Sunday morning dawns brilliant blue. The rainclouds have been chased away by the sun, and for the first time in weeks, it’s gorgeous out.
Aidan makes us breakfast—scrambled eggs, of course, but also toast and bacon—then we shower together. He hums as he washes my body, grins as he towels me dry afterward, whistles as we dress.
Aidan in a good mood is intoxicating. With his face lit up, he’s even more handsome than usual.
Because the weather’s nice, he suggests we make the trip to the house on his bike. When I agree and tell him I used to ride motocross when I was a kid, he stares at me in disbelief, looking me up and down.
“You?”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, lover boy. I know I look like the girl next door, but inside, I’m more like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” I pause to think. “Except without the tattoos, the genius IQ, the computer skills, or the eidetic memory.” Then I brighten. “I am antisocial, though.”
Aidan chuckles. “What you are is adorable.”
“Right?” I agree, pretending that didn’t just make me light up like the sun.
“Yes. Let’s see if I have a jacket you can wear, bunny.”
“I won’t fit into one of your ginormous jackets.”
He rummages around in his closet, emerging with a black leather bomber so large, I might as well use it as a tent and go camping in it.
Smiling at my expression, he orders, “Put it on.”
I climb into it. Then I stand there looking like somebody’s idea of a hilarious joke. “If I wear this, the wind will catch me, and I’ll sail behind you like a balloon.”
“Don’t worry, my giant helmet will weigh you down.”
He isn’t kidding. He hands me a helmet fit for the supervillain Megamind. When I laugh, he says, “Can’t help it. My brain is huge.” He grins. “Among other things.”
I say sweetly, “You’re thinking of your ego.”
He swaggers past, swatting me on the ass as he goes. “C’mon, little rabbit. If you’re good, I’ll feed you a carrot later on.” He turns and winks.
I’d like to make a smart remark, but damn, I also really want that carrot. So I bite my tongue and follow him out the door.
There’s a small garage behind the bar where he keeps his Harley, a shiny macho thing custom-made to scare old ladies and little dogs and deafen everyone else. It starts with a rumble and idles at an eardrum-piercing volume, vibrating the earth under my feet.
Aidan jerks his chin, indicating I should climb on behind him. When I do and I’ve got that lovely vibration going between my thighs, I decide I should look into purchasing one for myself.
I might never leave the house.
Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hold on tight as we take off with a roar.
It’s only a ten-minute ride to the other side of the island, but it’s so beautiful, I’m wishing it were longer. The air smells crisp and fresh, the hills are awash in golden light, and everywhere I look, I see a million shades of green, from pale apple to dark emerald. The whole world seems steeped in it.
We round a turn and pass a roadside farm stand, then a winery. Then we’re descending a hill into Port Madison, a historical waterfront neighborhood full of parks and walking trails. A few more turns and we’re on a long dirt driveway lined on either side by tall trees. The driveway ends on a flat parcel of shaggy grass directly overlooking the calm crystal waters of Hidden Cove.
Aidan parks under a giant cedar and cuts the engine. I hop off first, pulling the helmet from my head and looking around in awe.
“Wow. This view is incredible.”
He swings his leg over the bike and pulls on the chin strap of his helmet. When he’s got it off, he sets it on the seat of the bike and smiles at me.
“Lots of space for a bunny to play in, huh?”
My cheeks heating, I twist my lips and look at him.
He laughs at the expression on my face. “C’mon. The house is up here.”
I thought we were on the main parcel, but he’s pointing toward an incline beyond a break in the trees. He holds out his hand. I take it and follow behind him up the gentle slope on a path that looks well-worn.
When we reach the top, I stop short and gasp.
The frame of a house sits in the middle of a semicircle of giant Western white pines that stand at least one hundred feet tall. Facing the water, the house has two stories, a foundation, a roof, and not much else. There are no interior walls or windows yet. No landscaping or driveway, either. It’s more of a sketch, the outline of an idea, but the idea is taking shape beautifully.
“There’s gonna be a wraparound porch in the front,” says Aidan softly, gazing proudly at the bare bones of his home. “And a path over there that leads down to the dock.”
He looks at me, eyes shining. “I’m gonna get a boat. Nothing big. Little flat-bottomed lake boat I can putt around in for cocktail hour.”
I’m so impressed, I hardly know what to say. “How long have you been working on this?”
“Couple years now.”
Wide-eyed, I look around. “And you’re doing this all yourself?”
