I’d spent over an hour reading everything the Internet had to say about Luke Dawson. War hero, land owner, and according to a long-abandoned Facebook account, a totally normal guy before he joined the service. Tears stung my eyes when I’d clicked through photos of a far less rugged and much younger Luke, hanging with his friends from school, standing beside his parents after graduation, and taking selfies with his fellow sailors. Then nothing.

Just the land titles for the very property I was sitting on, an impressive acreage that would make anyone else wonder why he chose to live on the small patch of land where his one-room cabin sat. The stories of his service resolve more with the man I know—the intense, hardened man who’d worked his way into my heart in only a few short days. He’d been honorably discharged after receiving the Navy’s Silver Cross for acts of extraordinary heroism during his time served. The details were vague and likely classified, and Luke’s quoted remarks were brief and hardly quotable, like he didn’t want to own any part of it.

A part of me wished I hadn’t gone snooping. Hating him had been much easier when I knew less. Now I sit on my bed, stunned by the truth and suddenly full of doubts. The sun drifts behind the mountain, and the sky through my sheer curtains slowly fades into night. All I can think about is wanting to give Luke Dawson the benefit of the doubt. I know he’s been through more than I could ever imagine. Maybe he’s socially awkward and hell-bent on isolation for reasons that seem strange to the rest of the world. But maybe they make perfect sense to someone who’s been through his kind of hell.

Isn’t that why I was out here, after all? To escape my life, my past…my own personal hell? I squeeze my eyes closed, but it doesn’t relieve me of the image of Jeremy and his new fiancée. I thought a month away would do me good. I realize now no amount of time will take this hurt away. I can run, but I’ll have to go back home eventually, and as long as Jeremy is there, I’ll have to face what he did to me.

Damn it. Maybe Luke has it right. Maybe I just have to find my own mountain. Except mine won’t have a beautiful stranger on it to make me feel safe and special and…

I sigh and let my head fall back into the pillow. Missing him more than I should, I glance out the window again, and for a split second I swear I recognize the outline of his body. My heart does a little flip and then the reality that our fling is undeniably over sinks in.

I’m ready to drive into town and find a bottle of wine with my name on it when I hear a knock on the door. I rise and walk barefoot across the carpeted floor to answer it. I open it, blink rapidly, and swallow over the knot of emotion that’s suddenly clogging my throat. Goddamn, Luke looks better than ever somehow. Had I missed him so much?

Before I can say anything, he’s got his hands on either side of the door frame and a look on his face that I’ve never seen before. Hard and determined.

“I’m sorry,” he says gruffly, a frown marring his brow.

“You’re sorry?”

“Yeah.” He stares down at the ground and then back up at me. “I shouldn’t have let you leave.”

I swallow again, but my nerves have taken over. What is he saying?

“You basically kicked me out the door.”

“It was a mistake. I told you I was sorry.”

His frown deepens, and I resist the urge to smack him.

“Do you really think you can just come here and—”

I can’t finish, because his hands are cupping my face and his lips are sealed over mine. His taste floods my mouth. His earthy scent permeates the air between us, revving me up and calming me at once. I take two fistfuls of his shirt and he pulls me closer. My thoughts scatter and my flash of anger fades, morphing into something else—passion that I’d been missing since I left his cabin.

He kisses me fiercely, breaking contact only long enough to whisper that he’s sorry a couple more times. Every time he says it, my heart breaks… Or is that my heart healing in the places where it’d been torn?

All I know is that I’m glad he’s here. Together we move into the room, and he kicks the door shut behind him. He’s everywhere, like a warm blanket that enveloped me the second he walked in. My brain can hardly catch up with being in his presence again so suddenly.

“Luke,” I gasp his name, trying to slow down the rush of emotion overtaking me.

He doesn’t answer. He only tugs off my shirt and then his, so our skin touches. I exhale a shuddery sigh at the pure relief of the direct contact, my breasts pressed tightly against his hard chest. I belong here…with him. I can’t possibly overthink it, because it’s my heart talking, loud and clear. All my instincts seem to be chemically wired to my attraction to this man.

I trail my shaky touch down his chest until I can unfasten his jeans. His abdominal muscles tighten and jump against my fingers. I’m about to free his cock when he spins me and bends me over the bed. He yanks my jeans and panties to my knees, and a low moan leaves my lips.

I curl my fists into the bedspread and brace myself to take him into me when he molds his body against the back of mine. He kisses my shoulder and licks along the line of my neck, eliciting a whole body shiver. I bite my lip to keep another moan at bay.

“So beautiful,” he whispers.

He grasps my breast and lines his cock up, pressing into me inch by inch. He slides in easily, with no resistance. I got wet the second I opened the door and heard his voice again, and now I’m wild to feel all of him.

He roots deeply and I cry out, tightening my grip on the bedspread.

“Do you forgive me, Madison?”

Oh, what a bastard he is. Not fair. Not fair at all. He thrusts, and I almost forget the question.

“Maddy, sweetheart. Talk to me.”

“Yes.”

He hooks his arm around my hips and thrusts again, harder this time. I can feel my orgasm building already.

“Say it, sweetheart.”

“I forgive you,” I whimper. “Now please, fuck me. I need you. Please…”

He says nothing, and I pray we’re done with words. I’d nearly forgiven him before he knocked on the door. I’d drop to my knees and beg for anything now.

I expect him to launch into fierce drives, but even in this position, which has always made me feel exposed and vulnerable, I feel like he’s loving me, carefully, deliberately. He gives me what I nearly begged for, all the while caressing me. Up my back and between my shoulder blades. Down over my hips, and to my front where he toys with my clit. I could never confuse Luke’s touch with anyone else’s. Never in a million years. His tenderness is unmatched, and the rough trail he draws over my skin adds a different kind of awareness to every touch.

