AUGUST DIDN'T WASTE any time, but I didn't mind.

I loved watching his reaction, his unrestrained desire, the way he could barely contain how he felt about what I'd written.

I'd been slightly worried about it. Worried he might be upset simply because he hated being put in the public eye. The last thing I wanted was to use him for my own gain, to force him even further into the spotlight. But I needed people to know the truth—about him and about us.

Because there was still going to be an us. And I needed him to know that.

I wasn't going anywhere. For as long as he let me stay, I'd be here.

And based on the way he was acting right now, he wasn't in a hurry to get rid of me.

"God, you should see how wet you are for me, Castle."

I was already bent over the pool table, exposed for him. Aching for him. Just the sound of his voice made me clench my thighs together, needing some kind of friction.

But then August pushed them apart again so he could drag his finger between my legs as if to test if what he saw was true. And fuck, it was true. I squirmed beneath his touch and the way it lit something up inside me.

"If I'd known it turns you on this much to get bent over a pool table, I would have done it much sooner," he breathed, sounding both amused and awed.

I shook my head. "It's not the pool table. It's just you."

Just him. August fucking Fletcher.

God, he was unbelievable.

And today, I'd told the whole world that he was mine.

"Fuck, baby," he groaned. "You have no idea what it does to me when you say shit like that."

His touch vanished, and I heard rustling behind me, followed by a zipper. My breathing grew heavier by the second with anticipation. I wasn't sure I'd ever wanted him to touch me as much as I did right now.

His hands made their way to my hips first, gripping them hard as he tugged me back. I gasped, feeling his length press against my ass. And then it slid between my legs as he readjusted, teasing me as he dragged his tip through my arousal. It brushed against my clit, and I sighed as pleasure tingled through my veins. 

August groaned his approval, and I felt that groan everywhere.

"You feel so fucking good, and I'm not even inside you yet."

"You could be inside me already," I panted, feeling like I was on the verge of exploding with how badly I wanted to feel him like that. 

"God, Castle." His rough chuckle sent a shiver through me. "I want to be inside you so fucking badly, but I'm trying to savor it. Savor you. This moment."

"I'm not going anywhere," I promise. "You can savor it next time."

I felt August's cock slide through my pussy until he found what he wanted. A pressure built slowly as he started to push into me before stopping.

I wanted to scream at him for stopping.

"Are you saying I can fuck you like this whenever I want?"

He asked the question like he could barely believe it was reality.

"That's what I'm saying," I breathed, wiggling against him as I tried to get more. Feel more. I wanted to feel all of him.

"You're not going anywhere," he repeated—like he wanted confirmation.

A smile slid onto my face, and I suddenly wanted nothing more than to see his face when I confirmed it for him. I glanced over my shoulder, catching his brilliant brown eyes. They were as wild as the ocean outside.

"I'm not going anywhere, August."

His eyelids fluttered shut as he savored the words just like he savored my body, and then they flashed open again with a wicked glint, and he thrust into me. I gasped, my head dropping with the force of it.

"Good," he grunted, a note of finality in his voice. His grip tightened on my hips as he kept us locked together momentarily, even though I could tell we were both desperate for more. For friction. To feel. "Because like hell could I ever let you go, baby."

"Yes," I whimpered, pushing back into him with my hips.

August took the bait, withdrawing from my body and slamming into me again. And again and again, lighting me up inside from the way my clit rubbed against the side of the table. God, if he kept this up, I'd be falling apart in less than a minute.

"You feel so fucking good," he repeated. "I've never felt anything like you."

"Good," I gasped.

I didn't want him to have felt anything like this before. Because I never had. And I wanted this to be it for him. The best for him. Just like he was for me.

"God, I—"

He abruptly choked down on the end of that sentence, and I frowned even as he continued to give me exactly what I wanted. August didn't usually bite his tongue like that, and I peeked over my shoulder to see him watching me with an expression I couldn't even comprehend.