He chuckles. “I wish. Plumbing and electrical go in next, and that’s when things start to get expensive.” He looks back at the house, draws a deep breath, and smiles. “A lot of it I can do in trade. Which is good, because I don’t have the cash to finance this project. The cost of lumber alone nearly had me going broke.”
I move nearer to him. Still gazing at the house, he winds his arm around my shoulder and pulls me close.
“At the risk of being punished, I need to tell you that I’m definitely going to pay you now for the work you’re doing on my roof.”
His laugh is soft. He tilts his head back and closes his eyes, enjoying the sun on his face. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, bunny, or your butt would be burning.”
I wind my arms around his waist and rest my cheek on his chest. “Promises, promises.”
He kisses the top of my head. Then we stand there in comfortable silence, our arms around each other, listening to the breeze playing through the trees. The sound of faraway children’s laughter drifts to us over the water.
Aidan asks softly, “You ever want kids?”
My pulse goes wild. My hands start to tremble. I close my eyes, bury my face in his chest, and whisper, “Yes.”
There’s a slight change in his energy. A new tension creeps into his arms. “Was that the wrong thing to say?”
I shake my head. “No, it’s just…I tried once. We tried.”
He rests his cheek against the top of my head and tightens his arms around me. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s okay. It’s not a secret or anything.” I blow out a breath. “I had a miscarriage. I was pretty far along.”
A memory hits me like a punch to the gut: pain, screaming, blood coursing down my bare thighs. Crawling over the office floor and sobbing, trying desperately to get to the telephone on the wall. It’s a jumble of impressions that come all at once, like a clip from a movie played too fast with the sound turned all the way up.
But whose voice is that? The screaming doesn’t sound like mine. It’s a stranger’s voice, full of rage, bearing down on me like a hurricane.
The memory disappears as quickly as it came, cut off as if a plug was pulled on a projector.
It leaves behind the distinct and chilling impression that big chunks are missing. That something important has been left out.
Or erased altogether.
I search for anything more, but nothing comes. I’ve hit a brick wall.
“You’re shaking,” says Aidan, sounding worried as he hugs me tighter. “What is it, Kayla? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just hold me, please.”
He envelops me in his arms, holding me tight. I cling to him, swallowing down the acid taste of bile.
After a few minutes, when I’ve calmed down a bit, Aidan says softly, “I don’t mind if you’re not ready to talk about certain things. You can just say that, and I’ll accept it. I won’t push. But don’t lie to me again, okay?”
I whisper, “I’m sorry.”
His voice turns firm. “Say you won’t lie to me again, Kayla.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Nuzzling my cheek, he murmurs, “Good. Because you don’t have to. You never have to hide from me.”
My voice cracks when I say, “I don’t understand how you’re so amazing.”
He kisses my neck, my ear, my cheek, soft butterfly kisses filled with tenderness.
“I’m only amazing when I’m with you. The rest of the time, I’m nobody.”
I burrow closer to him, needing his solidity, loving how safe I feel in his warm embrace. He makes a sound of pleasure low in his throat and inhales into my hair. Then he’s kissing my neck again, only this time, his mouth is more demanding.
“I love the way you taste, bunny,” he says gruffly. “Love the way your skin tastes. Love your smell, too. And how you lose control when I make you come. And how you look at me. The way you look at me makes me feel like a goddamn king.”
He sinks a hand into my hair and pulls my head back, exposing my throat. Holding me firmly against his body, he licks and kisses a path from my earlobe to my collarbone, pressing his teeth into my skin every few inches as if he wants to take a bite of me and gobble me up.
When I exhale a small moan, he squeezes my ass and flexes his pelvis against mine, pressing his erection against my hipbone.
My response is instant.
My nipples harden. My heart pounds. My skin heats, and my pussy tingles. I’ve never met a man I had a physical reaction to like this, so effortlessly and instantly. Not even my husband.
With my eyes closed and my face turned to the sky as he kisses my throat, I say, “Such a hungry lion. I hope you can run on an empty stomach.”
Smiling, I push him away and gaze at him coyly, fluttering my lashes.
Then I turn and bolt toward the pine trees.
Laughing, he calls out behind me, “You have ten seconds before I come for you, little rabbit!” Then he starts counting aloud.
A thrill in my blood, I tear across the grass and past the house, pumping my arms and legs as fast as they’ll take me. Once I’ve hit the stand of pines, I hide behind a massive trunk and risk a quick peek around it.
Aidan advances toward me in an easy lope, grinning darkly.
I scream and start running again.
