“You’re fierce.”
He drew back, and when he pressed forward again, the head of his cock found my entrance.
“You’re loyal.”
He began to push slowly inside, giving my body time to adjust to him.
“You’re sexy as sin.”
My breath caught as he moved inch by torturous inch, filling me up, impaling me.
“You’re so damn brave.”
When he was finally buried all the way to the hilt, he stopped, breathing hard as he looked down at me. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist, pinning him close, and he released my hands, resting his forearms on either side of my head, covering my body with his as our lips brushed together.
“You had the guts to survive in this world, Cora.” He kissed my cheeks, my nose, my forehead. “And then you stopped just surviving, and you found a way to thrive.” He drew out and eased back in, making both of us shudder.
“You made me thrive,” I whispered. “You and the others.”
“I don’t know if we did, Coralee.” He swallowed, an unreadable expression passing over his face. “I think we were just the lucky fuckers who were around to see it.”
I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I’d become who I was, that I’d found strength inside of myself I never knew existed, because of the three of them. But he rocked his hips forward and back again, and the words fell away in a rush of sensation.
He let his body settle over mine, his weight perfect and reassuring as he began to thrust in long, even strokes. His lips moved down to trail over my jaw, my neck, brushing the curve of my ear.
“No matter what happens,” he murmured roughly. “Don’t forget who you are.”
The feel of his breath on my skin made my core clench around him as pleasure spiked inside me. But something in his voice made me cling to him harder, made me squeeze my eyes shut as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
It sounded like a goodbye.
A real one.
I buried my face against his chest, absorbing his spicy clove scent as he fucked me, staving off my orgasm as long as I could because I never wanted this to be over.
But I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t freeze time.
When he finally came on a choked grunt, I followed him into the abyss, convulsing around him as he bathed my insides with his cum.
A cry of naked pleasure tore from my lips, but I couldn’t disguise the sob that came with it.
And that sounded like a goodbye too.
Twenty-Six
Packing up my life the second time around was vastly different from the first.
Having to narrow down a mansion’s worth of things into a couple of suitcases had caused heartbreak when it came to leaving things behind. Packing up everything I owned in this tiny little house, however, took less than half a day—and yet the process felt so much heavier than I’d thought it would.
Mom all but insisted that I leave my “trashy” clothes behind, saying that my father would gladly replace them. A whole new wardrobe, for a completely new leaf turned over in our lives.
I couldn’t do that though. I wouldn’t.
There were memories in these clothes. The parties I’d gone to, the nights I’d spent with the Lost Boys—the woman I had become, the one I’d changed into since the day I first walked through the doors of Slateview High. Somehow, I couldn’t bear to part with them, no matter how many nicer, newer, more presentable clothes my father would undoubtedly buy me when I saw him next.
Mom was more keen on leaving things behind.
Though we were technically supposed to clear the house out and take everything, she didn’t feel like it was her job. Everything in the kitchen was left behind, as well as some of her “homely” clothes and, of course, gifts that she had received as a part of her affair.