“You promise me that neither of you will be in any danger?” she asked. Her eyes were dark velvet, her mouth slightly swollen…

For a split second, I hesitated. “We’ll both come home starved, dirty, exhausted,” I answered, smiling down at her. “I can promise you all that and more.” I kissed her, sensing the delicious energy that was stirring in her again. “Neither Randy nor I will ever want to pick up an axe again, and we’ll probably sleep for days straight… but we’ll both come home safe and sound.”

She looked away. “Every day that we’ve been apart, I thought nothing could hurt any worse than that,” she said. “But I was wrong. How can I watch you leave again now? I can’t live through another goodbye…”

“Neither can I, babygirl,” I shot back, crushing her to me. “No fucking goodbyes. Not for us, not ever again.” I ran my hands over her, slipping her shirt down, baring her skin to me. “I won’t ever say that word again… and neither will you.” I curved my hands around her perfect, taut breasts and felt my cock stiffening.

“Nothing can ever pull us apart, Em. Years apart never did. We’re together as long as you love me. And god knows… I love you.”

And suddenly there wasn’t any more patience left in either one of us. I held her, drowning in her sweet softness. I ran my hands through her hair and roughly down her to her hips; the air crackled around us. “Christ, sweetheart… I wanted us to take our time…”

“We have time, Jason. We’ll have time,” she panted, lifting her hips as I raked her jeans down her thighs. “But right now I just need you inside me.” She unzipped my jeans and tore at the buttons on my shirt. “I can’t wait any longer… please, Jason… while I can still have you…”

I stripped her first, then removed the last of my own clothes. It was broad daylight and the light streamed in through the window, lighting her to a brilliant copper. Her skin was pale perfection. She was breathtaking.

“Promise me, Ember,” I said, wrapping my arms around her, feeling the heat of her skin burn deep down inside me.

“Promise what?”

“That you’ll be here when I come home, babygirl,” I said. “No more disappearing… no more living without you, without this.”

I covered her body with mine, spreading her sweet thighs with mine. I found her wet, hot center with a single thrust and drove myself in to the hilt. The moan that escaped her hit me like a flashfire; out of control and raging with a will of its own. I drove deep, over and over again, finding her mouth with mine and capturing it. Her nails raked my skin, leaving a burning path down my shoulders, down my back. She met me thrust for thrust, rolling her hips forward so I could penetrate her even deeper. Her breasts were swollen, her nipples hard against my chest. She was soaking the sheets underneath us, and it was all I could do to hold back the hot flood of my own.

I took the curve of her ass in my hands and drove in one last time, possessing every inch of space between us and held her there. I pushed further, stretching her beyond her limits and looked into her eyes, captured by the love and need I saw in them.

“Answer me, Ember,” I demanded, holding still, holding back what she needed most. “Tell me now…”

Her mouth was open… her lips full and dark. I could see the moist, pink flesh of her tongue and knew I was hopelessly lost…

“Yes…” she gasped out, digging in with her nails, her teeth. She raised her legs higher and I caught her knees and pressed them into her shoulders. Her pussy tightened like a vise around my shaft and I felt the first hot burst of seed swelling at its base, waiting to spill…

“I promise.”

It was late in the day, judging from the angle of the light. She stirred beside me and I stroked her hip, her flat little belly. She nestled herself in my arms, and tucked her ass warmly into me. I rested my head in the curve of her shoulder against her hair. It was the first time in hours I could touch her without lighting the flames of need all over again. For the moment at least, we were sated, spent.

“I remember the first night we ever spent in this bed,” I said, letting my lips touch her ear, “like it was yesterday.”

She turned on her back and smiled. “I was clumsy and so inexperienced, even at eighteen…” I watched a rose-colored blush rise up from her breasts to her cheeks.

“You were the loveliest thing I’d ever seen,” I admonished, leaning in to drop a kiss on her nose. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you again. When I left, you were just Randy’s kid sister. One long summer later, and you’d turned into the most beautiful woman in the entire world.”

I watched as she squirmed underneath me and looked away, suddenly shy. “I have a confession to make,” she said in a tone that made my whole body quicken. “Something I never told you…”

“Then tell me now,” I said smiling, enjoying this. I put one big warm hand on her belly and felt her suck in a breath.

“I… I…” her eyes flicked away, then back to mine. “I had such an enormous crush on you… Back when you barely knew I existed,” she breathed out in a rush. “I used to lay in this bed and dream you were here with me…”

“Well, it’s a goddamn good thing I never did know,” I answered, feeling a rush of embarrassment and excitement. “Wouldn’t have said much for my judgment if I’d ever realized…”

She laughed and pulled me close. “No… no. Much to my frustration, you were completely oblivious…”

“Until I came home and found a fully-grown woman waiting,” I said, stroking her flank, and the soft curve of her hip. “I wasn’t sure how your family would feel about us.”

“Even Mom, with all her doubts… she could see we belonged together,” she said. “And I don’t guess we left any doubts in my brother’s mind this morning…” She reddened all over again, deeper this time and laughed. “He and Rye have been gone for hours… I guess he didn’t want to risk a repeat performance of this morning.”

“Hmmm… I don’t think I’d mind one of those…” I said, letting my tongue find her nipple, my cock rising hot and hard along her thigh. So much for spent. “Three years have only made you even more beautiful, Em. Both inside and out.” I ran a finger down her cheek to the point of her chin.

“I know that I was your first, babygirl. And I treasure that gift more than I can even express to you.” I kissed her deeply, slowly, letting myself experience her completely. “I just need you to know that you were my last, Em. You’re so strong, so brave, so passionate in the way you live your life.” I looked into her dark glistening eyes. “There hasn’t been anyone else… I couldn’t even imagine it, after you…”

The wet brilliance of her eyes spilled onto her cheeks and soaked the pillow under her head. “Me too,” she whispered. “Me too.

“There’s never been anyone else for me, Jason. There never could be…”

I shifted my body over hers, shielding her from the fading daylight and the knowledge that I’d be leaving before the sun rose again. And if, at some point, the room ever grew cold on that long winter night,

We never knew.