Epilogue
I’ll be honest…it wasn’t easy to make it work with Cole after all that happened. We loved each other, and we knew that, but there were times that we both hated what had happened and took it out on each other, leading to fights and tears. I felt guilty during these times and wondered if we had a fighting chance.
Other times, the past would turn us on, and we’d go at it like animals. It was rough and hard, punishing in my mind as I screamed his name. I didn’t know whether I preferred that to our sweet lovemaking after a fight some nights, but the truth of the matter was that I loved Cole more than anything. I let the past with Brett go and he tried to make it work for a few more months with Mom, who never learned about our torrid and dysfunctional affair. She only knew that Cole and I developed feelings for one another and acted on them.
Brett was moved out by the time January was over, into his own place and dating again. I’ll admit it was weird, but he wasn’t anything more than a man that my mother married at that point, giving me the love of my life and my future.
Cole and I spent the nights at my apartment. We did a variety of things together; dates, dinners, movies and sports for him but they always ended in my bed. His kiss heated me up months later, making me weak and needy all over again even after the worst fight.
One night, we’d stayed in watching movies with a fire burning in the large fireplace that was the focal point of my living room. We were a year from graduating and looking forward to getting jobs and changing things up a bit. He looked around the room, lit only with an orange glow and cozy before he leaned over to kiss me. Cole knew what he was doing as he tilted his head and deepened the kiss easily. I smiled against him as I allowed him to part my lips and slide his tongue against mine, finding it hard to breathe like every other time he kissed me. His hands quickly scooped me up and over his body, where I felt his hard cock pressing into the yoga pants that I wore as I rocked against him. “Feeling a little frisky?” I asked as he pulled away to kiss my neck slowly.
“We’ve been studying. A lot. I need to be inside of you where I belong,” Cole whispered in my ear as I shivered and found his lips with mine. We’d been going strong for months now, coming up on a year. I felt his mouth crash against mine as he gripped my ass to hold me still, teasing me with the thrusting of his hips. I cried out as he sucked my earlobe into his mouth, finding my clit with the rough edge of his jeans as he continued to torment me.
Clothes were stripped quickly in between long kisses, and he lifted me up before he drew my nipple into his mouth. I closed my eyes and tried to rock against him, but he held me tight as I whimpered his name. “Cole…oh God. I need you so bad.” I realized that it had been a busy week with studying and just falling asleep together in complete exhaustion. I pulled him closer to me and slid my feet through the cushions as I found him hard and bare, sliding back and forth against his cock as I moaned.
“Fuck, Larisa. You’re so wet,” Cole groaned as he bit down and made me jerk hard. “I can’t take this anymore.” I went on the pill right after we got together so we wouldn’t have to worry about condoms, once we got tested for anything. That was awkward, but we made it through, and I felt the heat of him as he lifted me and impaled me on him with one fluid movement. “So tight. So fucking tight. Fuck me baby. I need your hot cunt,” Cole chanted as I found leverage and started grinding against him hard and fast. He was thick and hard, filling me as I rode him, his lips and teeth still finding my skin with the movement as I whimpered and cried. “I love you, Ris. I love you so much.” He came hard along with me as I told him how much I loved him back, holding me close as our sweaty skin slipped together with our heat. “I want to live with you. I want to make this official, Lis. Please…I’m ready.”
I pulled away and stared at him for a long moment as his gaze locked with mine. We took some time with the relationship, not talking about living together or anything too soon. We still spent the night together almost every night, but his words changed everything. “I am, too. Will you move here or do you want to get another place?” We had a lot of memories here now, and he kissed me softly as I closed my eyes.
“This will do until we can get a house after graduation. I just need to know I’m waking up with you every morning and go to sleep with you every night,” Cole said against my mouth before he kissed me again.
Six months later, Cole was taking me from behind before we had to leave for school in just a few minutes. I held on to the sheets and pressed back against him as I cried out his name. Cole held onto my hips as he thrust deep and hard and moaned my name before I exploded and screamed with my release. I dropped to the bed and took a ragged breath and closed my eyes. “I don’t want to go to class,” I murmured as he rolled onto his side next to me and pulled me close.
“Let’s stay in bed,” Cole suggested as I opened one eye and looked at him. He moved and reached over to his side of the bed and looked back at me with a smile. “We can celebrate with dinner later.”
“Celebrate what?” I asked as I crawled up to the pillows and curled up.
He held up a dark velvet box, and my mouth dropped open. “I’ve been friends with you for so long now, Lis. We’ve been through a lot as friends and lovers now, and I want you to be my wife. I want you in my life forever. Will you marry me?”
I moved quickly and pounced on him with renewed energy as I kissed him. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, baby. I should’ve planned a bigger event to ask you and I was going to, but I had the ring, and we were here. It struck me to ask you now.” He gave me a rueful grin as I smiled and wiped at the tear sliding down my cheek. “Can you forgive me?”
“Yes, Cole. I can’t believe this,” I sobbed as he opened the box and pulled out the ring. “I can’t wait to marry you.” He took my shaking hand and slipped the ring on my finger before he rolled me over and stared into my eyes.
“You’re mine, baby. I love every part of you, and I know that I can’t live without you. I am aware that you need to be in my future, now and forever.” I looked from his face to the ring, a band of smaller diamonds that surrounded a bigger stone, though nothing that was gaudy or too big for my smaller hand. It was simple and beautiful and almost more than I felt that I was worthy of in my darker moments.
“It’s beautiful, Cole,” I kept staring at it as the tears slid down my cheeks and wonder filled my heart. “So beautiful.” That was the only day that I skipped school, to stay in bed with him making love before we went out to dinner to celebrate over candlelight with wine.
We got married at a small, quaint church a year later after we graduated, ready to start our new lives. Our families were there; both of our parents with their latest significant others of a few months and seemingly happy. I’d like to think that it was a typical family situation, but deep down I understood that it was far from that. I was happy, though, and my new husband loved me completely and without end, and that I loved him just as much.
Thanks to a bad batch of birth control pills, I surprised Cole with a pregnancy two months after the wedding, and we had something else to adjust to. He took it with stride and hurried in finding us a starter house and working on it daily so it was ready for our new arrival. I was sick through most of the nine months and ended up staying home instead of finding a job, but Cole took that responsibility on and did that for me as well.
We made love every night before we fell asleep together, me with raging hormones thanks to the baby and him with the last hint of energy sometimes. It was sweet and slow sometimes and at other hard and fast. I was insatiable. I needed everything that he could give me.
Our daughter Elena Rose was born in the Fall, and after a long birth, I snuggled her in my arms and looked down at her tiny, beautiful face wrapped in her pink blanket while Cole sat with me on the bed to stare at her with me. We were alone after a long day, and I felt the tears in my eyes as I turned my head to look at him. “She’s so pretty. Isn’t she pretty, Cole?”
“Beautiful, just like you, baby,” Cole told me as he slipped an arm around me and kissed my hair before he pressed his lips gently to her soft forehead.
“She was worth it, all of it,” I declared, finally at peace with everything. I’d heard that before from people and never quite got it, but I wouldn’t trade anything for this moment; for my daughter. Life was going to change drastically, and we’d have a lot to adjust to, but I was confident that I could handle all of that with Cole by my side.
I knew that we could take on the world. We’d already been through so much, all for this. All for her.