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Maybe outwardly I’d given up, but the soft, doughy mass of a heart I have in my chest never thought for a second we wouldn’t be together like this in the end. That part of me always had hope.

• • •

After cleaning Lily and myself up with a warm, wet cloth, I tuck her into bed. Doting on her desperately. By the third time I try to give her water from the bottle on her bedside table, Lily is rolling her sleepy eyes at my fretting.

“Come to bed, Tor. Please.”

“Okay, Lil.”

I tuck myself in behind her, but she turns on her side to look at me. Only the moon and stars light her room from the window, the lamp off now.

Heart racing, I feel almost desperate not to sleep. To stay awake, that same anxious desperation nipping at my heels, terrified to lose this moment. Maybe, if I can just keep a grip on her hand, hold her closer to me. I can’t lose this again.

But then Lily raises her pinkie and wraps it around mine, pressing our thumbs together as we kiss them. Our secret handshake, since childhood. And something comforting and warm presses over me, soothing calm that only her love brings.

Waiting until she pulls her mouth away, I bite down softly on both of our thumbs to incite a giggle from her, before pulling her head to lie across my chest.

Her fingers rove over the swirls of Starry Night like muscle memory.

“Mine,” she whispers, kissing my pec, before curling in tighter, her leg tossed over mine, tangled entirely together. Her breaths grow heavy as she falls asleep.

Following after her is as easy as breathing.

Chapter 49

Lily

It’s a marathon. A whole sex marathon. He takes me again, this time harder, his hips flush to my thighs. We slept for a few hours, before he woke me slowly by sliding into me from behind, spooning me and only giving me enough of his cock not to wake me.

I woke anyway, midorgasm as I writhed on him.

“You’re going to give me another, doll,” he breathes, nicking my neck again with his teeth. He’s so handsome like this, black hair mussed, skin flushed, golden eyes still sleepy and catching the morning light. There’s a boyishness to him I’m not used to, a playful, warm energy I am desperate to keep.

“Toren . . .” I scrape his forearms with my nails. “Please—”

“No need to beg.” He laughs. “I know what you need—”

A shrill ring from my phone on the bedside table makes him pause, eyes shooting over my head to see who is calling.

Something like fire glints in his eyes and he pushes a hand to my thigh, leaning his long limbs over me to toss the phone on my chest.

“Answer it.”

“What—”

“For me, Lil.” He leans down and sucks on my lip, before pulling back. “Answer it.”

Without looking, he swipes the phone open and presses speaker.

“H-hello?”

“What the fuck, Lillian?”

I’ve never been happier to hear Carson’s voice—only because it isn’t my dad’s. I scramble, making to sit up, but if I thought Toren was going to stop fucking me, I’m sorely mistaken.

Literally, as he thrusts hard enough to make a gasp burn my throat trying to keep back my moan.

“Your dad is on a goddamn war path. Where are you?”