For all his tenderness and slow strokes, I’m riding the edge of an orgasm before I can talk myself out of it. The way he grips me and speeds up his ministrations tells me he’s there too. A little time apart, and the fuse is too short. I cry loudly into the bedspread, hoping the walls aren’t too thin. He follows me down, moaning my name into the air with one final punch of his hips.

I gulp in several breaths. Jesus, if the whole retreat didn’t already think we were fucking, I may have just removed all doubt. I’m pretty sure we were loud, but as I slip out of Madison’s beautifully wet cunt, I could not care less. I’m buzzing from coming so hard, and her acceptance of my dozen or so apologies is icing on the cake. In this particular second, everything is right in the world.

She turns, resting her bottom on the edge of the bed as she toes out of her pants the rest of the way. I shake my head, because I can’t seem to get over how beautiful she is. If she wasn’t dripping with my release, I’d spread her out and suck her to a few more orgasms, because worshipping her body is fast becoming my favorite thing, ever. My cock twitches with the mere thought.

“Come on.” She rises and takes my hand before leading us to an adjoining bathroom.

She turns the shower on. I’d reviewed the blueprints for the retreat years ago, but I’ve never been in one of the rooms. Everything feels odd about this, except that I’m with Madison, and that pretty much always feels right.

She turns and runs her palms up my forearms, gazing up at me. “Everything okay?”

I nod quickly. “Yeah. I just… I’m not used to this.”

I gesture through the room. She lifts an eyebrow.

“Like, running water? Electricity?”

I shrug. “Maybe.”

She smiles and steps into the shower. I follow her and the water pours down on us. It’s hot like the springs and that makes me smile a little. She folds her arms around me, and we stand that way for a while, in comfortable silence. The fluorescent lighting of the bathroom is vaguely irritating, and I’m missing the security of the life I know, but somehow all of that falls into the background when she’s in my arms.

“It isn’t that bad, is it?”

“No.” I press a kiss to the top of her head. I’d endure more to stay this close to her.

She takes the soap and works up a lather, running it over my body. I interrupt her periodically to kiss her. She bites my lower lip enough to sting and pull me back. She thinks she’s distracting me from kissing her, but she’s just winding me up again. A few more minutes of this, and I’m pressing her against the wall of the shower.

I need her. Again. It’s impossible, and yet she’s proven that anything is possible with her. I don’t recognize myself or my irrational physical responses. I’m ready to shove my cock into her again until she screams. Then she grasps my arms again.

“Wait.”

I freeze. Concern stops my single-minded agenda in its tracks. But her eyes are soft and glimmering with a touch of mischief.

“You’ve already had me once,” she says lightly.

“I want you more than once. I want to lose count. I have no idea when it’ll ever be enough, Madison.” I guide my hand between her thighs and stroke between her folds, barely grazing her clit.

“I feel the same way. But I can’t get lost between the sheets with you again this fast. We should talk. We should go out.”

My muscles tighten. “Out?”

As if sensing my impending anxiety, she slides her body against mine and presses a wet kiss to my neck, lathing her tongue over the same place. I slip two fingers into her pussy in reply. She moans, but a small smile curls her lips.

“Come on, Luke. Let’s venture out. Just an hour. You and me. I want to discover a little bit of this place with you.”

I reach deeper, hoping I can coax out an orgasm before she can take me on this plan that has me freaking out already.

“You can make me come again, but I’ll ask you the same thing afterwards.”

I exhale and rest my head against the shower wall beside her. She is such a pain in the ass. And I should be freaking out a little more than I am. What the hell.

---

My first mistake was letting her drive. I haven’t needed to in so long, I figured why add to the discomforts of the day. But Madison has no idea where she’s going, and as a result is driving like a nut. Too fast, too slow, and then over the curb that leads to downtown Avalon.

Main Street is dead. A few flashing signs and a collection of cars that sit outside Mo’s Hole in the Wall.

“This place looks good,” she says with far too much enthusiasm.

I cringe and briefly consider taking the wheel. “I’m not going to a bar with you.”

She ignores me, parks, and then turns toward me. “Listen, you put me on this crazy roller coaster. You owe me this.”

I flinch back. “You started this ‘roller coaster’ actually. Barging into my cabin uninvited, remember?”

“Well you kept me there, and then you seduced me. Repeatedly.”

I throw my hands up. “What was I supposed to do?”

“And then you kicked me out, after getting me completely addicted to…basically everything about you. You pushed me out of my comfort zone.”

I press my lips together and stare at her a second too long. “And let me guess. You’re pushing me out of mine.”

“Yes,” she replies without hesitation.

She smiles, and I hate that I know I’m going to give in no matter what. I hope she knows how this goes against everything I want.

“Walking down the mountain was out of my comfort zone, Maddy. I don’t like coming into town. It’s not something you’ll probably ever understand.”

Her smile fades and she reaches across the center console to touch my arm. “I’m with you.”

“I don’t need protection.”

She leans over and brushes her lips across mine. “Not with me, you don’t. I like how it feels when you come in me.”

She strokes her tongue into my mouth, and all my thoughts turn to sex. Little fucking minx is pressing all my buttons to get what she wants. Fine. I’ll go to this goddamn dive bar, and then I am going back to the retreat and fucking her six ways from Sunday. I’ll have earned it.

“Let’s go, before I bend you over the car.”

She giggles and is out of the car before I can even think about getting my hard-on under control. I take a few deep breaths and reach for the door handle. I pause a second and watch her wait for me on the sidewalk. She bounces in place. Something about her giddiness warms my heart and works against all the instincts that are shouting at me to run back up the mountain.