My hands pulled the sheets tightly to my body as I tried to keep up with him. Behind me, thrusting, fucking, holding me in a way I never thought possible by a man. His hands were so fucking huge, so fucking strong, moving everywhere on me, commanding me, taking me places I could have only dreamed of.

I was barely done coming down from the first orgasm when Osiris had me there again.

I felt every inch of his wild body inside me. Reaching depths nobody dared to touch before, a thickness that made my legs shiver with a greedy need. And each time he thrusted forward, he growled. He grunted. That deep voice echoing in the room as he had me.

I was breathless, and when I did find a second for air, it was a second when I would groan, call out his name, or just make any noise that I was capable of.

One of his big hands slid up my back and touched my shoulder. He pulled at me as he thrusted harder. I turned my head and bit at his hand.

His other hand came around my body and cupped my left breast.

Osiris pulled at me, wanting me to move up. He released his hold on my shoulder and joined his other hand as he cupped my other breast. He brought me up so that my back rested against his hard chest. And he was still so deep inside me. I looked down at his hands, completely covering my chest.

I put my head back in defeat, my mouth opening, needing air.

The scruff on his face touched my cheek and my neck. I tilted my head, offering my neck to him. He kissed me, working to my shoulder, and then back to my neck. I turned my head and we started to kiss. A wild, raging kiss. An angry kiss.

He started to fuck me again, not losing a second of his speed.

His right hand inched down and held me at my stomach.

He kept me right there in that position, pumping harder and faster by the second.

I groaned into his mouth and he kissed me harder.

As he sped up, I readied myself for him but there was no being ready.

I reached back with both hands and felt his sides. There was muscle everywhere on him. Muscles in places I didn’t know they could exist on a man. I felt those muscles flexing as he worked hard.

He quickly brought his left foot up to the bed and thrusted so hard into me I cried out in a hoarse voice and lost my breath. He started to release, holding there, grunting each time he pulsed. I had the split second chance to command the kiss. I never kissed a man like I did with Osiris. He unleashed something inside me… like I was a beast or something. Or that I was able to just fucking forget everything and let myself feel something real.

Something that was maybe far too real.

* * *

I stood on the porch of the cabin and watched as Osiris grabbed my keys off the ground and shut the driver’s side door. I stood there, wrapped up tightly in a blanket, wearing nothing but bra and panties. My bag was on the passenger seat, with my phone, some clothes, and whatever else I managed to grab when I decided to follow Osiris.

When his phone had gone off, I didn't mean to look. The screen lit up and message after message came through. I glanced and saw names and my curiosity was piqued. He was such a mystery and I wanted to know why. But it wasn’t my business.

Go figure I’d realize that after he took me to his bedroom and showed me what a real man was capable of with his hands and body.

Osiris walked around to the passenger side of my car and got my bag.

He walked to the porch and held his arm out. “Figure you’re going to want to spend the night, sugar.”

“Maybe I got what I came for,” I teased.

God, when was the last time I actually flirted with a guy and enjoyed it?

Osiris walked to the top of the porch, standing tall over me. He glanced to his right and grinned. “No, sugar, you didn’t get what you came for. We’re just getting started.”

He left me shivering as he went back inside.

He came back out, holding a beer in each hand. “Drink?”

“Yes, please,” I said.

“Go ahead and drop that blanket off you first,” he said.

Was he flirting back at me?

“You don’t think I will?” I asked.

Osiris smiled. An actual full smile. And fuck, if he wasn’t cute. Dare that word to go through my mind. The mountain man was sexy, beastly, but when he smiled, he was something else.

He twisted off the cap to his beer and sat down in a chair on the porch. He put his feet up and started to drink.

I did the same, minus putting my feet up.

I kept the blanket around me and sipped the cold beer.

“You should get in touch with your friend,” Osiris said. “Patch things up.”

“Who? Kim? I’ll text her later.”

“Make sure you do it. Don’t ruin that friendship over something stupid.”

“Thanks for worrying.”

Osiris looked at me. “I don’t worry. I just care.”

I felt myself blush.

“Can I ask you something, Syi? No getting mad?”

“That’s a serious thing to ask,” Osiris said. “Considering you’re half-naked. At least you have your keys.” He raised an eyebrow. “Still want to ask me something?”

“I do,” I said. “You can ask me anything, Syi.”

“That doesn’t mean I’ll do the same for you.”

“Right. Sorry. You’re so different than I am.”

Osiris let out a growl. “Ask.”

“When I slept here the second time… you were upstairs. At the desk. You were looking at a map.”

Osiris quickly stood up. He looked forward and shook his head. I saw his nostrils flaring.

“Just wondering,” I said. “Were you looking for more land or something?”

