“Are you sure you’re ready?” Cam asks me again as my thumb hovers over my mom’s phone number.
With a trembling breath, I answer, “Yes, I’m sure.”
I never thought this day would come. I hope they aren’t mad at what I had to do, that I lied to them and made them think I was dead. But I think, more than anything, they’ll be happy that I’m actually alive.
When I press the Call button, my stomach flutters as the most intense nerves quiver through my body.
Oh my God, what if I’m not ready?
When I look at Cam, my heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of my chest.
You got this, he mouths to me.
The second ring sounds ten times louder than the last. I wipe my sweaty hand on my blanket.
He’s right. I’ve got this.
“Hello?” my mom’s voice sings through my phone.
Breathtaking sobs tear through me. Trying to catch my breath, I hear her gasp.
“Baby? Morgan, is that you?” Her voice is barely a whisper.
Blowing out a few short breaths, I whisper, “Mom, it’s me. Please don’t be mad.”
I can picture her face right now—her eyes shut with a downturned smile.
She cries out, “How is this possible? Is it really you?”
“Yeah. I’m so sorry. I’ll explain everything, I promise,” I say as guilt slices through me at the pain in her voice.
“Dave! Get in here! It’s Morgan.” She pauses. “Yes, our Morgan,” I hear her say away from the phone.
“Morgan?” my dad asks with anguish.
The sound of my dad’s voice absolutely wrecks me.
“Dad?”
Tears roll down my neck, soaking the front of my gown. My dad is the best dad in the whole wide world. Hearing the pure panic in his voice is painful.
“Sweetie? What’s going on?” he begs. “Where are you?”
Gulping, I take a deep breath. “I’m in Minnesota. St. Luke’s Hospital, to be exact.”
“We’re coming to you right now, baby,” my dad declares with the ferocity I remember in him.
He is a passionate man in everything in life. He loves my mom in a way I always hoped to find. He can’t help but put his all into whatever he does. When he says he’s coming, he will be here as fast as humanly possible. By flight, train, car, or walking, he will get here.
“Okay,” I whisper. “I can’t wait to see you both.”
“We need to call Trey and let him know you’re alive!” my mom shouts, and I interrupt whatever she’s about to say.
“You won’t be able to reach him. He’s dead. And he’s the reason you thought I was. I promise I’ll explain what happened when you get here,” I say, knowing this is another shock on top of them finding out I’m even alive.
“You got it. We found a flight that leaves in an hour and a half. We’ll be with you as soon as we can. Should we meet you at the hospital?” my mom asks.
“I get out this afternoon. I’ll send you my address. Meet me there. I love you guys so much. I’m sorry.”
My mom hugs me with her words. “We know you well enough to know that you had no choice, baby. Take a deep breath. You explain when you’re ready. I love you, sweet girl.”
“I love you,” my dad snivels.
“I love you too, Dad,” I whisper before hanging the phone up.
Setting the phone down, I look at Cam through blurry eyes. “They’re coming here.”
He smiles. “That’s good, right? That’s what you wanted?”
Nodding, I say, “Yeah.”
He looks quizzically at me. “Why do you seem so sad?”
Biting my bottom lip in an attempt to stop the continuing flow of tears and cries, I mumble, “You should have heard them. The pain in their voices. I did that to them.”
He grabs my face and makes me look at him. “No, you didn’t. You didn’t flee without absolute necessity. You had no choice. They will understand that. I guarantee it.” He leans down and kisses my forehead. “Scoot forward.”
I do, and he hops on the bed behind me, placing his legs on either side of me. He pulls me back against him and wraps his arms around me.
“You are the strongest person I have ever met, Morgan,” he says in my ear before kissing it. “I’ll be with you the whole time. Unless you order me away, I’m not leaving your side. I’ve got you, Little Dove, for now and always.”
Pacing in the front area of the shop, I shove my hands into my hoodie pocket, anxiously waiting for my parents to arrive.
Chloe and Cam are sitting at a table, staring at me. I don’t think they’ve stopped staring since the accident. Like they’re afraid if they look away, I’ll vanish. But I’m not going anywhere.
I’m done running. I’m done hiding.
“Don’t panic,” Chloe says, and my eyes fly to the windows.
A white car pulls up in front of the shop, parking on the street. The front doors are thrown open from the inside, and I swear time actually slows down.
It’s a crazy phenomenon. That your brain can live so intensely in a moment, taking in every single detail, not a fleck going unnoticed. Like the look in my parents’ eyes when they see it’s really me through the glass, the relief that simultaneously passes between them. The feel of goose bumps breaking over my skin as the shop door is opened and a gust of cold air sweeps over me. The sound of their feet stomping across the tiles as they rush toward me. The way I can see the tears streaming down their already-reddened faces, the way I can feel mine mirroring theirs.
