Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Cyrus

One year later

“Hi. How can I help you?” I asked the customer who stepped up to the counter at Tranquil Brew.

I’d started working here last year. Melody hired me part-time for summer and fall before the snow came. It was an adjustment. Neither Crow nor I were good at being away from each other, but I believed it was important. Crow struggled with it in the beginning. He feared I would want to leave him, that he wasn’t enough for me, but we’d worked through those fears together.

The woman ordered her latte and a smoothie for her child. They paid, her son hiding behind his mom’s leg, peeking at me around it with a shy smile. I’d been like that when I was young—quiet, hiding behind Mom because it felt like she could protect me from anything.

I signaled to the customer, quietly asking if I could give him a cookie. When she nodded, I pulled one out, wrapped it in a napkin, then handed it to him. He gave me a huge smile in return, one that looked too big for his face, and gave me a quiet thank-you before they went to sit down while I made their drinks.

I didn’t make a lot of money at the coffeehouse, but I liked the independence. It was important to me that I made some money too. Even though Crow mostly refused to take it, I needed to chip in.

And as much as I loved being on the mountain with Crow, the social aspect was good for me too. Or at least, that’s what my therapist said. Crow and I had both started virtual therapy sessions. It wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with, but it was definitely new for Crow. He was struggling with it a lot more than I was and still didn’t completely trust his therapist. When she’d mentioned that our obsession with each other might not be the best—that we could love each other, but that Crow shouldn’t be my reason for existing, nor me his—he’d nearly lost it. But she’d tried to make him understand, and it helped when I told him my therapist said the same thing. It was something we were both aware of and would work on. We were trying, and that’s what mattered. One step at a time. That’s all we could do.

I made the drinks and handed them over. There were more customers now, sitting at tables with their computers or talking with friends.

Melody came out of the back, wiping her hands on a towel. “Izzy and I are going furniture-shopping this weekend. I can’t believe I’m getting a house with my girlfriend. How exciting is that?”

“It is.” I liked Isabelle a lot. She was a nurse, and incredibly kind, and most importantly, she adored Melody and treated her great. My friend deserved the best, and she’d found it in Isabelle. I hung out with the two of them often, and a few times Crow joined us. It was different for him. He still didn’t eat at restaurants, and being in town made him uncomfortable, but we did things like go to quiet parks or spend the day at the lake.

But I could tell that Crow was getting more comfortable around them. The first couple of times, he didn’t speak at all, but now he would, though he was quieter than the rest of us. Melody and Isabelle were great about it, though, supportive, and never treated him like something was wrong with him. Again, one step at a time.

“I want to ask her to marry me. Will you go ring-shopping with me?”

“God yes. Just let me know when, and I’ll tell Crow.”

“Thank you.” She squeezed my hand just as someone came into the coffeehouse.

I felt Crow before I saw him, my skin immediately tingling and my insides feeling more at peace the way it always was around him. I looked up and gave him a smile, Crow returning it, and damn, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. There was nothing like being the person who could make him do that, nothing like being the one he aimed it at.

“Stop drooling,” Melody teased, and pretended to wipe my mouth.

“Ha-ha.”

Crow approached the end of the counter, where we stood. He used to not come in at all, but now he did, though he never ate or drank anything from the coffeehouse, even if I was the one who made it.

“Hi, Crow. How are you?” Melody asked him.

I saw the flash of discomfort in his eyes, but I didn’t think anyone else would notice.

Softly, he said, “Good. How are you?”

“I’m good. Can’t wait to get off work. Moving takes a lot out of you.”

He nodded, and I told him, “Mel is going to propose to Isabelle. I’m going ring-shopping with her soon.”

“Congrats,” Crow told her, offering her a smile, then looked at me, head cocked, seeming unsure of something, but I couldn’t tell what.

“Anyway, I’m out of here. I’ll see you soon.” I hugged Melody, took off my apron, and headed around the counter to Crow.

When I reached him, he hooked his finger beneath my chin and tilted my head up. “Missed you.”

“I always miss you,” I replied, then melted when he pressed his lips to mine.

“Swoon!” Melody teased, and I gave her the finger, being sure to hide it from the customers.

