Page 104 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

All while a huge piece of me wanted to give and experience this.

I wanted him to mark me.

Claim me.

Ruin me.

Because that’s what I’d be.

Ruined.

I knew it with the way my spirit was bending toward him. Connected to him in a way that I didn’t understand. As if fate had guided Nelly’s hand as she’d randomly set her finger on that map. Leading me here to him.

He looped an arm around my waist as he ground against me, hard and desperate, and his other hand skidded up my ribs under my jacket before he was palming and squeezing my left breast.

A tease of perfecting bliss rocketed through my insides, and I arched against him.

His breaths were short and jagged, his kisses manic as he spun us into mayhem.

A frenzy that screamed.

Muted laughter suddenly cut into the disorder, and Theo went rigid as his head whipped back and his attention flew to the left where the sound was coming from.

A flashlight wisped back and forth over the glinting snow as the muted laughter and hushed voices came nearer.

Theo quickly settled me onto my feet and stepped in front of me as three teenagers came into view where they were sneaking out from the woods. Teenage boys who were probably about sixteen who’d been staying here all week.

Each morning, they loaded their snowboards onto the top of a monstrous SUV before they headed up to the slopes with who I assumed were one of their parents.

One was hugging two bottles of alcohol to his chest as they slinked through the snow.

They stumbled to a stop when they saw Theo standing on my porch. The man looked like a phantom with the bare glow from the lamp hanging on the wall lighting him from behind.

One of them suddenly cracked up. “Holy shit, bro. You scared the piss outta me. Thought we stumbled upon a serial killer or some shit.”

Irritation spilled from Theo. “Little late to be out, yeah?”

Another laughed. “Come on, man. You didn’t strike me as such a buzzkill.”

“Yeah, we know who the buzzkills are,” Theo mumbled under his breath before he raised his voice a bit. “You don’t know what’s lurking in the woods at night. Think it’s time you get back to your room.”

The last gave him an exaggerated salute as he staggered to the side. “Whatever you say, boss.”

They were laughing and shoving at each other as they fumbled onto the path and started in the direction of the main lodge.

While I stood there shaking.

Chills streaking through me that didn’t have anything to do with the cold.

Desire still coursed and pulsed, while my brain was screaming at me that I’d allowed myself to be so reckless. That I’d almost…

Regret oozed from Theo as he slowly turned around, and he roughed a frustrated hand over his face as if he were also trying to knock himself out of the frenzied daze that had taken us over.

“Sorry about that.” His words were gruff.

My gaze found my boots that I was shifting back and forth on. I peeked up at him, my words wispy as I forced them out. “It was probably for the best.”

Greed still rippled and flexed through his body, and his voice scraped in the night as he leaned in close. Swamping me in his presence all over again. “Yeah. Think it would be best if you went inside.”