Page 111 of The Compass Series

CONNOR

“ H oly shit.” I stared at my laptop as Aaliyah sat beside me with hers in her lap. We’d both spent our Saturday in pajamas, playing catch up on all of the work we’d been falling behind on. When a certain email landed in my inbox, I felt as if I were seeing things.

“What is it?”

“Walter Rollsfield… He’s giving me his shares of the company. He’s also taking the West Coast property back from Jason and shifting it to my name.”

“Oh? Wow. That’s amazing,” Aaliyah said, shutting her laptop and moving in toward me. “Is that all he said?”

“No, actually. He’s also leaving me the Queens property and giving me one hundred million dollars to invest in it.”

“Whoa! That’s wild!” Aaliyah said a bit too excitedly.

I narrowed my eyes. “What did you do?”

“Who me?”

“Yes, you. Why do I get the feeling you’re keeping something from me? Spill it.”

“Damian and I might’ve gone ahead and shook Walter up a bit and threatened him.”

“Shook him up? What are you two? Leaders of the mafia?”

“No, silly. I was the good cop, and Damian was the bad cop. We ruffled some feathers and got what we needed—what you deserved.”

I sat there a bit stunned by what she and Damian had done for me. I placed my laptop down before reaching around her waist and pulling her onto my lap. I loved how she fit against me, as if she was always meant to be there.

“You’re too good for me,” I whispered, resting my forehead against hers.

“I think I’m just right,” she disagreed.

“This means more to me than you’ll ever know, Aaliyah. You’ve saved my career. But more than that, you saved me from a lonely existence.”

“I love you.”

“I love you more.” I kissed her lightly, grazing my teeth against her bottom lip. “Though, I am kind of upset that you played cops without me.”

“I even bought handcuffs in case Walter would’ve acted out,” she joked. “If you want, you and I can play good cop bad cop tonight.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” She pointed her fingers toward me as a pretend gun. “Stick them up!” I slightly grind my hips against hers, and I watched as bashfulness hit her cheeks. “That’s not exactly what I thought you’d be sticking up.”

“Can you blame me? I miss feeling myself inside you,” I muttered.

I understood how important it was for Aaliyah to fully heal, and how she couldn’t partake in any intense activities for a while.

Which meant our sex life had been put on hold.

But I missed tasting her, pushing myself deep inside her, listening to her moan my name.

She bit her bottom lip and slowly began to grind against my cock. “How much do you miss me?”

I groaned in pleasure. Damn, that felt good. “So much.”

She leaned in and slowly trailed her tongue across my bottom lip before sucking it gently. “How much do you want me?”

Shit… “So much.”

“How slow can you take it with me? To make sure I don’t overexert myself?”

“Baby…trust me, I’ll do all the work. All you have to do is let me have my way with you. All you have to do is say go.”

She wrapped her fingers around her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

Her beautiful bare breasts sat in front of my face, making my cock throb even more.

My eyes fell to the beautiful scar developing against her skin.

That scar meant everything to me. It meant more moments like the one we currently shared.

It meant more moments of love. More moments of laughter. More favorite memories to collect.

More time.

Time was such an odd concept, how it came and went. Each second passing, each minute evaporating. If I had any magic, I’d love to be able to freeze time, so I could enjoy my favorite moments a little bit more.

But that wasn’t how time worked. It kept ticking by, but I learned that was okay.

Every moment that passed was a blessing because many never had the chance to witness them.

I was thankful for being given a few extra moments of time to spend with Aaliyah.

Each second mattered. I wouldn’t waste a single one.

I led her to the bedroom that night and lay her down. I undressed her bottom half as my hands roamed over her breasts. I kissed every inch of her, going slowly, being gentle every step of the way.

I made love to my best friend that night.

And I wasn’t afraid to take my time.

We rose the next morning before the sun and did what we’d grown accustomed to doing on Sunday mornings.

We packed a picnic and headed off to go visit Grant.

Every Sunday since Aaliyah and I came back together, we’d enjoy our Sundays with Grant.

We’d sit and laugh and read the comics as the sun kissed our skin.

There was nothing I loved more than watching the sunrises with Aaliyah, other than watching the sunset with her in my arms.

I felt like I owed Grant the world for not taking Aaliyah away from me too soon, and I’d spend the rest of my life thanking him for that very fact.

I held Captain America’s book in my hand as I read out loud. Aaliyah sat completely wrapped up in the story. “It was at that very moment that Captain knew he’d discovered forever when Little Red Riding Hood showed up in his world,” I said, making Aaliyah laughed.

“What?”

I kept reading. “Because Captain realized that the secret to life wasn’t having powers.

The secret to life was having love. Love was the greatest superpower any person could’ve ever had.

So with that, Captain got down on one knee.

” I closed the comic and smiled as I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a ring.

“Connor,” Aaliyah whispered, stunned as she stared at the diamond.

“You are everything good in the world, Aaliyah Winters. You are heaven on Earth and my very best friend. So if you would do me the favor of becoming my wife, I’d really appreciate that a lot.

Because it turns out I need more than flashes of love.

I need your full-time love because you make me whole.

Your love is my destiny. Will you marry me, Red? ”

Her lips pressed against mine within seconds but not before she whispered, “Yes.”

With one single word, my life became that much brighter.

With one word, I was complete.