The Outliers (The Outskirts Duet #2)

My mouth fell open. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. It was the most amazing sight I’d ever laid eyes on. “Is this even real?” I whispered.

My state of shock wasn’t because of the beautiful grey hardwood floors running from a large living space into a vast and open white kitchen. It wasn’t because of the detailed moldings around the windows or the curved iron staircase. It wasn’t even because of the big dining room with a huge dark wood table running down the center that could easily fit ten people around it.

No, I was reacting to the thousands of tings covering the entire living room ceiling. They flapped around until Finn closed the door. Although the ceilings were high the strings were long. As I stepped further into the room they dangled only an inch or two above my head. “What is all this?” I asked moving further into the hanging tings until they surrounded me on all sides.

Finn didn’t answer, but that was only because the tings answered for him. Every single one of them had the same handwritten message scrawled on them

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

-FINN

I spun around so fast that if I were any taller I’d be tangled in tings.

Finn was on one knee before me holding out a diamond ring shaped like a sunflower. Light and happiness and promise filled his already handsome bright blue eyes. “So…” he said, making me feel like I was about to burst out of my own skin. “about that last name change?”

Unable to speak real words because joy apparently drains your brain of real coherent thoughts, I joined Finn on the floor, kneeling to face him. When I realized he was still waiting for an answer I nodded so hard I think I should my words loose. “Yes!” I finally managed to blurt out.

Finn placed the ring on my finger and pulled me against him. Besides, Outskirts, it was my favorite place to be. “I’m so glad we’re here, Say,” he whispered, his lips finding mine. And whether he meant here as in the house, the town, or as in the place in our relationship, it didn’t matter. My response was the same.

“Me too,” I whispered.

“I’ve got one more for you,” he said, pulling another ting out of his back pocket and handing it to me along with a black marker.

SHE SAID__________.

-Finn

And of course, through happy tears, I wrote in a great big YES.



In the beginning Finn and I were just two outliers, each on the cusp of different societies. Together, we found our place and it wasn’t in the town. It was in the people of the town. The people who loved us. It was in each other. It was in the new life growing inside of me that we’d created.

It was in family.

Our family.

“And although it’s too late now,” Finn grinned slyly, “I feel like I still owe you a better lesson on procreation.” He ran his hands under my shirt.

“Is that so?” I asked as he unclasped my bra and tossed it to the ground. He made quick work of his own shirt, exposing his defined abs and broad chest.

My mouth went dry. My body hummed.

Finn pushed off his jeans and boxers, exposing his tight butt and muscled abs. I licked my lips at the sight of my beautiful man. I lifted my hips while he peeled off my panties and shorts. He lifted and settled back between my legs where I wanted him most. His hard heat throbbed at my entrance. “Are you ready for your lesson?” he asked, raising his eyebrows wickedly. His voice was raspy and hoarse.

“Yes,” I breathed, ready for whatever it is he wanted to give me. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Because I can’t wait any longer.” We were wild and passionate. Needy and desperate.

He pushed himself inside of me with one long thrust that made me gasp, filling me with pleasure, while filling my heart with love.

I adjusted around his size, my inner muscles squeezed around him. Finn groaned, the sound making me squeeze him again and again until the pleasure was almost painful. Until there were tears in my eyes and we were the only two people existing on earth.

He held my hands above my head and didn’t continue until I was looking him in the eye. “I love you, Say.”

“I love you,” I replied, looking deeply into his eyes. The feeling between us, the connection we shared, added another log to the fire and our pleasure increased, reaching heights I didn’t think possible.

A tear fell from the corner of my eye. It was all too much.

It wasn’t enough.

Finn kissed the tear away and began a slow and steady rhythm that had me lifting my hips to meet his thrust for thrust. We somehow flipped from wild sex to passionate love.

“I’m going to make you come now,” He said on a low groan. He reached around me to lift me up so he could hit an angle that had me seeing stars with each languid thrust.

“Please,” I begged, feeling so close to the edge I was practically living on it.

“Fuck. I feel you. I know you’re almost there. Damn you’re so tight around me.” He thrust in harder. Repeatedly he pushed in and out until his movements became frenzied and we were awash in sensations and feelings.

I couldn’t keep track of where he was touching or where our lips were.

I felt him everywhere.

My body.

My heart.

My soul.

The muscles in my lower stomach tightened and he reached under my tank top brushing his thumb over my straining nipple which sent a shockwave of pleasure to my core. “I’m I’m…” I couldn’t finish my sentence because I was already too far gone. I came in a burst of blinding white light as the immense pleasure exploded within me.

“Holy shit.” Finn pushed inside of me one last time until I felt him expand within me, releasing his warmth with a pulse that caused me to shudder one last time as the last of the intense waves washed through me.

The depth of feeling wasn’t like it had been the first time in the library. I didn’t know how or why pleasure like this existed but all I knew was that Finn had given it to me, and so much more.

A few months later, my father walked me down a makeshift aisle in a field full of sunflowers. During the last moments of daylight, in the exact spot where my parents were married, I held our newborn baby girl between us while Finn and I vowed to always love one another.

Fiercely. Possessively. Crazily.

Always.

The End





Epilogue





Sawyer





When we pulled up to Gary’s Garage I furrowed my brow and turned to Finn. “I’m confused. Why are we here?”

“Come on,” Finn said, hopping down from the truck.

I followed him with Sunny, our three-month-old daughter, as he bypassed the opened garage bay through the field to the back of the small building. I was too busy trying not to lose my footing on the uneven earth that I didn’t see what was in front of me until I crashed into Finn’s back.

“What do you think?” he asked, stepping to the side.

My mouth fell open and in inhaled on a sharp breath, covering my mouth in disbelief. “It’s….” I took a few tentative steps forward, not believing what I was seeing until I was able to run my hand over the freshly painted side of my mother’s rusty old truck except now she was anything but rusty.