Page 96 of Secrets That Bind Us
He smiles up at me, nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah!”
He and I find Iris, and she gives us each a half of a sandwich, a hot chocolate for him, and a coffee for me. Noah tells me all about his day and the upcoming holiday program while we eat and wait. I laugh at his witty jokes, his smile making me smile. I’ve noticed over the last few weeks he’s grown and even though he has Verity’s eyes, he’s starting to look a bit like me. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my end. We hear the bathroom door open and out come my girls– looking ready to cause mayhem in Adelaide. Savvy eats quickly and soon we're out, hitting every trunk and every door, collecting gobs of candy (I'm sure we'll have to hide the whole year) before the sun starts to set behind the horizon.
When we're finished in town, we all get into Verity’s SUV, and I drive us down the two lane road, towards the outskirts where the festival is– Old Adelaide. To the very place I first broke Verity’s heart. The cars are lined in an old parking lot, and I can see Zoey’s teal Jeep from here– I know she’s already set up and probably painting little faces like she’s been doing every year.
“Dean?” Verity asks softly as she takes in the Ferris wheel, the games, the fun house, the carnival food, and last of all– the souped up cars and bikesthat still use the old roads (now upgraded) to racelegally. It’s become a huge attraction over the last five years, growing even bigger each year.
“It took me years to get a lot of this organized and situated with Mayor Beaufort, Spyder, and a few other racers, but it's all legal, babe.”
Big brown eyes that stole my heart twenty-five years ago on an old playground with rusty swing sets just ten miles away look up at me. “You did this?”
I dip my chin once.
“Why?”
I shrug. “Make amends, I guess. Fix things in a way that would somehow make you proud.” I tip my head towards the blue tents where EMS is stationed. “We have medics on site, too.”
She grabs my hand. “Are you racing?”
I huff out a chuckle and give her hand a squeeze. “Nah baby. My racing days are over. C’mon. There’s something I’ve been dying to do since we were fourteen.”
She arches a dark brow quizzically. “Oh?”
We walk around the carnival, letting the kids get on rides, eat some funnel cake, and then find Zoey’s station where she is, in fact, painting faces. She greets us with a wide smile and the kids with hugs. “You mind watching them for a bit?”
She takes an excited Noah, asking her assistant for tiger face paint. “I can do that.”
Once again, heart slightly pounding, I grab Verity and we get in line for the Ferris Wheel. I give the guy our tickets and we get into the baskets, Then– like I paid the guy to do-- weever so slowlyascend up, up, up– looking over the grounds, high above Adelaide. Feeling like I’m fifteen again, except this time, I’m with the right girl. I turn to look at Verity, who looks back at me with a coy smile. “Almost twenty years ago, I sat in one of these trying to break up with Tiffany. I looked across the bars and there you were. It felt like kismet to be above the city limits, and you were the only thing I could see. Hair down. Blue dress on. Sun going down on the Fourth of July. Everyone was so ready for the firework display, but my heart only saw you. I know I’m gonna sound cheesy, but even when it felt like I stayed still in this town waiting for you to come back to me, there were nights I dreamt it was me you’d kissed, and I had done everything right.
“That has always been my nightmare, Verity. Having to relive all the moments I did you right, wrong, and the moments I didn’t do anything at all. And I know you already said yes to me, but there are so many moments intime I wish I could redo. There are so many moments I want to replace him with me– if you’ll have me.”
She squeezes my hand. “There’s nothing I want more than that, Dean. I’m going to sound fucking terrible. Horrible. A total bitch. But there were times I wished I was arguing with you, notaboutyou. I wished I was waking up to watch the sunrise or it set over a city with you, not alone. Times when I wished I was looking at you across the table. Sometimes, I pretended I was. So I will have you. I will have you in every capacity you’ll give me.”
And so I kiss her. I kiss her the way I should have kissed her almost two decades ago on a Ferris Wheel on the Fourth of July. and when the fireworks and pyros go off, it almost makes up for it after all these years. Even though nothing and I meannothing, ever feels like the real thing. Like this. Like now. Our kiss deepens with each slip of tongue, nip of a lip, and moan passed between us, because that’s how much deeper I’ve fallen for Verity. I can feel her soul now, pressing into mine.
It's then she decides to slip her warm hand down and unzips my uniform slacks. “Oh, fuck, Verity- we- oh,fuck it.”
“Shhh…baby…” My girl leans over and gives me the best fucking head of my life, taking her time to slurp up her saliva around my dick, fisting me with the perfect amount of pressure.
“Oh, fuck. Keep doing that… don’t stop.” I’m not gonna last.
Shegiggleswhen I come in her wicked mouth.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Entity
Devil's Night
The house whispers.
Murmurs I'm not privy to.
Moments in time that are frozen for me, but continue out there, out there, out there.
Lapses.
Moans.
