Chapter Twisted Hate: Epilogue

“Open it.”

“No.”

“Jules.” Josh placed his hands on my shoulders. “No matter what’s on that screen, you’ll be fine. I’ll be here. The anticipation will kill you more than the results.”

“Easy for you to say.” I cast a nervous glance at my laptop, where the login page for my bar exam results stared back at me. “You’re not the one whose entire future is riding on one measly score.”

I’d waited for so long, and now that the results were here, I wanted to chuck my computer across the room and pretend they didn’t exist. Ignorance was bliss and all that.

My stomach churned when I remembered everything I had going against me. I’d taken the bar fresh off my breakup with Josh and injured after my psychotic ex pushed me down the stairs.

The outlook did not look good for a passing score.

“It’s not your entire future.” Josh’s calm voice loosened some of the knots in my muscles. “If you don’t pass, you’ll take it again until you pass. You’re going to be a kickass attorney one day, Red. Don’t doubt yourself. Besides…” He kissed my forehead. “It’s better to rip the Band-Aid off than let the uncertainty fester.”

“Right. You’re right.” I took a deep breath.

It was fine. I’ll be fine. Not passing the bar wouldn’t be the end of the world.

I mean, it would be the end of world, but not the end of world.

I walked to my laptop and typed in my username and password with shaking fingers. My breakfast swirled in my stomach, and I regretted wolfing down the blueberry waffles Josh made.

When the score report loaded, I closed my eyes, my heart a frantic steel drum in my chest.

Behind me, Josh rested his hands on my shoulders again, his presence strong and comforting.

I finally cracked my eyes open and zeroed in on the total score at the bottom of the page.

It took a second for the numbers to process. Once they did, I let out a loud squeal.

“I passed!” I jumped up and banged my knee against the underside of the table, but I didn’t even feel the pain. I turned and threw my arms around Josh’s neck, smiling so wide my cheeks ached. “I passed, I passed, I !”

He laughed and spun me around. “What did I tell you? Congrats, Red.” Pride seeped into his voice, rich and warm. “Now you can support me on your big-time lawyer salary while I toil away in my residency.”

I was scheduled to start my job at Silver & Klein next week. Part of me was sad to leave the clinic, but I hoped I would still be able to work with LHAC in some capacity. Lisa mentioned she was interested in partnering with a corporate law firm to expand the clinic’s services, and after I established myself at Silver & Klein, I planned to propose a partnership between my new company and my old one.

Meanwhile, Josh had entered his fourth and final year of residency, after which he’d take his board exams and become a fully licensed doctor.

We were well on our way to achieving our dream careers, but honestly, I was happier about the fact I had Josh by my side through it all. It made every achievement sweeter and every failure less bitter.

“I knew you were a gold digger.” Even after paying off his med school loans, he had enough money from selling the painting to be financially comfortable for decades, but that didn’t stop me from teasing him. “Using me for money. I am shocked. Appalled. Scandalized—”

Josh cut me off with a kiss. “Don’t worry.” His voice lowered as he ran one large, warm palm up my thigh. “I can repay you in non-monetary ways.”

My heart rate picked up, and I bit back a moan when he reached the cleft between my legs. I was already soaked for him, as confirmed by the satisfied gleam in Josh’s eyes. He was always such a smug bastard about sex.

I hated how much I loved it.

“I don’t believe you,” I breathed. “I need a demonstration first.”

“You drive a hard bargain.” He slipped my underwear to the side and rubbed his thumb over my clit. “What kind of demonstration would you like? You want me to fuck your pussy till you forget your own name? Eat that sweet little cunt out until you come all over my face? Or maybe…” He pushed a finger inside me and curled it until he hit a spot that made my limbs tremble. “You want me to fill every hole like the needy little slut you are.”

A whimper escaped at the mental picture he painted. My toys weren’t strangers in our sex life, and the last time he’d used them on me while fucking my mouth…

A pleasurable shudder wracked my body.

“Which is it, Red?” Josh worked another finger inside me. “Use your words.”

“I…” I struggled to form a coherent response, but I was too distracted by the slow pump of his fingers in and out of me.

A bundle of electricity pooled between my legs.

“Your verbal skills could use work.” He tsked in mock disappointment. “But since I’m feeling generous and we need to celebrate you passing the bar, I’ll provide a sample demonstration of all three…”

Josh was right about my verbal skills needing work, because by the time he finished his “demonstrations” three hours later, my body was limp and it was a struggle to even remember my own name.

“Mmph.” I made a contented noise as drowsiness settled over me like a warm blanket and pulled heavy on my eyelids. We’d moved from the living room to his bed, and I just wanted to sink into his pillows and never leave. “Good sample.”

Josh’s soft laugh tickled my skin as he pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “How do you feel about a full demonstration, then?” He caressed the curve of my ass, and the butterflies in my stomach went crazy again.

“Stop,” I moaned, half horrified, half aroused. “I will die if I have one more orgasm.”

The chances of me walking properly tomorrow were already close to zero.

“Okay, okay. I’ll give you a reprieve.” Josh laughed again before he rolled over and reached for his phone. “I actually bought you a proper gift in anticipation of you passing the bar.” His dimple deepened. “Well, I bought a gift.”

I perked up, my curiosity overpowering my drowsiness. “Is it a toy? Lingerie? The ?”

“No, Red.” He tapped my nose, his eyes sparkling with exasperated amusement. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

I made a face while he pulled something up on his screen. “Look who’s talking. Your mind in the gutter.”

