Page 33

~ SAM ~

It was almost ten and I was on the phone with my lawyer when the burner started ringing. My heart immediately fought to punch through my ribs.

“Shit. I have to go, I’ll call you back.” I hung up the call before he could even respond and leaped across the room to grab the other phone before she hung up. “Bridget? Bridget, babe, what—”

“Sam.”

Her voice was quiet and small and that image of the little girl being ushered into the Police station by two massive men came swimming into my head.

“Bridget.” I breathed her name and dropped into the chair because the relief was so intense when I inhaled it was the first full breath I’d taken in two days. “Thank God. Where are you?!”

“I’m… um…” she swallowed audibly. I tensed again—had she gotten in trouble? Was she in jail? Hospital? Had something terrible happened?

“I’m at an Airbnb. Up in the mountains. I’m still in Oregon and… and I’m sorry. Sam, I’m so sorry. I-miss-you-so-much-but-I-don’t-think-I-can-drive-and-I-know-it’s-a-risk-but-can-you-come-because-I-need-you.” And then she sobbed .

My heart broke and I swallowed a lump in my throat as I scrambled for a pen and paper. “Tell me. Where are you?”

She mumbled out an unfamiliar address and I wrote it down, read it back to her twice because I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly, then the line dropped out for a second and I thought she was gone, but she was back a second later.

“—didn’t know if you could come for a couple days or—”

“I’m coming babe. Right now. Just… don’t go anywhere. Please.”

“I won’t. I can’t. Sam… Sam I can’t be away from you and it’s terrifying.”

I dropped my face into my hand, simultaneously grateful and so fucking scared. “It’s okay, babe,” I said hoarsely. “I get it. I’m a basket case. And I’m coming. Okay? As fast as I can without getting stopped by a cop. I’m coming.”

Four hours. Four fucking hours to get out to the middle of only-God-knows-where. And she didn’t call me once. I had no idea what I’d find when I got out to this place. I stopped letting myself wonder because my brain conjured too many things that made it dangerous to be driving.

I did manage to call my lawyer and tell him that I’d had an emergency. I needed to see a friend out of town for the weekend, but I wasn’t leaving the state and if he wanted to talk to me he could call. That coverage would be patchy, but I’d call him back if I needed to. Then I turned my real phone off completely so it wouldn’t ping and drove like a fucking madman, praying the entire way that God would turn away any cop that might care enough to pull me over.

Finally, after missing the turn onto the remote driveway in the predawn darkness twice, I finally made it up the winding, gravel road that climbed the side of the mountain until I found it.

I hadn’t seen it. She hadn’t described it. There was an unfamiliar car parked outside. There was every chance that I was about to bust in the door on a place full of a holidaying family. But somehow I knew. I could feel her.

I half expected her to run out of the cabin when I pulled up, but she didn’t. The door at the driveway level was unlocked—of course it was—and when I pushed inside, it was to nothing but a narrow stairway leading to the first floor.

“Bridget?!” I called, frantic. “Babe, where are you?”

Pounding feet sounded on the ceiling above as I took the stairs two at a time—and almost bowled Bridget off her feet as she came tearing around the corner on the hardwood floor in her socks.

She made a high, strangled noise when we collided, but I grabbed her up off her feet and held her to me so tightly I probably stopped her breathing. To my relief, she held me just as tight—her arms looping around my neck and her face buried in my neck.

“Sam…” she sobbed into my throat. “Sam, I’m so sor—”

I didn’t let her do it—refused to let her get buried in self-recrimination or whatever when all I needed was to be sure she was okay.

“Are you hurt?” I asked as calmly as I could, though my voice shook.

“No. No. I’m fine.”

Lie. But I didn’t challenge her.

The relief of having her in my arms was quickly being overwhelmed by frantic need. But I had no idea what she’d been through, or what had happened. I had to know if she was okay. Wait until she came for me.

I pinned her back against the wall, unwilling to let her go, but needing to check her and not sure where to go in this house that would feel safe for her.

She sucked in when I pressed her against the hard surface and raised my head.

She yanked her head up, staring at me, panicked for a moment, but I wasn’t pulling away, just getting leverage.

