Chapter 11
Cassidy
I stood in the kitchen, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.
He cared about me. I’d seen it in the way he’d acted with his friend Amos. He’d stepped between us, blocking his friend’s view of me as if I were something precious worth protecting.
And I’d caught him looking at me like that too many times over the past few days. Like I was something he wanted but couldn’t let himself have.
Well, I was done letting him push me away.
I tugged down the neckline of my nightgown, pulling it low enough that the tops of my breasts swelled above the fabric. Then I pushed them up, creating a deep valley of cleavage that I knew would catch his eye.
My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. But I marched out onto the deck anyway.
Hall stood at the railing with his back to me, his broad shoulders tense as he stared down into the valley. The morning light caught the muscles of his bare back, all that golden skin stretched over raw power.
I wanted to trace every ridge and hollow with my tongue.
But first, I needed answers.
“How did you know about the fire?”
The question had been burning in my mind for days. I’d been so caught up in everything else that I hadn’t really thought it through until now. But it didn’t make sense. My farmhouse was so far below, down in the valley. How had he gotten there so fast? How had he even known it was on fire?
His shoulders stiffened even more. “What?”
“The fire.” I moved closer, my bare feet silent on the wooden deck. “How did you know my house was burning? You got there so fast.”
He was quiet for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. “I can see your farmhouse from up here.”
“Yeah, but it’s just a speck from here.” I frowned, processing that. “It’s so far away. To see any details you’d need…”
My eyes drifted to the telescope. The one that was pointed up into the sky right now.
“Hall.” My voice came out softer now. “Were you watching my house?”
His hands gripped the railing so tightly that his knuckles went white. “I noticed your light on. Most nights.”
Something shifted in my chest. A deep, aching understanding. He’d been watching me.
“How long?”
“Months.” The word came out like it hurt him. “Since you moved in. I’d sit out here with my telescope and… there was always this light. Your light. And I’d watch it, and I’d wonder about who lived there and what you were doing. If you were happy. If you were lonely too.”
My throat tightened. I moved closer until I was standing right behind him, close enough to feel the heat radiating off his bare skin.
“You were watching me.”
“Not you. Not really. I couldn’t see much detail from this far. Just…” He let out a rough breath. “Just the light. And knowing someone was there. I saw you out in the yard a few times. I could tell you were a woman, but other than that I couldn’t make out much detail.”
“Why did you watch me?”
Hall was silent for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to answer.
Then he rumbled, “You were the only sign someone else was out there.”
The words hit me deep in my heart. I thought about what his life must have been like before I moved into that farmhouse. He’d been alone on this mountain, going to work, coming home, eating dinner by himself. Night after night after night.
And then one day, a light appeared in the darkness. A tiny beacon in the valley below. Proof that he wasn’t completely alone in the world.
I’d been his only connection beyond the isolation he’d built around himself.
“Hall.” I reached out and touched his back. “Turn around.”
He slowly did, his reluctance visible.
And then his eyes dropped to my chest.
I’d pulled the neckline low enough that the bare blush of my areolas peeked above the fabric. His gaze locked onto them, and a guttural groan tore from his throat.
“Cassidy.” His voice was wrecked. “I won’t be good for you.”
I held his stare, refusing to back down. I wouldn’t let this man push me away again.
Then something snapped in his eyes.
Hall closed the distance between us in a single stride, his hands gripping my hips so tight I couldn’t move out of his grasp. Not that I wanted to.
He groaned, “You think you want this? I don’t think you want this. You can’t want this.”
“Don’t tell me what I want, Hall. I know what I want,” I yanked up the hem of my nightgown to make it clear for him.
The cool morning air hit my bare thighs, and the moment stretched between us. I hadn’t put on any underwear this morning. I was completely on display for him.
“Fuck,” he growled, before giving in to me.
I watched as he lost control.
Then his hand was between my legs, rough fingers parting my slit, and I lost control, too.
His eyes glinted when he felt how wet I was.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “You’re soaked.”
He spun me around and pressed me against the cabin wall, the rough wood biting into my palms, my breasts flattened against the surface. His chest was hot against my back, his breath ragged in my ear.
“You want me to fuck you?” His fingers found my entrance from behind and he shoved two inside, stretching me open. “You want my cock?”
I gasped and nodded, my head falling back against his shoulder. He pumped his fingers in and out, hard and fast, nothing gentle about it. His other hand came up to grip one of my breasts, squeezing it hard.
“Answer me.”
“Yes,” I choked out. “Yes, I want it. I want you.”
He curled his fingers inside me, hitting a spot that sent sparks through my whole body. “You sure about that? Because I don’t fuck nice and slow… and I don’t want to scare you. I fuck hard. I fuck rough. And once I start, I don’t stop until I’m done.”
His touch was rough and crude. One hundred percent man. And exactly what I’d dreamed of.
I was climbing, climbing, and climbing some more. The pressure was building between my legs as he worked me with those thick fingers. So close. So fucking close. I was about to come.
And right when I thought my need couldn’t reach any higher, when my hunger for him almost exploded against his touch, he pulled his hand away, fingers leaving a hungry want where they’d been just moments before.