Beyond the stand of tall pines is a small meadow surrounded by a thickly wooded area. Realizing the property must be several acres in size, I run toward the woods with my heart in my throat, not daring to look behind me. Breathing hard, my thighs burning, I break through the tree line at a flat-out sprint.
Underfoot, the ground is soft and uneven, covered in a moist blanket of grass and leaves. Before I’ve gone twenty feet in, I catch my toe on a half-buried tree root and go flying.
I land on my stomach. My breath is knocked from my lungs. I lie stunned and panting for a moment, then try to scramble to my feet.
I’m too late. My lion has already pounced.
Growling, he grabs me around the waist. We tumble to the damp earth. I put up a fight, struggling to get free as he laughs breathlessly and wrestles me. Then I’m on my back and he’s on top of me, biting my neck as he pins my wrists to the ground.
He laughs in exultation as I squirm beneath him.
“Bad bunny.”
“Let me go!”
“You have leaves in your hair, bunny. Where else might you have leaves, I wonder?”
He flips me onto my stomach and yanks his leather jacket off me, throwing it aside.
“Hmm. Not here. Maybe under your shirt.”
As I struggle and holler in protest, he strips my shirt from my body and sends it flying. Then he’s growling into my skin as he rubs his beard on my shoulders.
“My naughty little rabbit needs to get fucked in the woods, doesn’t she?”
“No!” Yes. “Get off me!”
He slides a hand under my torso and roughly squeezes my breast. Into my ear, he says hotly, “I’m gonna fuck you so hard, bunny. You’re gonna take your master’s cock on your hands and knees, totally naked, in the middle of the woods.”
I nearly faint with desire and give in right then. But as this game is all about the chase, it wouldn’t be much fun if I let him win so easily.
“I won’t!”
Struggling wildly, I somehow manage to knock him off. I’m up and running in a heartbeat, my hair flying out behind me, my bared breasts bouncing. Cool air mists my heated skin.
He catches me as I’m skidding around the gnarled trunk of a pin oak. Yanking me into his arms, he kisses me ravenously. Off-balance, I stagger, my heart racing as I try to push him away.
He’s so strong, though. He’s just so damn strong.
He yanks down the zipper of my jeans, turns me around, and pulls them down my hips. I try to get away, but he has such a tight hold on me, I’m helpless. When he slaps my bare ass, I yelp, jumping.
Then he pushes me against the trunk of the tree and holds me there with one hand gripped around the back of my neck as he continues to spank me.
Whimpering, I claw at the trunk. Rough bark scrapes my breasts and stomach. My ass jiggles with every strike of his hand, flooding my pussy with shockwaves of pleasure.
The spanking stops abruptly when Aidan thrusts his hand between my legs.
His mouth pressed to my ear, he says, “Ooh, soaking wet. You need me to fuck this pretty wet cunt nice and hard, don’t you, bunny?”
I sob.
“Yes, you do. I know you do. And you know how much I want to.”
He shoves two fingers inside me and finger fucks me from behind as I squeal and struggle.
“Ah, God, baby, you’re fucking perfection. My dick is so hard for you. I need to come deep inside this perfect pussy while you scream my name.”
He pulls his fingers out of me and slides them all around, spreading my wetness. He tweaks my engorged clit, making me yelp, then spins me around and pushes me back against the tree trunk.
He thrusts his slick fingers into my mouth.
“Taste yourself, bunny. Lick all that sweet honey off.”
He bends down to suck on my rigid nipple as I obey his command, my eyes rolling back in my head.
He pulls my jeans roughly down my thighs. Without taking them all the way off, he throws me over his shoulder and starts walking, his arm wound around my waist, one hand spread over the back of my thigh, his fingers digging possessively into my flesh.
I kick and struggle, but my jeans restrict the movement of my legs. He’s hobbled me.
When I shout in frustration, Aidan laughs and slaps me on the ass.
“Here,” he says, stopping. “This looks like a good place for my bunny to take her master’s dick.”
He drops me on my feet onto a soft patch of earth, then pushes me down until I’m on my back. Straddling my hips, he grabs my forearms. I swing wildly at him, struggling for release.
“No, bunny,” he breathes, eyes wild with need. “Stop fighting me now. Time to get fucked.”
“Argh!”
I refuse to stop. Obviously enjoying himself, Aidan allows me to wrestle him for a few moments before he yanks off my shoes and pulls my jeans from my ankles. When I’m completely naked, he flips me onto my stomach and drags me up to my knees.
The ripe, damp smell of the earth fills my nostrils. A cool breeze washes over me, forming goose bumps all over my bare skin. Far overhead, birds sing and leaves whisper in the boughs of the trees.
