9. Acacia
ACACIA
T he drive back up the mountain is suffocating.
The heater in Bennett’s truck blasts a dry, artificial heat, but I feel like I’m freezing from the inside out.
I sneak a glance at him, but he’s staring straight ahead, his knuckles white as he grips the steering wheel.
He’s fidgety - a word I never thought I’d use for a man who moves like a mountain - and he hasn't looked at me once since we left the Switchback Cafe.
My mind is a tangled mess of confusion and hurt. This morning at breakfast, the tension was so thick I could barely swallow my orange juice. Then he practically sprinted out the door to shovel snow like he couldn't wait to clear a path for me to leave.
Did he really want me gone that quickly?
After the way he held me? After everything we shared?
The man had dozens of sketches of me, but maybe I was just a flash in the pan, a short-term muse while the storm kept us trapped inside.
But that doesn't make sense. He just paid an astronomical amount at Vega’s Auto to make my SUV safe, but now he won't even acknowledge that I’m sitting three feet away from him.
I won't be that woman. I won't be the cliché who hands over her heart and her virginity to a man who was just doing his duty as a rescuer. I refuse to stay around just to watch the regret pool in his eyes.
The moment the truck skids to a stop in front of the cabin, I’m out the door.
I don't wait for him to help me. I run inside, my breath hitching as I head straight for the bedroom.
I grab the small bag of belongings I managed to salvage from the wreck, consisting of the few clothes that aren't ruined, my journal, and what’s left of my dignity.
I swallow hard, forcing the tears back. I have to stay strong. I won't be clingy. I won't let him see how much this hurts.
"Bennett?" I call out as I walk back into the main room, my voice trembling despite my best efforts. "I... I think it’s best if I go. I can find a room in town until my car is ready."
No response. He isn't in the living room. I check the kitchen, then head toward the mudroom, where I find the confusing man who is about to break my heart. I stop dead in the doorway.
Bennett is crouched on the floor, dragging a massive, dust-covered suitcase out from a storage closet. He doesn't look like a man who's saying goodbye. He looks like a man on a mission.
"What are you doing?" I ask, my heart hammering against my ribs.
He looks up, and for the first time today, his gaze locks onto mine with that terrifying, molten intensity. He stands, towering over me in the small space. "You're moving down the mountain," he says matter-of-factly, as if he’s stating a law of physics. "So I’m moving down the mountain, too."
I blink, certain I’ve misheard him. "What?"
"I'm putting the cabin and the land on the market first thing tomorrow," he continues, his jaw set in that stubborn, beautiful line. "I’m not letting you go to that town alone. If you're building a bakery, I'm building it with you. I’m not losing you, Acacia."
The shock is so visceral I actually stumble back a step. He’s giving it up. The isolation he spent years cultivating, the sanctuary he built to hide from the world… He’s throwing it all away for me. For a girl he found in a car wreck a few days ago.
The tears I was trying so hard to hold back finally spill over, hot and fast.
"Bennett," I sob, the word broken.
He looks panicked at the sight of my tears, his large hands reaching out but hesitating, as if he’s still afraid he’ll break me. "Don't cry. Little bird, please. If you don't want me there, I'll stay out of your way, but I have to be near you?—"
I don't let him finish. I fling myself into his arms, burying my face in his chest. "I love you," I say, sniffling against his shirt. "I love you so much, and I was so scared you wanted me to leave."
The air leaves his lungs in a sharp rush. His arms wrap around me, crushing me against him with a desperation that tells me everything I need to know. "I love you," he rumbles into my hair, his voice thick with emotion. "God, Acacia. I’ve been a wreck all day thinking I wasn't enough to keep you."
He pulls back and captures my face in his massive hands.
His kiss is different this time. It’s full of heat and hunger, but also determination and devotion.
It grows more passionate by the second, a frantic, swirling need that consumes us both.
He groans, his hands sliding down to my thighs, and in one fluid motion, he lifts me up.
I wrap my legs around his waist as he presses me against the mudroom wall, the rough wood a sharp contrast to the heat of his body.
His mouth moves to my neck, his stubble grazing my skin as he murmurs possessive, beautiful things that make my head spin.
He’s giving up his mountain, but as I cling to him, I realize I’ve found my real home right here in his heart.
I slip out of Bennett’s arms, laughing when he growls in disapproval. His scowl doesn’t last long when he sees me get down on my knees.
“Acacia, what are you doing?”
