped. “Because you can see me like this whenever you’d like. And touch me, baby. Any time. Anywhere. If you want me, then I’m all yours.”
I ran my fingertips along his warm skin, pressing a kiss to the long scar that ran down the left side of his rib cage and tracing the muscles along his abs. “You’re so gorgeous,” I murmured, filled with wonder that he wanted to be here with me.
“And you’re fucking perfect,” he replied. My head was shaking before I even realized it. “Faith, it’s true. You don’t see yourself the way everyone else does, but you’re beautiful.”
My hand moved to the scars that were covered by the camisole I still wore. The ones no guy had ever seen. The dark red slashes across my skin were the main reason I was so worried about Dillon seeing me naked, even though I knew he had scars of his own. Mine were still so ugly. I loved how he looked at me, and I didn’t want to change the way he saw me.
Be brave, I told myself as I slid my fingers lower and tugged him closer by hooking a finger in the waistband of his shorts. I let myself fall backwards onto the soft pile carpet, pulling Dillon with me so his body pressed against mine. Then I wrapped my arms around him. Dillon must have sensed my concern because he hugged me tightly to his body as he spoke.
“You’re insanely sexy. It’s not just the way you look. There’s just something about you that draws me in and I can’t look away,” he reassured me. “Wanting—no needing—to get closer to you has been driving me crazy ever since we met. I’ve only managed to hold back because I didn’t want to scare you. But don’t think, for even one moment, that it’s because I don’t want you.”
“I want you, too,” I admitted shyly.
“Only if you’re sure,” he whispered into my ear, the heat from his breath as he spoke sending shivers up my spine.
This was a big step for me, but I couldn’t imagine taking it with anyone other than Dillon. “I’m positive. I want you to make love to me.”
“I’ll make it so good for you, baby,” he murmured against my skin as his lips trailed down my neck.
When his fingers slid up from my waist and tugged on the material of my camisole to lift it over my head, I tensed. Our eyes met after he pulled it off, and I wished with all my heart that we could just keep looking at each other as we made love. His gaze was questioning, and I forced a smile on my face to let him know everything was okay. My desire for him was stronger than my fear, so I tried to let go of my worry as his fingers slid to the back of my bra while he captured my lips for a kiss.
Once it was off, he nibbled and kissed his way down my body. When his body tensed above mine, I knew he had seen my scars. His gaze flew up to mine, and instead of disgust or pity, I saw sadness and pain in his eyes. “The transplant?”
“Yeah, but it’s just scar tissue. I’m okay now.”
“Better than okay,” he corrected. “Perfect.”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the moment I fell head over heels in love with Dillon. When I was at my most vulnerable, he accepted me exactly as I was. Scars and flaws included.
“Dillon,” I sighed as his tongue flicked over one of my nipples while his fingers plucked at the other. When he sucked one deep into his mouth, I felt the pull all the way down to my pussy and my back arched off the floor.
“My tough girl likes that, huh?” he murmured against my breast, his eyes burning into mine as he looked up at me.
“Yes,” I hissed out as his mouth moved to the other nipple, biting down gently and then licking the sting away. His hands pressed me against the floor as his lips moved down my stomach, stopping to kiss the scars on both sides of my body. As his tongue traced the puckered skin, it was the first time since my surgery that I didn’t hate knowing they were there.
When his hands swept farther down to caress my legs, my focus shifted to the goose-bumps that followed the trail of his fingers. I lifted my hips so he could tug my shorts off and when he spread my legs apart afterwards, all my thoughts scattered. As he held my hips so I couldn’t move, I felt his breath through my panties. He kissed around the edges, licking the skin where my upper thighs met my pelvis. I was so drenched that I could feel moisture dripping from me. I jerked against his hold when his finger traced over my pussy, finding the dampness through my panties.
“Lift up, baby,” he instructed as he tugged them down my legs.
“Oh my God!” I gasped when his fingers spread me open, and he flicked his tongue over my clit. My body nearly shattered at the feel of his warm mouth on me.
