Chapter Six
Jude
This must be how winning an Olympic medal or conquering Mount Everest feels. She wants to stay. With me. The kind of happiness that rushes through me is something that only happens once in a lifetime. That’s how I see it anyway, because in all of my years on this planet, I’ve never experienced it.
I pull Birdy back to the porch, one hand sliding into her hair, and kiss her again. It feels so, so good and so, so right that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop kissing her.
She makes a soft sound against my mouth and presses her body closer to mine. That’s the moment I snap. I’m done holding back.
“Inside,” I murmur.
“Gladly,” she says without hesitation.
I take her hand, and we go inside. The fire in the living room is still going, and I look at Birdy in the warm light. Her hair is slightly undone, and she looks stunning in that ankle-length dress that’s been quietly ruining my concentration all evening.
“You have any idea what you’ve been doing to me?” I ask.
She bites her lip. “No.”
I dip my head down and seal her mouth with mine, kissing her like I’m claiming her. And I am. She’s mine, without a doubt. I might not know everything, but I do know that we are made for each other.
“You’re mine, Birdy. You know that, right?”
She looks up at me with parted lips and nods.
I lean down and kiss her again, slower this time. I caress her curves through the fabric of that dress that’s been driving me insane. Her fingers curl into my shirt, and she lets out a sort of low growl.
Hell, she’s going to make me lose my mind.
I slowly reach for the zipper at the back of her dress to give her every chance to change her mind. But she doesn’t. She tilts her chin up and looks at me steadily while I drag the zipper down.
“Jude,” she says.
“Yeah.”
“Stop going slow.”
Yeah. Fifteen years of disaster relief, and this is the situation that finally finishes me off. This woman, in front of my fire, telling me to stop going slow.
I pull the zipper down all the way, and her dress slides down until it pools at her feet.
My heartbeat immediately speeds up. Birdy’s standing in front of me wearing a matching set of underwear: Lila panties with an ornamental flower at the top seam, paired with a see-through bra that looks expensive as hell.
I stand there for a second and just look at her. The fire throws warm light across her skin, and she holds my gaze steadily.
“You’re beautiful.”
I tell her because it’s true, and she needs to hear it. Needs to know that she’s the most gorgeous woman in Timber Peak Valley. Hell, in the entire galaxy, and that includes the ones we haven’t discovered yet.
I reach out and trace the strap of that expensive bra with one finger while not taking my eyes off her.
Her eyes drop to my chest as I shrug off my Henley, and then her hands are on me. I don’t move. I let her look the way she let me look at her because that’s only fair.
“Your turn,” she says softly, reaching for my belt.
She unbuckles it so agonizingly slowly that it’s pure torture. I put my hands on hers and unbuckle it myself. If I let her keep going this slowly, I’ll completely lose my mind.
My pants drop to the floor, and she stares at my boxers.
“Wow, that’s… wow,” she squeaks.
I don’t answer. I wrap her in my arms instead and pull her down on the couch in front of the fire. Hell if I’m letting her out of my reach ever again.
She presses her body to mine, then stills in surprise when my hard dick pushes against her leg.
“You feel that? You like that?” I murmur against her mouth as I move against her, letting her feel exactly what she does to me.
“Yes,” she breathes, her fingers digging into my shoulders. “Yes, I feel it.”
“That’s yours,” I say. “That’s what you do to me.”
Her breath stutters as I drag my mouth down her throat. My hand moves with more purpose, tracing the curves of her body and reaching behind her back to unclasp her bra.
She arches into me and whimpers.
I throw her bra to the side carelessly, and it barely misses the fire. Not that I care. This whole cabin could be burning down, and I still wouldn’t take my eyes off Birdy.
I let my gaze slide over her naked breasts and inhale sharply. They’re big and plump and look incredibly soft, with hard nipples taunting me like they’re cherries on top.
“Fuck.”
I don’t think. I can’t think. My hand comes up and cups one of her breasts, testing the weight of it while my thumb brushes over her nipple. She gasps, and her back arches immediately, pressing more of herself into my hand.
“Jude,” she murmurs.
I lean down and close my mouth over her nipple, slow at first, letting her feel every small touch and movement. Her fingers tangle in my hair instantly, and the sound she makes goes straight through me.
I switch to the other side, and while I lick her nipple, her legs shift under me. She’s bucking against my underwear, against my hard dick.
“Jude…” she gasps again.
“That’s it,” I murmur. “Don’t hold back.”
My hand slides down her side, over her hip, then lower, dragging her panties down her legs in one smooth motion. She’s mine. I’m not stopping now.
Her hands eagerly grab the seam of my boxers and they’re off before I can blink. Her gaze falls on my dick, and her eyes grow wide.
“That’s all yours now, Birdy. And I’m going to use it to make you come harder than you’ve ever come. And then you’re coming again. And again. Until you don’t know left from right anymore.”
She gasps, and for a second, I’m afraid I’ve gone too far. Then she smiles. “That sounds like heaven to me.”
“Good,” I murmur. “Because I’m not stopping now.”
She nods, and her fingers tighten on me like she’s bracing herself.
I lower myself, leaving a trail of kisses over her breasts, to her stomach, then her thighs. I push them open further and finally see what I’ve been starving for. Her pussy is slick and pink, glistening in the glow of the fire, and the scent of her hits me like a physical force.
“Jude,” she gasps, her voice a fragile thread as I settle between her knees.
“Relax. Let go.”
I lean down and press my tongue against her pussy, tasting her fully.
She cries out my name, and her hips jerk upward in a sharp, instinctive buck that tells me exactly how sensitive she is.
