Page 74 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

We keep moving together. In the most awkward place possible, we’re finally making a breakthrough in this “fake” relationship, one that stopped feeling fake at some point without either of us realizing it. And it’s going to change everything between us.

“Fuck!”

He tips his head back, the muscles in his neck straining, as my orgasm finally hits me, a blinding white light filling my vision.

I squeeze my eyes closed and keep going, my rhythm faltering slightly, only his help lifting me at my hips, keeping me going. Then his cock hardens impossibly more inside me before he comes on a roar that fills the truck and echoes out his open door across the clearing in front of his cabin.

He collapses back again, and I fall on top of him, burying my face against his neck and scratchy beard. That woodsy, piney, masculine scent I’ve come to associate with Silas fills every labored breath I take, but I savor it, relishing the way his chest rises and falls under mine.

I don’t know what any of this means for the two of us, but it seems like a step in the right direction, which means we’re probably going to take a five-mile leap back.

ChapterEleven

SILAS

The sun hasn’t come up yet as I drive down the mountain, but I still recognize the spot where we stopped and I kissed Lyla yesterday.

My entire body stiffens.

Everywhere.

Memories of her moving over me, taking me into her hot, tight body and decimating any ability for me to think come flooding back. For those few brief moments when we were locked together like that, it was easy to forget why it was such a bad idea.

But the moment clarity returned, so did the realization that I’d made a horrible mistake.

I knew, if I ever let myself give into that woman, it would destroy any willpower I had, and that’s exactly what happened. Lyla shattered me completely with her kiss and her touch, the way she never looked at me with pity, despite being able to see all my scars and knowing how completely fucked in the head I am.

She gave herself to me fully, opened herself up to all the pain and trauma I carry and will bring to her life.

And I can’t do this to her.

Not afterthat.

I can’t continue to put her in this position and force her to face what’s coming for me in this showdown with Uncle Marty. It will only hurt her—expose her to my darkest secrets and the most vile human being I’ve ever met. Which is exactly why, as soon as we both came down from our high yesterday and she rolled off me, I fled as fast as I could.

Like the coward I am, I ran.

Again.

Needing the space, the distance.

Some damn quiet in my head when she won’t stop racing through it so I could try to hatch a plan, figure some wayoutof this mess.

The only reason I needed this marriage was to secure my position with the trust, but maybe there’s a way to defeat Uncle Marty without it. I never wanted the company or the money, anyway, just him gone and someone who actually has a heart and some morals and isn’t a deviant piece of shit at the helm.

There has to be another way.

I spent the entire night in the barn, going over every possibility, and by morning, my resolve to end this was even stronger.

It’s what allowed me to leave before sunrise without seeing Lyla or telling her where I was going. She would have tried to stop me, would have argued and pushed and insisted that I am only doing this because I don’t know how to let someone in.

But it isn’t about that.

It’s about protecting her from what’s out there—who’s out there.

And there’s only one way to do it.

I pull over on the side of the road near Millsburg’s single stop sign, between the intersection and the beginning of Main Street, where hopefully no one will notice me this early but I can get some damn phone reception.

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