“I can’t make any promises, baby. You’re too important for me to ever take you for granted. If you come to me looking worried and saying we need to talk, then I’m going to be concerned.”
“Well, this isn’t one of those times when you need to be concerned. I have good news.” I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and handed it to him. “Or at least I think it is, and I hope you do too.”
He pulled the letter out, skimming it quickly before his head jerked up and he grinned at me. “You got in?”
“Yup. It looks like I’m going to be a grad student.”
“That’s fantastic, baby. I’m so proud of you!” He brushed his lips against mine and gave the bottom one a little nip with his teeth. “You’re going to kick grad school’s ass, just like you did undergrad.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” I warned him. “The tuition waiver program will cover me for grad school, but the stipend I get for living expenses only lasts until I’m twenty-three. I’m either going to have to take an accelerated course load to try to finish in two semesters plus the summer, or I’m going to have to juggle a job and my classes the second year. But either way, I’m not going to have as much time for you as I do now.”
“And I’m going to be working full-time for my dad. I’m sure my schedule will suck, which is only going to make things more difficult,” he groaned, dropping his head against my shoulder.
“It might be hard, but we’ll figure it out.” We had to because I refused to think otherwise.
His head jerked up and he searched my face with dark eyes. “I might have a solution to our problem.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it?”
“Move in with me.”
17
Dillon
She reared back and looked at me with her pretty brown eyes wide and full of shock. “What?”
“Move in with me,” I repeated with conviction. I’d been thinking about asking her since Corey first mentioned it, but the time never seemed right. Until now; when she’d handed me the perfect opportunity.
But judging by the way she was shaking her head, she didn’t seem to agree. “While I appreciate the offer, we can’t just move in together because it’ll fix a problem. Moving in together is huge.”
“This isn’t a spur of the moment decision on my part. I’ve been thinking about it since Christmas,” I admitted. “I almost gave you a key then, but I figured it was too soon.”
“Definitely too soon. I absolutely would’ve freaked out because I hadn’t realized I loved you yet.” Her hand came up and pressed against her lips, and her eyes grew even wider. “I didn’t mean to say it quite like that.”
“But you do love me?”
She nodded jerkily, and her body tightened up under my hands. My brain was still trying to catch up to her admission, and it took me a moment to realize why she was tense. She’d said the words, but I hadn’t. “I love you, Faith. So fucking much I can barely stand being apart from you some days.”
The tension melted from her body, and her eyes lit with pure, unadulterated joy. “Really?”
“Without question.”
“Wow.”
“Can I assume your wow means that since we love each other, there’s no reason for us not to move in together?”
She grinned at me and nodded. “Yeah, that’s what it means.”
“Thank fuck.”
I yanked her body closer to mine, eliminating the small amount of space between us as I kissed her roughly. My lips were smashed against hers, and I gripped her hair in one hand while I palmed her ass with the other as I lost myself in her body. When I tore my lips from hers, we were both panting for air.
“You have way too many clothes on.”
“We both do,” she agreed. She rolled off my lap, and we ripped our shirts over our heads, kicked off our shoes, and pulled our pants down our legs. I’d gone commando, so I was already buck naked when Faith was down to her bra and panties.
I pulled her back onto my lap and traced my fingertips along the edges of her bra cups before palming her tits. She pressed into my hold while she reached around and unclasped her bra. I groaned when I pulled my hands away, and the lacy material fell onto my lap. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”
“And all yours,” she whispered as she rose up on her knees and wiggled out of her panties.
“Because you love me,” I rasped out, needing to hear it again.
“I do. I love you, Dillon.”
Her saying it so freely lit a fire inside me. I ran my hands down her spine and gripped her ass, grinding up against her. “Oh, damn,” I groaned. “You’re so fucking wet. I can’t wait to get inside you.”
She pressed closer to me. “Don’t wait. Take me now.”
“I need a taste of you first.” I flipped our positions so she was sitting on the couch, and I dropped to my knees on the floor in front of her. I ran my palms along her bare skin, from her ankles to the inside of her upper thighs, and pulled her legs apart. “After I get it, I’ll fuck deep inside you until we both can’t take any more.”
“Yes,” she hissed as I licked the outside of her pussy lips. My hands gripped her thighs to hold them open as she clenched them together at my touch.
“Keep ‘em open, baby, if you want my mouth on you.”
“I do,” she whispered, running her fingers through my hair to grip my skull.
I chuckled against her skin, making her tremble before I circled my tongue around her clit without quite touching it. Levering my shoulders between her legs, I jerked her hips up so she was opened wide to me. Snaking my tongue out, I licked up her wet slit.
“I love how you taste,” I whispered before sucking her clit into my mouth and flicking it with my tongue several times. Then I released it with a pop and dipped my tongue lower to fuck her pussy with it.
“Yes! Just like that, Dillon,” she gasped.
