I breathe in deep, cementing into my memory the incredible feeling of being carried in his arms and snuggling into his wide hard chest. He smelled so good. Like a man should smell like—all smoky fresh like a campfire mixed with musky testosterone. It’s a mix that would make a billion dollars if it was bottled up into a cologne and sold. Single women all over the world would spray it on their beds and have wet happy dreams all night. Married women would spray it on their unsuspecting husbands and then jump their bones.
And those hands… so big and strong… so skilled and capable. I felt one on my back and one on the back of my thighs as he saved me. He was so rough when he was gripping that axe and slamming it into the tree, but he was so gentle with me. So careful. So fucking sexy.
He’s just standing there staring at me with such a possessive look. Like I’m in his forest so he now owns me too.
I want him to own me. I want to be his. I want him to steal me away and refuse to give me back to that place.
He even said it. “You’re not going back. You’re staying here with me. Forever.”
Those are words I’ll be replaying over and over in my head over the next few lonely decades that I’ll be locked up. They’ll keep me warm at night. They’ll satisfy me when I touch myself. They’ll be a reminder that someone somewhere out there cared about my well-being for a time.
He doesn’t know how much I appreciate it. How much it means to me. How I’ve been starving for a human connection like this.
I’m intimidated and nervous standing in front of this giant of a man, but I know what I must do. I’ll regret it forever if I don’t.
I lick my lips as I step forward, the rain pelting down on us. He looks so fucking sexy with his wet hair plastered on his forehead, those simmering brown eyes burning a hole in my heart.
He never takes his heated eyes off me as I touch his big strong bicep and step on my toes. My eyes fall to his sexy lips and my mouth waters as I lean in.
“Thank you for saving me,” I whisper when our lips are close enough that he can feel my hot breath.
I kiss him softly.
My eyes water when I feel the beautiful softness of his lips.
A tear streams down my cheek as I pull away, but thankfully, the rain hides it. He doesn’t see my sadness. He can’t feel my heart breaking.
What a waste of a life. Everything was taken from me.
I’ve been in prison for a year. I’ve been getting used to it, but then sometimes, something happens and I realize how much I’m missing out on.
It shakes me out of my numbness. It unleashes my buried emotions and desires. It wrecks me.
What I wouldn’t give to be free. To have a life. To live out here with this gorgeous man and be his girl.
I don’t want to go back. This time it’s going to break me.
Knowing he’s out here and I’m in there. I don’t know how I’m going to live with that in my brain.
I have to go back. There’s no denying that.
But I wouldn’t have changed any of this. I’m glad I met him. I’m glad I got to be a person for a few minutes instead of being a number like I am now. He looked at me like a fellow human being instead of like a scourge on society.
And I’m glad I had my first kiss.
I’ve never been with a man and I’ve never felt the taste of a man’s lips until now.
For that alone, I’ll never forget him.
“I have to go now,” I whisper as my heart breaks. “They’ll throw me in the hole if they think I’m trying to escape.”
He reaches out and takes my wrist. I gasp when I feel his strong hand wrap around it, holding me in place.
“I can’t let you go back there,” he says with a look of pain in his eyes. “I saved your life. That means you’re mine now.”
“The government of California might have a different view on that,” I say, wishing it wasn’t so.
“I don’t care. This is my forest. I’m the king out here and I make the rules.”
I’m about to tell him that’s not how laws work, but there’s such a strong conviction in his eyes that I’m no longer sure if the rules do apply out here in his mountains. This wild alpha looks like he doesn’t answer to anyone.
“Turn around,” he commands in a firm deep voice that has my body obeying like it’s on autopilot.
I turn around and he grabs the top half of my jumpsuit. “Hey!”