“You’re dripping wet for me,” he whispered, his breath hot against my pussy before he swept his tongue across my damp flesh.
“So amazing,” I moaned.
“Ready for more?”
“Yes.”
As soon as I answered, one of his fingers pressed against my opening and slowly slid inside. My legs instinctively widened farther, and I threw my head back against the pillows and moaned.
“Tight,” he groaned as he stopped the progress of his finger and didn’t move any deeper.
Although I felt stretched at his invasion, it still felt so damn good. “Please don’t stop,” I begged.
His dark chuckle probably should have scared me, but it just added to my excitement. I watched as he lowered his head and his tongue flicked out to stroke my clit. Clenching his hair in my hands, I drew him closer in the hope that he would never stop. When he slid his finger out and buried his tongue deep inside me, it drove me out of my mind with need.
I was writhing on the floor beneath him, my legs clenching as an orgasm started to build. The first one that I wouldn’t give myself. I whimpered when he pulled his tongue from my body, but then he replaced it with his finger again. This time it slid more easily inside and my body started to shudder when he twisted it around and rubbed my G-spot. Then he licked my clit and my trembling increased. When he sucked it hard into his mouth, I felt like a tidal wave came crashing down over my body as my orgasm hit.
“Dillon!” I screamed his name hoarsely, my hips bucking of their own accord and my nails digging into his scalp.
“Mm,” he hummed, and the vibrations against my skin sparked another mini-orgasm.
When he finally pulled away from my body, I was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and I was so relaxed I felt like a limp noodle. Dillon kissed his way back up my body and as he held himself above me, I could see some of my wetness still coating his chin. He licked his lips and then kissed me, and I could taste myself on him.
“So fucking perfect,” he groaned. “Don’t move an inch.”
I heard the rustle of his shorts as he kicked them off, and I turned my head to see him kneeling completely naked in front of me. His dick jutted from his body, hard and long. It was so big that I wasn’t sure it would fit inside my body. I gulped at the thought of the pain I would probably feel as he reached over to retrieve a condom from his shorts.
“You drive me so crazy, I almost
forgot this,” he murmured before he ripped the foil package open and rolled it onto his hardened length. When he was done and his eyes met mine again, his expression softened as he took in my fearful look. “There’s nothing to be scared of, baby.”
“Are you sure it’ll fit?” I asked.
Although the question had slipped out when I didn’t mean to say it, it seemed like a valid concern until he started laughing. “Yes, Faith. I’ll fit inside you because you were made for me.”
With those words, the anger which had started to build because of his laughter faded. The idea that this amazing guy thought I was made for him was enough to make my heart melt and to give me the courage I needed to go through with this.
“Then I guess you’d better show me, huh?” I replied, opening my legs to make room for him as he crawled between them.
“I guess so,” he said, his eyes smiling down at me as he pressed the tip of his hard-on against my opening. When he inched inside, his gaze turned serious.
“Now,” I whispered.
“Tell me if it hurts too much,” he instructed right before he thrust deep, tearing through the proof of my virginity and not stopping until he was deep inside my body.
My eyes slammed shut at the stabbing pain and tears slid down my cheeks. It took me a moment to breathe through the burn until it passed and by then, Dillon started to pull out. “I’m okay,” I reassured him, sliding my hands down his back—after I removed my nails from his skin since I’d dug them in without even realizing it.
“Fuck, baby,” he groaned. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, honey. It had to be done.”
He buried his head against my neck and mumbled against my skin. “Seeing you in pain is not okay with me.”
“Look at me,” I ordered and waited until he lifted his head and his eyes locked with mine. “Do I look like I’m in pain anymore?”
A slight sting was still there, but the arousal I had felt earlier was building again as I adjusted to the sensation of having him inside me. Seeing the doubt in his eyes, I wiggled my hips experimentally and felt my pussy flutter against him as the movement sent him deeper. I locked my legs around his hips and circled my own, and the answering wetness made his invasion even easier. As he felt the moisture from my body, he finally relaxed.
The Fortuity Duet Page 11