Chapter Five #2
He lets out a dry laugh. “You make it sound so simple.”
“It is,” I say gently. “Simple doesn’t mean easy.”
A long beat passes as his gaze lingers, before he looks away quickly. “You always do that.”
“What?”
He glances back up, his square hand brushing over his beard. “Say something that makes me feel like maybe I’m not as messed up as I know I am.”
I smile back, my pulse racing. “Maybe you’re not.”
The words hang between us on a thread, tugging at something buried deep. I’m not sure what it is, but I know I want more. I know I need more.
More of him. More of his sarcastic comments. More of his voice dips when he’s pretending not to feel anything. More of the way he stands too close when he’s trying to stay distant.
I blink, and something shifts in the corner of my vision.
Movement.
My heart thuds as I turn my head to see that beyond the clearing, is a bear half-hidden by the trees.
I’m guessing it’s the same animal from earlier, though I suppose there could be another enormous bear running around in late October.
We are in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain. If there’s one, there’s likely more.
Its massive body is still, but its eyes are locked on me. Not Knox. Not the cabin. Not the pile of wood or the axe covered in blood. Me.
My breath stutters.
It’s not just watching. He’s waiting, like he knows I’m ready now. That it’s time and he has to tell me something.
I glance toward Knox then back at the bear. It’s stupid to chase after a giant grizzly who’s most likely stalking me for a snack, but there’s a pull in my chest I can’t ignore. A hum somewhere deep that’s drawing me to follow.
The bear turns back toward the woods, and I run for my boots, tucking into them quickly before grabbing my jacket off the hook.
“What are you doing?” Knox groans. “Where are you going? We’re done with ghosts for the day.”
Ignoring him, I swing open the cabin door and step out onto the porch, the bear standing in the woods like he’s been waiting for me all along.
The wind bites through my sleeves as I move. I suck in a breath, sharp and pine-sweet, the cold pressing against my cheeks. The bear doesn’t move, just watches. Its eyes are dark, ancient, knowing.
I step off the porch and toward something unknown, yet familiar. I’m probably going to be committed if I make it through this.
Knox’s footsteps thud behind me. “Juniper,” he warns, voice low and fraying, “get your ass back here.”
He couldn’t stop me if he tried. I need to know what message is waiting for me.
The bear turns slowly and disappears into the trees like a shadow melting into dusk… and I follow. Branches whip past my shoulders as my boots crunch over frost-hardened leaves.
Knox is behind me, cursing under his breath, but the bear is still lumbering forward. I don’t stop. I can’t.
The wind shifts, carrying the scent of something electric, and I think of my dad, of the stories he used to tell of restless spirits. Knox is right. He wasn’t a spiritual man, but he believed in the land and the way it held onto things like scars beneath the surface.
Standing here now, with the wind humming like a live wire and the bear vanishing into the shadows, I know he was right.
Something’s waking up.
I stumble into a clearing and stop. The bear is gone and there’s nothing here but frostbitten grass, a few broken branches, and the hush of trees standing watch.
I turn slowly, heart hammering as my eyes meet Knox’s. He crashes in, breath ragged, gaze wild, looking at me with a downturned expression that lets me know he thinks I’ve lost my mind.
“There’s nothing here,” he says, a frustrated sense of concern carrying in his tone. “What are you doing?”
I shake my head. “The bear was here. He wanted me to follow him.”
Knox steps closer, his massive hands on my arms, holding me close as though he’s afraid I’ll run off again. “You scared the hell out of me,” he growls.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Jesus Christ,” he murmurs, swiping his hand over his beard. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
I look up at him, and the ache in my chest comes back again. “You act like I held a knife to your throat and made you follow me. I can do this on my own. I don’t need a babysitter.”
His jaw flexes. “Juniper.”
“What?” I say defiantly. “You’re the one acting like wanting me is some kind of curse.”
He doesn’t answer. He just stares at me like he’s trying not to feel it but is losing the fight.
Then he moves with the force of an unexpected blizzard. One hand grabs my waist, the other buries in my jacket, and I’m on the ground before I can blink, his body pressing me into the cold earth, his mouth crashing into mine like he’s punishing us both.
It’s not gentle. It’s not clean. It’s all heat, all hunger.
His breath is ragged against my cheek, and I feel his arms tremble as though his restraint is unraveling.
I arch beneath him, the cold seeping through my clothes as his hand fists the fabric at my hip.
“You think I don’t want this,” he mutters against my mouth, voice rough and wrecked, “but I do. God fucking help me, I do.”
I drag my fingers through his hair, tugging just enough to make him growl. “Then stop acting like it’s a sin.”
His mouth trails down my jaw, rough and reverent, like he’s trying to kiss away everything we shouldn’t be as his hand slides under my shirt, his palm rough and warm against my stomach.
“You don’t know,” he murmurs, lips brushing my collarbone. “You don’t know what it means… you being here.”
I thread my fingers through his hair and tug again. “Then tell me.”
He shakes his head, eyes closed, forehead pressed to my chest. “I can’t. It’ll ruin everything. You’ll leave and I’ll be left with another ghost.” His voice cracks on the last word, and I feel whatever it is pressing between us.
“We need to move. That bear could still be here,” he groans under his breath, like he’s trying to reason his way out of the guilt he feels for touching me, for whatever he’s hiding.
