"This isn't really about the article anymore, is it?"
It was the question I'd been avoiding all night. The truth I'd been dancing around since he'd taught me to build that fire.
"No," I said softly. "It's not."
His hand was still covering mine on the wood, but now his thumb was tracing small circles across my knuckles. Such a simple touch, but it sent heat shooting through my entire body.
"What is it about then?" he asked.
I turned in the circle of his arms, suddenly brave or foolish or both. "I don't know. I've never felt anything like this before."
"Like what?"
"Like I want to stop running. Like maybe staying in one place for more than a few days wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."
His other hand came up to cup my face, thumb brushing across my cheekbone. "Keely…”
"I know it's crazy. I know I don't know you, not really. But tonight, building that fire together, being here with you…it feels like the most real thing I've experienced in years."
"It's not crazy." His forehead touched mine, and I could feel his breath against my lips. "I've been thinking the same thing."
The air between us was charged, electric. Every nerve ending in my body was focused on the places where we were touching—his hand on my face, my palm still pressed against his chest, the whisper of space between our bodies.
"I should probably mention," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, "I don't usually do this."
"Do what?"
"Go home with men I just met. Let myself feel…whatever this is."
His smile was soft, understanding. "What's different about tonight?"
"You." The word came out more honest than I'd intended. "Everything about you."
He kissed me then, soft and careful, like I was something precious that might break. But when I kissed him back, when my hands fisted in his shirt and pulled him closer, careful went out the window.
This kiss was hungry, desperate, full of all the tension that had been building between us since that first moment by the fire. His hands tangled in my hair, and I made a sound I didn't recognize, something between a sigh and a moan.
When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, he rested his forehead against mine again. "Tell me to stop," he said roughly. "Tell me this is moving too fast, and I'll drive you back to town right now. No questions asked."
I looked into his eyes, saw the want there, the barely leashed control. Saw a man who would absolutely respect my boundaries, who would put my comfort above his own desire without hesitation.
It was that more than anything else that made my decision.
"Don't stop," I whispered. "Please don't stop."
4
SILAS
“Stop.”
I’d never hated a word more in my life than I hated that one word right now. It probably was because Keely uttered it between kisses after we'd both gotten naked and I stood between her parted legs, her glistening pussy just begging for my touch. My tongue. My cock.
I pulled back and stared at her, trying to summon the cooldown I needed. That would take a while.
”There's something I haven't told you,” she said.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It would have to be something pretty extreme for me to stop what I was doing right now. Anything but “I don't want to do this” was up for consideration.
