“No, baby. You don’t look like you’re in pain anymore,” he rasped before pulling out slowly and inching his way back inside. “And you feel fucking perfect. Just like I knew you would.”
I lifted my hips, trying to get him to move a little faster. “Dillon,” I moaned.
“Gonna make it so good for you,” he promised. “And make you forget about the pain.”
He pulled out and plunged back in on a hard stroke that drove my body into the floor. I gripped the taut skin of his back and held on as he picked up speed. Without realizing what I was doing, I raked my nails down his back as he continued to thrust into me. As waves of pleasure rolled over my body, my eyes drifted shut.
“I’m so close,” I moaned, my body starting to shake again.
Dillon’s hips began to thrust faster as he drove himself in and out of my body. I felt like I was suspended on a razor’s edge as my pussy clenched against his cock. He leaned down until his lips hovered over my ear.
“Come for me now,” he whispered on a puff of hot air as his finger found my clit. The combination of his cock deep inside me, his lips on my ear, and his finger teasing my clit sent me over the edge, and I convulsed around him. He gentled his strokes and stiffened when his own orgasm washed through him. His cock throbbed deep inside me, and I felt the heat of his semen as it spurted into the condom.
When my body went limp under his, he rolled onto the carpet beside me and pulled me into his arms. “Even more perfect than I thought it would be,” he murmured against the top of my head.
“Yeah.”
“You okay?” He squeezed my body tightly.
“I’m perfect.” Really, truly perfect.
It wasn’t until he chuckled that I realized I’d borrowed his word. “I’m glad you finally agree with me.”
“Just so long as you don’t think it’s going to happen all the time,” I joked, my lips curving into a smile as I cuddled against him. I’d never felt closer to another person in all my life, and it scared me a little to know the power he held over me now.
15
Faith
Almost two months later, I sat across Sarah’s desk from her while she stared at me with narrowed hazel eyes, her head tilted to the side. “There’s something different about you.”
“Different good? Or different bad?”
“Definitely good.” She tapped her index finger against her chin. “It’s been four years since your transplant, and you look really healthy. How was your most recent round of blood work?”
“The results from November were great, but I haven’t seen the report from the lab for the last draw. It was just at the end of last week, so I should get those numbers back soon.”
“Are you getting more rest? Drinking more water?” She leaned forward a little, her gaze scanning my face. “Whatever you’re doing is really working for you.”
I’d just taken a sip of water, and I almost spewed it right in her face because what I’d been doing was Dillon. A lot. Like all of the time. Once we’d had sex that first time on Christmas Eve night, we hadn’t been able to keep our hands—and other, more interesting parts of our bodies—off each other.
My cheeks filled with heat, and Sarah’s eyes widened. “Is that a blush I see on your face?”
“Um,” I mumbled, my blush getting worse. “Maybe?”
“And is it caused by a boy?”
Shit. I hadn’t been able to keep it from her for even five minutes into our conversation. Not that I wasn’t planning to tell Sarah about Dillon, but I’d thought I’d bring him up at the end of my visit. After we’d gotten past all the important life stuff we needed to discuss because I was only three months away from graduation. “Yeah,” I admitted softly.
“Someone special?”
I grinned at her. “Dillon’s definitely special.”
“Dillon? How did you guys meet? And when? I can’t believe so much has changed since I saw you last.”
“Remember when I told you about Elaine Montgomery?”
“Of course I remember! How could I forget the woman who’s made such an impact on all of your lives?” She leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe how much she’s done for you guys.”
“Well,” I drawled, chuckling to myself a little. “What she’s done for me is a little different than everyone else.”
“Really?” She set her elbow on her desk and rested her chin on her palm. “How so?”
“I met Dillon through her.” I took a deep breath, trying to settle my nerves. I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous to explain their connection unless it was just that I wasn’t used to talking about my dating life since I’d never had one before. “Because he’s her son.”
“Whoa. How’d that happen?” Her voice dropped to a whisper and she leaned so far forward that her chin slipped from her palm. She fell over, her face coming only a couple of inches from smacking against her desk.
“Through his mom.” Dillon’s secrets were his own to share, so I kept my answer vague. “I totally missed the signs that she was trying to find reasons for us to meet until Dillon pointed her matchmaking attempts out to me at Thanksgiving.”
“Thanksgiving, huh? You guys are serious enough that you’re spending holidays together?”
“Not back then. Not really.” I shook my head. “We’d only been on one actual date, and Elaine was the one who invited me.”
“But it’s serious now?”
“Yeah, it is. Dillon opened up to me about a lot of stuff at Thanksgiving, and it was kind of a turning point for us.” I traced a circle on the top of her desk with a finger. “I guess you could say that’s when we officially became a couple.”
“Oh, wow,” she breathed. “You really like this boy, don’t you?”