I took her face in one hand and kept her chin up, cursing the tears coursing down her cheeks.

“Are. You. Hurt?” I graveled, searching her eyes for any of her shadows. “In any way? Has something happened? Is anyone else here? ”

She shook her head quickly. “No, I’m alone, and…” she licked her lips. “I was just scared. That’s all, Sam. I was just so scared being alone and… I needed you. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you—”

Desperate to kiss her, but not wanting to push her when she was trembling and clearly on the edge of some kind of panic attack, I rested my forehead against hers and stared right into her eyes.

“I’m here,” I said hoarsely. “I’m here and I’ve got the weekend. Whatever you need… whatever will help… I’m here, Bridget.”

Her eyes screwed up and she tightened her arms around my neck again, slamming her mouth over mine, whimpering, her ankles locking behind my back and clinging like a barnacle.

“Bridget,” I gasped between kisses, but groaned when she plunged her tongue into my mouth and breathed my name.

I’d meant to wait. Intended to soothe her first—make love to her. But she was just like me. There was no better way to soothe than… this.

Fingers clawing into her sweater, digging into her back, gasping through the kiss, I tried to hold back. But she was frantic and needy. Rubbing herself against me even in our clothes.

With a deep groan I dropped my head back because I needed to speak. But she just latched onto my neck and I shuddered, almost losing control completely.

“Where’s the bedroom?” I asked hoarsely, head still tilted back because if I gave her my mouth again we were done.

“Behind you,” she whispered, then her teeth dragged against the stubble under my jaw.

Shaking and desperate, I grabbed her tighter and turned around. There was another short staircase up to an open door into a wide bedroom with massive windows overlooking the forest.

I saw nothing except that bed.

I needed to get her somewhere I could love her properly, because neither of us was going to think straight until I did.

Somehow I got us up the stairs and into that room, kicking the door closed behind me even though there was no one else here, because I needed to feel like there was no way we’d be seen, no way we’d be interrupted .

I let her slide down my body until she was on her feet, but she only whimpered and leaned into me, pawing at my clothes before I’d let her go.

“Bridget, we need to talk,” I rasped as I lifted the hem of the flannel pajama shirt she was wearing—then groaned when she lifted her arms and I found her naked underneath it.

“Later,” she gasped, immediately shoving my t-shirt up my torso. I would have argued again, but I didn’t have it in me.

In seconds we were both naked, and skin-to-skin, kissing like it was a drug.

Her tears had stopped, thank God. We both trembled. But I finally got her to stop kissing long enough to look me in the eye.

Holding her face in both hands, looming over her, instinctively wanting to guard the sight of her from the windows, I pushed her hair away from her face and locked eyes with her again.

“Tell me—be honest. Is there anything? Any… wound? Or—”

“Nothing, Sam. I promise. I’ve been alone. I drove here and… I’ve just been alone. I promise.”

“Thank God,” I rasped, then let myself go and descended on her, nudging her back so the bed hit her at the back of her thighs and she fell back onto the quilt. Her eyes went wide and she grabbed for me, but I was already following her down, intending to lift her and carry her up the bed as I crawled with her, but she’d already hooked one calf over my back and was undulating beneath me, rippling like her skin was water.

Bracing one hand on the bed behind her, I couldn’t resist dragging a hand down from her face, down her throat, over her collarbones, then to her breast.

She arched into my touch, but I needed to taste her, and be closer, so I curled down, opening my lips over her nipple and sucking it deep into my mouth, laving it with my tongue, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to devour her.

I must have bitten down too hard because she gasped, but when I yanked my head up to check her, she arched her back and grabbed my neck, pulling me back down.

I lowered myself over her, intending to slide down her body and eat her, but as I stroked her thighs and started kissing my way down her body she kept clawing at me .

“No,” she whispered. “I need your weight on me, Sam. I need you here.”

She’d cupped my face and was pulling me back up to kiss her. I didn’t resist her, but reached between us, touching her, teasing, sliding fingers to her most sensitive flesh, groaning when I found her already slick with need.

Then she reached for me and started stroking and for a moment I hovered over her, staring straight into her eyes, both of us panting as we stroked each other and teased flesh that was tingling and rushing with the promise of finally being reunited.

