Page 23 of Jealous Lumberjack

Then I shake my head as feral hunger coils in me, hot and relentless.

My cock still aches like a motherfucker, and my mouth burns and waters for her taste.

Five years I’ve starved myself, and one slip of a girl in a yellow dress undoes me in a single night.

I curl one fist inside the other. I shouldn’t be surprised by this. Not when I know the vile curse that runs in my blood.

Addiction.

I’ve seen it ruin men, strip them bare, turn them into shells. I fought it every day of my career, stayed clean when everyone else drowned in pills and liquor and powder. But this?

This is worse.

I don’t even know her full name.

I don’t know what she’s running from, what kind of trouble she’s dragged to my mountain.Ifshe’s running at all or if this is just some elaborate ruse.

And still my chest feels like it might split open if she ever leaves.

I lean back, glare at the shadows. I won’t let it happen. I won’t let her take me apart the way the last woman did.

But then she stirs, clutches my pillow, and murmurs softly like she’s in the safest place in the world, when the very force of my feelings should be giving her nightmares.

My gut twists. My fists clench tighter.

God, how can I already be hooked?

You know why.

You can still taste her fucking cunt on your tongue. Hear her beautiful siren cries in your ears. She has you whipped.

I grind a hand down my face, fighting for control.

I may be sliding, but surely I can put some guardrails in place? Ensure it’s not as brutal a nightmare as last time?

Or you can send her packing?

No. Fuck no.

The very idea tightens every cell in my body until I feel I’m going to break into tiny little pieces.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I’ll rip the truth from her. She’ll tell me what she’s hiding. She’ll spill every secret she’s guarding with those sharp little teeth.

By any means necessary.

Because this time, I won’t be played for a fool.

But tonight?

Tonight I sit in my chair, watch her sleep in my bed, and admit a truth I’ve been running from since the moment I saw her tangled in my snare.

She’s mine.

And I’m already hers.

Lily