He shook his head at me like he couldn't explain himself, and before I could say anything, he fucked into me even harder, and words left me. All I could do was cry his name as I felt my whole body tighten in response to the toe-curling pleasure coursing through me.

"I could listen to you scream my name like that all fucking day," August rasped before grabbing ahold of my ponytail and tugging, forcing my back to arch and my ass to lift. My eyes flicked up to the ceiling as stars clouded my vision because fuck, it was just that good. "God, you should see yourself, Castle. You're taking me so well. So fucking well."

"It's so good," I breathed, struggling to get any other words out. My thoughts didn't feel coherent, my brain scrambled by what he was doing to me. I felt him so deep inside me that I had no idea at this point where he ended, and I began, and I was so incredibly okay with that. Especially when I started to feel that sweetness build into something unbearable, something I wasn't going to be able to handle for very long without unraveling.

"I can feel you." August groaned, and I could hear the desperation in his voice. "I can feel your hot little pussy tightening around my cock, Castle. You about to come for me?"

A strangled yes left my lips, and to my extreme frustration, August slowed his thrusts right when I was on the edge of falling.

Before I could complain, he soothed me with a hushed, "I need to see you, too. I need to see your pretty face while you come for me, baby."

"Don't stop," I begged, needing the release more than I ever had before. "Please don't stop, August. I need...I—"

"I know exactly what you need, and you'll get it. I'll give it to you, Castle. From now on, I'll give you everything that you need, always."

But even as those reassuring words left his lips, August pulled out of me and released his tight grip on my hair. I moaned my disappointment, but then he abruptly flipped me around, hoisting a firm hand beneath me, lifting my ass onto the side of the pool table, spreading my legs, and stepping between them. I leaned back, my palms settling on top of the table, and a second later, August buried himself inside me again. My lips parted with a gasp, my head tipping back from the absolute awe that filled me.

"That's it," August moaned. "Oh, fuck, that's what I wanted to see. Your face, just like that. I fucking love watching what I do to you." His fingers gripped my chin a second later, tipping it down. "But now I need you to watch, too. Eyes on me, baby."

"Anything." I did as he commanded, lowering my gaze until our eyes met in a clash of wild heat. "Anything just so long as you move."

A chuckle escaped August's lips. "I told you that I'll give you want you need, and I will. Always. Got that?"

I nodded slowly, even though I felt like screaming at him to do something.

"I'll take care of you," he murmured before pulling back and thrusting even deeper inside me, pushing me to my edge.

"Oh, god." My eyelashes fluttered with the overwhelming pleasure, but then I somehow managed to find August's hot gaze again. It was filled with satisfaction and hunger. "August, please."

The corner of his mouth tipped up. "You look so fucking pretty when you beg." He gripped my hips tighter, making sure I didn't slip off the edge of the table as he slammed into me again. A cry flew through my lips, followed by a desperate whimper for him to do it again. His jaw clenched as he watched me take him. "Beg, baby. Beg for me to fill this pretty pussy with my cum. I know you want it. I know you want me to fill your needy cunt."

"August," I gasped, his dirty words nearly putting me over the edge. "Please."

"Please, what?" he growled, quickening his pace.

I could tell now that he was struggling to hold out. I watched as determination lit up his face, and his movements grew desperate and sloppy. He couldn't stop; I couldn't stop. We were on a runaway mission to both fall apart.

"Please fill me up, Fletcher," I groaned. "Fill me all the way up."

"Oh, fuck." His thrusts speed up another degree, and I rocked my hips, trying to meet him. Our gazes collided again, each of us trying to soak up the sight of the other. And when August grunted for me to come, I finally lost it.

Wave upon wave of release washed over me, and my body rode the pulse of it as I cried out. August sprinkled praises on me that I could barely comprehend as I shook with the most unbelievable orgasm I'd ever experienced, and when he'd finally wrung my last shiver out of me, August let go, stilling as he spilled his release inside me.