“There’s land everywhere, sugar,” he said.

“You know what I mean. Wasn’t sure if it was for your work or something.”

“Let’s pretend it was,” he said. He turned and walked into the cabin.

I rolled my eyes.

My body was still reeling from what he had done to me. And there I was, trying to get closer to a man who preferred to avoid society by living in a cabin on top of a mountain.

My choice in picking men was seriously fucked up. From Thad to this. And this - Osiris - it wasn’t even a thing. And with Thad, it was a long lie. A long year or more of lying.

I sat there and took a deep breath. The woods were calm and peaceful. I could get used to it. Osiris appeared in the doorway with a map in his hand. With the flick of his wrist, he threw the map at me.

“There. Secret’s out.”

“What secret?” I asked.

“You caught me looking at a fucking map. So go ahead and piece it all together now.”

I held the map out, shaking my head. “No. I told you I wasn’t going to do that. That’s not who I am, Syi. I’m sure you get that enough. I’m sure there are lots of people who try to bother you. For whatever reason.”

Osiris slowly nodded. “Yeah. Bother me.” He took the map back and tucked it into his back pocket. “You might want to put on more clothes.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re going for a walk.”

* * *

The temptation to hold his hand was overwhelming. We were side by side, on something that looked like a path, but if I were alone, I’d be long lost. Osiris navigated the woods like it was nothing.

“Where are we going?” I asked him.

“Somewhere you know,” he said.

He said nothing else.

Not until we stopped walking. He pointed and I saw a stone bench.

It was the stone bench where I had curled up to get some sleep when I was drunk and lost in the woods. Right behind the stone bench was a giant weeping willow tree. It seemed sort of weird to see that kind of tree in the mix of all the others.

“This leads right out to the main road,” Osiris said. “It was the only way to find the cabin. I made my own road from the other side. Easier for me to get to my job.”

“Did you put this bench up here?” I asked.

“No. It was there when I bought the place. No idea how it got here.” He walked to the bench and leaned over enough to put his fingertips to it. “But this bench took everything from me, Lara.”

I stiffened, my hands at my sides. I was like a tree, realizing that Osiris was about to open a little to me. I swallowed hard as he looked back at me.

The look was so fierce. This monster of a sexy man in such pain.

“She loved quirky stuff like this,” he said. “It was her thing. The second I saw this, I bought the cabin. Honestly. I saw the bench with the tree behind it. I took a picture and sent it to her. When I got to the cabin, the realtor was already there. I bought the cabin. For her. To save us.”

I dared myself to take a step.

Osiris put a hand out to stop me.

“I get messages and emails every single day, Lara. You can’t imagine what I ignore on a daily basis to try and pretend I’m someone else.”

“Who are you then, Syi?”

He grabbed for his flannel sleeves and rolled them up to his elbows. He made fists and held his arms out. He flexed. He arms were fucking huge.

“The ink was my old life,” he said. “I owned a welding business. I always liked working with my hands. Kept me out of trouble when all I wanted was to find trouble. Getting into trouble was how I got attention in life. I was pretty close to doing something really stupid and being put away when she crashed into my life. In the beat of a heart I was straight as an arrow. I opened my own shop which turned into two. I did everything. I had people bringing me stuff for cars, motorcycles, decorative shit for their houses or man caves. It was wild. It had this vibe to it… the sound, the sparks, heavy metal music blasting through the speakers at the shop. I drove the most expensive car I could buy. I had two motorcycles that spit out flames through a custom exhaust I built myself. But all I did was work. I was the fucking rockstar, Lara.” Osiris looked at me. “And she was going to leave me because of it. Not that I could blame her. I touched my phone more than I touched her. I held my phone more than I held her. I looked at my phone more than I looked at her. It was a fucking joke, Lara. I was a fucking joke.”

Osiris stopped talking.

“I was the same way,” I said softly. “I mean, my life. Work. Phones. Thinking too far in advance of things.”

“No, Lara, this was different,” Osiris said. “I lost sight of everything. Simple as that. We were having problems. She was feeling it. I was feeling it. Yet I couldn’t put it down. I sat there scrolling on my phone to find this goddamn cabin thinking it was going to fix everything. But it only made things worse.”

Osiris lowered his head.

I walked toward him.

I reached for his hand and grabbed it with both of mine.

“It’s…”

Do not say okay. Do not say it’s fucking okay. Because it’s not.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out,” I whispered. “Your heart was in the right place. I’m sorry she left you.”

Osiris looked down at me with a snarling expression.

“No, sugar, you don’t get it,” he said. “She didn’t leave me the way Thad left you.”

I swallowed hard, my body shivering from him saying Thad’s name.

“Well, what happened?” I asked.

“She came up here to take a picture and went missing.”