Deep Woods

“Isn’t that for me to decide?” I demanded. I got to my feet. “Isn’t that why you’re telling me all this? So there aren’t any secrets, so I can decide for myself?”

He sat there looking up at me, shocked. Then slowly nodded.

I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. “Then, Cal, I’ve decided! I want you. I need you. You—You put your arms around me and I feel safe.”

He looked away. “But I’m a—”

“No! No, you’re not. Maybe you were. Maybe, for those few years, when they were using you, you were a monster. But not anymore.” I crouched down. “Look, I can’t say it’s okay. I can’t undo what you did. But you can’t change who you were, who they made you. You can change who you are.”

He shook his head. “After what I did—”

“You can still make it right. I don’t think anyone’s beyond redemption.”

He looked up at me. For all his strength and size, at that moment, he looked like a scared kid.

“Really,” I confirmed. “But you can’t do it out here.” And I reached down and offered him my hand.

He sat there staring at me for a moment and I saw a change come over him. He seemed to lift. It wasn’t that the pain was gone: he’d carry that with him forever, and maybe he had to. But he had something else, now. He had hope.

He gripped my hand and I pulled him to his feet, nearly overbalancing. After sitting for so long, he looked even taller than normal, towering over me. Or maybe he was standing taller, now. He looked around at the forest, glanced up at the sky, took a deep lungful of air as if experiencing it all for the first time. Then he looked at me.

And for the first time, he was free. Those cornflower-blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight, eating me up, and instead of hiding it, or turning away, or scowling, it just went on and on, making my heart lift and bob and that silver string inside me draw tight and sing.

He closed the gap between us with two quick steps that shook the ground, then he scooped his hands under my ass and I yelped as I was suddenly lifted skywards. He stood with me clinging to him, my legs around his waist, and in the quiet stillness of the night, we just stared at each other. Both of us slowly realizing that there was nothing holding us back, anymore.

When he spoke, that iron certainty was back. “I’m gonna get you to Canada,” he told me. “We’ll get Jacques to bring Rufus. I’ll build us a place to live. And no one’s going to take you away from me, ever. Sound good?”

I couldn’t speak. So I just nodded, very, very firmly.

And then I couldn’t speak anyway because he was kissing me.

57

Bethany

STRAIGHTAWAY, it was different. The storm clouds that had always gathered around him whenever he came close were gone and he was on me full force. I gave a little mewl of shock and delight as that hard upper lip spread me wide and left me helpless and his tongue plunged deep.

My hands came up and traced the muscles of his back through his soft cotton shirt. The kiss grew and built, the world spinning around me as his lips owned me, each hard press sending earthquakes down through my body, crumbling me, making me dissolve in his arms. His strength and size had always made me go weak but this was something else: he was finally unleashed to do exactly what he wanted and what he wanted was to make me his. His hands on my ass were squeezing and rubbing, teasing me with what was to come, and every time my breasts stroked across his chest through our clothes, he’d let out a low growl.

I felt like I was flying. Part of me had just surrendered. Something in him, in that raw, hard lust, had triggered something in me, making me go melty and soft with shocking speed. But at the same time, something else was happening. His hands, his lips, the feel of him against me...they were setting off explosions of pink, hot pleasure, making me tremble and sigh. But the explosions had a silver edge to them, and each kiss, each rub of his pecs against my nipples, made that silver crackle down my body, the sensations twisting together and becoming an aching need as they hit my groin. With each hard press of his lips, my hands moved faster on his back, desperate to know him, to touch every hard inch of him.

He broke the kiss and I felt us start to move. He walked with me in his arms and each big, earth-shaking stride he took bounced me, making my groin stroke along the washboard of his abs and my nipples drag along the hard curves of his chest. My breathing tightened and I clung to him, burying my face in his neck and planting kisses there. I didn’t know where he was going but I didn’t open my eyes. I trusted him.