Seeing me nude and helpless with bits of forest floor clinging to my breasts, belly, back, and bottom excites Aidan so much, he’s panting.
“Look at you all covered in dirt. My sweet, filthy girl.”
He spanks me several times, forcing me to balance on my elbows so I don’t topple over sideways. Then he fondles my exposed pussy, pinching and stroking it as my stinging ass throbs with heat.
He groans. “You’re so wet, baby. God, you’re so fucking wet, it’s all over your thighs. My pretty little slut is so ready for me.”
His voice is gruff and exultant, filled with lust and triumph. He sounds as if he’s hanging on the last thread of restraint, and as soon as he lets go of it, an animal he normally keeps tightly bound will be unleashed.
I’m about to be devoured, and we both know it.
Head hanging down and eyes closed, I moan.
Through gritted teeth, Aidan orders, “Beg me to fuck you now, Kayla.”
I whisper, “Please, master. Please fuck me.”
I hear the sound of a zipper being torn open, then the crown of Aidan’s hard cock nudges my entrance. He grabs me by my waist and shoves his erection deep inside me. When I cry out in pleasure, he starts to thrust his hips, driving into me over and over again.
“Aidan! Aidan!”
“Tell me you’re mine.”
“Yes! I’m yours!”
“Tell me you love my cock.”
“I love it!”
My cries echo off the trees. He reaches under me and palms one of my swinging breasts, squeezing it roughly, then pulling on the nipple. It feels so good, I moan again.
“Dirty little bunny,” he growls hotly. “You can’t get enough of your master’s hard cock. You want my cum, too, don’t you, dirty girl? You need your master to fill you up until you’re dripping with it.”
My arms give out. I fall forward. My cheek scrapes the damp ground as Aidan fucks me from behind, fully clothed and in control of every part of me.
His laugh is dark and pleased. “Yes, good girl, you take it like a sweet little cum slut should. Look at that plump pink pussy, stuffed with her master’s fat cock. I’m stretching your pussy wide open, aren’t I, bunny?”
When I moan again, shuddering and sweating and very close to orgasm, Aidan chuckles.
“Maybe my dirty bunny needs her other hot little holes filled, too.”
He shoves his thumb into my ass.
When I cry out, he leans over and thrusts his other thumb into my open mouth.
Then he continues to fuck me, bent over and riding me hard from behind as I suck desperately on his thumb and jerk my hips back to meet every one of his thrusts.
“Time to take your master’s cum,” he pants, his tone urgent. “But I want those eyes on me.”
He withdraws and throws me onto my back.
Panting, my heart racing, I stare up at him as he looms over me, his engorged cock jutting from his jeans, his chest heaving, his dark eyes burning like fire. Spreading my thighs, he falls on top of me. He fists his dick in his hand and finds my wet center, then forces it inside me with a grunt.
When I moan and grab on to his jacket, he grasps my wrists and pins my arms to the ground.
He starts to fuck me again, hovering over me as he holds me to the earth and stares into my eyes.
I beg brokenly, “Please. Please, master. Please may I come?”
His eyelids flutter. He whispers my name.
But he doesn’t give me permission to let go.
My pussy and clit throb with every thrust of his hips. My back arches from the ground. My nipples ache so badly, it’s painful. My lids slide shut, and I whimper.
Aidan releases my wrists and grips my head in his hands. “Look at me,” he orders.
I stare up into his burning eyes as a white-hot coil of pleasure winds tighter and tighter in my core and my thighs start to shake uncontrollably.
“You ready, baby?” he whispers, the motion of his hips growing frantic.
Unable to speak, I merely nod.
“Eyes on me when you come. Don’t look away. I want you to give it to me looking right into my eyes.” After another few thrusts, he snarls, “Now.”
I suck in a breath and grind wildly against him. My climax hits hard, and I moan but don’t look away. I stare wide-eyed up at him as my pussy contracts over and over around the huge, invading length of his cock, buried deep inside me.
“Oh, fuck, Kayla,” he breathes. “Jesus fucking Christ, here I come.”
His entire body jerks. Deep inside, I feel his dick throb. Then he’s moaning and thrusting shallowly as he spills himself into me, staring straight into my eyes.
The intimacy is so intense and overpowering, I lose my breath. My chest feels as if it’s being crushed by an invisible force.
He feels it, too. I can tell because his eyes fill with anguish.
He says my name on a strangled breath, then gives me a desperate, devouring kiss.
All the way through it, we both keep our eyes open.
