Toxic

Epilogue

Gabe

6 months later

“Wife!” My yell echoed around the house. A smile formed on my lips when Saylor walked around the corner with her hands on her hips and glared.

“When I said new nicknames I meant something sexy.”

“Sorry.” I shrugged helplessly. “Wife…” I said it in a deep sultry voice and then started peeling off my clothes. First my shirt, second my jeans, third my boxers.

Saylor’s breath hissed out of her mouth as I stood in front of her naked. “You were saying? Wife?”

Saylor focused in on my abs, legs, arms — really every part of my body but my face.

I snapped my fingers. “Hey, up here. We’re about to have a serious talk.”

“Like that?” She pointed at me and squeaked.

“Yup.” I crossed my arms.

“Fine.” She pulled off her shirt.

“Wait.” I held up my hands. “What are you doing?”

“Two can play this game.” Her hands moved to her jeans.

We’d been married two days. Two actual days.

Rather than waiting, Saylor and I decided that, doing the whole long engagement thing? Not working so well, especially considering it felt like we were practically living together anyway.

Besides, if there was one thing we learned it was that we weren’t promised tomorrow, only today, so we got married.

“Say…” I groaned once her jeans fell to the floor.

She stepped out of them, clad in only her bra and underwear and then moved her hands.

“Wait!” I shouted my eyes fighting to figure out where to look first. “Our very serious discussion can’t happen if we’re both naked.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” I moved toward her, slowly, “It’s against the rules.”

“And who put you in charge of the rules?”

“Sweetheart, I’m Ashton freaking Hyde.”

“Ah,” Saylor nodded, a knowing gleam flaring in her eyes. “Pulling the celebrity jackass card… classy.”

I tilted my head to the side and lifted my hands helplessly into the air. “If the shoe fits.”

“The shoe’s about to find its way to Gabe Jr. and we all know how fond you are of every part being in working order.”

Snorting, I rolled my eyes, “Please, I didn’t hear you complaining last night, or this morning.”

“Whore.”

“I’m your whore.” I pointed out. “So it’s totally legal.”

“What’s this discussion about?” She crossed her arms making her breasts pop up in her bra, distracting me considerably from my goal of winning the battle I’d started.

“Up here.” Saylor snapped her fingers in front of me. “You have three seconds.”

“Dishwasher.” I pulled her against me. Damn, her skin felt good. “You forgot to load it.”

“False.” She breathed, arching her body into mine. “That was your chore for the week, check the chart.”

“I made the chart.”

“Aw, Ashton freaking Hyde, are you pouting?”

“No.” Yes.

“The chart,” Saylor pointed out, “was only established for what reason?”

I glared.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Saylor cupped her ear.

Grumbling, I looked down and answered, “Because I have a bad habit of baking too many cookies, feeding them to you, and then not cleaning up my mess.”

“Right.” Saylor nodded. “So technically this discussion is a moot point.”

“Not really.” I smirked, reaching behind her back and snapping her bra off. “Pretty sure I just made it a real discussion again.”

“Oh yeah?” She put her hands on her hips, letting me openly gape. “How do you figure?”

“Now we can discuss how beautiful you are.” I kissed her hard on the mouth and retreated. “How damn sexy I find you.” I sucked her lower lip. “And how excited I am that one day I’ll have little princesses running around that look exactly like you.”

“Charmer.” Saylor breathed as my hands reached for the last shred of clothing that was separating our bodies from one another.

Laughing, I picked her up into my arms and carried her to the couch, careful to kiss her lips, plunder the depths of her mouth, and tease until she was ready to either scream at me or hit me.

I tossed her onto the couch.

“Gabe…!”

“Love you.” I hovered over her, kissing every inch of skin, savoring the feel of her warmth against my mouth.

“I need you,” she moaned.

My body was already on fire — being with her did that to me, made me want to seriously spend my days having sex and never doing anything else with my life. Ever. But when I brought up that topic to Saylor, she said the only people who made careers out of sex were prostitutes.

I, of course, pointed out that since we were married it didn’t matter.

She said if money changed hands, it did.

With a grin I kissed her neck and finally entered her with excruciating slowness. I would never tire of that feeling — of being one with the person I loved.

Saylor whimpered as I brought her body to the brink of release, only to slow down again.

Teasing her, even in intimate moments was my favorite thing in the world.

“Gabe!” Saylor yelled.

I chuckled. “Louder?”

“I—”

My mouth crushed hers as her body tensed and then went limp against mine.

Careful not to squash her, I managed to lie next to her.

“Tell me…” she whispered. “One true thing.”

“I love you.” I kissed her cheek. “And a lifetime of days like this? Won’t ever be enough.”

“I like that truth.”

“Yeah.” I wrapped my arm around her. “I do too. What about you? What’s your truth for the day?”

Saylor shifted toward me. “Someday, when we do have kids… and we bring a little princess into the world, I think we should name her Kimmy.”

I couldn’t find my voice. I could only nod as I felt my eyes well with tears. “I think— I think she would have liked that.”

“Yeah.” Saylor sighed. “Me too.”

The doorbell rang.

Panicked, I jolted up and nearly knocked Saylor off the couch.

“Who is it?” Saylor called in a totally calm voice while I was busy trying to locate articles of clothing. Why was I only finding my socks? How were socks going to cover this up?

I mean, seriously.

“Hurry up, guys, it’s freezing!” Lisa shouted.

“Shit!” I found my pants, only to fall on my ass, because my feet slid on my shirt. I looked at Saylor as the light bulb clicked on in her brain too.

“Taco Tuesday!” We shouted at the same time.

“Guys! Come on!” Lisa pounded the door again.

“Keep your pants on!” I yelled back.

Saylor sighed and quickly buttoned her jeans.

I wasn’t as fast.

I was like a turtle. Ha, that damn nickname wasn’t ever going away.

Finally, we opened the doors to see Wes, Kiersten, and Lisa waiting.

Wes took one look at me and burst out laughing. “Shirts on backwards, man. Welcome to matrimony.”

“Gross.” Lisa side-stepped me.

As everyone talked at once and piled into the house, I was left staring at the sunset, the same sunset that I’d seen at the end of every day. Last year it had reminded me of loss — and now? It reminded me of life.

“Hey, you coming?” Kiersten called.

“Yeah.” Smiling, I closed the door. “I am.”