CHAPTER 6
HUTCH
I can feel the approaching storm. It’s a feeling and scent in the air. There’s no way I would have been able to ignore it even if I hadn’t gotten a weather alert early this morning.
This storm is going to be a big one and we’ll be stuck for days. I’m more than prepared to be snowed in since this is far from the first time this has happened. At least this time, Fallon is with me.
That will be a nice change. I’m a little surprised at myself with how much I welcome having her here with me.
If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t want her to ever leave. I’m not even sure when the thought first burrowed into my soul, but it’s there now and not going anywhere anytime soon.
I have no idea how to get her to stay though. She has an entire life in Seattle, one which may be lost to her for sure, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be up for rebuilding her life here.
On a mountain.
In the middle of nowhere.
This place could be too quiet for her. She won’t have her lab and her job, which she clearly is passionate about. When I’ve gotten her to talk a little bit about what she did for Luxe Notes, which hasn’t been much, she gets a dreamy look on her face.
It’s totally irrational, but I’m jealous of anything that puts that look on her face when it’s not me.
I want all her dreamy looks. I want all her smiles. I want all her pleasure.
Maybe that makes me a sick fuck, but it is what it is, and my gut is telling me Fallon is the woman for me. My head can say it’s too fast all it wants, but I’m a man who learned to trust his gut a long time ago. It hasn’t steered me wrong yet and has helped me get out of more than one sticky situation.
Instinct.
The string of fate.
Whatever my gut is reacting to, I know Fallon is meant to mean something to me. She’s meant to mean everything.
As I set up another log for me to split, I glance up at the sky. It’s imposing and ominous. This storm is going to be a big one.
Still, I know I can’t let my guard down just because of the storm. While most people wouldn’t brave it, people who are driven by money and greed would. Fuck, for all I know they’ll think it’ll be the perfect cover.
That is, of course, if the men who took the contract to silence Fallon have figured out where she is. Duncan took her phone with him back to Denver and he has the ability to do his tech shit with it, but who knows what resources the men who broke into Fallon’s place have at their disposal.
The thought of someone coming after her, of her knowing another moment of fear, has me bringing down the axe with more force than necessary. I’ve been out here for a while, already shedding my jacket and flannel as I’ve worked up a sweat.
It only takes one storm to learn that you need to stockpile wood and ensure it doesn’t get too wet. I might have generators and be prepared, but the fireplace is still the best source of heat in my place. With a shake of my head, I reposition the wood again because it was a large log to begin with.
A woman like Fallon deserves so much more than my cabin can offer her.
It’s stupid of me to think that she’ll be happy here.
Fuck, I’m not even sure that I’m happy here. But I also know I don’t belong anywhere else. Not with the demons I fight on a daily basis.
It’s better for me to be out here on my own, at least that’s what I’ve always believed and told myself. Now, the thought of being here without Fallon, of not having her subtle scent of roses on my pillow and filling up the rooms of my home, makes me want to burn the world down.
How did this woman walk into my life and turn everything upside down so quickly.
When I hear the back door of the cabin open, I don’t turn toward Fallon. I didn’t need the squeak to alert me of her presence anyway. The moment she woke up, I knew it. As she watched me through the window, I could feel every caress of her gaze on my body.
The amount of focus I give to the next few logs, splitting them quickly and easily, should earn me a fucking medal. My soul is screaming to turn around and take in the woman who has captivated me from the moment she stepped out of Blake’s vehicle.
But I can’t.
Not when the storm on the horizon isn’t the only one brewing.
I’m a damn mess and she deserves so much more than me.
But has she said that?
She doesn’t have to. I know and she has no idea.
There’s no way she could see the scars on my soul and the gapping wounds still festering in my mind. My demons are my own and I’ve run from them for a long fucking time. The fact that they always found me doesn’t matter.
I’ve never faced them.
The losses.
The death.
The way my skin crawls when I can’t move fast enough.
The way silence stretches and mocks.
Fallon shouldn’t be sullied by the soot from those memories, of those feelings. She deserves to be pure. To be clean.
My chest is heaving by the time I plunge the axe back into the stump and look at what I’ve accomplished. The stack of logs I’ve split makes my eyes widen. I wasn’t even aware of how much I’ve gone through, far more than I was planning to prepare for the storm since it’s not like I ever allow my wood supply to be lacking.
I run a hand through my hair and mutter, “Fuck.”
Getting lost while tangling with my demons, a dance I’ll never lead, is not a good idea. Not right now when I have Fallon to keep safe.
I’m not sure what to feel when I look over at the porch and find Fallon isn’t perched on the bench there. I didn’t even hear the back door open again. While I squeeze my eyes shut, I try and get a handle on the riot of emotions inside of me.
I whisper, “What are the facts?”
There’s no denying how much I want Fallon. But she deserves so much more.
Don’t you think she’s the one who should decide that?
Maybe.
Movement catches my eye and there she is looking out the window, her eyes half mast and filled with a longing hunger which is echoed by my own need.
Could I?
Can I be enough? Strong enough to make this work? Good enough to offer her the world? Healed enough to give her what she needs?
I grab an armful of wood and my axe before trudging toward the back porch. I rest the axe next to the door before getting all the wood put away and covered in a tarp. This side of the house has good coverage with the porch and the wood should stay dry enough.