I kept at her until she was writhing beneath me, her body tight as she begged me to let her come. My cock was throbbing at that point, so I pulled my tongue out of her pussy and went after her clit until she flew over the edge. Then I rose up on my knees and positioned myself between her legs.
“Fuck, I need to grab a condom,” I groaned as I rubbed the tip of my cock along her pussy lips. We’d talked about going bare, but it wasn’t an option for us. Because of the drugs she was on for her transplant, the only pill her doctor was willing to put her on had a higher rate of failure and we were nowhere close to ready to even think about having a baby—especially since it would be more complicated with Faith’s health issues. So condoms were a necessity for us.
“Hurry,” she urged, her hips lifting as she slid against me, leaving a trail of moisture on my cock.
“Goddammit,” I hissed as I pulled away from her to find my shorts. Yanking my wallet out of the pocket, I found a condom and got it on my dick in record speed. Then I lined our bodies back up so that I was between her legs with my cock at her opening again.
“I need you,” she whispered, pulling my head down for a kiss.
“Faith,” I growled against her lips as I sank into her pussy. Each and every time with her felt so damn good, but this was different. Better. Fucking amazing. “Holy fuck, I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you, too. But I’d like to feel you fucking me instead of hearing you say it.” She dug her fingernails into my ass and tried to pull me deeper inside.
“Fuck, baby.” It slipped out without me realizing what I’d said until she giggled and I felt it around my cock.
“Less talk. More action,” she ordered on a laugh.
“Be careful what you wish for, because I’m gonna give it to you,” I warned a split-second before I pulled out and thrust back into her all the way. Deep and forceful. Over and over, I pounded into her. So hard the couch started to slide across the floor. Inch by inch. Thrust by thrust until my control hung by a thread, Faith writhing underneath me with her nails digging into my ass. Meeting me for each drive of my hips.
“So close,” she begged. “Need it, Dillon. Please.”
Desperate to send us both over the edge, I slipped one hand between us and pinched her clit. I felt her tighten around me as she screamed out my name. Her pussy walls clenched around my cock like a vise, and it was over for me too. My balls drew up and tightened, and fire licked through my veins as my climax roared through me. Planting myself deep, my come filled the condom as my cock jerked over and over again. “Fuck.”
“Damn straight,” she laughed softly.
“Oh, now you don’t mind if I say it?”
“Hell yeah, you fucked me silly.” She brushed my hair back from my forehead and pressed a kiss to my lips. “You can say anything you’d like.”
It didn’t take me more than a second to think of my response. “I love you.”
She grinned up at me. Her eyes were a little dazed, her cheeks were flushed, and her lips were swollen. She’d never looked more gorgeous. “Feel free to say that as often as you’d like.”
“Be prepared to hear it morning, noon, and night now that you’re moving in with me,” I warned as I pulled out of her and rose to my feet to pad across the room and toss the condom into the garbage can in the bathroom off the living room. Then I splashed my face with water and washed my hands before wandering towards the kitchen to grab us a couple of bottles of water.
Faith was still on the couch, but she’d slipped my shirt on, when I walked back into the living room and handed her one of the bottles. “You better hydrate because that wasn’t our only round for the night.”
“Oh really?” She quirked an eyebrow at me.
“You told me you love me and you’re going to move in with me.” I flashed her a grin. “We need to celebrate. Repeatedly.”
“I guess I’m okay with the change in plan.” Her exaggerated sigh turned into a giggle when I dropped down next to her and dug my fingers into her sides. “Stop! Okay! I guess we can binge on sex instead of shows, but I still want that takeout food because I’m starving.”
“I’ll get extra. All your favorites,” I promised, pulling up an app on my phone to place an order for delivery. “And while we’re waiting for it to get here, you can make a plan to get you moved in here. When were you thinking?
“After graduation maybe?”
That was only two weeks away, but it was about thirteen days longer than I wanted to wait. “How about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? No way.” She shook her head. “I have exams to study for still. I don’t have time to pack up my dorm room. Not yet. It’s going to have to wait until after finals at the very least. Maybe right after graduation would work best?”
I claimed her lips in a hard kiss to stop her litany of reasons for why she couldn’t move in right away. “No backpedaling, baby. You’re moving in. Period. End of story. I’m willing to wait until after graduation if I have to, but only if you spend your nights here.”
“Will you keep feeding me my favorite foods and giving me lots of orgasms?”
“Of fucking course.”
“Then I guess I can agree to that deal.”
That was a good thing because if her answer had been no, I would’ve had to hire a mover as a surprise and then fuck her until she didn’t want to argue about it anymore.
18
Faith
A little more than a week later, my last undergrad exam was finally over. I only had graduation left to get through, and I found myself with some alone time. Dillon was at his dad’s office. Christine was taking her last final. And I was packing up another box of stuff to bring over to Dillon’s place.
