by Rye Hart
I reached up and ran my fingertips through his beard. His hair was so soft, his skin so warm. His lips encompassed mine again while my hands rounded his neck and, suddenly, I was parting my legs for him as he settled between them.
I could feel him fighting, volleying between keeping his composure and letting himself loose. I could hear him taking deep breaths, trying to quell the rising flood of energy in his body while his muscles twitched underneath every single touch. I moved his flannel button-down from his shoulders before my hands raked across his back and, in an instant, he was peeling my clothes off.
Jeans and underwear and shirts got tossed to the side. His lips were on my neck, my chest, and around my tits while his hand ran down my leg. The passion his body contained was unlike anything I’d ever felt in my life and, soon, I could feel his cock rising against my skin. It was thick and pulsing, begging for entrance while Liam’s lips suckled red welts upon my skin. I ran my hands through his hair while his lips traveled downward, kissing all the way to my toes before he got up onto his knees.
The chiseled body he hid underneath his clothes took my breath away. His abdomen rippled and his arms pulsed. There was a vein bulging in his forearm while his eyes took in my naked body. I could feel my arousal sliding down the crack of my ass, begging for any part of him to touch me where I wanted him most.
He was staring at me like I was his prey and it was time he finally relented to the animal inside of him.
“Take me,” I said breathlessly.
His eyes connected with mine and, for a split second, I thought he was going to flee. I saw the war raging behind his eyes as the peridot sparkle I’d come to enjoy faded into a stormy blue sea. Darkness was coming as it engulfed his features and, soon, his hands were planted beside my head while he hovered over me.
“Don’t ask for something you can’t handle,” he said.
I rose up and caught his lips with mine. His hand came up and cupped my cheek. My tongue slowly prodded to find the tip of his. His hand slid down my chest, massaging my tit as I moaned into his mouth and, soon, his strong, sinewy arm was wrapped around my back and holding me flush against his body.
“Please,” I said, whispering.
In an instant, I was off the bed. My back was against the wall and he was pinning me there, his lips devouring my neck. I could feel myself spilling into my pussy folds, my body trying desperately to hold itself back until he granted me what I wanted. His chest was strong and his lips were hot. His skin pulled a red tint from the confines of my body while I wrapped my legs around his waist. I didn’t care about the pain in my ankle and I didn’t care about the weather outside. I didn’t care that we didn’t know one another and I sure as hell didn’t care that I wouldn’t see him again after this.
All I cared about was the fire being stoked behind my pelvis. A fire I hadn’t felt in years.
“Please fuck me.”
His eyes connected with mine and, slowly, he lined himself up with my entrance. I held my breath, scared to utter another word lest he punish me with loneliness. His thick cock penetrated my folds and my juices spilled out onto his skin. The grin that slid across his cheeks was nothing short of devilish.
The Guardian of Lust was taunting me and I was playing right into his hand.
He slid into me effortlessly before he set a relentless pace. He hooked his strong arm underneath the crook of my leg, folding the knee of my bad ankle toward my chest. He pried my body open for him while our foreheads connected and his dick throbbed against my walls while he split me in two. Never in my life had I felt a man so deep within me and it took all the strength I had not to come on his cock right then and there.
We groaned together while he slicked his cock with my juices.
Without another word spoken, he pulled me from the wall and sat me on top of a small dresser. I leaned back onto my forearms and rolled my hips into him, arching myself for his pleasure while his lips tackled my swollen tits. He lapped and flicked my nipples, rising them to heights I’d never known them to have. He tugged at them, shooting a bit of pain through my body that clenched my pussy around his cock.
He grunted at the sensation while his hands pressed firmly into my lower back.
He sank himself into me again and again while my legs dangled helplessly off the side. His beard tickled my skin and his lips continued to mark me. There wasn’t an inch of skin he was going to leave unkissed. I felt his dick growing bigger within me and I knew if he got any bigger, he’d stretch me like it was my first time.
“Liam. Yes. Please.”
His eyes lifted and connected with mine and all his movements ceased. He was seated within me, holding my hips close to him while my arms trembled. Slowly, he encompassed my lips with his and pulled me from the dresser, his dick still not separating from me as he laid me back down on the bed.
He spread my hair out on the pillow before he cupped my cheek. His thumb grazed over my skin like he was taking in every single feature I had to offer. He was the most beautiful and compassionate man I’d ever encountered and any ounce of fear I might’ve had toward this situation was obliterated the moment his eyes began to lighten.
Slowly, his hips began to roll again. He drew breathless pants from me while he moved and his hand slowly traveled down my stomach. I locked my legs around his hips while he picked up his pace and my fingernails ran up and down the meat of his arms.
The moment his fingertips parted my pussy folds, he rose up and threw my legs over his shoulders.
In an instant, my body was electrified. He pounded into my hips while his abs flexed for my viewing pleasure and I could feel his fingertips playing with my swollen clit. I could hear his cock sloshing in and out of my entrance while sweat began to drip down Liam’s brow and all I could do was dig my nails into his strong thighs and hang on for the ride.
