I came first, crying out and shuddering, the sensations inside me coursing through my clit and making me throw my head back and lose all control of my body. I just knelt there, the orgasm rippling through me as Will came, his body tightening and spilling in the sheet and his hands gripping my hip and breast.

Damon pushed me down, holding my shoulder at my neck, and thrust inside of me, taking me harder and harder as Will held my head to him again to keep me secure.

Damon growled under his breath, his movements fast and wild, and then he came, driving inside of me once real slow and then again, letting it go.

He jerked a few more times and collapsed on my back, damp with sweat and all three of us trying to catch our breath. My eyelids felt heavy, and I swear I could feel their heartbeats against me.

I relaxed into Will’s body, feeling Damon behind me, and even though the fear and worry over what happened earlier tonight would return tomorrow, I couldn’t think about it if I tried right now.

Right now, I never wanted to leave this room.

It wasn’t until the air grew cold and our breathing turned silent, that I peeled myself up off Will, Damon rising, too.

Will tore the spoiled sheet off the bed, and an hour later I could hear his steady breathing as he fell fast asleep on my left side.

Damon spooned me from behind, both of us still awake, but I knew he’d turned off the lights.

I hugged my arms to my chest as Damon held one of his over me, and now that we were all calm, I waited for the guilt to come.

The shame. The worry. The doubt.

But it didn’t. At least not yet.

We’d touched and kissed and fell into each other, and I was grateful they were here. Alive and safe.

I didn’t want to think.

“I’ve never let women do that to me,” Damon said quietly, breaking the silence.

“Do what?”

“Put their mouths on me,” he replied. “Down there.”

He didn’t let other women use their mouths on him?

“I just never…” he trailed off. “It’s not something I…”

He struggled to find the words, but I realized what he was talking about, and I tried to keep the sadness from my voice.

“I know,” I told him, saving him from having to say it.

His mother and what she did to him.

He didn’t like that, and the reason had to do with her.

“Why did you let me?” I asked, keeping my tone soft.

“I didn’t even think about it until it was over,” he whispered. “It was like she wasn’t here. It was just you.”

He sucked in a breath and tightened his arms around me. “I love you,” he said.

I immediately broke down, tears springing to my eyes.

Happy tears.

He turned me over, slid on top of me, and kissed me as he nestled himself between my legs again.

“I love you,” he whispered over my lips again.

I held his face in my hands. God, I love you.

And as I sucked in a breath, feeling him push inside of me again, I knew what he was talking about all those days ago. The anger and fury and heat and need—years of it leading to this moment when we finally knew what we were and who we lived for.

Red.

Out of all the colors, I liked red the best.

Winter

Present

Devil’s Night.

I woke up, unsure how long I’d been asleep, but I knew it was late when we came to bed. It had to be morning, which meant tonight was the night. Devil’s Night.

I felt bodies on my left and right, and a tiny cyclone swirled through my stomach as my hands rested on my belly, and I clutched the T-shirt I wore that Damon had found in one of the drawers in the room last night.

Everything from the night before came flooding back, and even though my cheeks warmed with embarrassment, I couldn’t negate how good I felt right here, right now. Every muscle still slumbered, and my mind was at peace, if even just for a few more moments.

Raising my right hand, I reached up and cupped a face, feeling Damon’s jaw and straight eyebrows, his nose and warm neck. Raising my other hand, I found Will asleep on his stomach, his soft hair falling over his forehead.

All three of us.

So much pain and disappointment. I was a little bit scared, but I knew they were, too.

I laid there, listening to the silence, knowing we were underground but surprised I couldn’t hear much. No footfalls above. No plumbing. It was a pretty solid little fortress down here. I’d never been before they renovated it, but that shower was impressive.

The catacombs.

Damon had said something about hiding something down here, didn’t he? In a shallow pool? Or a well?

I wondered if the room he described was still here.

Leaving them asleep, I quietly climbed out of the bed and found my way to the bedroom door.

Where did he say to go?

Something about the bottom of the stairs.

I walked out of the room, knowing the shower was across the hall, and we had come from my right. I didn’t think we’d passed any stairs, so I veered left and walked, hearing music playing, so I followed the sound as I trailed down the wall.