“I do. I really do.” My lips tilted up in a goofy grin. I couldn’t stop it, and I didn’t even care if it made me look like an idiot. Because I was happy. Being with Dillon made me happy.
“If he makes you smile like that, then I approve. Big time.”
“Thanks.” I felt my grin getting even goofier, but it only made Sarah offer me a big smile of her own.
“I’m happy for you, Faith. You’ve faced so much adversity, and yet you still managed to come so far from the girl I met all those years ago.” Her eyes filled with tears and she sniffled. “In three months, you’re going to be a college graduate.” Another sniffle. “With a promising career in social work ahead of you.” One lone tear slid down her cheek. “Where you’re going to continue the amazing work you’ve already started doing, with whatever job you take.” She reached for a tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. “And you’ve got a serious boyfriend! Someone you’ve clearly let inside your heart, judging by the dreamy look on your face any time you mention his name. I’m so, so proud of you.”
“Why do I feel like me having a boyfriend is the part you’re proudest about?”
A startled laugh burst from her throat. “Because it is?”
“Sarah!” I couldn’t believe she’d said that.
“Stop! You know I didn’t mean it that way.” Her expression turned serious. “It’s just that I didn’t have any worries about you when it came to college or a career. Not since the day you agreed to apply. Once the decision was made, I knew you’d succeed because you’re smart and driven.”
“Sarah.” I was so moved by what she’d said I could barely speak. Her name was just a whisper of sound that time. I’d felt like she’d believed in me, but to hear her put it that way was just…wow. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She gave me a watery smile. “Thank you for letting me remain a part of your journey these past few years. Watching what you’ve accomplished with your second chance has been an honor.”
“You’re the one who set me on this path,” I reminded her. “I would’ve been working a dead-end job with only a high school diploma if it hadn’t have been for you.”
Sarah shook her head. “I might’ve given you the nudge you
needed, but you took it and more than ran with it all on your own. You’re on course to graduate with honors, and you’ve got all those other foster kids coming up behind you and following in your footsteps. Because you inspire them, like you inspire me, to be a better person each and every day.”
Shit. Now I was the one crying. Sarah was one of the best people I knew. To know she found me inspiring was almost more than my heart could handle. “That inspiration runs both ways, Sarah. You’re the reason I picked social work for my major. Because I wanted to follow in your footsteps.”
“Oh my God, Faith. I can’t even tell you what it means to me, to hear you say that,” she cried, reaching across her desk to squeeze my hand.
“It’s the truth,” I sniffled.
We sat there like that for a couple of minutes before she yanked a few tissues from the box and passed them to me before grabbing some for herself.
“You know what I wish?” she asked.
“What?”
“That I could thank your kidney donor and their family for giving you the second chance you needed. To be able to tell them about the difference you’ve made in so many lives.”
My eyes filled with tears again and they spilled out, trailing down my cheeks. Thinking about my donor and what their family had lost sent me back to that time when I’d thought I was going to die. I hadn’t even really known what I would’ve missed out on back then. Not until I met Dillon and opened myself up to love. Because that’s what it was with him...love. Neither of us had used that particular four-letter word yet, but it didn’t make the feelings any less real or true. Just unspoken. And the only reason I got to experience love was because someone gave me the gift of life in the depths of their own despair.
“Hey.” Sarah tapped on my hand, and it pulled me out of the past and back into the present. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I am.” I nodded and offered her a watery smile. “Or I will be.”
Once we pulled ourselves together, the conversation turned to graduation and my plans for the future—which I hadn’t figured out yet. I was focused on finishing up my classes and making it to graduation...and my relationship with Dillon. But the future was barreling towards me, and I was going to have to decide what I wanted to do soon.
16
Faith
I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to do two months later. I’d been waiting to see if the option my heart was set on was going to be a possibility or not. Reading through the letter I’d finally received from the school, I hardly believed my eyes as I sat down on my mattress. “Holy shit.”
“Was that a good holy shit or more of an oh-fuck holy shit?” Christine swiveled around on the chair at her desk to stare at me.
“I think it was a little of both.”
She rolled across the floor and snatched the paper out of my hands. After scanning the first line, she jumped to her feet and screamed, “Holy shit! You got accepted?”
“I did.”
“Of course you did!” She tugged me to my feet, and we danced around the room. “With your grades and that personal statement you wrote; they would have been insane to turn you down. You’re going to be the best Master’s in Social Work student this school has ever had.”
I didn’t need an advanced degree to get a job since I could begin working as a social worker with a bachelor’s degree. But earning a master’s degree meant that I’d achieve the highest level of education for a social worker in Florida. I’d also be eligible for any job in my field after I completed three years of field experience.
“Am I crazy for wanting to stay in school for two more years? Shouldn’t I be ready to get a job and enter the real world?”
“Fuck no, you’re not crazy.” She nudged me towards the bed and sat on the mattress at my side. “It’s not like you’re running off to join the circus.”