“Liam. Yes. Please don’t stop.”
My head was spinning and my body was shaking. My legs were pulling taut and my toes were curling. My back bowed so far off the bed I thought it was going to snap. Like an over-tuned violin string, teetering on the brink of failure. The pain that shot up my leg was nothing compared to the pleasure his body was providing for me and I pressed my hips deeply into his before my body finally snapped.
My jaw unhinged and my nails dug into his skin. My pussy clamped down around his cock and I could feel his hips stuttering. Grunts and groans fell from his beautiful lips while my eyes screwed shut in pleasure and, soon, my body was pulling him deeper and deeper into me.
I could feel his cock spilling into the depths of my body and I whimpered with relief as my back relaxed back down on the bed.
I panted for air while my legs slid from Liam’s shoulders. He dropped his hands beside my head, his lips peppering my neck and cheek with kisses before he found my lips one last time. He tasted like snow and salt and I could feel his body trembling with the effort of his climax.
I pulled him down on top of me, allowing his entire sweat-drenched body to calm the trembling of mine while we lay there in his bed.
I felt my eyes becoming heavy while my hands ran up and down his back. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been laying there but I felt his lips travel to my ear before he murmured something against it.
“I gotta get something in the kitchen,” he said.
The rumble of his voice caused my body to shiver and, had I not been so exhausted, I would’ve rolled him over and taken him for another round. I reluctantly released his body, feeling him get off me before he tucked me in underneath the covers. I allowed myself to slip into a slumber for just a moment before I rolled over to find him and that was when I realized he wasn’t there.
How long had I been asleep?
I got out of bed and slowly put my clothes back on. I limped down the hallway into the kitchen but I didn’t see Liam anywhere. I turned around and saw the dimming fire in the fireplace and realized it was dark outside.
Then, I heard a moan come from the couch.
I walk
ed over and peered over the back of it, taking in the sight of Liam. He was curled up on the cushions of the couch that were much too small for him, with a blanket around his body that didn’t even go past his feet. I giggled and shook my head before the reality of the situation dawned on me. That was when I started hobbling quickly back to his room.
This man had such a haunted past that he didn’t even feel he could lay down next to me. After being completely intimate with me and bringing my body to such a precipice, he still didn’t feel he could lie down in the same room as me and feel peace.
I gathered up the blankets from his bed before I limped back out to the main room.
I took one of the blankets and covered his feet. The cabin was already growing chilly inside with the dying fire and I didn’t want him to wake up cold. I settled into the chair next to the couch and curled my legs up toward my body. Then, I fluttered the last blanket around me before I propped a pillow up underneath my head.
I had no idea what haunted this man but there was one thing I did know.
He didn’t deserve to be punished like he obviously thought he did. And if he had another nightmare tonight, I was going to make sure he didn’t wake up alone.
CHAPTER 13
LIAM
My eyes opened, and the first thing that hit my nose was smoke. The fire I started yesterday had dwindled and the smoke was wafting up the chimney. I stretched my arms up and wiggled my toes, trying to wake myself up so I could stretch my aching back.
But then I realized that my toes were covered.
Rubbing my eyes, I sat up. I was covered in two blankets instead of just one and, for a split second, I wondered if I’d gotten up again last night. If I did, I didn’t remember it and, immediately, my mind flew to Whitney.
Was she all right? Did she hear me get up?
I stood up just as my vision came into focus and, before I could start for the hallway, I saw a figure sitting in the chair. It was a wide-seated chair I kept next to the couch in case I felt like looking out the window instead of staring into the fireplace. There was a mass of blonde hair on the pillow that sat on the armrest and I could see the thick blanket slowly moving up and down.
I wound around to the mass of hair and looked down at a sight that made me smile.
How Whitney stuffed herself into that small chair and fell asleep, I’d never know. She was sleeping soundly, with her shoulders rising and falling with her breaths. She looked like she might’ve been grinning at something she was thinking about and it tugged at my chest. I couldn’t believe Whitney had moved out here to sleep with me.
Why would she do something like that?
As I stood there looking down at her sleeping form, I found myself a bit confused. Last night was the first night in almost two years that I’d slept without a nightmare waking me up. Some were tamer than others. I didn’t wake up screaming all the time. But I would wake up in the middle of the night for some reason and always have this sense of dread. Whether I remembered the dream or not, that sense of guilt and fear would always be looming over my head.
But last night, it didn’t happen.
I sighed while Whitney shifted in the chair, her legs outstretched as I watched her face wince. I wound around to her feet and picked up the blanket, taking in the swelling of her ankle. It was going down in her toes but was still pretty puffy around her ankle joint, so I went to the kitchen to grab the heating and cooling gel. I rubbed some onto her foot while she slept and I grinned when a soft sigh peeled from between her lips.
The only thing that changed last night was her and I shook my head while I placed some gauze around her ankle.
