Epilogue

Epilogue

Daniel

Five Years Later

I’m late for back to school night.

I hate running behind. Hate knowing Tatum is waiting for me, wondering where I am. The very thought of her being disappointed has me wiping sweat from my brow while crossing the street toward the elementary school our son attends. I don’t disappoint my wife—not fucking ever. But thanks to a shipment arriving just as I locked up Comeback Comics for the day, the delay was unavoidable. I’m fifteen minutes behind.

When I reach the front of the school, I’m about to jog up the steps to the main entrance, until I realize I can see our son’s classroom from the street. It’s lit up, full of parents. No kids. They’re all home with grandparents—or a babysitter, like Daniel Jr.

I step onto the grass and peer through the window, my gaze seeking out my wife immediately, my cock growing the moment I find her in the back of the room, leaning against the wall in her pretty blue dress, listening intently to the teacher. Her purse is at her feet, sketchpad sticking up out of the top, as usual.

God, I’m so proud of her.

She doesn’t know it yet, but today’s shipment contained her very first edition of her first published comic—Truck Stop Idol. It will be waiting on the front window display when we arrive for work in the morning and I can’t wait to see her light up. Can’t wait to tell her how proud she makes me. To be her best friend, her husband, the father of her child. Her lover.

Yeah. I’m her lover. Although that word doesn’t really describe what we do together in bed. Not completely. I’m her lover at times, yes, when she wants it sweet and slow. Usually when she’s getting close to her period and feeling emotional. I stroke deep, look her in the eye and tell her she’s perfect, because hell, that’s what she is. Other times, I’m the man who holds her throat and fucks her face down in the storage room of the shop. I’m the man who takes her home on our lunch break and licks her clit until she breaks, sobbing and shaking and lacking in any filter. Those are my favorite times. When her guard is totally down and she admits to being obsessed with me. The way I’m fucking obsessed with her. Endlessly. Madly.

I’ve got a hotel room booked for tonight. After back to school night ends. I’m going to rip her pretty blue dress to shreds to get at those big, beautiful tits.

Just as I’m willing myself to look away from the perfection of Tatum and join the rest of the parents, I notice a man behind her. Notice him leaning forward to say something in my wife’s ear, brushing a strand of hair out of the way in order to do it. And I see her shoulders stiffen, eyes going round with alarm. My heart drums uncontrollably in my chest, rage turning my blood to boiling. What the fuck did I just witness? Did that man just make a pass at my wife?

Yeah.

He did.

I can tell by the way Tatum moves to a different part of the room, hugging her elbows. Searching the entrance of the classroom for me.

I’m running before I know I’ve moved.

On the way to the room, I know this is bad. I know damn well how capable I am of violence. After all, I slaughtered a dozen men to keep Tatum safe five years ago. I made positive back then that no danger could ever touch her—or our family—again. I’ve managed to bottle the intensity and let it out only in doses, but it threatens to erupt now.

In one fell swoop, I could ruin everything.

I’ll get arrested. That’s the only way my fingerprints or DNA could be linked to any of the murders. If that happens, I’ll be taken away from my family, found responsible for the kills I made as Hoss.

Unless I’m careful.

Outside of the classroom, I manage to get myself under control, schooling my features before walking in with an apology, going to stand near Tatum. Since I’m the local comic book shop owner, everyone knows me and I receive several waves. Very deliberately, I don’t look at the man who dared touch a strand of my wife’s hair. I don’t look because I know I won’t hold it together. Instead, I thread my fingers through Tatum’s and tuck her against my side, shielding her from view of the man I plan on…speaking with tonight.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her hair.

“It’s okay,” she says back. “You wouldn’t be late unless it was important.”

My chest swells with so much love, I have to focus on breathing in and out. I love this woman so damn much. I love her trust in me. That she knows I can be counted on. I’m the luckiest man alive to have her. To be this woman’s protector—and protect her I will.