*

“Saw Billy,” Crowsaid when we got in the truck, and I immediately stiffened. Billy still liked to give Crow a hard time, and that extended to me now. It wasn’t as bad as it could be, and Officer Paulson was a good ally for us, but still. I was used to bullies, and it was easier for me to ignore than it was for Crow, but his therapist had been working with him on coping mechanisms.

“Did anything happen?”

“Ignored him. It was…hard.”

“Good job, baby.” I reached over and palmed his cock. “I’ll reward you by getting you hard in a good way when we get home.”

He growled.

My dick got hard.

Just an everyday occurrence for us.

Crow was quiet the rest of the drive home. I could tell something was on his mind, but I knew it was best to let him work through it.

We got home and didn’t end up having sex, but Crow cooked dinner while I told him about my workday.

Afterward, I got on my knees for him, holding his cock in my mouth, which comforted us both. Crow ran his fingers through my hair, gaze intense on me, so much love focused on me that it nearly stole my breath.

“Do you want that?” he asked eventually.

I pulled off him. “Want what?”

“To be married. I didn’t… It’s not something I ever thought about.”

Oh, my sweet, bighearted mountain man. That’s why he’d looked unsure when I’d mentioned Melody proposing. “I don’t need that. I know who we are to each other. There are legal things we might want to consider that can help if one of us gets sick or if something happens to one of us…but I don’t need to be married. Do you want that?”

“I want you,” he replied simply.

“You have me. Always. It’s not something we have to worry about now, but we can revisit it in the future. We can have something here, just the two of us—and whoever performs the ceremony, of course. Maybe Mel and Isabelle?”

He pulled me up so I straddled him. “Mine,” Crow said, then tugged me down and kissed me.

Maybe I liked this whole marriage idea more than I thought I would.

*

Five years later

My heart racedwith the speed of a cheetah and the thud, thud, thud of a stampede of elephants. My lungs were tight, struggling to pull air as I ran through the woods. I jumped over a log, then ducked behind a tree, trying to give myself a moment to settle down.

“Where are you, little lamb? I can hear you breathing. You know I’m going to find you. I always find you.”

Crow’s voice sent a shiver down my spine. He definitely always found me, and I always wanted to be found…eventually, but for this game that we loved to play, the fear of getting caught, feeling stalked, like his prey, was what we both wanted.

His feet crunched on leaves and branches, getting closer and closer. Just as Crow came around the right side of the tree, I darted left and took off running again. There was no doubt in my mind that Crow could catch me, but he wouldn’t, not until we were both ready for it.

I stumbled down a small hill, nearly losing my balance, but I managed to stay on my feet. I wasn’t as good as Crow, of course, but I’d learned to know our mountain fairly well myself. Knew the exact path I needed to take to get to the spot where we’d agreed Crow would take me.

I climbed over a large rock, then looked behind me, a quick glance over my shoulder. With his hair hanging in loose strands around his face, Crow looked more feral than he had any right to.

I ran beneath the tree stand we sometimes used, then down another small hill.

“I’m going to catch you,” Crow called out, even closer now, because yes, he was about to catch me. We were almost at the trees where—

Arms wrapped around my waist, Crow pulling me tight against his body. “You’re mine,” he said, voice low and gravelly, mouth close to my ear.

“Yours,” I confirmed. “Please.”

Crow didn’t let go of me as he started to work my shorts open with one hand. We were prepared, my hole already stretched and lubed. He bent me over, my hands braced on one of the trees.

“You can run, but I’ll always catch you, always claim you and remind you who you belong to.”

“Please, baby,” I said again, not pretending I wanted anything other than what I did.

Crow ripped his own pants open, shoved them down, then shoved into me with one smooth thrust of his hips. My body molded around him. It was tight, and I felt stretched and full, but it was just the way I liked it, our bodies exactly what the other needed.

Crow pulled back, then snapped his hips forward again, cock rubbing against my prostate. My dick was already throbbing, balls full. I wouldn’t last long, neither of us would, but this kind of sex wasn’t about drawing it out—it was about just the two of us, torn down to nothing but our most basic need for each other.

Crow fucked me hard and deep, his groin smacking against my ass. A squirrel ran away from us, birds rushing from the trees, the two of us chasing them away.

“I’m going to fill you with my cum, make you smell like me all day, going to mark you all up so everyone knows you’re mine.”

