Page 53 of Tempt

He wraps his arms around me, his hands covering my breasts as he hugs me from behind. “Are they falling in love?”

I shake my head. “No. I mean, they will, of course. And there’s an attraction. They want each other desperately, but they can’t fall in love. Not yet. Because she has secrets. And maybe so does he.”

“He’ll tell her anything,” Sam whispers in my ear. “He trusts her with all of his secrets.”

“He has a dark past,” I breathe. “Reasons for why he’s all alone in the woods.”

“And she’ll be the only person who ever truly knows how he feels about those mistakes.” Sam turns me around and picks me up, carrying me to my bed.

“She knows who he is.” I curl up in a tight ball inside his arms, not wanting to let him go. “And she trusts him, anyway.”

“He wants to be a different kind of man for her.” He puts me down and joins me on the bed. He takes my chin between his fingers. “I want to be a different man for you. Now, and forever.”

Oh, God. That word is just as scary as love. Forever.

I roll onto my back and stretch out. “I bought wood. For a fire.”

He kisses my neck. “Will I pretend to have cut it down?”

“Yes please.”

He laughs out loud, then rolls on top of me. “Deal.”

“Sam?”

He smiles down at me. “Yes?”

“I love you, too.”

“Thank God.” He gives me his weight, and his mouth and, as I wrap my legs around him, a thickening cock, too.

We keep whispering woodcutter fantasy elements to each other as we fuck. It’s slow and hot and fun. When I climax, my hair is wrapped around Sam’s fist and his mouth is on my neck, growling obscenities that make me wet.

And once the aftershocks have finished rattling through both our bodies, his fingers are soft on my cheek, and his words are gentle.

Forever.

I couldn’t imagine it. Not before. Not even this morning.

“What are you thinking?” he asks.

“That anything is possible.” I kiss the soft curve of his lower lip, and he makes a happy noise. A cross between a murmur and a groan. “You know… I was wrong about the sounds I thought you’d make.”

“Oh?”

“The sex sounds aren’t the best ones. They’re good, don’t get me wrong. I love the grunt you make as you come.”

“I do not.”

Every single time, and it twists me inside out. “You do. But the sounds that really undo me are the secretly happy ones after sex. Like when I kiss you.”

I do it again, and he makes the same murmur-groan.

“That.”

“Ah,” he whispers. “Those are Hazel-only sounds.”

I close my eyes as he kisses me back and let myself sail straight into that unexpected joy. Hazel-only sounds.

---