Chapter 20 #2
We’d picked out a Christmas tree this morning, turning the whole thing into a date that hadn’t felt fake at all.
Lachlan had told me he hadn’t put a tree up in his house since he’d started this whole business, since he was surrounded by trees all day and it hadn’t been like he had family visiting for the holidays, so I’d told him we would remedy that, even if we only kept it up for a week. I’d wanted to experience that with him.
We’d laughed over coffee, dragged the tree home together, and made cookies from scratch in the kitchen.
I’d meant to tease him about sampling every single one of them, but when I’d looked over and seen the way he’d kept taking a small bite from each, the warmth in my chest had shifted.
It wasn’t about being careful anymore. I trusted him.
I hadn’t realized that shift had happened until today.
There’d been no need to test them. But he’d still done it to make me feel safe and it had undone me.
Had filled my chest with heat so heavy, it had ached.
Then we’d done all the decorating. We’d strung up the lights and ornaments, the radio playing soft, vintage Christmas songs in the background.
He’d even suggested we make our own bulbs—little DIY crafts with glitter and paint that had felt silly and perfect in the same breath.
I’d watched him fiddle with his longer than necessary, fingers careful, brow furrowed.
I’d assumed he was just getting overly precious with it, wanting to make it just right.
It had been adorable to watch this hulking lumberjack of a man do arts and crafts.
And now, as I stood off to the side, arms wrapped around my middle, I watched him in the glow of the Christmas lights.
He danced in front of the big front window with Tony as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” played softly through the speaker.
He held Tony’s front legs gently, swaying with him in clumsy circles while the tree glowed behind them, and I felt something crack open in my chest.
It was too much.
Too sweet. Too good. Too real.
The day had been perfect—every moment soaked in the kind of warmth I’d stopped believing I deserved.
And as I stood there, watching the man I wasn’t supposed to love slow dance with my dog that he still claimed was a pain in his ass in front of our Christmas tree, I felt my throat tighten.
I swallowed hard, blinking fast against the sudden sheen in my eyes.
This was everything I had ever wanted. And it was all borrowed time. I’d soak up my last days before I packed my things to leave. But until then, I’d enjoy this.
Lachlan walked to the back door with Tony, letting him outside, and then he turned to me, his eyes roving over my body as he moved toward me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, biting my lip, already noticing the heat in his gaze. He grabbed the extra set of Christmas tree lights that we hadn’t used for the tree from the couch and gripped them in his fist.
“I want to have a little fun,” he said as he kissed me and slowly started taking off my clothes.
I moaned into his mouth at the plans I could imagine sifting through his head.
Once we were both naked, we stumbled over to the couch, where he tied me up with the lights and teased me until I was breathless, and then he inserted that damn toy and turned it on.
I couldn’t touch him with the binds on my wrists and it was just as infuriating as it was hot.
He moved me until I was straddled over his lap, completely at his mercy.
I could feel his hard cock as it ran against the part of the toy that was on my clit.
All I could do was try to grind into him, but without him being inside me and the use of my hands to be able to keep my balance, it felt hopeless.
He watched me squirm as the vibration of the toy and the glide of his cock against me drove me into madness.
I was aching to be filled. He played with me until I cried out in pleasure as he sucked and nipped at both of my nipples.
Then he gripped my waist, lined up the head of his cock at my entrance, and slowly sank me down on top of him.
I groaned at how full I felt with him and the toy inside me.
He changed up the vibrations again before he gripped my hips and started pumping in perfect rhythm with me on his cock.
I fell apart again and again. Soon, I was so full of pleasure, I felt like it just kept climbing and climbing.
I didn’t think I’d be able to come again.
The room filled with the slapping sounds of our damp skin as he continued to grip my hips and thrust me down on him and our moans of pleasure.
Fuck, I loved it when Lachlan was vocal for me, letting me know even though he wasn’t the one bound and at my mercy, I was still making him tremble.
It was too much and not enough all at once.
“Give me one more, sweetheart.”
“I can’t. I—”
“You will,” he growled and shoved a hand between us to put more pressure on the toy against my clit, making the vibrations and the next thrust of his cock send me over the edge.
I cried out and couldn’t hold myself upright anymore, my head landing on his shoulder as I panted into his neck.
With his next thrust, he was cursing into my neck as his cock pulsed inside me with his release.
