EPILOGUE
Scarlett
September
The waves tickled my feet as I walked along the beach and the peace was overwhelming. There was no one else around. Just me. The sand. The waves.
As I walked, I began to feel this sensation pooling in my lower belly. This need.
Confused, I looked around, but I couldn't see anyone.
I couldn’t see anything but the waves, lapping.
Lapping.
That sensation between my legs grew stronger. More needful.
I found myself sitting down in the wet sand, lifting my dress to my waist, spreading my legs and letting the waves rush between them.
I moaned as desire tightened in my gut, pleasure zinging down my legs, and the feeling grew more tangible than a wave. It felt like a tongue lapping at my pussy.
I tensed.
It was a tongue lapping at my pussy.
My eyes flew open, seeing first the ceiling above our bed and then as I felt the strong push of fingers inside me I looked down. My husband's head was between my legs, his eyes on me as he fucked me with his mouth.
The silk nightgown was bunched around my waist, and he'd pulled down the neckline in my sleep, so my breasts were spilling over it.
"Oh my God." I threw my head back, luxuriating in the decadence of this wake-up call.
He ate me with such voraciousness I came a mere few seconds later.
And then Griff was braced over me as he pushed inside me.
“Happy Anniversary, my love,” he groaned against my lips as he glided in and out of me.
I clasped his handsome face in my hands and lifted my hips to meet his slow thrusts. “Happy Anniversary, baby.”
One year of marriage.
Who could believe it?
We kissed, sliding our tongues together in a deep tangle of earthy, morning lust as Griff took his time making love to me.
When we came, it was together, my inner muscles rippling around him in waves as his cock throbbed and pulsed, his cum filling me with a flood of warmth.
It was lazy, sexy lovemaking and I loved it.
In fact, I couldn't make up my mind if I loved it more than when we fucked hard and rough.
I guess with Griff I just loved it all.
When my husband rolled off me, he moved across the bed and yanked open the drawer in his nightstand. I took that time to pull the neckline of my nightie back up and push the hem back down. Rolling back to me Griff bent his elbow on my pillow and rested his head in his hand. Then he handed me a small velvet box with a bow on top.
It looked like jewelry.
Ooh.
I bit my lip and grinned. “For me?”
“You know it.” He kissed my nose as I took it.
“What could it be?” I mused as he caressed my stomach.
“Open it and find out.” He tickled his fingers over the silk covering my nipple.
“Stop it,” I laughed, trying to pull away.
“Then open the box.”
So I did.
The ring glittered in the light. “Oh Griff,” I breathed.
"It's an eternity ring," he said softly, reaching for my left hand as he slipped the ring out of the box. It was a white gold band set with alternating diamonds and aquamarine gemstones. Griff pushed it over my ring finger, and it sat beautifully against my engagement ring. "I thought about getting something more precious like emeralds. But these stones are the exact color of your eyes."
Which at the moment were filled with tears. “Griff, it’s beautiful.” I turned to him in wonder. “Thank you.”
He squeezed my hand in his. “The last time I slipped a ring on your finger I didn’t say I loved you. But I want you to know that I loved you even then. I knew I loved you when we stood outside that prison and you’d just found out Mel had deceived you. I knew it then because I couldn’t stand to see you in pain. Your pain was my pain.”
I reached for him, the rings sparkling on my finger as I caressed his face. “I knew I loved you when you found out the truth about who I was. I didn’t want to admit it either. But I knew deep down… because I was so afraid of losing you.”
Griff kissed me. Hard. Until I was on my back again and his hands were pushing my legs apart. “Stop,” I huffed and laughed as I broke the kiss. “I still have to give you your present.”
“This is my present.” He mouthed my breast over the silk, laving at my nipple.
"Actually one of your gifts is part of that, but first," I playfully shoved him aside and reached into my bedside drawer. "Isn't it funny we both kept them in here?"
“More proof we spend too much time together,” he teased, rolling off me to give me room to move.
“No such thing,” I harrumphed.
I pushed up to sitting to reach for the envelope and wrapped present and handed him the envelope first.
“You didn’t have to get me anything,” he muttered.
I ignored that silliness.