I nearly collapsed, my legs wobbling as my body screamed for release.
“Hall,” I turned to face him, breathless and desperate. “That was cruel.”
He just stared at me, his chest heaving while his cock strained against his pajama bottoms. A stain of precum had spread across the fabric where the tip pressed against it.
Hall’s jaw flexed hard as he fought himself.
As though he were afraid that if he touched me again, he wouldn’t stop.
I closed the distance between us. One hand landed on his bare chest, feeling his heart hammer beneath my palm. The other cupped his throbbing shaft through the thin material of his pajamas. He was huge. Thick and hot and pulsing with need.
“You need to finish what you started,” I scolded.
A half-smile curved his lips. “Don’t worry, Cass, I’m just getting started.”
Then he spun me around to face the railing, one hand pressing between my shoulder blades to bend me over.
I heard the rustle of fabric as he dropped his pajamas. Then his cock slapped against my ass, hot and heavy.
He dragged the tip down, teasing through my wetness, circling my entrance without pushing in.
“Hall, please.”
“Please what?”
“Please fuck me,” I begged.
He notched himself into my opening and paused. “Last chance to change your mind.”
I shoved my hips back, trying to take him, but he held me still with one hand on my hip.
“Say it again.”
“Fuck me,” I begged. “Please, Hall, I need—”
That’s when he slammed into me. All the way to the hilt in one brutal thrust, so deep I felt him in every cell of my body.
Then he pulsed his hips hard, eliminating every last bit of space between us.
I let out a squeak of surprise and grabbed the old wooden railing. He gave me no time to adjust to the size of him.
Just started fucking me, hard and fast, his hips slapping against my ass with every thrust.
He was a beast. Out of control. Taking what he wanted… what I gave to him freely.
Rodney had never been like this. He’d been smooth and polished. But Hall was like an animal, putting all those muscles of his to good use.
This is what it was supposed to feel like.
My body responded to him, my pussy clenching tight around his hungry shaft as he took and he took and he took some more.
I came within minutes. The orgasm he’d denied me earlier crashed through me like a tidal wave.
That’s when I cried out into the valley, my voice echoing off the trees.
A hawk soared through the morning sky, riding the thermals with lazy grace, and I watched it through tear-blurred eyes as pleasure ripped me apart.
Hall was like that hawk. Top of the food chain. In complete control. A man who could take anything he wanted if he just let himself believe he could.
And he wanted meeeeee. How had I ever gotten so lucky?
He fucked me through my peak, his rhythm never faltering.
His movements were hungry, almost desperate, like he’d been starving for this.
Starving for me.
My stomach pressed against the wooden railing, the thin material of my nightgown doing nothing to protect my skin from the rough abrasion of the old wood.
But I didn’t care. Every sensation was exquisite. The burn of the wood, the stretch of his cock, the cool morning air on my flushed skin.
His hands found my breasts through the nightgown. Then he gripped the neckline and ripped it down, exposing me to the chilly air.
My nipples were so hard they ached, and he pinched them roughly, rolling them between his fingers as he pounded into me.
“You’re tightening on my cock.” His voice was a growl against my ear. “You gonna come for me again?”
I couldn’t even form words. Just a breathless, garbled sound that might have been his name.
He laughed, dark and satisfied, and dropped one hand to my clit. His fingers stroked me hard and fast, matching the brutal rhythm of his thrusts.
It was impossible to hold back, and I shattered on his cock again.
My second orgasm hit even harder than the first, ripping a cry from my throat as I came for him.
He groaned when that happened, then pulled out suddenly and spun me around.
At first, I didn’t understand what he was doing. Then he pressed gently on my shoulders until I sank to my knees.
His cock bobbed in front of my face, slick with my arousal, the head flushed and swollen.
“Show me how much you want it,” he growled out as precum streamed from his tip.
Hall was about to come.
I parted my lips and took him into my mouth.
He groaned, his whole body shuddering as he held the back of my head in place, sliding his shaft all the way in.
Then I barely had time to hollow my cheeks before he was coming, his release flooding my mouth in hot, thick spurts. His knees buckled then, and he grabbed the railing behind me to stay upright, a broken sound tearing from his chest.
I swallowed every drop, relishing the taste of him.
When he was finally spent, he sank to his knees in front of me and pulled me into a crushing embrace. His heart hammered against mine, his breath coming out in loud, ragged gasps.
“I’m sorry.” His voice cracked. “That was too much. I’m too much.”
I shook my head, wrapping my arms around his neck. “No, that wasn’t too much, honey.” I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. “That was…” I laughed a little hysterically, “the best fuck of my life.”
Something broke in his expression. I watched it happen. Then the walls he’d built around himself started to crumble. His eyes went glassy, his jaw trembling.
“I’ve been alone for so long,” he whispered.
I pressed my forehead to his. “I’m here now.”
We stayed like that, tangled together on the deck, breathless and emotionally raw. The morning sun warmed our skin, and somewhere in the valley below, the hawk cried out as it rode the wind.
My heart was completely, irrevocably his.
I just hoped he felt the same.