Or our place, actually, since I’d been slowly moving in with him. Most of my clothes were already there, and I was grabbing some of my random stuff today. Practically living with him was easier than I expected, and it made me worry less about how things were going to work after graduation.
Living together meant truly opening ourselves up. No keeping parts of ourselves hidden. Like when you have guests coming over and you didn’t want them to see all your shit. Instead of going through it all to clean it up, you shove it in a drawer to hide it away. That only worked with guests, though. Which meant I needed to really clean my shit up instead of just hiding it away...starting with that conversation I’d had with Sarah about thanking my donor’s family for the second chance they’d given me. I never would have had the happiness I’d found with Dillon without them. It didn’t seem right to move on to the next phase of our lives together without acknowledging their sacrifice in some way.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed the number for Dr. Stewart’s physician’s assistant, Lisa. One of the advantages of being a patient there for several years was easier access when you had a question.
“Hey, Faith. Everything okay? We don’t have you down for your next appointment for another two and a half months. Did you need to come in sooner?”
I’d learned early on that Lisa was the kind of person whose mouth moved a hundred miles per minute, so you had to be quick if you wanted to get a word in edgewise. “No, I’m good. I was just wondering if it’s possible for me to reach out to my donor’s family. To say thank you.”
“There are rules against us disclosing their contact information.”
Disappointment crashed down on me. “Oh.”
“But you can write a letter, care of the transplant center. We’ll forward it to them for you.”
“Oh!” That time it was said in relief. “That would be amazing. So I just write the letter, drop it off to you guys, and you’ll take care of everything else for me?”
“Pretty much, yes. But you’ll want to make sure to not include your last name or where you live. The state is fine, just not the city. And it goes without saying, no contact information.”
“Great! I’d prefer not to wait until my next appointment, so I’ll probably stop in sometime this week with a letter.”
“We’ll see you then.”
Determined to move forward into my future with Dillon surrounded by positivity, I sat down to write my letter. Finding the right words to use was one of the most difficult things I’d ever done. By the time I was satisfied, I had rewritten it about a dozen times.
Dear Donor Family,
I received the precious gift of a donated kidney from your loved one. There are no words that can truly express the depth of gratitude I feel towards your family. It takes a special kind of person to make such a sacrifice in their time of grief and need. I will never be able to thank you enough for giving me a second chance at life, but you have my promise that I have tried to live up to the example set by your loved one. And I’ll continue to do so.
I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write this letter. My life was drastically different four years ago when I received my transplant. I was a senior in high school who felt like there wasn’t anything good to look forward to, even though I was willing to fight to live. My childhood was difficult, and I wasn’t raised with the best role models surrounding me. Your family’s decision was the first genuine act of sacrifice I ever experienced. It’s one I value more than I can ever explain. Your loved one didn’t just save my life, they gave me a whole new outlook on the world by giving me the very thing I was named after—faith.
Thanks to the second chance your family gave me, I have so many positive things in my life now. I’m graduating with honors from college soon, with a bachelor’s degree in social work. I’ve been accepted into a graduate program and plan to go on to earn my master’s.
While in school, I met a boy and fell in love for the first time in my life. We’re in the process of moving in together. I’m living a blessed life I never expected to have because of your loved one.
I know your decision to donate their organs must have been incredibly difficult, but I wanted you to know what a difference it has made in my life. I will never be able to fully express my gratitude to you for giving me this opportunity. I hope this letter brings you a little solace in knowing some good came out of your loss. Tha
nk you for making the decision to save my life.
With inexpressible gratitude,
Faith
I started sobbing when I finished reading through the final version. Tears were streaming down my face as I tucked it into an envelope and put it in my purse. A quick glance at my phone showed that I still had an hour left before Dillon would be home, so I decided to grab a rideshare to the doctor’s office to drop it off. The driver kept sneaking glances at me through the rearview mirror. I was sure he thought there was something horribly wrong with me when he agreed to wait the five minutes I told him it would take before I came back out.
I took the stairs up four floors instead of waiting for the elevator. I was out of breath, red-faced, and bleary-eyed when I walked into Dr. Stewart’s office. I’d gone in there looking worse in the past, and one of the good things about being in a medical center was that nobody looked at me oddly as I walked up to the receptionist’s desk.
“Hey, Faith,” Susan greeted me. “Lisa sent me an email about an hour ago letting me know you might stop by sometime this week with a letter for your donor family. But I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
“Yeah.” I pulled the envelope out of my purse. “Once I had the idea in my head, I couldn’t let go of it. I know it’s been years, but it suddenly seemed so important. So I thought it would be best to get it done right away.”
“That sounds like a smart plan to me.” She held out her hand, and I reluctantly passed the letter over. She had to tug on it to get me to let go.
“Sorry, it feels like giving away a part of myself.”
“You’re putting it in good hands. I’ll make sure this gets forwarded as soon as possible,” she assured me.
The Fortuity Duet Page 13