I use my hands to pin her thighs wide, anchoring her so she has no way out, and swirl my tongue around her tiny, hard clit.
She’s sobbing my name now. Every wet, lapping stroke of my tongue makes her whine in a high-pitched, needy sound that has my dick throbbing painfully. I want to devour her. I want to sink into her until I don’t know where I end and she begins.
I slide two fingers inside her and stretch her. She’s so tight and hot. A deep growl escapes me. I move my fingers, and Birdy clamps down on me like she never wants to let go.
“Look at me,” I demand, pulling back to catch her blown-out gaze.
Her eyes are glassy, focused entirely on my fingers in her pussy. “I’m going to make sure you remember this every time you close your eyes.”
I pick up the pace, my thumb working her clit while my fingers mimic the rhythm I’m about to echo with my dick. She’s shaking now, her breath coming in jagged, shallow hitches.
“Jude, please… I can’t… I’m going to—”
“Come for me, Birdy.”
Her entire body goes taut, her back arching off the couch as she screams my name into the rafters of the cabin.
I watch every second of it with intense pleasure.
The way her muscles spasm, the way her chest heaves, the way her wet pussy pulses around my fingers…
It’s the most gorgeous sight I’ve ever been privileged to witness.
I wait until the last tremor fades before I move back up her body. I hover over her, bracing myself on my forearms. Taking my dick, I rub the head against her, coating myself in her sweet wetness.
Her eyes flutter open. “Now, take me, Jude. Please,” she whispers, reaching down to guide me.
I don’t need to be told twice. I shift, aligning myself, and sink into her in one long, slow thrust until I’m completely buried inside her.
The feeling is better than any fantasy I’ve played out in my head since the moment she walked into my life.
She’s so small, and I’m so goddamn big, but she takes all of me, her body stretching to accommodate my thickness with a wet, heavy slide that nearly ends me right then and there.
I stay still for a heartbeat, buried to the hilt, breathing her in. I want her to feel the weight of me, the reality of us. As far as I see it, we’ve melted into one, no longer separate, but together forever.
“You okay?” I ask, my voice sounding like gravel.
“That’s an understatement,” she pants and smiles as her arms wind around my neck to pull me down for a kiss.
I start to move, pulling nearly all the way out before slamming back in.
The sound of our bodies meeting joins the crackle of the wood stove.
I’m not being gentle anymore. I can’t. All I can do is claim every inch of her with a possessiveness that surprises me.
I want her marked and filled by me so thoroughly that the rest of the world ceases to exist for her.
“You’re so tight,” I groan, burying my face in the crook of her neck. “So perfect for me.”
I reach between us, my thumb finding her clit again, and I draw circles over it as I drive into her. The double friction sends her over the edge again almost instantly. She wails, wrapping her legs around my waist to pull me even deeper, her heels digging into my glutes.
“That’s it. Take all of me,” I growl.
“I’m coming,” she whimpers.
My thrusts become fast and shallow as the white-hot heat of my climax roars up. I give one final, devastating shove, seating myself as deep as humanly possible, and let go. I groan her name as I fill her, my vision going dark at the edges.
We collapse together onto the couch, tangled and slick with sweat. I roll to the side but keep her tucked firmly against my chest while my heartbeat slows down in tandem with hers.
I look at her. She’s flushed, beautiful, limp, and completely mine. And I finally know. The solitude I thought I wanted was a lie I told myself until she got here.
I pull the wool throw from the back of the couch and drape it over both of us.
Birdy is heavy against me, her head tucked perfectly into the hollow of my shoulder.
I run my hand down the length of her spine, marveling at how perfectly she fits against my side.
For fifteen years, I’ve been a man of hard edges and tactical distance, but with her, every defense I built has turned to ash.
“You still with me, Birdy?” I whisper.
Her fingers trace the edge of a scar on my ribs. “I’m not going anywhere, Jude. I told you. I’m staying.”
The way she says my name makes my chest tighten.
I’ve spent so long trying to be a ghost in these woods, making sure nobody needed me because I was exhausted after giving so much of myself for all those years.
But looking at her now and seeing the marks of my fingers on her hips and the flush on her cheeks, I realize I’ve never been happier to give everything to her.
“I’m going to take care of you,” I say. “Whatever you need. If you want to keep working at the flower farm, I’ll drive you down the mountain every morning.
If you want to stay up here and paint, I’ll build you a studio with the best light in the valley.
If you want to channel your inner Taylor Swift and bake sourdough bread every day, I’ll buy you bags of flour.
You’re mine now. That means your happiness is my job. ”
She lifts her head. “You’ve been taking care of everyone for so long, Jude. Who takes care of you?”
“You just did,” I tell her honestly.
She smiles, and it’s a slow, beautiful thing that makes my heart skip multiple beats. She kisses me, long and lazily. “Then it’s a deal. We take care of each other.”
I tighten my grip on her, pulling the blanket higher around her shoulders. The wind picks up outside, whistling through the high boughs of the timber pines, but inside, the cabin is a fortress. My hearth, my home, and now, my woman.
“Birdy?”
“Hmm.”
“I… I love you.”
She sighs contentedly. “I love you too, Jude.”
I watch the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest until her breathing turns deep and even, signaling she’s drifted off.
I don’t close my eyes just yet. I stay awake a while longer, watching the last of the embers die out, making sure she’s warm, making sure she’s safe, and knowing for the first time in my life I’m exactly where I belong.
When sleep finally pulls at me too, I bury my face in her hair and let it take me as I realize my days of being a ghost on this mountain are over. I finally have something worth protecting forever. Birdy.