Second Epilogue
Dante
What a perfect day.
The campfire I’d just lit crackled before us, casting long, dancing shadows across the desert’s dry packed earth. The ghostly valley far below trapped just enough moonlight to brag to us how enormous it all was.
Being out here, the picnic dinner, watching the sunset and having a fire was all Autumn’s doing and I loved her for it.
The one thing I ached for in prison almost as much as Autumn, was space; vast expanses of emptiness. In a cell where if I stood in the center I could almost touch every wall, I’d lie in my small bed, and gaze out an even smaller window to a world that was only inches away but forever out of reach.
“You know a tattoo is a hell of a commitment for a question.” Autumn uncapped the wine and poured us two glasses, then sat beside me on the blanket before the fire.
“It was a pretty important question.” Clinking our glasses, I marveled at her skin which was crimson in the hard lighting. The heat of the fire danced over her flesh as if it were almost as amorous for her as I was. “I didn’t want to fuck it up.”
The corners of her lips were lush and deep from the wine as they pulled into a smile. She was still glowing from my proposal. Sliding her fingers along my wrist, I was reminded just how much I yearned for her touch.
Two years was too damn long.
“You’re warm,” she said softly, feeling the years since we were this close with no one watching.
“In that cold cell without you, I had to learn how to burn a little hotter. Here let me show you.” The tips of our noses grazed. Autumn pulled in so much air that I worried she might float away. I reveled in making her light headed and she in how she anchored my heart. She kept me grounded and I kept her from floating away.
We were perfect for one another.
“And now you’re made of fire,” she whispered against my parted lips. Sweat dotted her hairline as if the flames were licking off me and not the campfire.
I knew the truth because I felt it too. It wasn’t the heat, but the anticipation that melted us.
Her relaxed mahogany curls cascaded through my fingers as I eased her past my head. The taste of metal crawled across my tongue as I captured her lucky silver stud in my teeth.
“Do you still pinch your earring when you’re nervous?” I asked, feeling the arch in her chest at my words rumbling directly in her ear.
“No. I think you finally broke me of that habit.”
“It was a tell.” I tilted her chin to the side opening her first to the moonlight then to my mouth. Her throat thrummed between my kisses. “Just like these goosebumps.”
“I guess I’m just destined to wear my emotions on—” Autumn sucked in a barely audible gasp, cutting off her thought as she pulled my shirt over my head. It was the first time she’d seen my scars, tattoos and rows of shredded muscle since I’d been away.
I placed her hand on my bare chest. The firelight made the hard definition of my muscles as dramatic as the mountains that encircled us. Her fingers curled, her nails wore little, red trails down the ridges of my rough, glossy skin.
“You don’t get to have all the fun.” I clasped her wrist when she reached the metal button on my jeans.
Autumn’s eyes widened momentarily, then narrowed into a sultry squint. She began shrugging off her jacket before I squeezed a hand into her shoulder. I shook my head while never letting go of her stare, letting her know that she wasn’t allowed to help.
“Mmm.” She closed her eyes and relaxed into my touch.
I peeled her layers like ripe, delicious fruit. The more her bare skin was exposed the more this all felt like a fever dream. When I pulled off her shirt I felt overwhelmed. No one could look this perfect or be this impossibly sexy.
My heart raced with a crushing worry that I might be dreaming and was about to wake up to the sound of guards dragging their night sticks down the bars in my prison cell.
“Are you alright?” Autumn asked, gently touching the side of my face. Concern marred her features.
“Yeah. Sorry. I just… You know when things feel too good to be true?”
“You mean like when you move into a beautiful home with the love of your life after your mother beats cancer and you rediscover your passion for the work that once made you the happiest?” Autumn asked, cocking her head slightly. “Like that?”
“Yeah.” I laughed. I looked hard at her and sighed with a buzzing joy. “In what world do I live in where, after everything I’ve done, I still get to have someone as incredible as you?”
“This is us now and forever. We finally made it.” The corners of Autumn’s beautiful brown eyes wrinkled as her whole face smiled. Her skin seared mine as she wrapped her arms around. I squeezed her tightly as she sniffled. Her breathing became a staccato rhythm. “We’re OK.”
“I love it when you say that.” I broke the hug to look at her. There was a hurricane in my eyes stealing all her attention. The air between held an electric charge that crackled into our skin. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to deserve you.”
I was going to be a little broken, but as long as I had her, that brokenness wouldn’t be what defined me anymore.
“Dammit, Dante!” Autumn wiped the tears from her cheeks and fanned herself through a wide smile. A pink flush spread across her chest and rolled up her neck. “Are we going to have sex or are you just going to make me cry?”
“This renewed happiness is your fault,” I said, capturing the nape of her neck and diving back in. I walked my lips up her supple skin. “I was content keeping everyone at arms length and running from my problems until they eventually consumed me, but you had to go and show me a better way to live. How dare you fall in love with me?”