Then I slid my two middle fingers into her and watched her jaw go slack and her head fall back, her eyes rolling back as I beckoned to her from within, whispering her name, nipping and kissing at her neck and telling her how delicious she felt.

She whimpered again and at first I worried her tears would start again, but her hips rolled and her spine arched as she pressed into my touch. When her eyes rolled back, I looked down, through the valley between her breasts, to watch myself touch her and her touch me.

I almost came.

“Bridget, fuck.”

“Don’t stop, Sam. Please. I need you.”

“I won’t, babe. I won’t. I’m here. You’re safe.”

“I know. I know… God, I’m a mess.”

I shushed her, then changed tack.

Reluctantly leaving her, I took both of her hands—one off my cock, the other clawed into my hair—and as I leaned down to kiss her, gently put them together and lifted both hands just over her head so her elbows were bent, locking her wrists between my fingers and thumb and using that hand to brace on the bed.

Then I dropped my hips and rubbed myself against her, sliding, searching.

Bridget gasped immediately when I passed over her clit. Then, unable to move anything but her body, she arched to meet me with each pass, her breath growing heavier and faster right alongside mine.

The arm that I braced on was shaking, but not with weariness. I was desperate for her and trying to draw this out—not rush her. But the more she bucked and whimpered, whispering my name with a plea, the more she shivered with each jolt, the shakier my grip.

Then, just as I passed over her again, groaning, she tipped her hips and gasped my name and took me, and I almost came.

I plunged into her right to the hilt in one slide and instinctively grabbed her waist, pulling her onto me, my head dropping back as I fought not to climax.

Bridget gave a sweet gasp, then leaned up to kiss me. She couldn’t reach because I had her hands locked—but her wriggling and arching changed the angle between us as I pulled out, and I shuddered again, right on the cusp of coming.

“Bridget… shit.”

“Sam. Please!” Her eyes flew open and locked on mine again and I was stunned by the open vulnerability in her—the pleading, the fear, the joy… it was all there. Still drawing in and out of her, still trying to make this last, I was floored by the beauty of her—the softness of her skin, the shine of her reddened eyes, the glossy sheen of her hair. I’d never thought of Bridget as soft, yet here we were and everything about her called to me to sink in, to sigh, to ease, and never let go.

Unwilling to be apart even for a second, I changed the plan.

Letting go of her hands, I lifted her, keeping her with me as I put one knee on the bed, then the other and shuffled up, hitching her over me with each movement, gravity pulling her down on me even harder until she was liquid in my arms.

She clawed both hands into my hair and held me there, staring, nose to nose as we moved together.

I hadn’t intended for it to end here, but I was losing my grip.

“Bridget—”

“I’m almost—don’t stop. Sam, please!”

“Come with me, babe,” I whispered, staring right into her eyes. “Come with me.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded as I lowered her to the pillow, her hair fanning out over it as she sank into the soft plump of it, and I sank into her again.

And again.

And again.

I’d braced both elbows over her shoulders and cupped my hands over her head. I should have kissed her, should have told her how stunning she was, how scared I’d been, and how relieved I was now to have her in my arms. But all I could do was stare her in the eye and take her, invade her—and thank God that she wanted me to.

Then I began to tremble and sweat, my body riding the edge of that cliff that would crumble under my feet any second.

Bridget was whimpering, keening, arching, her eyes widening and almost closing, but we didn’t lose that contact as I picked up the pace, whispering, pleading with her to come with me.

“Sam—”

“I love you, Bridget,” I gasped. “I was so damn scared. I love you. Don’t ever leave me—oh shit! Yes, babe! Yes!”

Her head fell back and her mouth fell wide as she cried my name and her body gripped me, yanking me over that cliff. I shuddered and groaned, my toes digging into the quilt as I clawed down her body, pleading with her not to stop, to keep coming, to stay with me, and her eyes flew wide, and it was as if she showed me her soul.

We jerked and groaned, gasped and writhed, bodies out of control, pleasure washing through us in waves… and under it all, love.

Deep, abiding, vulnerable, terrifying love.