The way my mom’s voice feels like a blanket wrapping around my shoulders as she cries out, “My baby!”
They barrel into me, completely encasing me in their arms. Their scent invades my nose, and I feel my lungs expand further than they have in years.
They smell like home.
With our heads and bodies pressed into each other, we hold on for dear life. I don’t feel like a twenty-two-year-old. I feel like a child in her parents’ arms.
We stand there for minutes, holding each other and crying as one before we finally pull apart and take a step back.
“You’re alive,” my mom whispers as she holds my head, studying my face. “What happened here?”
She’s looking at the bruises and gashes on my cheeks from Trey.
“Trey happened,” I say. “Why don’t you guys have a seat?”
They sit down at the same table as Chloe and Cam. I sit between them and take Cam’s hand in mine for support.
“This is Chloe. She’s my best friend, and she’s helped me in more ways than I can explain. She gave me a place to live, a means for income. She took me in when I had nowhere to go,” I say. I turn to her watery gaze and smile.
“This is Cam. He’s my boyfriend, and he saved my life,” I tell them, nervous of the probably overwhelming information.
But we’re just getting started, so they’d better buckle in.
He stretches his hand out to my dad. “Cam Costello. Nice to meet you, sir.”
A light bulb goes off behind my dad’s eyes as he shakes his hand. “Costello? What do you do for a living, Cam?”
Cam smiles at my dad’s telling gaze. “I play hockey for the New York Nighthawks.”
My dad grins, and I can’t help but smile with him. He’s aged since I last saw him. His hair is mostly gray, and his wrinkles don’t fade after a smile quite like they used to.
“We will have to chat about that later.” My dad winks at Cam.
They are going to be the best of friends—I just know it.
Taking a deep breath, I make myself focus on telling them the truth about what happened. About my story. I keep to the details they need to know, the ones that will make them understand. But I keep the worst ones to myself. They have been through enough. I’m not letting what Trey did to me hurt them too.
I tell them about the incident with the coffee table. I would have left that one out, but they will see the scars eventually. I tell them of Nicole from the funeral home, who got me out of town and helped me fake my death. I tell them that Trey found us at the library, attacked Cam, stalked me, and tried to kill me when I wouldn’t go with him. I don’t know how Trey found me at the library. But he knew I used to like to read, so I’m guessing he took a chance. Honestly, now that it’s over, I don’t really care. That mystery can die with him.
My parents are devastated that they didn’t see it, that they didn’t help. But I assure them that no part of what happened was their fault. With each word I say, I feel the walls around myself lift away. By the time I finish, I finally feel free.
My parents console me as best as they can and offer their apologies for not seeing Trey’s true nature. I of course, assure them that none of this was their fault.
I yawn and my mom smiles at me with such love and pride.
“Can we come over in the morning?” my mom asks me.
“Of course. I’ll call you as soon as I wake up,” I assure her.
I can’t imagine what they feel right now, leaving to go to their hotel.
“I promise I will be here tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere, not anymore,” I tell them both before pulling them into a hug. “I love you.”
They tell me they love me, too, and walk outside, leaving Cam, Chloe, and me inside the shop.
“I’m going to head out too. I’ll come over in the morning, just text me when, okay?” She grabs me and hugs me tightly.
“I will.” I hug her back, and she leaves, locking the door behind her.
Cam walks behind me and bends down. He wraps his arms around my shoulders. “Are you ready for bed?”
In the last few days, I have felt the highest highs and lowest lows. I have hugged my parents—something I thought was never going to happen again.
I am free. To live. To love. To do whatever I please.
And right now, I am exhausted to the core and can’t wait to go to sleep. But there is one thing I want to do first.
I nod, and Cam releases my shoulders, only to grab on to my hand and slide his fingers in mine. He leads me to my room in a calm and liberating silence.
Opening my door, I spin around and grab his face. Gently pulling his lips to mine, I kiss him softly. I do it again and again. Every kiss becomes rougher and needier. Our hands dance over each other bodies, eager to touch every inch.
I trust Cam fearlessly, but now, I can love him fearlessly too. There is no danger or threat lurking in the shadows. There’s nothing stopping me or holding me back anymore.
The gentleness and hesitation we had before fades as a primal desire for each other takes over completely. It thrums between us.
He kicks the door shut and slides his tongue into my mouth while grabbing the bottom of my sweatshirt.
He strips it off of me. My bra, pants, and panties quickly follow. When I’m completely naked, he groans as he walks me backward to the bed and lightly pushes me onto it.
When I sit down, my hands grip his pants, pulling them down as fast as possible.
I need to feel him. I need to feel his need for me.
He lifts his shirt up as I slip his boxers past his already-massive erection.