We stayed there panting for what felt like forever. I was beginning to feel the ache in my wrists and shoulders from the lights. When Lachlan finally untied me and we untangled from each other, I was sure he was going to need a new couch after the mess we had made on it.
The next morning, I could already feel the distance between us. Lachlan was gone for work by the time I rolled out of bed. I made coffee, but we didn’t get to have it together this morning, and I pretended the ache in my chest was just the caffeine withdrawal.
I worked for a while, answering emails I didn’t care about, then took Tony for his morning walk.
The world was still and cold and reminded me a lot of how I currently felt.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the inevitable conversation that Lachlan and I would have to have.
The talk. The one we’d both been tiptoeing around since my parents had left.
There had been multiple moments I’d thought it would come up, but then the topic would change and we’d both continue to act like it wasn’t there.
But I knew there were only so many times you could ignore the elephant in the room.
When I got back, I made some breakfast and tried to convince myself that I was fine. That this was fine. But then, after lunch, his text came through:
“There’s something I want to talk about tonight.”
Literally the worst message a person could ever get.
It was like he knew I’d been thinking about it all damn day.
My stomach dropped. I stared at the screen for a long time, trying to find air in a room that suddenly felt smaller.
I couldn’t blame him for wanting to say it in person.
It was the right thing to do. Sending break-up texts probably wouldn’t be the best move, and I’d rather be safe than sorry, even though the cops hadn’t come back around.
The fake relationship had done its job—the cops were off our backs, his farm was safe, and my family finally believed my life was together again. The curtain could fall now and we’d both just . . . walk away.
Except, I didn’t want to. Not anymore. But I knew what I’d agreed to. I’d been the stupid one who’d offered sex. Oh, Logan, you stupid, horny girl.
By late afternoon, I couldn’t sit still. Time was ticking by too loudly, each second reminding me that he’d be home soon, that I’d have to smile through the ending of something that had somehow become the most real thing in my life.
I decided to take Tony for another walk to burn off the nerves clawing at my chest. Maybe by the time I came back, I’d have composed myself enough to pretend this wasn’t breaking me.
I pulled on some workout clothes and a jacket, clipped Tony’s leash, and headed into the woods behind the cabin. The air was biting cold, but the movement helped. My mind started to quiet, just a little.
Until I smelled something.
At first, I thought maybe someone nearby had a campfire. But the smell grew stronger, heavier, and when I looked ahead, I saw smoke threading between the trees. And through the haze, I saw it—the flicker of flames.
The woods were on fire.
It crept fast, devouring dry brush and pine needles as it spread. My chest tightened because just beyond the blaze, through the gray blur, stood that smug salesman bastard, Richard.
He saw me, grinned, and then ran.
I froze for a split second, disbelief tangling with all my frustration.
Then it hit me—he was burning the farm. Lachlan’s farm.
Everything he’d built, everything he’d clawed his way back to would be gone if I didn’t stop it.
If Lachlan didn’t have anything left, didn’t have a way to make money, he wouldn’t have a reason not to sell other than the bodies on the property. But this idiot didn’t know that.
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed, already sprinting toward the shed next to the heavy machinery with Tony on my heels. I knew Lachlan kept a hose there, hooked up beside the equipment. I could use it, maybe hold the line until help came.
But the smoke thickened fast, flooding into my lungs. I pulled my sleeve over my mouth and called 911 as I ran, gasping out the address between coughs. The dispatcher’s voice was a blur in my ear, lost beneath the roar of crackling wood.
By the time I reached the clearing, the fire had tripled in size. It wasn’t creeping anymore—it was charging.
“Tony!” I shouted, coughing so hard my ribs hurt. I could hear him barking somewhere but I couldn’t see him. Turning in circles, I grew more disoriented, my eyes stinging, tears streaming from the smoke. “Tony!”
Nothing.
Panic clawed at me. My lungs burned. My throat felt raw. I dropped to my knees, trying to crawl beneath the smoke, but even that air was poison. I couldn’t see the machinery. Couldn’t see the shed. Couldn’t see anything.
My chest convulsed as another wave of smoke filled my lungs. My body wanted air that didn’t exist. I tried to call out again, maybe for Lachlan, maybe for Tony. I wasn’t sure anymore, but it came out as a strangled whimper.
The last thing I remembered was the sound of wood splitting somewhere close by, Tony barking frantically in the distance, and the bitter taste of ash on my tongue.
Then everything went dark.