Josh swatted my ass in light punishment before he handed me his phone. “Careful, or that reprieve is going to be more temporary than you thought.”

I ignored my prickle of anticipation at his words and squinted at the document onscreen. It looked like…a plane ticket?

When the tiny words finally came into focus, I sucked in a sharp breath. “New Zealand? We’re going to ?”

“Early next year when I have vacation days again. But I bought flexible tickets so we can change the dates in case you can’t take that week off at your new job.” Josh’s grin nearly blinded me. “Excited?”

“Are you freaking kidding? It’s ” My stomach flipped as images of snow-capped mountains and pristine blue waters filled my mind. Outside of the US, I’d only been to Eldorra, Canada, Mexico, and a few Caribbean islands. New Zealand was one of the top destinations on my bucket list.

“What if I hadn’t passed?” I asked, staring at the e-ticket again to make sure it was real.

Yep, there they were. My name, the travel dates, and the destination. All real.

He shrugged. “Then it would’ve been a comfort gift.”

Emotion clogged my throat and crawled into my chest. “Josh Chen, sometimes you are…” I set the phone aside and kissed him. Forget salted caramel. Nothing tasted as good as him—like mint and sex. “Tolerable.”

“Tolerable?” He hitched an eyebrow. “That’s not good. I’m supposed to be insufferable, and you…” He threaded his fingers through my hair and gave it a gentle yank. “You’re supposed to hate me.”

I dug my nails into his thigh until I heard his sharp inhale. “I do.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Show me.”

I dug my nails harder in his skin before I trailed them over his chest and climbed on top of him. I tugged hard on his hair and flinched when he spanked my ass again, this time so hard the sting reverberated through my body.

Wetness coated my thighs, and I moaned, all traces of drowsiness gone.

Screw walking properly. It was overrated anyway.

“If I die, I will drag you to hell and torment you for eternity.” Jules wrapped an arm around my waist, her face several shades paler than usual as we shuffled toward the edge of the platform.

Behind us, the bungee jump operator checked our harnesses one last time.

“If you die, I die, Red.” I grinned and kissed her cheek. “Hell with you sounds like heaven to me.”

Her tense expression cracked. “That was corny as fuck, Josh.”

“Yeah, so? I’m hot enough to pull it off.” I peered down at the river below us. “Besides, you may want to be nice to me. You don’t want our last words to be insults, do you?”

It was our last full day in New Zealand, and we were at Queenstown’s Kawarau Bridge for a tandem bungee jump. Jules had taken all our previous activities in stride—skydiving, paragliding, whooshing across a canyon with the Shotover Canyon Swing. But she’d never looked as nervous as she did now.

Her face paled further. “

.”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” I tightened my arm around her waist. “We’ll be fine. Trust me.”

“We better be, or I promise, I’ll let Cerberus bite your genitals off.”

I grinned. I loved when she got violent.

“Are you ready?” The operator asked, keeping a hold on the backs of our harnesses.

I looked at Jules, who took a deep breath and nodded.

“We’re good,” I said.

My heart crashed against my ribcage in anticipation.

The operator gave us a small push, and…

We jumped. Fast and hard, the wind whistling in our ears as we plummeted toward the deep turquoise waters of the Kawarau River.

Jules’s scream mingled with my exhilarated laugh.

I missed this. The adrenaline. The rush. The feeling of being so that the entire world lit up around you.

But it wasn’t just the bungee jump. It was the fact I was experiencing it with Jules. No one and nothing could make me feel as alive as she did.

I captured her mouth in a kiss, distracting her from the rope’s recoil. For most people, the recoil was the most terrifying part of bungee jumping, and she was already nervous enough.

Her muscles tensed, but they relaxed again when I deepened the kiss and tightened a protective arm around her waist. She didn’t scream again on our way down.

Pride bloomed in my chest.

A raft waited for us at the end of our last free fall. The two staff members unhooked us from our harnesses, and we collapsed, face up, on the mattress-like cushion.

“Holy. Shit,” Jules wheezed after she caught her breath.

I turned my head to look at her. “Told you that was going to be amazing.”

“I don’t know if is the right word. I saw my life flash before my eyes.” She turned as well so we faced each other. Her cheeks were tinged pink from the wind, and her hair fanned out around her in a silky red cloud. She was so fucking beautiful it made my chest hurt. “But it was worth it for that kiss alone.”

“Spiderman and Mary Jane have nothing on us.”

“Absolutely not.”

We grinned at each other and lapsed into a comfortable silence as the raft glided toward shore.

After a whirlwind week of activities, we could finally share a moment of peace.

Part of me wanted to stay here and explore New Zealand with her forever. Another part couldn’t wait to live out the rest of our lives together back home.

I was in my last year of residency; Jules was thriving at Silver & Klein and had already been tapped to work on a huge case with a senior partner. We also moved in together last month so we could maximize our time together between our crazy schedules. We compromised on the commute by choosing a house halfway between her office and the hospital.

That meant Stella was now living in The Mirage alone. She’d worked out a deal with the landlord so she didn’t have to pay Jules’s portion of the rent for the remainder of her lease. That alleviated some of Jules’s guilt over leaving her friend high and dry in their old apartment, though Stella insisted it was fine.

New Zealand was a fantasy; D.C. was reality. Both were pretty damn amazing.

“Still hate me?” I whispered, lacing my fingers with Jules’s.

Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she squeezed my hand. “Always.”

I smiled. “Good.”