The entire time I’m working, I can feel Fallon’s eyes on me. It only causes the tension between us to build; a constant pressure that will need an outlet sooner rather than later.
My cock has been constantly hard since she arrived here, and nothing helps. I’m not even sure how many times I’ve jacked off while picturing all the ways I want to claim her. Getting a taste of her didn’t do a damn thing to help.
No, it only made the desire I have for my woman to increase. Tenfold.
My woman?
I stop when I’ve secured everything, my thoughts the only thing stopping me from heading back inside. Or maybe that’s just cowardice.
Mine.
Fallon is mine.
A feeling of peace I’ve only experienced in the early morning as cool air bites into my skin settles over me. But this is different too. It’s warm and fueled by something more than pain. This is fueled by something far more dangerous. Hope always is.
It’s been so long since I’ve felt hope. I almost stumble back a few steps with the way it slams into me and takes up residence in my chest.
My hand shakes as I reach for the doorknob and force myself to walk inside. Fallon’s there and when our gazes clash, something buzzes in the air between us.
As we stare at each other, neither of us moving, like we both know what is at stake, my entire being screams at me to close the distance between us. But I can’t. My feet are rooted in place.
Fallon’s face smooths out, like she can read the indecision and the strain of it on my face. At first, she takes one small step closer, then another until she has closed the distance between us, holding my gaze the entire time.
My voice is husky, “Enjoy the show?”
Her perfect lips curl into a coy grin, one that has my already hard cock kicking behind the zipper of my jeans. At this rate I’m going to have a zipper imprint on my dick.
“Yes,” she breathes out. She squirms a little in front of me and squeezes her thighs together.
Knowing she’s turned on is almost too much for me. I want to take her to the ground and bury myself deep inside of her, but the glint of mischief in her eyes has me fisting my hands at my sides instead.
When Fallon drops to her knees in front of me, I almost jump out of my fucking skin. Seeing her in front of me, her head tipped up to maintain eye contact, is almost too much for me to take. My jaw is clenched and I’m barely able to stop myself from reaching for her.
“Fuck, you look good on your knees for me, Beautiful,” I grit out through my teeth.
She makes a humming sound while reaching for my belt, undoing it before slowly pulling my zipper down. It feels like it’s forever until my cock springs free, but I know it was only a matter of seconds.
Fallon’s eyes widen as she stares at me. The attention she’s giving my cock has all of my worries and vulnerabilities disappearing while pre-cum beads on the crown of my dick. When she drags her tongue along her bottom lip, my body starts to vibrate with need.
I moan, fucking loudly, when her hand wraps around the base of my cock. The ravenous look in her eyes is almost enough to send me over the edge and I start counting backwards and tensing my body in the attempt to hold off painting her stunning face with my cum.
Yeah, picturing her with my cum covering her doesn’t help at all.
“I’m going to need you to take me into your mouth, Beautiful, before I blow all over your pretty face,” I groan.
Fallon grins up at me before her tongue peeks out of from between her lips and she drags it up my length. My hands shoot out to cradle her head in the attempt to ground me in this moment. I want to soak up every second of her on her knees for me for the first time.
It won’t be the last. I won’t survive this life without experiencing this again and again.
She laps at the head of my cock and makes a sound of pure fucking enjoyment that goes straight to my balls. As her lips close around me and she sucks, my fingers tighten in her hair and I’m barely holding onto my control.
I want to fuck her face. Desperately.
But this is her show and I’m so damn curious about what she’s going to do next.
As she takes more of me into her mouth, which is warm and so damn wet, feral sounds rumble in my chest. She looks up at me the entire time and I have a front row seat to the moment I hit the back of her throat and her eyes water.
When I feel her start to pull back, my grip tightens, and I hold her in place. The connection between us zings with awareness and need. The way she squeezes her thighs together tells me just how much she likes it, as if the lust glazing over her eyes isn’t enough of an indication.
As my grip relaxes, she slowly glides back up my length before starting to bob up and down my cock. I can’t tear my eyes away from her, even though they want to close and bask in how damn good it feels. But the show is so damn good.
She takes me deeper, her tongue pressing against the underside of my shaft when she comes back up and flicks against that the rim. When it swirls around, my hips buck, and I can’t help myself but take over a little bit.
“That’s right,” I grunt, “you’re taking my dick so well.” Unable to take it anymore, I start pumping my hips faster and her eyes light up. “You want me to fuck your face, Beautiful?”
The way she moans around me is all the answer I need. The feeling vibrates along my dick and has my balls drawing up. My fingers tangle in her hair, the soft strands reminding me to not get too lost in the lust fog.
Her other hand comes up and plays with my balls, pushing me right to the edge of coming. The sound of her gagging when I hit the back of her throat is almost too much for me to take.
“So fucking sexy,” I growl. “Such a good girl taking my cock.”
Tingles erupt all over my body and the edges of my vision start to blur. I’ve never felt anything like this. It’s so damn good.
“Fuck,” I bark. “You gonna swallow my cum?”
Her answering moan as she squeezes my balls tips me right over the edge. I push deep inside of her mouth and give her the first few jets of my release. When I pull back a little, I paint her tongue. She holds her mouth open, showing me everything, only swallowing when I stumble back a little while watching on in awe.
I drop to my knees and pull her into the safety of my body, my chest heaving and my heart racing. “Fucking perfect, Beautiful,” I softly praise her.
The way she melts into me is everything. Fucking everything.