EPILOGUE
NOVA
JUNE
Fourteen Months Later
I stare at my phone, barely able to see it in the glint of the warm June sun.
Arms come around my waist, and Zeke’s lips are on my neck. I sink into him like I always do.
“Hey,” he whispers as he steals the coffee from my hand with a laugh.
I gasp. “You jerk.”
He takes a big sip. “I need it. I can’t wait. Mainline it. I’m going to strangle Del.”
“Why, what’s she doing now?” I reach for the cup, but he spins away from me, taking another big chug.
“Millie’s birthday parties are getting out of control. Something is going on with her, and we are all paying the price for it.”
I laugh and wait for Zeke to relax his shoulders before I steal my cup back.
“Del wasn’t made for this place, Zeke. I think you all know that.”
Zeke gets a faraway look on his face. One by one, the Strykers are falling, and Del is left behind. The forgotten sister. I understand what that can do to a person. A pang of missing Dru hits me again.
“Is he up?” Zeke asks, pulling me in for a hug and kissing me as I shake my head. “How long ago did he go down?”
I smile against his kiss, and a laugh escapes me, along with a small spike of nausea. God, I need to tell him before the puking sets in. I just can’t right now.
“About ten minutes ago,” I say, gasping as he lifts me and wraps my legs around his waist.
“Perfect.” He sneaks us straight into the bedroom.
“I think you’re a little jacked up on caffeine right now,” I say at his buzzing energy. “But I approve.”
He lays me down on the bed and pushes my shirt up to kiss my stomach, his fingers pinching at the button on my jeans.
“I don’t know what it is, but I can’t fucking stand how beautiful you are right now. I just—” he says, kneeling up to pull my pants and underwear off in one go. “I just have to have you.”
He settles between my legs, and I almost tell him that I know why. But the words are replaced by a gasp as the heat of his tongue explodes through my body.
Zeke
She’s been driving me crazy for days. The way she glances at me or stares with this look in her eye. I have this overwhelming urge to claim her and destroy her while at the same time wrapping her up in every bit of love and affection I have.
I savour the small noises she’s trying to suppress, and it comes out as a rocking of her hips against my tongue. I squeeze her thigh and glide my hand up her shirt to cup her breast. They feel bigger and fuller, and I fight the urge to move up her body and bury myself in her right now.
Until she’s coming down from an orgasm and I’m feeling like a fucking god, I stay down here, tasting every bit of her.
She reaches down and grabs my shoulders, yanking me up her body and pressing her mouth to mine. Her fingers stumble frantically on my pants, and I kick them off desperately like I can’t get to her fast enough. This is our way now, partly because I can’t wait. I need her all the time. But partly because every moment we’re alone, I hear the ticking clock. Meals, naps, schedules, all of it.
She digs her nails into my back as I sink into her, and we both pause to breathe. To live in this sensation. There are moments outside of sex where I feel more emotionally connected to Nova—acts of intimacy and vulnerability. But these moments are more carnal in a way that others aren’t. The way I can tap into that need to claim her, her desire to own me, pushes beyond basic emotion.
She rocks her hips to start the movement, and I match her, taking her chin in my hand and kissing her hard, absorbing her moaning breaths.
When we’re both spent, I collapse on top of her, breathing in her damp skin and slowing my heaving shoulders. She traces her fingers along my spine.