Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 48808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
I come so fast it makes me dizzy. My knees buckle, but he catches me, keeping me upright as he slides out from beneath my dress, licking his lips. His eyes meet mine as he climbs to his feet, smirking.
"Delicious," he growls, capturing my lips with his.
I melt all over again, clinging to him and whimpering into his mouth.
He kisses me until I come down, and then he just holds me against his chest, breathing me in.
"I don't have a Daddy kink, princess," he murmurs. "I have a You Breathing kink. Everything you say, everything you do, every fucking time you smile at me, I'm desperate for a taste of you." He nuzzles his face up against my throat. "But yeah, hearing you call me Daddy was sexy as hell, not gonna lie. I want to be the guy who takes care of you in every single way, the one you trust with all your secrets."
I swallow hard, tears stinging my eyes again. This is the Trystan I missed so damn much, the one I've seen glimmers of over and over since he stopped feeling like mine. Maybe I had that wrong, and he was always mine, but for once, he actually feels like it. He's right here with me, fireflies all around us.
It feels like magic.
Tom is waiting at the gate when we head home, holding hands.
Thanos tiptoes past him like usual. Trystan eyes the little dog like he expects him to sprout a second head or grow ten sizes in two seconds. I just laugh and kneel down, reaching through the gate to scratch his fluffy head.
"Hey, sweet boy," I coo at him. "Have you been terrorizing the neighborhood again?"
"Fuck yeah," Trystan mutters.
Tom just yips at me, prancing in excited circles.
"You gotta be nice to my friend here, okay?" I murmur to him. "He's more afraid of you than you are of him."
Trystan grumbles wordlessly.
"Don't be too hard on him, all right?" I stroke a finger down Tom's head. "He'll learn to behave soon."
Tom prances in another circle, glances at Trystan, yips, and then takes off toward the front porch. Before I even manage to stand again, he's in the window, his little tongue hanging out.
"Jesus Christ," Trystan whispers, shaking his head. "You're the goddamn Chihuahua Whisperer."
"You just have to know how to talk to him," I say, smiling. "The world is intimidating when everything is bigger than you are. You gotta get down on his level."
Trystan snorts like he thinks I'm full of shit, and we continue toward Wyatt's. "You called me your friend."
"What?" I ask as we pass through the gate.
"You told Tom that I'm your friend."
"So?" I glance over at him, not understanding the problem. "Did you want me to tell him that you had your hand around my throat while you were fucking me senseless a few hours ago instead? I mean, I can go back and correct the record…" I turn like I'm going to do exactly that, but Trystan grabs me.
"That's not what I meant, smartass," he growls, unable to hide his smile. "I meant that's the first time you've called me your friend in years."
"No, it isn't."
"Yeah, it is. The first time you came home from college, you introduced me to your friends at work as 'my brother's friend, Trystan,'" he says, using air quotes. "And you never really stopped referring to me that way after that."
"Oh." I bite my lip. "Maybe I thought it was easier than explaining that you were the guy who used to chase fireflies with me before you decided to start treating me more like someone you got to dictate to rather than someone with her own mind."
He flinches. "You really think that?"
"I…I don't know," I admit. "I don't understand why you started being so bossy. It's like, once you realized I was a girl, you just changed." I meet his gaze. "I never understood why."
"I knew I didn't feel the same way about you that I did anyone else," he mutters, leaning against the fence. "But I didn't realize what that meant until you were thirteen. When you got here that summer, you looked so fucking beautiful. I realized, as you were running to me, that you weren't a little girl anymore. You were this fucking beautiful little goddess who had my stomach in knots." He shrugs. "And I knew I probably wasn't the only one. It made me crazy to think about anyone else seeing what I did." He sighs, shoving a hand through his hair. "I acted like a jealous asshole because I didn't want anyone else to see you the way I did. I wanted you to be just mine."
"You could have told me that," I point out.
"I thought I was the only one who felt it," he mutters. "I didn't want to lose you entirely, so I just didn't say anything. By the time I realized I needed to say something, there was a chasm between us. I didn't know how to bridge that gap, princess. And honestly? I was fucking terrified that, if I tried, I'd lose you entirely. I thought you hated me. I didn't want to add more fuel to the fire by telling you that I was crazy about you when you couldn't stand me."