He threaded our fingers together on the tree, the silver rings we wore shining. We’d gone back and forth for years, trying to decide if we wanted to get married or not. Eventually we’d decided we would, if for no other reason than to make sure we had every legal right to each other as we could have—if one of us got sick, the other wanted to be able to be there. While I had nothing to give, Crow decided it would be easier if the property belonged to both of us, in case anything happened to him.

We had married on the mountain, with only Melody, Isabelle, and Officer Paulson as our witnesses. It was one of the best days of my life.

“Do you want that? Want me to fill you with my cum? Want to feel it running down your legs all day?”

“Yes, God yes.” Crow’s dirty-talk game was improving, and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited about it.

“Ask me.”

“Please come inside me.”

“You only get my cum when I get yours.” Crow spit in his free hand, wrapped it around my cock, and began to stroke. He jerked me off while thrusting fast and hard inside me.

Suddenly Crow pulled out and flipped me, turning me so my ass was against the tree. He lifted me, I opened my legs, and he shoved again.

“Wanted to see what’s mine,” he growled, gaze holding mine.

I loved it when he looked at me when we fucked, loved watching all the emotions playing across his face. My pleasure grew and grew, and I wanted to give him my load so he would give me his.

I wrapped my legs around him as he pounded me. My hand went to my dick, and I jerked myself off. My vision went blurry, the pressure inside unable to stay contained. I cried out, cock spurting, dizzy as I gave Crow exactly what he wanted.

“Mine,” he said against my neck, then bit down. I spurted again, Crow’s cock twitching inside me as he filled me the way he’d promised.

“God, that was good. So perfect.”

Crow pulled me to him.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “For loving me.” He brushed his fingers against my nape, then around to the front, drawing a familiar picture in my freckles.

“You don’t have anything to thank me for. I’m so fucking lucky I get to love you.”

I pressed my lips to his, kissing him until my jaw hurt and the cum dried between us.

“We need to get home,” I said eventually. “Mel and Izzy will be here soon. We need to clean up before they arrive.”

Crow groaned, but I knew he liked it. He made friends with them for me, but he enjoyed them too. They were the only ones to ever be in our house, and it was rare, but we had them over.

While some things had gotten much better, Crow would always be very specific about others: He refused to eat in restaurants, but would get something from Tranquil Brew as long as either me or Mel made it. Mel and Izzy had us over for dinner sometimes, and the first times he wouldn’t eat, but now he did. They were the only two people he trusted other than me.

And things had gotten better in Tranquility too. Most people left us alone. Four years ago Billy had gone to prison for burglary, and once he wasn’t around, his friends stopped bothering us.

Still, Crow hated to go to town, the mountain the only place he really wanted to be, but it was where I wanted to be too. It felt like our own world up here, like a piece of heaven made just for us, where I was safe and loved and comfortable.

Where I could sit in my room for days and not leave the bed if I wasn’t feeling well, where we grew our food, worked on vehicles, and lived a life that was perfect for us.

“If you insist.” Crow pulled up my underwear and jeans first, then took care of his own. He held my hand as we made our way back to the house. “I need to take orders to the post office tomorrow.”

He’d started selling his artwork online. Crow drew and painted nature and animals, and he had quite the following. No one knew who he was, just a man named Crow who painted nature like he was one with it.

“Okay. We can do it when I go to work.”

We got home, where the painting of Annalise that Crow had done three years ago hung above the fireplace. We’d burned the one of The Enlightened long before that.

We showered together, and then Crow pointed to my stool in the kitchen. I rolled my eyes, pretending not to like his bossiness as I sat there and watched him make dinner.

Mel and Izzy arrived not long after that. We had roast and potatoes, and laughed a lot, all of us happy, and then they headed back to town at about eight.

Afterward, we bathed together, Crow washing me and me him before we climbed into our bed.

“I love you,” Crow said into the dark, stroking my hair. “You are…everything to me. My salvation, my reason for being.”

I climbed on top of him, his arms wrapping around me as I nuzzled my face into his hair. “I love you, Crow. You’re my reason too.”

And he would be my reason for everything, every day, for the rest of my life.

Just like I knew I would be his too.

Want more Riley Hart? Look for Morgan, book one in The Swift Brothers series.

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