FIFTY
JAMES
I thought the greatest thing I could give her was freedom. Turns out she was free to choose me.
It’s quiet here, and one of the reasons I fell in love with this spot. The only thing I do battle with is Mother Nature, and she’s an unforgiving adversary. She doesn’t take any prisoners, demanding respect instead, and I’m powerless to do anything but bow.
The first real storm is due, and it’s forecast to be a brutal one. I have enough supplies to last for months. I’ve checked the generators, and I’ve informed anyone who needs to know that I’m here.
The colonies have been dismantled, the men we can pin something on have been arrested, and the biggest cult case in modern history is being built one harrowing story at a time.
Many of those born into it will take many, many hours to deprogram.
I never bought into Jonathan’s bullshit and don’t need a psych to tell me how fucked up it was.
Maybe that’s because while I grew up on the inside, I was groomed to be his right-hand man from a teenager, meaning I was regularly taken into the wider world and knew that the one my mother and sister were trapped in was a bubble designed to keep them weak.
Countless children were born and never registered with the state. They were the ones most in danger. You couldn’t miss someone you never knew existed. You couldn’t log crimes and investigations with literal ghosts.
I find myself in the guest room again, having lost count of how many times I’ve come in here and found another hint of the woman who had infused the place with warmth and love.
I haven’t even washed the sheets, but I’ve laid on them like a creep, inhaling her fading strawberry scent like I’m trying to get my next fix.
I’ve hovered on the send button a thousand times to ask how she’s doing, to check if she’s okay, to beg her to take a chance on us, to demand she forget I exist.
In short, it’s complicated.
I pull out my phone as I close the door to her room and pull up Daisy’s contact number, rereading the last few messages of concern from her that I haven’t answered.
I haven’t felt the need to be at the end of her whip since Stephanie appeared here the first time.
Guilt winds me in a chokehold. I should still need the pain to quiet the monsters, but those beasts have transformed, and I’m now tormented by what I had a taste of and lost. That’s a far greater torture than anything Daisy delivered.
Me: I’m good. But I won’t need to see you again.
The dots dance on the screen.
Daisy: I’m always here, even if you just need to talk something out. We don’t always have to tie you up. I make a mean curry.
My lips twitch.
Me: Noted.
An alert pops up in the corner, and my brows lower.
The damn wildlife likes testing the security perimeter.
You’d think I wouldn’t need them anymore, but the truth is, a lot of powerful people would prefer me dead for the secrets I hold and the atrocities I’ve witnessed.
It’s the main reason I’m still walking free and allowed to exist off the grid.
Camryn knows where I am and how to reach me.
Incarcerated, I’d be dead within hours. This is a different type of prison, but so much more than I deserve.
The outermost cameras track movement. I tilt my head as an unfamiliar car appears, steered by a woman with a mass of dark curls I’d know from a mile away.
Adrenaline floods my veins. How in the hell has she found me?
I’d made sure to take the scenic route every time we ventured off the property.
I doubt she even knows which town we’d visited, and even if she did, it wasn’t the closest.
My phone beeps again, and my sister’s name pops up.
Eleanor: Don’t panic, brother. She’s everything you deserve. Stop running from your future and hiding in your past. You’ve paid your dues. Now it’s time to start living.
Fucking meddling menace.
I stride to the front door and fling it open to wait for her to appear. Time stretches as the rumble of the engine echoes off the mountains.
I’m plotting how to get her to turn her ass back around, the words I can spin to hurt her.
But then she appears, looking like a dream in a pink dress wholly unsuited for life on a mountain that’s about to get stormy.
Snow flutters around her as she locks eyes on me and stalks toward me with determination.
I scan every inch of her, noting the fading bruises, but more importantly, the take-no-shit heart she’s wearing on her sleeve, which makes any and all lies slide away. I can’t hurt her. I don’t have it in me, even if it’d be done with good intent.
Her feet stomp up the steps, then she throws her arms around my neck and presses her lips against mine.
Our bodies come together as if they were built for each other, and I’m powerless to do anything but give her everything.
I could never be enough for this woman, but damn if I’m going to spend the rest of my days trying to be.
The thought makes my heart race as she pushes on my chest and guides me back into the lodge. She pulls her lips from mine, and I’m already feeling the loss. I’m endlessly greedy for this woman. She slams the door shut with her foot and faces me.
“That was quite a greeting.”
She shakes her head, toes her ballet pumps off, and pulls her dress over her head, revealing the pale pink silk lingerie underneath. Then she’s back in my arms and tugging my shirt over my head.