“What a heartless bitch I am.” Autumn moaned, reaching behind her and unclasping her bra.
“You’re my heartless bitch.” I grabbed the bit of her bra, between the cups and pulled the whole thing free.
I stole a moment to appreciate her firm, luscious breasts and fought a battle against the urge to wrap my lips around her perky nipples, the desire beating in me like a war drum. Instead, I led her mouth to mine.
She tasted like wine, fresh air and limitless freedom.
I closed my eyes and focused on the texture and passion of the kiss. I used to lay awake at night and fantasize about this moment. I had no idea that it would be better than anything I could possible imagine.
We crushed together, our half naked bodies completing each other. My hard muscle slid against her yielding skin, spiking our temperatures, eclipsing even the campfire.
Tonight, we burned hotter than the stars.
I barely bit back a groan as a wave of arousal rushed from my cock, through my body, to my lips and into her. I wanted her so fucking badly that the lust was bordering on pain.
I pulled her down on top of me and we crashed into the blanket laughing. The horses neighed at the sound then settled and picked at some tufts of grass.
For a moment, Autumn’s form blotted out the firelight and I saw the second most beautiful sight in years. A hundred-million pinpricks of starlight, in the blanket of night, and they all burned just for us
Rolling over to give her a view of eternity, I kissed her neck and watched her eyes become saucers.
The rough denim of our jeans scraped together, and she drove her inner thigh against the rigid, shape of my hardened cock. She didn’t smile as she grinded herself against me; it was more like baring her teeth.
The look of yearning on her face was so hot that the groan I’d repressed earlier spilled out of me. I unhooked her brass button, and slowly parted the teeth of her zipper. My fingers grazed the lacy top of her sexy cotton underwear spurring my impatience on further.
Autumn tore at my pants with reckless abandon, shimmying my pants down to my ankles. I kicked them off, then stole hers as well. Kneeling before her, I watched her eyes snap to the thick outline of my cock that was tenting my formfitting briefs. Her hungry eyes flared like a wolf on the hunt.
She wanted this as bad as I did.
“I can’t believe you waited for me,” I wondered aloud. Autumn was gorgeous, smart, funny in a nerdy, down-to-earth kind of way and so incredibly talented. It still blew my mind that a girl as perfect as Autumn stayed by my side after all that time.
“Please, don’t make me ever do that again.” She eagerly ran her finger from my hip down along the length of my cock. My cock twitched feeling the heat through the thin layer of cotton.
“No. You’re stuck with me now.” I fell over her, punching my fists into the blanket on either side of us. I left enough room between us for the firelight to easily bath us. I saw every soft curve of her sexy, athletic body and she, every flexed muscle and taut tendon that kept me hovering over her.
I dipped my finger into her mouth, then dragged it over her bottom lip, down her neck, chest and tight belly to tug against the rim of her panties. She bucked her hips up for me to go further. I could feel her thumping heartbeat yearning for me.
I pushed Autumn back down when she started to prop herself up. She feign pouted at her helplessness. I lowered my mouth, kissing her chin, then moving on to the bottom of her neck.
“You’re mine; every aching inch of you,” I said. She felt my dark purr through her collarbone which melted her into an Autumn-shaped puddle.
I hiked her hips up and kissed all the way down her body. When I got to her panties, I raised her ass up and tore them off. My sharp smirk so close to her pussy sent a ripple through her body.
She felt every breath as I devoured her inner thigh, owning every part of her except the part she wanted me to. Her pussy glistened, desperate for my touch.
Finally, spreading her apart with my fingers I dragged my tongue across her swollen clit. Autumn gasped, biting into her bottom lip. She watched my pupils darkened and felt the subtle growl that rose in my chest. “You taste like heaven.”
“Fuck!” She let out an adorable squeak. A mild spasm tore through Autumn’s body as my tongue curled wickedly through her wet lips.
I studied her pretty face from between her thighs. She fell apart in my arms when my nibbling caused ecstasy and agony to war through her expression. Those little spikes of pain turned her on so much that she pleaded with me not to stop.
Not that I could if I wanted to, my brain was caramel and gold. It was useless to everything, focusing only on the way she felt writhing beneath me. Her fingers dug into my scalp, pushing me even harder into her. Her toes curled on my back. She didn’t need to say it I could feel how close she was; her body screamed it at me a thousand different ways.
“Yes!” She screamed and squirmed hard as she came. Her thighs clamped shut against my head and shoulders and every other muscle in her body tensed. If I leaned back she’d raise into the air as straight as a board.
The horses startled again, but this was good practice for them. Now that I was home, they were going to have to get used to this.
When the little earthquakes in her hips died, I moved up her body and captured her mouth, letting her taste what drove me wild. Breathing heavy, Autumn wasted no time freeing my cock.
I reached for the condom in my pants, but she pulled it out of my hand.
“Do you still want two boys running around ‘stirring up trouble’?” Autumn asked in the clear-headed wake of post orgasm.
