Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 13933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 46(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 13933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 46(@300wpm)
Our bodies come together over and over again, falling into a pace that matches the rush of the river behind us, and I gaze into her eyes, drinking in the slow rise of pleasure as it builds inside of her. I can tell when she is getting close, the way her body starts to tense as her breath comes harder and faster than before.
"I want to feel you finish," I tell her, my voice more a command against her ear than a statement. She lets out another soft moan, her hips rolling back against me over and over again, her eyes blurry as she tries to find her focus on me, and then-
And then, I feel it, her sudden submission, as her body explodes into a wave of pleasure beneath me. She cries out, the sound guttural and all-consuming, almost animalistic. To know that I can draw such a sound out of someone so sweet and so feminine is impossibly erotic to me.
And as I push one last time to the hilt inside of her, I reach my own release, spilling my seed deep within her, marking her as entirely and completely mine.
I hold her there for a few more moments, my arms wrapped so tight around her I am not sure the two of us will ever be able to pull ourselves apart. But I don’t want us to. I don’t want to let her slip through my fingers, not ever again. God only knows that I have lost so much over the course of my life, and she will not be another to add to the long list.
I kiss her again, and, though neither of us say it, I know we can both feel it. The love. The love that fills the air like the sound of birdsong in Spring, a sign of something new, of something starting over. Her eyes glisten as she looks at me, trailing her finger along my cheek, like she is seeing me for the very first time.
And then, I realize that she is trembling, and it strikes me that we are out here in the cold with nothing to keep her warm, right after I pulled her from the river. I wrap my arms around her and scoop her against my chest, as she makes to grab the dress splayed on the ground below her.
"You need to warm up," I tell her. "Promise me you’ll never pull anything like that again, you hear me?”
"I promise," she whispers, as she nestles into my chest. And, as I start on the way back to the cabin, I know that she is telling the truth. Something has changed between us. Something we can’t take back.
And something I never want to lose, not as long as I love.
CHAPTER 9
June
Imake my way outside, clutching a cup of warm coffee in one hand as I wander from our tiny kitchen to where Elias is hard at work outside. The sunshine pours through the trees, dappling golden color on the ground below, green shoots starting to poke up from the ground, a reminder of the new life that is coming with the season ahead.
"How are you getting on?" I call out to him, as I round the cabin to see him hunched over something I can’t quite make out from here. He’s been up early every day this week, working on something he’s said is for me. I’ve tried to coax it out of him, just what he has in mind, but he has ducked the question at every turn, and I know better than to push for an answer before he is ready.
"You going to keep your nose out of this?” he teases as he straightens up – but then, he shrugs.
"Well, I’m just about finished anyway," he concedes, as he reaches for what he has been abandoning me in bed for every morning for the last few days. "Here – what do you think?”
He steps aside – and when I see what is waiting for me on the makeshift worktable he threw together out of a few plants and a couple of well-placed tree stumps, my eyebrows nearly vanish into my hairline.
"Is this...?” I murmur, as I make my way towards it. He nods.
"You said you needed a brush," he remarks. "So I spoke with Mrs. Yumi down in town about what else a girl would need to keep herself lookin’ pretty out here in the woods, and she gave me some pointers. You think this’ll do...?"
I press my lips together as a beaming smile threatens to overwhelm me. I nod.
"Oh, I think this’ll do," I murmur. He’s carved a collection of beauty tools for me – a hairbrush, some pins, a comb. They’re all a little uneven, but I can see the love he’s poured into each and every one, and it’s enough to make my heart feel as though it’s going to burst.