Wasting no time, I take him in my mouth—as much as I can fit. I suck and lick him as his moans make my core pulse.
Without a word, he pulls his dick out of my mouth and adjusts me on the bed with my back against the comforter and my head hanging slightly off of the end.
Cupping his balls and grabbing his shaft, I shove it into my upside-down mouth, feeling it slide down my throat.
“Keep going. Don’t stop,” he orders and leans over me.
His rough hands grab my inner thighs and push my legs apart as wide as they will go. “Such a pretty pussy.”
He slides a finger through my wetness and pumps slowly. He adds a second finger, and I gasp as his tongue flicks across my clit.
I stop sucking him and moan, “Cam.”
He freezes with his fingers still in me. “Ah, ah, ah. If you stop, I stop, baby.”
I take his rock-hard dick back down my throat, and he continues to finger- and tongue-fuck me until I come, moaning against his dick.
He pulls out of my mouth and lifts my shoulders. As I turn around to face him, he sucks his fingers clean, smiling at me.
“You are so delicious, Little Dove,” he groans. “Now, get on all fours for me.”
Wiping the drool from my chin, I do what he said and get on my hands and knees with my ass facing him.
He walks away for a second and returns. His tongue runs up my center and continues to glide higher, lapping against a hole he will never enter. But I’m turned on even more from the tingles that one pass of his tongue gave me.
He tosses a now-empty condom wrapper onto the bed next to me and says, “Please get on birth control soon. I need to fuck you without a barrier between us. I need to feel every pulse your perfect pussy makes.”
Nodding, I agree. But right now, I’m sure I’d agree to almost anything he asks of me.
He pushes into me, his fat tip stretching my entrance. “Fuck.”
He runs his fingers down my spine, zigzagging across every bump.
His cock twitches, which is the only warning I get before he fills me to the brim, slamming into me.
“Ahh!” I gasp from the pleasure and slight pinch of pain.
He pulls out and reenters slowly. “Is that okay?”
Fuck yes, dear God.
“Yes,” I whimper.
He continues to fuck me slowly. Circling my hips, I push back against him and hear him groan.
“You want it faster than this?” he asks deeply.
Pushing my hips back into him again, I nod. “Fuck yes, please,” I whine.
His fingers trail across my back, circling lower to my ass. Lightly, he slaps my cheek, and I arch my back, taking his dick deeper inside of me.
Fuck, that felt so good.
“Put your hands and arms straight out in front of you on the bed,” he demands.
Stretching forward, I lie down on the bed, my head lying on its side with my arms in front of me. He sinks even deeper.
His callous fingers trail up my sides, shooting tingles across my body.
He grabs my hips, pulls out, and thrusts mercilessly into me. “Yes, baby. Ugh, fuck.” He pounds into me harder and harder. “I wish you could see your pussy taking me so well.”
His hips push and pull, and I meet his thrusts in a perfect rhythm.
His hand slaps the top of my ass, and as the contact makes my core pulse, I shout, “Fuck!”
He slaps my other cheek and switches back and forth, and I feel myself getting ready to come. Who knew a little pain could feel so good?
“There you go, baby. You’ve still got to come again for me tonight,” he groans.
What?
His thumb finds my clit and sends me completely over the edge. My back bows as I come with his dick’s continued relentlessness.
“You’re not allowed to come until I do this time,” he says. “Tighten your core and focus. You can do it. I know you can.”
I laugh, and he slams into me repeatedly, over and over, somehow faster and harder than before.
“What the fuck?” I mumble, not meaning to say it out loud.
He slows down and kisses my shoulder blade, saying, “What, you thought that was all I could give you? Little Dove, I am just getting started with you.”
He thrusts back into me, finding that faster pace again. I’m not going to last another thirty seconds like this.
“Fuck, Cam,” I whine into the mattress. “I’m going to—”
“Wait for me. Tighten your core,” he instructs, and I listen, tensing my ab muscles.
It doesn’t ease the overwhelming sensations, but it slows down the inevitable orgasm.
He pulls out, flips me over, and picks me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He slides back into me and bounces me against his cock, his hands finding my hips as my arms wrap around his neck and shoulders.
I hold on tight as he plunges into me over and over, slamming my hips down onto his.
“Fuck, baby, open your eyes,” he demands.
I didn’t even realize that they had drifted shut. Opening them, I clench around his dick, feeling hopeless in trying not to finish.
The look of unadulterated desire and love shining in his eyes sends me right to the edge, and with his breathy plea, “Come on my cock again, Little Dove,” I explode with body-shaking pleasure.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Cam growls as he slams my hips down once more.
I am the luckiest girl in the world for many reasons. But being fucked by Cam has got to be on top of that list.