You turn left at the bottom of the stairs, he’d said, and keep going.

After what seemed like minutes and minutes, my heart racing a little more every step I took away from Damon, the music was loud now, and I held out my hand, feeling an entrance to a stone staircase. I put my foot on the first step, making sure. This must’ve been the stairwell leading up into the cathedral part of the house.

With my back to the stairs, I turned left, trailing down the hallway, the floor turning from marble to stone and dirt, and the walls less polished and grainier under my fingers. When I felt the draft, I turned right and held out my right hand, brushing the wall and counting the doorways.

Damn, this underground level was big. I wondered what I missed down here in high school, but then again, I was probably happier not knowing.

Reaching the fourth doorway, I stopped and immediately heard the trickle of water he’d told me about. Fear crept in, because I was far away from anyone else in the catacombs, but my heart leaped, too, because I’d found the place he described.

Stepping inside, I swallowed down my nerves, and followed the wall around to where I felt water spilling down the rocks and dribbling into a small pool. Kneeling down, I patted the rocks and stuck my fingers in the water, feeling its icy coolness.

Dipping my hand in, I felt around, touching rocks, until I came to a straight edge with a corner. I grabbed hold of it, recognizing that it was a box of some sort.

I shimmied it out from where it was lodged and set it down on the ground, finding the clasp, and opening it. Carefully, I grazed my hand over whatever was inside to make sure it was nothing sharp.

Finding a plastic bag, I pulled it out and unraveled it, feeling something hard inside. Opening it up, I felt around, fingering what seemed like beads and another small metal object.

Pulling both out, I held them in my hand, examining them.

Right away, I recognized the cross on the rosary.

It was Damon’s. The one he wore in high school, and the one he had in the fountain when we were kids.

The other object was metal, with a sharp clasp, and a design on it. A hair barrette.

And then a memory flashed—me taking this out of my hair. Why did I give this to him?

The rosary, the barrette, the fountain…

I bit him.

What?

The memory was so fleeting, but it was vivid and strong. “I’d bitten him that day,” I said out loud, realization flooding back. “Before we went to the treehouse. He let me bite him in the fountain. He was glad I did it. Why?”

What were we doing in that fountain? And why was it more important to Damon than what happened afterward in the treehouse?

Leaving the box and bag, I carried the items with me back out in the corridor, retracing my steps.

“Winter?” I heard Rika’s voice.

“Hey,” I replied, holding out my hand for her.

“Did you get lost?” she asked, coming over for me to take her arm.

But I just shook my head. “Just exploring,” I told her. “Would you take me to the bathroom, please?”

“Are you okay?”

“I hope so,” I joked.

I had no idea how to answer that, and the way my life had been going, the answer could be different in five minutes. Ask me later.

Right now, though, I just needed another shower. The floors in that part of the catacombs were non-renovated and filthy.

And then there was last night, so…

She walked us both to the spacious bathroom, and I found the vanity chair and lowered myself into the seat.

“Are they still in bed?” she asked, messing with some items in the cabinet.

I opened my mouth to tell her ‘yes’, but then the nature of her question hit me, and I froze.

Are they still in bed? There was more than one bedroom down here, I was sure. Why would I know if Will was still in bed?

Unless…

“You heard,” I said, my shoulders slumping a little.

I couldn’t catch a break. I’d never had much of a sex life, but when I did, everyone knew everything.

“I heard a little,” she said, and I could hear the amusement in her tone.

“Michael, too?”

When she didn’t answer, I knew.

Dammit.

“It’s okay,” she soothed, coming over and dabbing something on my forehead. I hissed at the sting of a cut I didn’t realize I had. Must’ve gotten it in the accident last night.

I frowned. “What you must think.”

Every moan and cry that left my mouth last night raced through my head, and I was a little mortified. Private things needed to stay private, because not everyone would understand. I could just see her and Michael coming down to make sure we were okay last night and hearing what they heard. It must’ve seemed so shallow.

“I’m thinking… I understand,” she told me. “And you don’t need to explain yourself to me.”

I appreciated her manners, but still…

She cleaned my cut, remaining quiet for a moment, and then affixed a Band-Aid to my hairline.