Epilogue

Mav

"Shit, we're going to be late," I murmured as I slapped Eli on the ass and said, "Get a move on."

"Please tell me you're not actually afraid of Dom," he said with a laugh as he lagged behind me on the narrow trail.

"Of course not," I said. "It's just common courtesy to be on time."

"Family dinners never start on time," Eli said.

"Well, we can be late to the next one, not this one."

"Because it's your first one," Eli suggested.

"Why the hell didn't they just cancel it since Brennan won't be there, which means Zane and Connor won't either?" I grumbled. I felt Eli snag my hand to pull me to a stop.

"Look at you learning everyone's names."

"What? I'm good with names and faces."

"So it had nothing to do with Matty quizzing you with the flashcards Seth made for you?" Eli asked, a broad grin on his face.

"Damn kid," I muttered. "He swore he wouldn't tell."

"I think it's cute that you asked a five-year-old to help you with your homework. "

"Fuck you," I growled. Eli chuckled and pulled me down for a kiss.

"He may or may not have given me a certain doll to help you with your nervousness. I put it in your saddlebag."

I smiled at that and resumed the short walk back to my Harley which was parked near the end of the trail. I hadn't yet had the honor of borrowing the coveted Spiderman doll. Apparently, I couldn't even hide how nervous I was at the prospect of meeting Eli's entire family from the little boy who still refused to let me win at Tic Tac Toe. I'd also been more than a little in awe of Matty who'd somehow managed to memorize all the different people from the flashcards Seth had created since the kid wasn't old enough to read all the names. "Just wait till he has to face all those people when he gets out of the hospital in a week," I grumbled, though I knew Matty would do just fine with Eli's family.

Matty's third round of chemo had come to an end and while he still needed to wait for his white blood cell count to normalize, he was already happily talking to Eli about all the animals the Barretti family members had. If everything went as planned, Hawke, Tate, Seth and Ronan would be bringing Matty to the very next Barretti family dinner. I hadn't expected Ronan to accept the invite when Eli had extended it, but he hadn't hesitated for even a second when Eli had brought it up. The idea of my badass, assassin family members meeting what I knew would one day be my massive family of in-laws was daunting to say the least. With my luck, Hawke who had more kills on his list than several of us combined, would end up sitting next to the straight-laced Captain Declan Barretti.

"And by the way, they were going to cancel, but Brennan asked them not to."

"What?" I asked as I stopped and turned around.

"He thought you might appreciate your first time out to be with a smaller group," Eli said, the humor in his voice on full display.

"You're enjoying this just a little too much," I murmured.

Eli wrapped his arms around my neck. "It's kind of my first time too," Eli said before he brushed a kiss over my lips. I didn't need to ask Eli to explain because I knew what he was talking about. Admitting the truth about what Jack had done to him had finally set Eli free, and while he had a ways to go before he could relinquish the bits of self-doubt that still had him wondering if he hadn't done something or said something to bring what had happened on himself, he was making great strides in accepting that his family had never seen him as an outsider. It had only been a few days since Jack had been arrested, but Eli had been through the wringer more than once.

His mother, Mariana, had arrived in Seattle the following day and hadn't had any clue what was going on until Dom had brought her to mine and Eli's hotel room to break the news to her. It had been brutal. There was just no other word for it. And I'd been there to bear witness to it all. The tears, the guilt, the regret, the anger, the rage, the denial…the emotions had been endless for all three of them. But the best thing that had come from the ordeal, was the decision that Dom, Eli and his mother would seek professional help, both together and individually, to try to deal with the trauma. Mariana had filed for divorce that same day and she'd made arrangements to have hers and Caleb's things sent up from D.C. rather than traveling back there to collect them. When asked what should be done with the house, she'd told her lawyer to find someone to burn the fucker down.

Caleb had been a different story. He'd met with Declan the day after Declan had met with us and he'd shared the same information with him that he had with me, Jace and Eli. When Eli's mother had arrived, she'd told Caleb that they would still be a family and that he would be staying with her in Seattle, but the young man had seemed disinterested. And I suspected the reason why.

Because Jace had left.

I had no idea if Jace had told Caleb if he was going or not, but one day the man had been there and the next day he wasn't. It seemed he'd only been waiting long enough for Eli's mother to arrive to look after Caleb before he'd taken off. Caleb had shut down after that and while there were plans to get him some professional help as well, my gut was telling me it wouldn't be so easy. He'd also be tasked with testifying against his father at some point when Declan worked with the D.A. to add murder charges to the many counts of felony rape the man had already been charged with.

"We need lots of these," I whispered against Eli's mouth.

"Lots of what?"

"Firsts together," I said.

Eli smiled and took my hand in his. "That gives me an idea," he said coyly as he led me across the small stream that was one of many that carried runoff from Mount Rainier. We'd decided on taking the spur of the moment day trip this morning after we'd dropped a still healing Baby off with Eli's mother and Caleb who were staying at the same hotel as us. Fortunately, the dog's injuries hadn't been life threatening, and the first thing I'd done when we'd gotten the Rottweiler back to our hotel room the day after the attack, had been to order him the best cut of steak the hotel restaurant offered.

