Until now. Until I met this woman seated beside me. She gave me hope that maybe my life could be more than just work and hanging around this cabin.

“Are you sure?” I looked over at her. After the words were out, I worried I’d been too vague. The quick shift in topic would throw her off. She’d have every right to have changed her mind about sleeping with me now that she knew who I really was. I had to give her that chance. “Are you sure you want to share my bed naked?”

She tilted her head slightly, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Later,” she said. “Right now, I want you to kiss me.”

She didn’t have to ask me twice. I shifted until I was facing her, then slid my hand beneath the blanket, finding her waist and tugging her toward me.

She came willingly, moving even farther than I would have expected. She was still moving as our lips met, climbing on top of me, straddling me like a woman who’d had experience with this sort of thing. In fact, everything about her, from the way she kissed to her hands moving over my back, would have led me to believe she’d had tons of experience—ifI didn’t know better. But part of that was just how natural everything felt with her.

My hands moved over her lower back, then cupped her ass with a hunger I’d never experienced before. The difference this time was that I wasn’t holding back. This time I was opening my heart, my home, and everything I had to a woman I’d just met, and it all felt right.

As our tongues tangled, our hands explored, and within seconds, I had both her shirts untucked and was running my hands over her bare skin. She felt so good—so warm and soft. And when she moaned against my mouth, it was almost my undoing.

While she returned my kisses, she arched away slightly so she could move her hands between us. I moaned against her mouth as she began slowly gyrating her hips, the movement rubbing her along my erection. Too much of that and I’d come in my jeans.

I was so focused on what was going on down below, I didn’t even notice she was unbuttoning my shirt until a sizable chunk of my chest was exposed. Despite the fire, my cabin wasn’t quite as warm as I liked it, thanks to the below-freezing temperatures outside. But it would be well worth it when I felt her bare chest against mine.

Speaking of which…

I began tugging her shirts upward, hating to break the kiss but knowing the pause would be well worth it. Once it was midway, she lifted her arms and sat up, separating our mouths for the first time in what seemed like hours. As she slid the shirts over her head, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful her breasts were—what I could see of them, anyway. Cleavage spilled over a beige bra, and my fingers itched to see what the cloth was concealing.

But as she looked down at me, preparing to go back in for another kiss, the sight took my mind off her chest. Off everything but the look in her eyes. The heat I saw there went straight to my cock. She wanted me. That realization slammed into me, making me feel like the luckiest bastard on Earth.

When she went in for the kiss this time, both of us put our whole hearts into it. I pulled her toward me, craving her like I’d never craved anything in my life. I had to feel her against me.

And as our mostly bare chests touched, I was rewarded with a warmth that shot through me. Yes, this was what lovemaking was all about. This was exactly what had been missing with every woman I’d been with before.

As Darby had said, this was exactly what I’d been looking for my entire life. I just didn’t know it until I found it.

My hands made their way to her bra strap, expertly sliding the hooks through the eyes. Once the back was separated, I reached for the straps and slid them off her shoulders. Shepitched in and somehow managed to get the bra completely off without breaking our kiss.

My eyes were closed, so I didn’t get a good look at her bare chest, but I felt those soft, perky mounds as they pressed against the hard wall of my chest. If I keeled over right now, I’d die a happy man.

But my body was already taking it to the next level, my hands sliding around her waist and pressing between us to find the button on her jeans. I finally got them unbuttoned and my hands beneath her jeans and panties, but I was limited in what I could do.

Finally, she broke the kiss. “I’ll take those off.”

Instead of sliding from underneath the blanket and standing, though, she rolled off me, blanket still covering her, and did a little dance as she wiggled her way out of the jeans. I took that as my cue to bare my lower half, unbuttoning and sliding everything down past my knees.

And then she was on top of me again, straddling me, her bare thighs on either side of my body. Feeling her against me was enough to push me even closer to orgasm, but I held on.

I cupped one breast with my right hand and left the other one free for my tongue to run over her nipple as my thumb centered on the swollen bud between her legs. The contact snapped her head down, her eyes wide as she looked at me. She’d never touched herself before. I could see that in her expression. Those wide, innocent eyes were bright with discovery.

Soon, her hips were moving again, her head back, her eyes closed, her lips parted. That image would be imprinted on my brain until the next time we made love, which would be soon if I had anything to do with it. Maybe every day for the rest of my life.

“Oh, fuck,” she said. “I think I’m going to?—”

She didn’t finish that sentence. Maybe she didn’t know the words, or maybe she was hesitant to say them out loud. It was even more possible that her orgasm was so strong, it rendered her speechless. All I knew was she threw her head back and cried out, gripping my shoulders, her hips moving faster, until finally she stilled and looked down at me.

“That was…wow,” she whispered.

I took that to mean I’d done a good job. “Was that the first time you ever…?”

Now I was the one not finishing sentences.

“Yes,” she said. “I knew I could touch myself and have an orgasm, but I never tried it. I don’t know why.”

If nothing else, I’d taught her about a part of herself she could touch when she wanted to feel good. Even if she never wanted to be with me again after today, that would be something.