The Way She Burns

“Sebastian—” I sob.

“And I know you’re scared, I know you think there’s something wrong with the way you ache so badly, so often, but there isn’t. God no. Nature gave you a gift and sent me to fulfill you, baby. You can’t outrun this fire between us—and I’m not letting you. If you leave, I will follow. I’ll remind you every day how goddamn good it is when I’m inside of you. Or when you’re just looking at me across the room and making my heart feel like it’s trapped in a door. Or just when your hand is in mine. If those things are bad, then maybe it’s the good things we should be suspicious of. I love you, Chloe. I love you. Don’t run from me and break my heart.”

Behind Sebastian, a piece of the broken walls tumbles down and smashes at his feet, but he doesn’t turn around to acknowledge it. He’s too busy staring at me with unrivaled intensity, the sun burnishing his powerful body in gold.

I’m at a loss for words.

I don’t know what to say.

My heart wants me to run to him, but in my mind’s eye, I can still see Curtis lying at the base of the stairs, his face contorted in pain.

“Chloe,” he says, voice vibrating in the morning air. “It was scary, baby. But the world didn’t end, did it? It’s not going to, no matter what you do. Or how often you need to be loved. But it can get a lot darker if we deprive ourselves of each other. Mine is already dark just seeing the indecision in your eyes. Come back to me.”

The world didn’t end.

The world…didn’t end.

The raw quality of his voice is what breaks through to me.

It pierces the barrier of my fear and wraps around my lungs, my heart, pulling me toward him. I take one step and it feels so right, so vital, that I take another until I’m running toward him. Being snatched up into his arms and held so tightly, I gasp, losing what’s left of my breath.

“I love you, too,” I whisper, burying my face in his sweaty neck.

As soon as I say those words and he laughs hoarsely, holding me tighter, the last of my reservations dissolve. There is nothing wicked or wrong about what’s between me and this man. Nor is there anything wrong with me. There is fate and circumstance and sometimes, there are just accidents. But maybe those situations are going to happen whether I’m alone or not. Whether I’m happy or sad. Maybe bad things just happen and people have to take the good, trust when they’ve found it and hold on with both hands.

And with love bursting like fireworks in my chest, that’s exactly what I do.

I have no choice in the matter because this man has been in my blood since I was thirteen and I have no hope of getting him out. I don’t want to.

“Being happy isn’t selfish…” I say, piecing together a truth that is being revealed to me in this very moment, being held in the arms of the man I love. “It’s a gift.”

Sebastian’s cobalt blue eyes meet mine, crackling with lust and obsession and affection deeper than any ocean. “Let’s spend our whole lives unwrapping it.”

Epilogue

Sebastian

Five Years Later

My wife is still horny as hell. More so than ever.

And that makes me the luckiest man on planet earth.

I’m positive that I’ve done nothing in my life to deserve her, so now I spend every day trying to become worthy. Worthy of her running breathlessly into my office two or three times a day, needing her pussy serviced. Sometimes her need has spiked so dramatically, she comes after one thrust, screaming her relief, liquid pleasure coasting down the globes of her buttocks and pooling on my desk.

Hell, maybe it is an affliction. Maybe it is unusual for a woman to be in heat as often as Chloe. But it will be a cold day in hell before she takes a cure that isn’t my cock.

I check the clock on my computer now, a muscle ticking in my cheek.

She’s gone into town to buy a fresh bottle of her favorite perfume and she should be back by now. I haven’t been inside of her since just after breakfast. She has to be dripping by now, needy for that thick pressure I put between her legs. Maybe she ran into a friend or acquaintance and got talking, lost track of time.

After all, she has become quite popular in Harding ever since we started our mission to clean up the town. Make it safe and livable again. And thanks to my wife’s hard work, Harding is once again thriving. The streets are green, the shops have reopened and new families have been attracted to the area, buying real estate. Starting clubs and having street fairs. The fact that she’s safe in Harding is the only reason I let her travel into town alone now, although Dobbs is there, as well, keeping a close eye while I tend to my thriving stocks.