“I don’t feel him here.” My eyes hold with his, strong and steady, as his hand slides lower over my hip, gripping me tight. “I’d know if he were nearby.”
“You and this sixth sense are going to get us killed.” He growls the words in my ear as I arch into him, breath catching as his mouth trails down my neck.
“No, it’s your feelings that are going to get us killed,” I whisper playfully. “You’re the one who’s got me pinned to the ground, not the bear.”
“I shouldn’t want this,” he says. “Not with you.”
“But you do,” I whisper, “and I do too.”
His eyes flash, and he kisses me again, harder this time, like he’s trying to burn the truth out of his own mouth as his hand slides under my thigh, pulling me closer.
“I was supposed to be on the line that day,” he says suddenly, voice rough against my skin. “Your dad… he took my shift.”
I freeze beneath him, breath caught in my throat.
Knox doesn’t stop touching me, doesn’t stop kissing me, but his words keep coming low and broken, like they’ve been buried too long.
“I begged him to take my shift so I could finish the roof on the cabin before the snowstorm blew in. I knew he’d help because he always did.
” His mouth finds my shoulder, teeth grazing skin. “I’m a fucking asshole.”
I feel his soul shaking, the years of guilt he’s held in his chest pressing down.
His forehead meets mine. “The storm came, the line snapped, and he was gone. So yeah, I stay up here to escape reality. And now that you’re here waking up all these ghosts, I let myself feel something I shouldn’t have, something I don’t deserve. ”
“I didn’t come here to haunt you,” I say, lips brushing his temple. “I was drawn here. Maybe it was him. Maybe wherever he is, he knows we needed to find each other.” She pauses. “It’s not your fault that he died. It was an accident. He knew the risks of his job.”
Knox’s breath catches as his lips brush against my collarbone. “But it should’ve been me, and wanting you feels like betraying him.”
I slide my hand up his chest, feeling the thud of his heart beneath my palm. “You’re not betraying anyone. You’re surviving. So few things feel right in the world, but this does. I don’t want to ignore it.”
His hand slides up my ribs, slow and deliberate, and when his mouth finds mine again, it’s no longer hesitant. It’s claiming.
Maybe a sane person would pull away, but I don’t. I don’t because whatever this is, it feels like the only thing keeping us from falling apart.
I gasp as his fingers slip beneath my shirt, brushing the curve of my breast. “Take me.” My lips lean into his and I kiss him hard and fast, tasting the coffee he’d had before chopping wood.
His hands are everywhere, starving, moving like he doesn’t know where to start, pressing me into the earth as though he’s trying to fuse us together.
The bear could be standing in the woods right now satisfying his voyeur kink, starting a fire, and gathering seasoning for the two for one meal he’s about to cash in on, and I wouldn’t let it stop me.
I was drawn here for a reason. Maybe this was it.
Knox groans into my mouth, the sound low and guttural, like he hasn’t been touched in years, like he’s as desperate for me as I am for him.
Jacket off, he pulls my shirt up, rough hands skimming bare skin, and I arch into him, breath catching as the cold air meets heat.
His mouth trails down my neck, teeth grazing, lips soothing, and I gasp when his hand slides between my thighs and against my seam.
“I need you,” he murmurs, voice wild. “Right here. Right now.”
“I’m yours,” I whisper, tugging at his flannel, pulling him closer, the scent of pine fresh on his skin as he unbuckles his jeans and legs them down.
This is insane. I know it’s insane. It’s freezing cold, there could be a bear in the woods stalking us, we are from different worlds, different times, yet no moment has ever felt more right. I’m his to take.
He looks at me with an unhinged expression as he tugs my leggings down, fists my hair, and presses his massive cock into me.
My breath hitches and instinct takes over. No thoughts, just need.
It’s the most honest thing I’ve ever felt in my life.
“Look at me, honey,” he growls. “Fuck!”
I wrap my arms around his broad shoulders, feeling the strain on the fabric as his muscles flex with each thrust.
I’m soaked and moaning, legs latched around his waist, bouncing with each lunge. “Right there!”
“That’s right, honey. Take my cock like a good girl.” Eyes dark and feral, his gaze never leaves mine.
The trees move around us, pine needles dancing to the ground in a soft hush of perfection as the air inside the little clearing settles, echoing the sounds of our bodies slapping together.
Leaning back, he lifts my leg over his shoulder and bends in again, changing the angle just enough that his massive cock hits a spot I didn’t know was there. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt. He’s so deep, I’m spread wide, and whatever he’s hitting is like nirvana on cocaine.
I’m going to explode.
His thick hand grips my throat, and he leans into my ankle, sinking his teeth into my skin with a deep, guttural growl. “You’re my girl.”
“I’m your girl,” I repeat, my stomach filled with butterflies as his body scrubs against my clit, driving me closer to the edge.
Oh damn, I’m not gonna make it!
“Come for me, honey. Come on my cock,” he groans, pumping into me harder, his teeth still scraping my ankle.
Oh God, I’m gonna come!
Thighs clenching, my eyes still on him, a surge of energy spreads and implodes, traveling up through my hips and into my groin as I spill my juices out onto his thick cock.
My back arches away from the warmed earth, my fingers curl into his biceps, and my eyes squeeze shut. I’m done for. He’s wrecked me, and holy fucking hell… I want more.