"Oh my god," he breathed, leaning forward to kiss me, even as he tried to catch his breath. "Quinn baby, fuck."

I wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him down and kissing him back, muttering his name between the pressing of our lips because it was the only word in my brain.

I had no idea how much time passed before August slid his lips from mine and buried his head in the crook of my neck. We stayed like that, catching our breaths. August was still buried inside me, but that was okay with me. I liked feeling him. Liked being connected to him.

Actually, it was so much more than that. So much more than like.

A few moments later, August pulled back to look down at me, and I realized that the same thoughts were flicking through his mind, too.

"God, Quinn, I—" He broke off with a frustrating groan, his eyes momentarily fluttering shut.

I frowned. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've never been happier than I am right now, and I'm just really trying to keep my shit together and not say things to you that I shouldn't."

I cocked my head to the side, confusion only deepening at his words.

"What things?"

August took a deep breath before saying, "Things that might scare you. Things that you might not be ready to hear."

It was my turn to shake my head, reaching up to cup his face, forcing him to look at me. When I felt the warmth of this eyes, I spoke as clearly as possible for him to understand. "I've never wanted anything more than to know you, August. I want to know what's going on in that head of yours. I'm ready for it. I've only ever wanted you to stop holding back on me."

I let my hand drop from his face to his chest, feeling his rapid pulse. His eyes searched my face, looking for truth there. And since that was all I had to offer, I didn't shy away from him.

He took a deep but shaky breath in while I held mine, waiting to hear what he was thinking. I hoped to hell it matched what was going on in my head.

"You feel how fast my heart is beating?" he finally asked softly. "That's for you, Castle. You mean the goddamn world to me, and if I don't tell you that I love you right fucking now, I might just explode."

My heart jumped straight into my throat, and my next words came out forced because of it. "Tell me."

August's lips split into a grin, and I'd never seen him looking so goddamn handsome than he did right now.

"I love you, Quinn. Holy shit, I love you so fucking much. It's unbelievable that you're mine, but I'm never going to take that for granted. You are so unbelievable, baby. And I know this might be too much, but—"

"It's not too much," I rushed to say, cutting him off. "You think I left my job and wrote that article, and I don't love you, August? Of course I love you. I wrote that article because I love you so much, and I wanted the world to see you the way I do. God, I love you so much."

August's lips parted, some sort of awe spreading over his face as he comprehended what I'd said. Then he wordlessly put his hand over mine, pressing it closer to his chest where I got to feel his heartbeat speed up, faster and faster.

His forehead slowly dropped, resting against mine, and then his lips brushed over my mouth, capturing it in a slow kiss. A deep kiss, one that meant...everything.

"Say it again," he rasped into my mouth, our breaths mixing when he refused to let our lips part. "I need you to say it again, Castle."

"I love you, August Fletcher," I whispered. "I don't know what the future is going to bring, but I know I want to figure it out with you. Can I do that?"

He groaned and kissed me harder before breathing, "God, yes. I love you, too, Quinn Castle. And I will stand by your side for as long as you'll let me, down whatever path you want to take."

"Take me home," I begged. "Right now I just want to go home with you, August. I want to build a home with you. Take me home and put me in your bed, just like the first night we met here."

"Tonight is nothing like that night." He smiled down at me, a spark in his eyes. "Because I couldn't touch you that night, and I'm not going to be able to take my hands off you tonight."

"Perfect," I said with a smile. "That sounds perfect."

"Fuck, yes it does."

And then August Fletcher took me home.

But this time, it felt a lot less like his home.

And a lot more like our home.

☀️

a/n:

so sorry for the wait but thank you for reading!! sex scenes always take me longer to write but I wanted to make sure to bring August & Quinn's story full circle.

one more chapter left!! it will come out sometime this week, but I won't promise a day this time because things have been so busy over here on my end. But I can promise you won't have to wait more than a week. ❤️.

xoxo Amelie