She had been the reason I’d slept so well. The warmth of her body and the way she squeezed my cock. The way her tongue danced with mine and the way she wanted me to fall into her after it was all said and done. I’d allowed the animal inside to take over and she held on tight for the ride. It was the first time I could ever remember truly losing myself within another person.
And it seemed, at least for now, that her presence kept my demons at bay.
I finished wrapping her ankle so it would stay stable and then I covered her back up. I knew she’d probably be hungry after our encounter last night, so I started whipping up some breakfast. I heated up a couple more biscuits and fried up some bacon before I prepared the coffee pot and, as the smell of coffee flew through the cabin, I heard her yawn.
“Liam?” she asked groggily.
“Take your time,” I said. “I’m just cooking breakfast.”
“Okay,” she said, yawning.
I couldn’t help but feel excited that she was awake. The first rays of sunlight were peeking through the gray clouds after two entire days of snow and, for a moment, I breathed a sigh of relief. Any more snow would’ve buried my truck and I would’ve been risking more rust damage just letting it sit in the snow.
The storm had dumped piles of snow that climbed all the way up to my porch and, even though the sun was shining, there was no way I’d be able to get Whitney back to the resort.
“Looks like it stopped snowing,” she said. “But there’s a lot of it.”
“My truck’s decent but it’s not equipped to handle snow like this,” I said. “My plan was to hunker down until the snow subsided and melted.”
“And those trails I walked before I got lost will be buried and practically unreachable,” she said.
I could hear the sadness in her voice as I turned around with our breakfast plates. She was gazing out the window, taking in the sight of the world but not being allowed to go out in it. I was the type of person that enjoyed being cooped up. I could stay in this cabin, keep to my radio, and never feel as if I was missing out on anything.
But Whitney was gazing out into nature like she was meant to be there. She wasn’t used to being stuck like this.
“I can’t get you back to the resort but, if your ankle’s feeling better, I could take you out in the snow,” I said.
“I don’t have any boots to wear for that kind of endeavor,” she said.
“You wouldn’t wear boots. You’d wear a snowsuit. I’ve got a spare one. It’ll swallow you whole but it’ll keep you warm while you get outside for a bit.”
I handed her the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit I’d made before I set my plate down on the table.
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said as I made our cups of coffee. “I would.”
After the peace she’d delivered me the night before, I’d give her anything she asked for. We ate our breakfast before I went digging around for the snowsuits I had. Then, I helped her get dressed in a pair of my sweatpants and a shirt before she got into it. It looked absolutely ridiculous on her, especially when she put her white hat on top of her head, but she walked around as if she didn’t have any trouble.
“Ready?” I asked.
I held out my hand for her and she took it without a second thought.
We walked slowly through the snow and I watched as it crunched all the way up to her thighs. This snowstorm had really buried us in here and I kept her behind me, just in case we hit a hole. The last thing I needed was for her to fall waist-deep in snow and not be able to get her out.
But there was one place I wanted to show her I knew she would love.
We climbed the steady incline and I could hear her huffing behind me. Her pace was slowing down and I knew her ankle was starting to bother her. I gripped her hand and slowed my pace down as the hill finally crested into a flat piece of land. Then, I pulled her up alongside me before I heard her gasp.
“Oh my gosh.”
This was my favorite part of this area of the woods. If you continued to climb the rest of the mountain I was on, there was a flat top that overlooked the whole of Gatlinburg. You could see the mountains that surrounded the city with their white tops and their gray-scale sides and, at night, the valley was lit up with glowing lights.
Her eyes sparkled while she took in the view and I had
a hard time not focusing solely on her.
“It’s beautiful up here,” she said.
“It is,” I said, my eyes dancing around her face.
“I bet the sunsets from here are breathtaking,” she said.
“They are.”
“This is the reason you live here, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Partially,” I said.
“Are we going back to the one-word answers?” she asked playfully.
I studied her one last time before I turned my gaze out toward the skyline. Then, I drew a deep breath before I began to talk.
“I knew I wanted to be in the military ever since I was fifteen,” I said.
Her gaze immediately whipped over to my face but I kept my stare locked on the town below us.
“I’d always known that was my path. When you enlist, they give you this test to see how smart you are and see what jobs you’d be a good fit for. I laughed at first when my enlisting officer suggested I become a medic but the idea grew on me all through basic training.”
I could feel her eyes on me and I hoped she could forgive the fact that I just couldn’t go any further right now.
“I wanted to help and make my country proud,” I said. “That was it.”
“Did you enjoy it?” she asked.
“I did. For a very long time.”
“What happened?”
I gripped her hand tightly in mine before I closed my eyes and sighed.
“Like you said. It was similar to what happened with you and your career.”
“Ah, my train wreck of a job choice,” she said. “The money sounded so good until I realized what I was actually doing.”
“Leaving your job was very brave,” I said. “You know that, right? You stuck with your morals. Not everyone does that.”
“Is that what you think you did?” she asked. “You think you abandoned your morals somehow?”
I tensed up and felt my body grow rigid.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be. It’s just… a lot.”