He opened the anniversary card, and the airline tickets and a key fell out. Lifting them up his brow furrowed. "Open tickets to Tahiti." He picked up the keys and quirked an eyebrow.
"Do you know that money you gave me?" Not too long after the horrendous encounter with Pete, Griff announced he was opening a bank account for me. Inside it was a scary amount of money I couldn't hope to get through, and he told me I was to use it for whatever I needed.
He narrowed his gaze. “Yes.”
“Well, I talked to Quentin about investing in something.”
“Okay…”
"I bought you a villa off a little island in Tahiti… so anytime you need to decompress, destress, and fuck your wife's brains out in total privacy, you can do it surrounded by white sands and Tahitian blue oceans."
Griff stared at me for a second.
I deflated. “You hate it.”
He shook his head. “It’s perfect. The best time of my life was on that island with you last Christmas.”
Relieved I grinned. “Me too. That’s why…” I gestured to the key. “And you should see it, Griff. It’s beautiful. And all yours.”
“All ours,” he corrected, bending his head to kiss me in thanks.
“I got you something else,” I muttered against his mouth when it became apparent he was planning on kissing me some more.
He scowled. “The villa was more than enough.”
I laughed. "Well if you're sure." I ripped open the parcel, and his eyes dropped to the tube of lube and flew to me in comical round-eyed questioning. "I can just put this in the trash."
His voice was thick when he asked, “What’s that for?”
Nervous excitement fluttered in my belly, but I hid it with a teasing frown. "Well I was planning on gifting you my ass this anniversary but if you don't want it."
My husband growled and lunged for the tube and my mouth at the same time. He swallowed my laughter in his kiss, but soon I was panting with too much excitement as he hauled me onto my stomach. He pushed my dress up, caressing my ass and I felt his chest shudder against my back. "You're sure?"
I looked over my shoulder at him as he sank his whole body against me, his weight as erotic as the feel of his hard cock digging into the crevice of my cheeks. “I’m a little nervous but yes.”
“If you hate it, we stop,” he promised.
I’m not going to lie, it hurt at first, even with the lube. I’d never felt such overwhelming, burning thickness inside me before.
But between the uncontrolled expletives falling from Griff's mouth as he shook with lust, and the unexpected tug of desire in my belly as he glided slowly back out, I got into it.
It was pleasure-pain like I’d never experienced before.
I was soaked because I was so turned on by how hot for it Griff was.
That unexpected tug of sensation from his temporary retreat and the plunge of his fingers inside my sex somehow worked with the burning pain of his cock’s invasion.
I came, and it was good, but the rippling of my pussy around his fingers wasn't enough to truly satisfy me.
Griff, however, was cursing and groaning and muttering as he made love to my ass. "God, Scarlett, fuck me, fuck, you're so tight, so fucking unbelievably tight, fuck…. Fuck!" he tensed for a second and then I cried out at the unbearable swelling of his cock inside me.
I winced as he gently pulled out and felt his cum drip down between my legs.
“Jesus fuck, that’s hot,” he said, his voice guttural.
The tension released from my body and I sagged into the bed.
Griff stumbled out of it and disappeared into the bathroom. When he came back, I felt a warm washcloth on my skin as he cleaned me. His heat surrounded me as he braced himself over me. "You're quiet."
Hearing the concern in his voice, I turned to face him. "I enjoyed it," I assured him.
He smirked. “Not as much as me.”
I snorted. “There’s no woman alive who enjoys that as much as a man enjoys it. But we can do it again.” I caressed his face as he settled over me between my legs. “I like how hot it gets you.”
“I’m not going to lie,” he murmured, “It does. You’re tighter there than you can imagine… but the truth is…” he hesitated.
“The truth is?”
“Don’t get angry.”
“Oh God, what is it?”
His eyes blazed with possessiveness as he confessed, “I like knowing I’ve fucked every inch of you. That I’m the only man that ever has. That’s what makes me hot.”
“Why would I be angry?” I wrapped my legs around his back, drawing him closer. “I like that too.”
“It does make me very hot,” he started caressing my breasts. “But nothing makes me hotter than feeling your cunt tighten around me, to see your tits bouncing with my thrusts, and to come inside you as I stare into those gorgeous fucking eyes of yours. To fill you up as you look me in the eyes, turned on, telling me you love me.”
