Page 49 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Carver

Home

T here was nothing and no one more beautiful than Lyra, but her, inside The Sanctuary, surrounded by butterflies and flowers and sunlight—it was like a dream come true.

I shook my head several times, and it had nothing to do with disagreeing.

I simply couldn’t fathom this day had come, and she wasn’t bolting for the door or screamin’ at me for choosing her, even after all these years.

Tears welled several times in her eyes, but the one time I looked at them a little too long, she sniffled and blamed the pollen in the room.

She also kept reaching back out for my hand, which I made sure stayed within arm’s reach.

I wasn’t about to miss a single second of her showing she still had a place for me in her heart, even if she couldn’t voice it to me yet.

Lyra squeezed my hand as we walked up to a money bush, her gorgeous eyes saying so much more than words ever could.

That was part of the problem between us—I wanted to know what happened so bad that it almost broke me, and I was starting to think trust wasn’t her issue.

I wasn’t even sure I was the issue anymore.

Whatever caused her to leave left her trapped in her thoughts, unable to speak.

I needed to find out what or who the fuck was to blame for it so I could end it.

Destroy it.

Murder them slowly with my own bare hands.

Lyra’s voice cut into my thoughts. “When I said I hated you, that I’d never want you the same way again—I was lyin’.”

I pulled my hand from hers and wrapped my arm around her waist while we both stared at the plant in front of us. “I know.”

“But, what you did—”

“I spent years blaming you for everything that went wrong in my life, and that was wrong of me, but I don’t want you to think that I ever stopped loving you.

Treating you any different from how I really wanted to, than the way you’ve always deserved, is something I’ll kick myself over until the day I die. ”

She rolled her lips in, her voice cracking as she asked, “Can we go home now?” When she stepped out of my hold, I was ready to fall to my knees and tell her how sorry I was.

But then, she threaded her fingers through mine and stared up at me with those big brown eyes I tended to get lost in, and the word she’d just used circled my thoughts.

Home .

She called it home .

Using our entwined hands, I pulled her to me and captured her lips, aiming for sentimental and sweet but getting lost in the feel of her soft mouth on mine.

By the time she broke away, our breaths were heavy and labored.

With one look down at her nipples peaking beneath her borrowed shirt, I lost it.

“I never thought I’d hear you call this place ‘home’ again.” I groaned while fisting the fabric covering her waist. Our lips came together once more, only this time, I grabbed the backs of her thighs and lifted her. Her legs locked around my waist as I moved.

“My real home was never a place. It’s you and it always has been,” she said.

Fuck .

“I need you so bad, sweetheart.”

She murmured in agreement as my ass fell onto the nearest wooden bench I could find, jolting us both. Yet, our mouths didn’t stop. The only time we stopped kissing and biting each other was to order a piece of clothing off, or to shift.

Soon, nothing was between us. We were lost to our desires, our wants, and every sensation stemming from our bodies coming together.

This is what I’d spent my life chasing. What I devoted years to after she left. Getting this back. Getting us back. Getting my home back.

She looped her arms around my neck as her hips shifted, aligning the underside of my cock to her warm center.

I bit down on her lip as my hands slid down the curves of her waist, her skin too delicate for the way my fingers were digging into her.

I shifted her stomach closer to mine, aligning the head of my cock, and when I eased in, we both moaned.

Swarms of butterflies exploded in a torrent of colors all around us, or maybe that was in my head, but I felt like I was seeing color for the first time in years. Feeling it. The way I sought pain and kept myself hollow suddenly filled and became so much more.

“ Fuck , I’ll never get over how you feel around me, how responsive you are to my touch. How soft your lips are on mine.” All of her. I’d never forget a single piece of her again.

She whimpered, taking my cock inch by inch, moaning more as I filled her completely.

I dipped down and sucked her taut nipple into my mouth, rolling the bud between my tongue and teeth.

Everything about Lyra had always been better than anyone or anything else—the way she smelled, looked, and tasted.

The way she retaliated when I made her mad, the way she smiled when I made her laugh.

Everything.

The first time I realized my feelings for Lyra were stronger than what others felt for their high school sweethearts, things became clear to me in ways nothing else ever had. The only thing I needed in my life was her. To wake up to her, to come home to her, to build something meaningful with her.