Half an hour later, I’ve let go of Tatum’s hand long enough to let her converse with some of the other mothers. And that’s when I finally let myself look at the son of a bitch. I smile at him and tip my head at the hallway. After a slight hesitation, he follows, probably reassuring himself that I couldn’t have seen what he did. That I didn’t witness him taking the biggest risk of his life. But he’s about to find out he’s wrong.

As soon as he joins me in the hallway, I wrap his necktie around my fist and drag him to the closest stairwell, kicking the door shut behind us while he chokes in alarm. “What…what the hell are you doing?”

I don’t bother answering. I simply tighten my hold on his tie and pull down with all of my strength, bashing his nose into the metal railing. Hard. Teeth clenched, pulse hammering wildly in my temples, I lift his bloody face back up to mine and look him dead in his terrified eyes. “If I ever see you so much as look at my fucking wife again, I swear to God, they will institutionalize me for the things I do to you. Do you understand me? I will walk around this town with that slimy hand dangling from my belt. Your death will be so painful, you’ll be begging for it by the time it arrives.” I slam his face into the railing twice more, satisfied by the crunch of bone. “Do you understand me, motherfucker?”

“Yes,” he slurs, blood pouring from his mouth.

“You’re lucky I’m leaving you alive this time.” I twist his tie another time around my fist. “I’d love to snap this neck like a twig.”

“No. Please.”

“It’s a shame you were hit by a car in the parking lot. They kept right on driving, didn’t they?”

He nods vigorously. “Yes.”

“Keep your mouth shut about me. And don’t ever, ever, ever breathe in my wife’s direction again or I’ll pay you another visit. I’ll be a lot less lenient.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” he heaves raggedly, slumping to the stairs when I finally let him go. “Hit by a car. Fine.”

The man stumbles to his feet and lurches down the stairs, out an emergency exit.

I remove my own tie and use it to clean the specks of blood from my face and hands, breathing through the rage until I’m together enough to rejoin Tatum. But when I turn to pass back through the stairwell door, I find my wife standing there. Watching. Waiting.

For several seconds, her expression is blank. Unreadable.

Fear of her reaction threatens to topple me. No. No. No. I’ve been so careful not to show her the dark side of me for five years. She feels safe with me. And I’ve ruined all of it, all of those incredible trust building moments with her in one fell swoop—

The sound of her swallowing reaches my ears and I notice…her nipples are hard.

At first, I’m confused.

But she lets out a shuddering breath. A sound I recognize well. It’s one she makes when she’s turned on. Or I’ve done something that inadvertently made her hot, like planning a surprise weekend trip or getting our son to bed while she sketches in front of the fire. Is it possible that she liked me defending her with my usually leashed violence?

“Tatum…” I approach her with caution, scared to death she’s going to run from me. Say she doesn’t feel safe with me. “I’m sorry, baby. But…I’ll never be capable of letting another man touch you and get away with it. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”

“I know,” she breathes, setting down her purse, reaching for me. “I’m lucky too. Aren’t I? To have someone who loves me so fiercely.”

Inundated by shocked lust, I pin her hard to the stairwell wall. “You don’t even know the fucking half of it,” I rasp against her mouth.

“Yes I do. You show me every day.” She chews her lip a moment, glancing toward the hallway. “You can’t be inside me now. I’m…too worked up. I’ll be too loud.” She turns around and presses her palms to the wall, angling her hips back, her ass curving right into my waiting hand. “But I need you to erase the memory of anyone but you. Remind me who I belong to.” she whispers. “Please, Daddy?”

God yes.

I love this woman so much it’s criminal.

And I know we’re reached a new level of understanding about each other. I’d kill for her and she’s not just okay with it, now that she trusts me. She wants it that way.

Craves me in all forms, the way I crave her with my very soul.

My teeth pull back in a snarl and I ruck up her dress, pulling her panties down. Taking a moment to groan over her hot little jiggle, I slap the pretty, round cheeks of her ass, the sound echoing through the stairwell. “Mine,” I growl into her ear, already planning the many ways I’m going to take her tonight. “Forever.”

“Yours. Forever.”

THE END

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