“Good,” I whispered back. “That’s the way I like it too.” then I reached back for the lube and chucked it back in the drawer. “But it’s there.” I grinned at him. “So you can fuck me in the ass anytime you feel like it.”
“God,” Griff groaned, burying his head in my neck, his bristled cheek scratching deliciously against my skin, “Your filthy mouth undoes me.”
He was right, it did. He was already growing hard between my legs.
“We need to get out of bed,” he muttered even as he rocked his erection against me.
"It's our first wedding anniversary." I reached between our bodies, clasped him in hand and guided him to my entrance. "We can make love all day if we want."
Griff pushed inside me and lifted his head to stare into my eyes as he moved. "I want."
If anyone ventured into the apartment for the next few hours all they would have heard was the sound of my husband giving me multiple orgasms.
The eternity ring was beautiful.
I loved it.
But the many orgasms and multiple declarations of his devotion were my favorite presents of the day.
◆◆◆
Griffin
As Scarlett and I walked into the restaurant, I glanced at her for the millionth time. There was a flush on her cheeks and a glitter in her eye that could only be put there by me. My wife had drained me dry that day.
We’d been rolling in bed for hours and only just remembered our dinner plans with Amelia and Quentin at the last minute.
Since their baby girl, Ophelia, came into the world a month ago, I'd barely seen them. Scarlett often visited, keeping Amelia company, but for Amelia's sanity, Quentin had insisted they hire a part-time nanny so she could get some rest.
“You look like you’ve just been thoroughly fucked,” I murmured in my wife’s ear as the waiter led us to our table.
"Well, whose fault is that," she murmured back.
We shared a smile and then greeted our friends us.
“Happy Anniversary!” Amelia announced.
"Thank you. You look well," I said as we took our seats.
“Thank you.” she beamed.
"Yes, pregnant women everywhere hate you for having looked so amazing pregnant and then getting your figure back immediately," Scarlett added. She threw me a worried look. "Be prepared. When it's our turn, I'm going to be huge. My mother was huge. I've seen the pictures."
Like I cared. “You’ll be giving birth to a human being, my love, it comes with the territory.”
“You won’t mind?”
I gave her a look that told her that didn’t even deserve an answer.
She smiled smugly.
Fuck she was adorable.
“So Quentin and I have a gift for you,” Amelia reached for her husband’s hand, “And we hope it’s a gift you’ll like.”
My wife and I shared curious looks.
Quentin urged Amelia to continued.
She beamed at us. “We want you to be Ophelia’s godparents.”
Surprise rooted me to the chair.
Scarlett gasped. “Are you serious?”
"Yeah," Quentin answered. "If anything, God forbid, were to happen to Amelia and me, I would rest easy knowing my kid was being raised by you guys."
Moved by my friend's words I couldn't speak.
Scarlett’s eyes were filling with tears.
“We thought about who was in our lives,” Amelia added, “My parents, family, friends, and who was most like us. Who we thought would raise Ophelia the way we would want her to be raised. And we know it’s you two.”
Since Scarlett wasn’t speaking, I cleared my throat. “I’m humbled. Honored.”
“Me too,” my wife burst out and covered her mouth as a sob came with it. “This means so much.” she scrambled for a napkin.
“Then that’s a yes?” Amelia asked.
Locking gazes, Scarlett and I nodded at each other and then at our friends. “That’s a yes.”
“Then we have two things to celebrate.” Quentin gestured to a passing waiter. “Champagne for the table, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
I felt a touch on my hand and looked down to see Scarlett had reached over to clasp it in hers. My gaze flew to her face.
My breath caught at her expression.
“Happy?” I asked.
Scarlett nodded and then mouthed, “I love you.”
Peace I never thought I’d ever feel saturated me. This woman had blazed into my life and changed me in ways I’d never have imagined. Somehow she made my relationships with the people I cared about stronger. She gave me that. And she gave me the kind of love I never knew existed in real life.
Scarlett Jennings Mandeville was fucking magnificent.
And she was all mine.
I mouthed back, "I love you, too." And then I spoke, and it was a promise I knew I'd never break. "Forever."