Grant must feel the same since he’s shoving away from Pat, breaking his hold and coming to a full stand.
Mom starts to scurry over to Pat but stops short upon seeing how Pat’s peed himself. Instead, she opts for a wide-eyed stare. She must have missed him doing that during her state of panic.
“Now,” Grant says, standing beside me and touching the cuff of his shirt. “You’ll leave like my wife asked you to. Quietly and without bitching if you cherish your tongues.”
Grant could probably say less. Pat is already scrambling for the door, rubbing at his sore neck. He’s not going to even think about testing Grant.
A smirk is curling up my mouth, but it’s stolen away as Mom slowly stops in front of me and glues her clutch to the front of her black pencil skirt. Nothing’s changed. She’s still about appearances and arrived looking like she was here for a business meeting more than for her long-lost daughter.
“You were too hard on Pat,” Mom says.
“Doubt it,” I grunt.
“You’re wrong. He doesn’t know how to connect with you is all. All you two need is time.” She extends her hand out to me. “I think you two should try again.”
I glare at the extended limb, disgust circling in my gut. All her ways are snakish and revolting. This moment is proving to me what I’ve been saying for years. That Vivian is long gone. She’ll never be found again, and after this visit, my ties with Mom are burned for good. The temptation to spit in her hand toys with my mind. I choose to back up away from her touch and stare her down.
Her full mouth pinches into a tight line. My message is clear. She studies me and shakes her head. “So this is it? After all these years, this is how things end?”
Never breaking my mom’s gaze, I nod once. “Yes.” There’s no room for debate in my voice, and my eyes narrow. “And after all these years and all the things I’ve been through, I think this ending might be fitting.”
“No. I don’t think it is.” Mom frowns—something I can’t remember her doing outside of yelling at me. “It breaks my heart, Vivian, that after all this time, I can’t take you home and show everyone that you’re safe—”
“Take me home? Why? So you can patch up your image?”
A small scoff slips out. “Ludicrous child,” she corrects. “I’m heartbroken because you’re my daughter, and we’re not how we should be.”
“Which is your fault,” I bite out, a wall of ice forming around my heart.
She sighs, something heavy looking in her gaze, but I don’t buy into it. “You’ve changed so much. You used to be so sweet, so forgiving. I’m disappointed.”
“Then be disappointed.” She gasps at my reply, but I don’t stop. “Grant told me when we first started seeing each other that because of all the things you allowed, you’d never find forgiveness with him, and now I feel the same. You and Pat are weak and passive. Always have been, always will be. I can see you two aren’t going to change, and so for that, you’ll gain no spot in my life. Seeing you again was a mistake.”
With my words, her cheeks alter to a dark pink. But it’s not a blush—it’s the color of anger. The kind that always stemmed from when she found me being disobedient.
After jamming her clutch under arm pit, I spot the real Mom breaking through. “I hope after I walk out of this front door that you see how foolish you’re acting.”
A flash of righteous indignation propels me forward. If she came here thinking I’d fold to her every manipulative whim, she was wrong—and I’m going to brand my dislike for Mom into her memory so hard, it will be the last thing she thinks about. I’m chasing my revenge while marching straight to her. Even as she backs up, I don’t slow my pace. At last, her back hits the wall next to the front door. With her trapped, I lower my frame, coming eye level to hers and start my speech. Each of my words, coated in venom, and dripping off my tongue.
“I hope when you go home, that everyone whispers about how your life is a lie, and that they accuse you of being a fraud. I hope your little friends at those luncheons shun you. I hope you learn how shallow, self-centered, and thoughtless you were to your daughter over the years—a daughter that needed your love but was cut off because you needed social acceptance more. I hope all the people you held in regard laugh at you now, and I pray every choice you made concerning me haunts you for life.”
Her frame trembles head to toe. I’ve just played on her deepest fears and desires. Played on them all and threw them in her face. She’s terrified at returning home empty-handed, and I can’t think of a sweeter ending to this.
Pleasure pulses down my veins. Power. It’s finally mine, and I used it to kick a meaningless person out of my life for good. High off of the feeling, I back up a margin and yank open the door beside her.
“I suggest you join your husband now, and go home. There’s nothing here for you.”
Mom quickly slinks away. Not in fear like Pat, but in total defeat. She’ll return home a laughingstock with no place to hide her sins. Beautiful. Just beautiful.
The door latches shut, and I sigh, feeling weightless. Like the world is underneath my heel where it was born to be. Lightly I chuckle, but the sound dies when Grant’s heated chest brushes my back.
“Did I ever tell you that you’re a fucking goddess?”
I moan at the deep rumbling of his words, tilting my head all the way back to look at him. “You have.” I smile. “But I’ll never get tired of hearing it if you want to say it again.”
A low, mirthy laugh reverberates through my backside, and my heart flutters as he spins me around, pinning me to the door. “God, you’re so sexy. Kiss me, Olivia. Just—”
Harshly, I cut off his words, grabbing his face, yanking his frame down so his lips crash onto mine. He groans against me, and I feel so free—so limitless—so in control. It makes me wild. I hitch my leg around his back, tugging Grant in close as possible. My skin fires as his hand trails up to my outer thigh all the way to my ass.
“You’re so fucking strong, love,” he whispers against my mouth. “I’m proud of you. Proud of what you’ve become, and I love you.”
“And I you.”
With a bruising touch, he grabs me by the round of my ass and yanks me closer to grind his semi-hard cock on me. I mewl out of need—desperate to have him in me. I’m grumbling when he stops us short and stares deep into my eyes.
“Before this gets too carried away, I need to ask. Where are going on our honeymoon?”
“Honeymoon?” I lightly laugh. “You thought this would be a good time to ask?”
“Yes.” His thumb traces faintly at my hairline. “Shouldn’t we plan that? We’ve been married for two days. Don’t you think it’d be nice to get away for a while?”
I shake my head, drawing him close again. Who needs that when your life is already complete. “No honeymoons. Just you and the certainty that I’ll never have to hide again.”
A light smirk brightens his gaze right before he plants a feather-light kiss to my forehead. “I can ensure both myself and your happiness for as long as this world burns. We’ll always have each other, Olivia. In this life, in the next, and in the next thereafter. You and I are going to last forever.”
“I know.” The words thread deep into my heart as I press my ear to his chest, listening to it pound at the same tempo as mine. Grant is correct. We’ll always be connected.
“Now,” Grant purrs in a tone so sexual my thighs clench. “Kindly let me screw my gorgeous wife against this door.”
“Please do.” I’m breathless, which makes him chuckle.
“Hope you’re prepared. I plan to fuck you against it until you can’t look at this entrance without thinking of me.”
My pulse quickens, stomach clenching as I tilt my head back and kiss his lips. “I hope you make good on that promise,” I tease.
And so, he does. Just like all his promises before and any that will come after, because that’s what Grant is to me. A promise—my promise, and I’m going to burn for him for life.
The end.