Whenever she’d visit me in jail, the conversation almost always made it to starting a family. Neither of us were sure at the beginning, but the more we talked over the years the more the idea grew on us. The only real family Autumn ever had was her mom, and I barely even had that.
“More than anything.” I decided that the only way to truly wash Mitch from my soul was to do it the right way; teach my children how to grow up to be good people.
“Even if we only have girls?” she asked, teasingly.
“You’ll just have to do it until you get it right.”
“Fuck you!” Autumn laughed and punched me in the chest. “It’s a vagina not a clown car.”
“We can discuss the finer points of your pussy after I’m finished making you scream your lungs out.” I pulled her back into me and clamped my hand over her soaked pussy. The immediate pressure and slow circles I rubbed into her clit, made her start to moan.
She wrapped her fingers around my cock and squeezed, dragging her hand over my engorged tip. Moving on top of her, I covered her hand with mine and dragged the fat head of my cock between her lower lips. I split her pussy, nudging her clit until she started breathing as heavily as before. I teased her slippery opening, making her beg for me.
She thrashed, angling herself to guide me inside, but I was so much stronger than her. With my free hand, I pinned her hips to the blanket. She knew I was fully in control and it made her thighs quiver.
“Don’t be cruel!” Autumn protested, more turned on than I’d ever seen her.
“It’s a hard habit to break.” I grinned mischievously, dipping into her just enough to spread her wide and drive her crazy. “How bad do you want it?”
“Please,” she begged. “Fuck me.”
The last of my willpower spent, I pushed deep into my eager pussy.
She felt amazing. Grabbing her hips, I pulled her tightly into mine. The sensation of her swallowing me down to the root was overwhelming. She shuddered against me and pushed her chin up to the sky.
She crushed my cock sending waves of white hot pleasure into my thrumming balls. Autumn grunted from the hard visceral movement, but both of us were past the point of worrying about embarrassment. We were too far gone to care about anything but each other.
She balled up the blanket and twisted with every deep thrust of my cock. She seemed to melt around me, blurring our lines. I grabbed her wrists and held her down. Her eyes flared with kinky excitement.
Thrusting my pelvis forward like an oiled piston, I felt her every bump and ridge as I grinded hard against the roof of her pussy. Autumn gasped again, gritting her teeth and blinking slowly as if to rub starbursts of color out of her eyes.
As the mounting pressure rose in me, it was more and more difficult to keep pace, but I slowly inched her back to the edge. I saw the pleasure cresting along her furrowed brow.
“Come for me,” I whispered, in a tone more demanding than I’d meant.
“Yes.” She mouthed the word over and over, but no sound escaped her lips. Her hand slipped free of my grasp to crash against my hip. Her nails dug in, the pain spurring me on even faster.
Riding the impending wave of my own climax, I leaned in, licked up her neck, then bore down with a bite that sent another spasm down her core. She flared with heat as she careened over the edge, releasing a hoarse scream.
I felt her orgasm ripple through her lower belly, her aftershocks destroyed me.
I slammed into her, grunting with the enormous release of pressure. I chased her orgasm, drunk on the pleasure of her. My limbs tensed and quivered as I buried my forehead into her chest and let years of my pent up sexual frustrations fill her up.
“Fuck,” I growled, letting the ecstasy envelop me. The word was ripped from my throat as I struggled to catch my breath and slow my thundering heartbeat.
“Was it worth the wait?” Autumn asked, flushed with a rush of endorphins. Her skin burned my lips as I kissed her.
“Fuck.” I growled into her ear. “If I had known it was going to be that good, I’d broken out of prison the first week.”
She started laughing, then brought me up for a proper kiss. When there was enough space between us for the fire to give our forms detail she looked at me, her dark eyes sparkling with the dancing embers of the dying light.
I’d never seen anything more beautiful.
I collapsed next to her, slipping an arm under her head and pulling her into the warm curve of my torso. We were both a sweaty, filthy mess, it was such a great feeling.
Her heart thumped loudly against my ribs, every beat was a monument to defying incredible odds. A ruthless gang, a multibillion dollar production company, we triumphed in the face of the impossible.
“Thanks,” I said, thinking about the life ahead of us as we gazed up at the endless stars.
“For what?” Autumn asked.
I pictured our gorgeous children playing on my family’s estate with their Uncle Frost swinging by just often enough to teach them everything we didn’t want them to know. Grandma Paris would spoil them rotten and Autumn’s Aunt Paula would fly in to tell them all about the strange seasons of the east coast, including my favorite—Autumn.
Between my mom dying so young, my father retreating into his fame and Mitch’s perverse emotional manipulation, my view of what family was had been pretty fucked up.
I finally saw what a loving family was supposed to be, what it could be.
And that was all because of the woman I loved.
I brushed the hair from Autumn’s soft, wonderful face and kissed her.
“Thank you for giving me a second chance at a family.”
END