“Whatever I want,” I say, grinning up at him. I untuck his shirt and claw my way into his pants before he can say anything else.
“Christ, woman. What you do to me,” he hisses out as I slowly stroke him up and down.
I lean over and kiss the tip of his dick, smirking to myself when it grows in my hand and starts leaking pre-cum.
I lick up the pearly drop, then kiss down the side of his hard cock, taking my sweet time enjoying him.
Well, enjoying his agony. I feel Bennett practically vibrating with need.
For me . That thought has me soaking my panties.
“Fucking hell, get your mouth on me right now. Don’t tease me.”
I lift an eyebrow at him, staring right into his captivating blue eyes as I slowly lick up the underside of his cock, massaging the bulging nerve there with my tongue. Bennett curses again and braces himself against the wall, caging me beneath his large frame.
I take mercy on him and swallow as much of his girth as I can.
He's freaking huge and I only get about halfway down before I'm choking on him.
Bennett doesn't seem to mind. He leans into the wall, biting his balled-up fist. I feel fucking powerful knowing the effect I have on him.
Knowing he's in a vulnerable position, and he's trusting me with all of him.
“Shit, gotta stop,” he groans, tangling his fingers in my hair and tugging me away from his angry shaft.
I pout, but only for a second. Bennett pulls me up, grips my thighs, and has me pressed against the wall with my legs around his hips before I get a chance to even take a breath.
The flannel I’m wearing bunches up around my waist and Bennett slides my panties aside before ramming his huge cock inside of me in one hard thrust.
Bennett pins me to the wall and hammers in and out of me, fucking the air right out of my lungs.
I bow my back, baring my neck to him as he kisses and bites his way towards my chest. Bennett tugs at the fabric covering my chest with his teeth, pulling it down along with the cup of my bra to reveal my breasts.
I bite my lips, trying not to cry out when he licks my nipple and then pulls it through his teeth.
My hands wrap around the back of his head, holding him there while we rock into each other.
Each swirl of his tongue on my sensitive nipple shoots lighting straight to my clit, making me grind down on him harder.
Each time the head of Bennett’s dick hits the very end of me, my nerves spark and my muscles tense, almost to the point of pain.
“I feel you, Acacia. You want to come for me, don’t you?” he whispers into the hollow of my throat before licking a line up to my chin and nipping my jaw.
“Y-yes…” I moan. “Yes, yes, yes…”
Bennett growls and angles his hips, hitting me higher, harder, faster than before. I shake uncontrollably in his arms and wrap myself around him, clinging to his muscular frame while he pounds into me, over and over, again and again, one more time...
And then he pulls out.
I almost sob at the loss, but Bennett sets me down and spins me around, forcing me to brace myself on the wall with my hands out. He grabs my hips, pulls my panties down, and thrusts inside of me, making me come instantly.
Bennett sucks on my shoulder as a scream is ripped from deep in my chest. I gasp for air, trembling and moaning and still riding the wave of never-ending bliss.
His right hand slips around to my front, and then I feel his fingers circling my clit, sending me up and over before I even come back down from my first orgasm.
Sharp, exquisite pain zaps through my body, stealing my strength as my pussy bears down on his cock, sucking him back inside when he tries pulling out.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, Acacia. You’re unreal, do you know that? Jesus,” he grunts into the shell of my ear, his hot breath tickling my heated skin, making me gush even more for him.
“Bennett, please…”
“Please, what?”
“I… I don’t know, just…”
He growls and moves his hands to my breasts, squeezing them roughly and using them as leverage to tear into me, each savage thrust going deeper, deeper, so fucking deep I feel like I’m choking on him.
I can barely stand, but I somehow feel like I'm right at my peak again, climbing higher, higher, impossibly higher…
Then he pinches my nipples, hard . I’m thrown over the cliff into a dark pool of inky, black bliss.
I feel weightless, boneless, and so, so fucking wet.
Bennett’s pace grows frantic as he ruts into me.
Then he stills and growls into my shoulder, the sound vibrating through me as he empties rope after rope of cum into my still-convulsing pussy.
“Holy fuck,” he mumbles.
I laugh breathlessly and rest my forehead on the wall in front of me.
Bennett gathers me up in his arms and presses sweet, lingering kisses to my cheeks and nose.
He praises me and comforts me and then curls up with me on the couch.
I can’t fight my heavy eyelids as they droop shut.
The last thing I remember is Bennett stroking my back and telling me to get some rest.