Only one thought came to my head as her body moved in rhythmic motions, her pussy clenching around my cock in little waves that matched the sounds escaping her lips.

The same thought my mind avoided when I’d lost all hope of seeing her again.

The same thought that drove the creation of the very room I was fucking my wife in.

The same thought that maybe would have kept her here if only my young, teenage mind hadn’t flaked on saying it to her when I knew how I felt.

The same thought I’d had in the barn when I told her the three words that encompassed it all.

The same three words she told me to stop telling her, though it was clear as day we both felt the same damn way.

My eyes grew heavy as I watched her lose herself above me, swirling her hips while one hand fisted my hair, the other flat on my chest, right above my heart.

I cupped her breast and rubbed my thumb over her pebbled flesh, letting my other thumb fall to her clit.

The contact was enough to send her over the edge, and as she screamed my name, I pushed my cock deeper inside her, wanting as much of her as I could get while she lost control.

I kept swirling around her clit, causing her to shudder in my arms as I took and took.

Her forehead fell to the crook of my neck, where she started muttering something as I pulled another orgasm from her body.

When her legs began to tremble, those words she was muttering grew louder, and more clear.

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I brought her lips closer to my ear, almost certain I was hallucinating. “Say that one more time for me, sweetheart. Please,” I begged, pumping into her with hard and slow thrusts.

“I-I said, ‘I love you,’ you big idiot.”

She whimpered more when I pulled away from her clit and slid my hand up into her hair. I yanked Lyra’s head back, forcing her eyes to meet mine.

“Say it again.”

Her throat worked, eyes softening and unblinking as she repeated, “I love you.”

“Again.”

“I love you.”

I released her hair and grabbed onto her waist.

“ Again .”

“I— fuck , Car,” she moaned as I pushed her back down. “How am I supposed to tell you I love you when you’re making my entire body turn to nothin’?”

“If I ever hear you say the words ‘my body’ and ‘nothing’ in the same sentence again, I’ll put you right back in the barn, only next time, I’ll use chains to keep you tied up and I won’t stop until you’re covered in my cum.”

“Mmm, please do.”

I chuckled as I thrust into her, making her gasp. “I mean it. No more saying this ”—I smoothed my palms up her back—“is anything but perfection. You are my perfect, Ly, and I love you just as you are.”

Lyra and I spent longer than I thought we would in The Sanctuary, and by the time we left, day had turned to night.

The drive home was quick and peaceful, full of mostly silence, but in a good way.

With the windows down and the cool air wafting in, my wife happy and at my side, I could finally picture this being my future.

Our future.

I didn’t bring up any talk of that future as we parked and walked inside our home. There was a fragile sort of line I knew I was teetering on, but fuck if hearing her say she loved me didn’t make me want to cross it.

“You hungry?” I asked Lyra over my shoulder, already heading toward the kitchen.

“Starved.” She toed-off her boots, leaving them next to mine.

“Options are”—I opened the fridge and muttered a curse—“not much.”

“Haven’t thought about grocery shopping lately, have you?” Lyra snickered as she settled on the countertop beside the stove.

I smirked into the desolate fridge. “Food hasn’t been on my mind lately. But you need to eat.”

I pulled out what was left of the bacon and some lettuce, then reached back in for the mayo right before the door shut. “BLT? Minus the ‘T’. Out of that, too.”

Her arms crossed, one sharp, dark brow raised like her plush lips were at the corners. “Are you only tryin’ to feed me so I have more energy for you?”

Setting the ingredients on the counter beside her, I stepped between her spread legs, then took her chin firmly between my fingers. “You don’t need to be awake for the things I’m going to do to you.”

Lyra’s cheeks turned a deep red as her hands dropped to the counter, bracing her body. “Making up for lost time?”

“Making up for everything.”

Her chin tipped down in my hand. “I should probably shower.”

I stepped in closer, pressing my erection to her. Her eyelids fluttered. “This is your house, Mrs. Roland. Go ahead and do as you please.”

The tip of her tongue swept across her full bottom lip. “Mmmm, like paint the walls, add shag carpet—” She squealed as I pulled her from the counter, her legs wrapping around my waist as her arms looped around my neck.

“No-damn-way shag is covering these floors.”