I was about to turn around and go back when I saw it. Right there, at the edge of the treeline… a branch, lying in the grass.
I picked it up and turned it over in my hands a few times. Then, glancing upward, I located the exact tree it had snapped off from. I checked the break point, and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.
The broken branch was still green and fresh…
As fresh as last night.
Four
MADISON
It was just past dusk when the knock came at my door. I opened it warily and saw Julian standing there, covered in a full day’s worth of sweat and grime and lime-dust.
“Hey…” I said, ushering him in.
I’d envisioned him crossing that threshold a thousand times. Entering my house, my kitchen… maybe even a lot more. But never like this. Never under circumstances this grim.
“I’m so sorry, Julian,” I said, with genuine sadness. “I—”
My sentence died as our eyes locked, blue on cerulean blue. I saw Julian’s jaw flex. The muscles of his shoulders go tight, as he raised his arms…
Then all of a sudden he was kissing me. Pulling my body tightly against his.
Oh my God…
It was hard and fast and full of passion, his two big arms enveloping me in a sea of strength and tattoos and muscle. But at the same time, it was also slow. Thunderous. Full of intensity and sensuality and all magnificent things, as his perfectly supple lips rotated slowly against mine.
I felt his tongue probe forward insistently, capturing my own. Forcing it to submit as I kissed him back, devouring the sweet, manly taste of him as we made out, shamelessly, in my ancient foyer.
Fuck…
In those few precious moments, my whole world exploded. I was limp in his arms. A puddle of nothing, as the big stonemason crushed me helplessly against his chest, taking me to places I’d only dreamed of.
Best of all he smelled like a man — all sweaty and dirty and coated with the remains of the day. In no time my head was spinning. Every last ounce of me felt alive and on fire, as I continued kissing and tasting and inhaling him.
By the time he finally set me back on my feet, my legs were absolute jelly. I could’ve dropped right there. Fallen straight to the floor, like every bone had been somehow vacuumed from my body.
Instead he held me steady, until I got my bearings. One hand resting delicately against my face… the other, planted firmly behind me, somewhere dangerously close to the curve of my ass.
“I—”
I was at a total loss for words. For several long seconds, I couldn’t say anything at all.
“I… was going to pay you… for the week…”
Feebly, my arm swept forward. Between my fingers was an envelope — almost the last of my cash.
Julian squeezed me with a delicious possessiveness before letting me go. As our faces parted, and our bodies drifted apart, he shook his head slowly.
“That was payment enough.” He pushed the hand holding the envelope away. “For now.”
I was left standing there in my post-kiss euphoria, totally beyond stunned. Covered from head to toe in goosebumps, my whole body trembling.
“See you tomorrow,” Julian said, as he pulled the door closed behind him. “Bright and early.”
Five
NOAH