“The circus?” I echoed. “Can people run off to join the circus anymore?”
She threw her hands up in the air and shrugged. “I have no idea. It was the best I could come up with the spur of the moment.”
“Have you ever even been to the circus?” I laughed. “Talk about totally random.”
“What can I say? I’m the queen of random.”
She really was good at blurting out completely random stuff at the oddest times, so the circus reference shouldn’t have surprised me too much. But I still didn’t get her point. “Just because I’m not doing something ridiculous like running off to the circus, doesn’t mean I’m not crazy.”
“No, but thinking you haven’t spent your whole life in the real world means you might be,” she pointed out. “You and I? We were born into the real world, and we didn’t escape it until we came to college. If you want to spend two more years here, then I say do it. Get your motherfucking master’s degree before you get a job. If anyone’s earned a reprieve from adulting, it’s you.”
“And you.” I wasn’t the only one in the room who’d had a hard life.
“But this isn’t about me right now. My path is already determined. We’re talking about you and the decision you need to make. Tell me, Faith. What do you want to do?”
I didn’t need to think about my answer. I knew what it was. “I want to stay at Southeastern and get my master’s degree.”
“Then that’s what you’re going to do.”
“There you go.” She patted me on the knee. “Decision made.”
“Now I just have to tell Dillon.”
“Faith?” She dragged my name out to about three syllables. “He knows you applied for grad school, right?”
“Yes, geesh! I’m not that bad.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me with one brow lifted. “But?”
“But I might have mentioned it more in passing. I didn’t make a big deal about it because I was afraid to jinx my application. Like talking about it with him would make it too real or something.”
“Fuck being worried about shit like that anymore.” She wrapped her hands around my upper arms and shook me a little. “You’re only a couple of weeks away from graduating with honors. You got your acceptance letter to grad school. And you’ve got an amazing boyfriend who’s crazy in love with you. Live in the moment! Enjoy the amazing life you’re building and stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
She was right. My life was pretty damn amazing. I needed to worry less and enjoy it more. “Do you really think Dillon loves me?”
“Oh my God!” She shook me again. “Have you guys still not told each other yet? You’re killing me here, smalls. Pull up your big girl panties and throw it out there.”
Ever since I’d put a name to what I was feeling for Dillon while I’d been sitting in Sarah’s office, I’d come so close to saying those three little words to him. But there was a different four-letter word that kept holding me back. Fear. “What if he doesn’t say it back?”
“You’re barely going to be able to get the words out before he tosses you over his shoulder and shows you how exactly how much he loves you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Pinkie swear.” She let go of my arms and lifted one hand up with her pinkie finger sticking out so we could shake them. “If I’m wrong, I promise to run off to the circus with you.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I laughed, shaking my head.
“I am, and that’s never going to change.” She picked the letter up off the mattress and shoved it in my hand. “But it’s time for you to stop being ridiculous and go give your hottie the big news. All of it.”
She practically shoved me out the door and dragged me down to where her junker was parked in the lot next to our dorm. Before I knew it, she’d driven me over to Dillon’s place and I was standing in front of his door. When it opened, she honked her horn and gave me the thumbs up sign.
“Hey, baby.” Dillon leaned down and pressed a kiss against my lips, giving Christine a wave before pulling me inside the house. “I didn’t realize you were coming ove
r so early. I thought we were meeting up later tonight. Didn’t you need to finish that term paper and get it turned in?”
“Yeah. It was easier than I expected, so it didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I emailed it to my professor about thirty minutes ago.” I followed him into the living room, running my fingers along the edge of the envelope in the pocket of my shorts.
“You want to do anything special tonight, now that we have more time?” He dropped down onto the couch and pulled me onto his lap, nuzzling against my neck. “Or are you still cool with binge watching a show and eating takeout?”
“It sounds perfect to me. My brain literally feels like it’s dead.”
“With all the studying you’ve been doing lately, I’m not surprised. You need to relax, and I’m looking forward to helping you out with that.” I shifted on his lap, turning around to straddle him. “You’ve got that serious look in your eyes. Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, fiddling with a lock of hair that’d fallen onto his forehead and smoothing it back. “But there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
I felt his body tense beneath mine, and his hands tightened on my hips. “We need to talk is usually code for bad news.”
“This isn’t bad,” I reassured him as I relaxed in his hold. Christine was right. Dillon was as crazy about me as I was him. I didn’t need to be worried about how he’d react when I pulled up my big girl panties and told him how I felt. But that didn’t mean I was dying to do it, so I decided to give him my big news first. “Remember when I mentioned that I was applying to grad school?”
“Yeah. Of course I do. When you talk, I listen. Always.”
I couldn’t help myself. I pressed my lips against his for a kiss because he somehow always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better. “Which is why you’re so damn perfect for me and shouldn’t worry when I say we need to talk.”
The Fortuity Duet Page 12