Chapter Seven #2
“I told you I was adopted, but that’s the short version.
I wasn’t born into a big, loving family like yours, Kelly.
” My head whips to him, unsure I heard him right, and when I do, it’s to find those golden eyes locked on me.
“My parents were drug addicts. When they found me, I was seven years old, half-starved. I was seated on the couch watching some cartoon on TV while my mother lay on the kitchen floor with a fucking needle sticking in her arm. My father was passed out beside me, bottles littered everywhere. The social worker was horrified.”
Who wouldn’t be? “God!”
“They took me, kicking and screaming. My father stirred long enough to ask me to shut up so he could sleep. My mother’s eyes were glazed when they woke her; she barely glanced my way when they told her they were taking me away.
” There is barely any emotion in his voice and that scares me.
Breaks my heart too for that seven-year-old child, unloved by the very people who gave him life.
“They were arrested, and I never saw them after that.”
“God, Walker,” I whisper, my eyes filling up as I slide a hand over his arm.
“I loved my mother. She wasn’t always an addict.
My earlier memories of her are of a beautiful woman who sang me to sleep, but then she reconciled with my father, and I watched what her love for him did to her.
It ruined her.” Those eyes shift back to the fire.
“Just as it ruined me. I watched it destroy her, turn her into a shell of her old self.”
I lay my head on his shoulder, seeking to comfort the man and maybe the child that still lives inside of him. “I’m so sorry, Walker.”
“I moved through group homes and foster care, didn’t get along with the kids or my foster parents, until I was moved to Sam.
He was a lumberjack who’d lost his wife years before.
He gave me an ax and taught me the trade.
He was a good man who spent most of his days mourning the love he’d lost. The day he died was the first time I saw a genuine smile on his face.
” Walker turns around to face me. “Don’t you see, Kelly?
Can’t you see what love does to you? How miserable it makes you.
Whether or not you fall for the right person, it will always fuck with you. ”
“My parents were high school sweethearts and have been together for more than thirty years. I have a cousin who annulled her marriage two days after the wedding and an aunt who recently married her best friend of forty years.” I climb onto his lap and take his face in my hands, then stare into those eyes I allowed myself to believe carried no feelings for me.
I was wrong. I see that now. Naked on his face is the same affection I know is reflected on mine.
“Every love story is different. Maybe it’ll all come crumbling down when we leave this cabin or maybe this cabin is just the beginning. How will we know if we don’t try?”
“You want to?”
I laugh at that. “I tried to bully you into staying longer in the cabin, didn’t I?”
“Fuck!” he says in a quick rush of breath, dropping his forehead against mine, and I feel a shudder roll through his body. “I love you.”
My heart leaps at the confession and knowing just how much effort it took for him to say those words sends warmth flooding through me.
I smile, leaning to brush his lips. “I’m sorry you had to grow up seeing the kind of love you did.
I’ll show you love that works. We’ll learn together,” I tell him, trailing my hand down his chest and to the erection growing between us. “I vote to start the lessons now.”
His lips curve as the sadness in his eyes fades away. “Where do we start, professor?”
“From the very first page of the book. Attraction.” I keep my eyes on his as I pop open the button to his jeans and tug down the zipper.
Those golden-brown eyes light up when I take him into my hands, stroking his shaft slowly as I watch every expression that crosses his face.
“I think we’ve covered this topic before, but it bears repeating. ”
“Is the fault with the student or the teacher?”
“Neither,” I whisper, straddling his hips as I line his shaft with my entrance. “Some lessons just need to be more hands on…oh!” My lips part with a gasp as I sink down onto his thick shaft. “Oh, God.”
“Good?” he rasps, his hands sliding under the T-shirt to stroke my back.
“So good,” I whimper, dropping my head to his shoulder. “I don’t know how I went so long without this.”
“You’ll never have it with anyone else!”
“Or what, you’ll throw an ax at them?” I giggle, choking out a pleasured sob when his hips piston up. “Oh, God. Sweet Jesus.”
“I’ll do more than throw an ax at them. You’re mine, Kelly!”
The words warm me up more than the fire ever could.
I smile against his shoulders as I rise and fall against him, skin to skin.
So perfect. “You’re the only one I want—I’ll ever want.
” And deep down, I know this to be true.
I kiss his shoulder and jaw before pushing up, seeking his mouth with mine.
The kiss is soft but passionate, as is the lovemaking.
Those calloused hands are gentle as they touch me everywhere and I lose myself to the hard muscles of a man who would fight off three men for me.
How could I ever want anyone else?
“I love you,” I whimper, burying my face in his neck as I come apart in his arms, the orgasm long and fluid, like molten gold. I lose myself in that pine and earth scent that clings to him as my body rocks against him, pulling him along with me. “I love you so much, Walker. Only you. Always you.”
He wraps his arms around me and drops his head to my shoulder, quiet tremors rolling through his body and when he says the words this time, they sound as light and clear as the emotions in his voice. “I love you, Kelly. Always you.”