“You’re not running from me, and I’m cold. Warm me up.”
I stand there like a moron for a second, blinking, a smirk lifting the corner of my mouth.
“I’m hardly the man you deserve.” Stephanie rolls her eyes at me. “But I’ll try to be, every damn day.”
A wide grin stretches over her lips, and she kisses me, hard and chaotic, before leaning back again with a dazzling smile.
“Good. Because I want you, James Austin.” She reaches for my pants and shoves them down, leaving me standing in the living room in my boxers, both of us half naked with a storm about to hit. “I love you.”
My jaw drops, my grip on her reflexively tightening. “I love you, too.”
Stephanie smiles wider, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the bedroom. “Now fuck me like you hate me.”
Before, I’m not sure if I would have been able to take the joke—or suggestion—but I know this woman. I know her curves and what she wants, how strong and brave she is. I will give her whatever she wants, and the dark corners of me can come out to play in the light with her.
The beacon that helps me find my way home.
Sweeping her off her feet, I throw Stephanie over my shoulder and smack her ass hard.
The little moan she lets out goes right to my cock, and if I weren’t already getting hard for her, I am now.
I bring her to the bedroom, dropping her onto the bed.
She bounces playfully, and I take a second to admire the lingerie.
It’s the softest pink. It’s lacey. And it’s going to look damn good on the floor.
A part of me feels like I should take my time, but the other part is ravenous. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see Stephanie again. I planned not to. Now she’s here. She’s within arm’s reach, having just told me she loves me.
“What are you waiting for?” Stephanie pushes up on her elbows, eyeing me.
“Nothing.”
I dive in, getting that lingerie off her in a flash.
I eat up the sight of her naked body, growling hungrily.
She gets my boxers off, and I pull her to the edge of the bed, dropping to my knees.
Before she can question me, I spread her legs and devour her.
I spend several minutes exploring every inch of her pussy, while her legs quiver around me.
“Oh, fuuuck.”
Smiling, I press her legs down to the bed, holding them there so she can’t close them.
I flick my tongue over her clit, knowing she’s close.
I want to feel all of her. I want to know that she’s mine in every way.
I stuff my fingers inside her, two going into her pussy and one…
Well, she did enjoy that ass-play porn. Time to be inspired.
I pump in and out until she’s squealing for me, and before the orgasm has even settled, I flip my girl around on the mattress and sheathe my cock deep inside her. I start up a rhythm, fisting her hair as I press her to the bed. It’s wild and raw, all of me focused on fucking her hard.
“James!” Stephanie’s cries are music to my ears, and she grips the covers on the bed until her knuckles go white.
“That’s it, baby. Call out my name. It sounds so good on your tongue.”
Anchoring my hands on her hips, I thrust hard and fast, then lift a hand to crack it down over her ass cheek.
She hisses, and it blends into a moan. The sound is electricity in my veins, spurring me on.
If I had the time to prepare, I would’ve made sure we could really bring that video to life.
As it is, I’m going to warm my girl up. I’m going to show her just how good that’s going to feel when we get there.
Because we will get there.
I smack in time with my hips, fucking and making her skin turn a rosy pink like the long-gone lingerie. Then my hand moves to the back of her head, shoving her down into the mattress so the blanket provides a bit of breath play.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god.”
Sinking inside her pussy, bottoming out so that she’s taking all of my cock, I spread her ass cheeks apart with one hand. My thumb inches toward her hole before I thrust it inside while jerking my hips.
“Fuck!”
“My dirty girl loves that, doesn’t she? I’m going to warm you up, and then next round, you’ll be taking my cock.”
She clenches around my shaft, and fuck, I’m damn close to coming already. I fuck her with both my dick and thumb, filling her holes. She squeezes again, so damn tight. I lose focus, becoming an animal that pistons into her wildly, stretching her virgin asshole with my thumb.
My balls pull up tight. I’m close, and I want her to come for me. I want her walls clenching around my cock to be what sets me off. So I pump harder, faster, claiming Stephanie without mercy.
“James!” she sings for me as the sensations boil over, and her pussy flutters while her asshole grips my thumb.
It’s more than enough to have me coming, and I fill her up, so much pent up that my cum drips down her legs. My pace slows, and I lean over her, resting my head on her shoulder as we both just breathe.
“You…” Stephanie pauses to catch her breath. “You have to feed me before… round two. I drove here… on an empty… stomach.”
I chuckle, utterly winded, and nod. “Can do, sweetheart. Can do.”
Food first. Then round two. Then whatever the fuck comes next.
For the first time in my life, I can’t wait to find out.