I had a lot of firsts planned with Eli, one of them being getting a place together. For me, it also meant having a place to call home for the first time in my life. And one day there would be a wedding – a huge first for both of us. I wasn't so sure about kids, but I wasn't ruling them out. I'd ended up enjoying myself at Logan and Dom's during their daughter's sleepover, despite the fact that all the little girls had taken turns brushing and playing with my hair before Eli had come to rescue me from their clutches. And last night I'd had another first when I'd told Eli the truth about what I did for a living. I'd been worried that he would struggle with the fact that Ronan's group worked outside the same law that his own family so strongly believed in, but he'd surprised me when he'd told me he'd already figured as much, considering all the resources that had been used to protect him. There'd been no requests for me to quit the business, which I was grateful for. Would there be a day when it was time for me to get out? Probably. But my work had been one of the few things in my life I'd been proud of, and I suspected it was something only Eli could ever understand about me.

Once we reached my motorcycle which I'd parked in a grove of trees at the trail's head, Eli said, "Climb on." I did as he said and started to grab the helmet for him when he grabbed my hand to stop me. Instead of climbing up behind me, he straddled the bike in front of me so that he was facing me. I was intrigued until he pulled me down for a searing kiss.

After that, I was just crazy with need. I glanced around the trail as Eli tugged his T-shirt off. While we were secluded from the main road, if any hikers came along the trail, they'd end up getting quite the show. But as Eli dropped his shirt to the ground and ran his hands over his chest, I found that I didn't give a fuck and I dragged my own shirt off. Eli pulled me down for a kiss as his hands roamed my back. My man definitely had a thing for my tats, but the snakes were a clear favorite because he played with them every chance he got.

And I'd made sure he had plenty of chances.

Eli's nimble fingers left my back long enough to start working my pants loose and then he pulled my cock out and began stroking me with heavy drags. His thumb kept tracing the ridge beneath the head and just when I was about to demand he get the rest of his clothes off, he released me and climbed off the bike. He took his time getting undressed, despite the chance of discovery. I kept my eyes on him as I pulled a packet of lube from my wallet and lubed myself up.

"I wasn't done playing," Eli said. "Are you still worried about being late?"

"Late for what?" I asked as I grabbed him by the waist and dragged him forward and up onto the bike. I settled him on my lap and kissed him long and hard as I let my lubed fingers push through his crease to search out his hole. Eli gasped against my mouth as I pushed one finger inside of him. With the second finger, he was squirming desperately against me.

"Lie back," I urged as pulled my fingers free from his body and wiped the excess lube on my pants. It took Eli a second to get situated so that his head was resting in the middle of the handlebars. I doubted that the position was very comfortable, but Eli didn't seem to notice because he was wrapping his legs around my waist and trying to work my cock into his crease. I slapped him on the ass in warning and waited until he stilled .

"Grab the handlebars," I said. Once he had a hold of them, I let my hands explore his beautiful chest and tight abdomen. I teased his leaking cock with touches that would do nothing to get him off. When he began bucking his ass against my dick again, I used my hand on his hip to hold him still.

"Please, Mav," he whispered.

"Please what?"

"Fuck me," he said harshly.

When I didn't respond, he picked up on his mistake and said, "Please fuck me, Mav."

I leaned forward to reward him with a kiss and then grabbed my cock and guided it to his opening. He moaned as I began to work my dick inside of him with little, teasing thrusts. I held on to his hips as I kept my feet flat on the ground so I could keep the bike upright. As more of my length sank into him, Eli closed his eyes and bit down on his lip. He twisted his hips trying to draw more of me inside of him.

"Please," Eli ground out and I finally gave him what he wanted and slammed my hips forward, burying myself in one sharp move.

"Yes!" Eli shouted and then he began rolling his hips so that he was the one doing all the fucking. I let him have control for a few minutes as I basked in the pleasure of all his delicious heat. Then I took over.

Eli let out a sharp wail when I rammed into him the first time and I quickly covered his mouth with my hand to muffle his cries of delight. I used my other hand to drag his hips towards mine every time I pushed into him, but after a dozen hard lunges, I found it wasn't quite enough and I leaned down to pull Eli up so that he was sitting astride me. I covered his mouth with mine in time to catch his loud groan as my cock shoved even deeper inside of him. Eli took control of the kiss while I took control of the fucking. He didn't stop even as I fisted his dick in my hand and began jerking him off to match my thrusts. I held off for as long as I could in the hopes that I could watch Eli come first. But he was determined to hold off his own orgasm and when mine crested and crashed in one glorious instance, Eli told me he loved me and went over with me .

There was no doubt in my mind that he'd resisted going over before me because he was keeping his promise to never leave me, even for a moment.

Never again would I have to be the one to leave first just so I wouldn't be left behind.

It was another first Eli had given me and I knew it would be one of many.

The End