“I remember that game. It was probably my best ever, considering the conditions,” Aubrey says, chuckling. “I was so worried you’d hold me to that promise, that you’d not go out with me if we lost.”

I chuckle, nuzzling against him. My body’s sore, my ass bruised from the pounding he gave me, but this feels good, a tiny bit of tender with the rough. “I honestly thought you were just playing a game with me. I didn’t think someone like you would ever go for someone like me. I was waiting for the punch line for a while.”

Aubrey nods, stroking my shoulder in the darkness. “I know what you’re talking about. And I’ll be honest. I felt a lot of pressure back then to fill the role people thought I was supposed to fill. But I’ve always liked the idea of a sweet, wholesome girl. One you have to be a better man to deserve, who makes you think of porches and kids in the yard on a tire swing. The kind you can take home to Mom and not worry a bit. You were just . . . everything. You were—you are—perfect.”

I sit up, staring at him. Is he serious? I mean, if I was so perfect, why did he just up and leave without so much as a word? That just makes no sense.

He seems to read my mind. “I didn’t want to leave. I really didn’t. But after what happened, I was just lost. Completely lost,” he says mysteriously. “I thought I’d just bring you down and ruin your life. It was why I never came back.”

I frown, feeling like we’ve been dancing around this subject for too long already. It’s time to stop hiding from it and address it head on. There’s something in our past, and I need to know what that is, even if it’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch. I have a feeling Aubrey needs to tell this story too. I never considered that he was as deeply affected by the whole thing as I was, that whatever pulled him away might be just as painful for him as it was for me. In my head, he was the villain, the bad guy who lured me in, made me love him fully, and then disappeared with my heart. That there might be nuances beyond what my young self could fathom never entered my mind back then, and honestly, I just avoided all thoughts of Aubrey for years after that, forcing them away with a scoff of ugly regret and a wash of righteous anger. I give in to the curiosity, the need to know, recognizing that I’m rewriting my stated purpose for spending time with him this week but realizing it was inevitable and we both knew it. “Aubrey, what happened? To you, to us?”

He scratches at his jaw, and I see pain flash in his eyes. For a big brute like him, I know whatever it is has to really hurt him. He takes a deep breath and sits up, adjusting his clothes a little before letting out a long, trembling sigh.

“Well—”

Before he can say anything more, the heavens erupt with a crack of lightning that arcs down, the veins of electricity bright and white across the dark sky. Rain immediately follows in a quick deluge, and I’m struck by the overwhelming sense of irony that I’d just shared a memory of being soaked to the bone and here we are again, getting wet. “Ah, shit!”

“In the cabin!” Aubrey says as the rain gets heavier second by second. “These storms can get nasty quick!”

Aubrey gets up, using his walking stick but leaning on me too as we make our way back to the cabin as quickly as possible. As we get closer, Rex runs out to greet us, barking and circling around us, urging us to move faster. “I know, Rex. We’re doing the best we can!” I tell the dog, realizing that I’m talking to the dog like Aubrey does and not feeling the least bit crazy for doing so because what he’s saying is so obvious.

The walk is hell. Aubrey’s prediction of the storm getting bad quickly proves true as lightning stabs the sky in strobe light flashes that dazzle my eyes, and rain quickly turns the grass into a wet, slippery mat dotted with tripwires of bushes and rocks. Aubrey stumbles more than once, and I grab him around the waist as his leg gives out. “Oh, no, you don’t! I’m not treating a broken arm too!”

Aubrey gasps and laughs as we keep moving. “I’m sure if I fall, you’ll catch me.”

Nice to know he can still joke with the pain I know he’s feeling as we haul ass back to the cabin. “More like I’ll pad your fall and you’ll squish me,” I manage.

He grunts on each of the four steps to the cabin, and thankfully, the rain and lightning have chased away our skunk ‘friend’.

Opening the door, Aubrey’s limping badly, and we freeze once we’re inside, safe and a little warmer once the cool rain isn’t pelting us. I’m soaked, my nipples stiff and easily showing as my shirt’s clinging to my body. “Shit,” I mutter as I close the door and look down, “I forgot my jacket.”

“That’s okay,” Aubrey says, wincing as he turns around. “We’ll get it later, and you look even more beautiful all soaked.” He lets the double-entendre float in the air between us, rumbling his approval as he looks me up and down.

Heat warms my belly, and I smile, running my fingers through the mess of my hair. “You’ve been up in the mountains too long, Aubrey. I look like a wet mop and you know it. Let’s get these wet clothes off and get a fire going so we can warm up.” The busy work of getting undressed takes our attention, letting the moment we almost had outside pass with barely a notice.

I peel Aubrey’s shirt up and off him, laying it on the back of a chair to dry. My heart flutters at the sight of his chiseled upper body. The chill has turned his skin almost marble-like, and though I’m tempted to trace the lines of muscles and scars that pepper his body, I get on my knees, undoing his pants and tugging them down his tree trunk legs. “You were a lot leaner back then,” I huff as I untie his boots. “How’d you put on this much muscle? Chopping wood?”

“Pretty much,” Aubrey says, looking down at me. I can feel the desire bubbling up inside me as I glance up and see his cock outlined against the soaked fabric of his boxer briefs. It’d be so easy to slide them down and take him into my mouth, but my caretaker instincts are stronger at the moment. I get up, guiding Aubrey back into a chair as I help him off with his boot. “Ouch.”

“I bet,” I reply as I unwind his bandage. It’s pink, and nobody’s example of a strong ankle, but amazingly, it doesn’t look any worse for wear. I guess those two days in bed helped more than we realized. “See? This is why you should have stayed inside today. It’s just going to take longer to heal every time you push it.”

I step back, stripping to my bra and panties and laying my wet clothes out to dry too. Then I fiddle with the wood in the fireplace, determined to start the fire myself and knowing Aubrey is watching my every move. Once it’s roaring, I stand, holding my hands to the flames before turning around to let it warm my backside.

“I thought it was worth it myself,” Aubrey rumbles, looking at me. “We got to spend time together, and you have to admit . . . today was fun.”

I want to argue with him, to tell him how, as a medical professional, I should never have let him do the things he did today, but instead, I simply sigh, knowing it’s a battle in futility, so I nod along, agreeing with him. “Okay, okay. I learned some new things, and yeah, we had fun. But I can’t encourage this behavior. You’re lucky it’s just swollen.”

“Yeah, you had fun,” Aubrey says, his voice dropping as I suddenly become aware that his eyes are tracing along my body, leaving goosebumps in their wake. My nipples are still hard and press against the thin fabric of my bra, begging for his eyes, his hands, his mouth. “But I know what would make this even better.”

“What?” I almost whisper, agonizingly aware of how close his cock is in those wet undies of his.

“Fucking that sweet pussy again, right here, right now,” he growls. “That’ll warm us up, too.”

I shake my head, though my body is begging for what he offers. “Out of the question. Too much of a risk you’ll get injured doing that,” I purr, ignoring the fact that I welcomed him just a short time ago without argument about his ankle or anything else. I reach for his shorts and lay my hand on top of his cock. “But . . . there’s no risk in sucking you off though.”

Aubrey smiles, leaning back in his chair as I step closer. Getting back on my knees between his thighs, I see he’s already rock hard and my mouth waters at the sight of his big dick straining against the boxers. I trace my fingers along his length through the cotton, up and down till he groans.

“Fuck, Ana. You’re killing me,” he rasps.

I hook the waistband of his boxer briefs and pull them down, working them under his hips and down his legs with his help, leaving him bare before me. His cock is long and thick, proudly jutting up to his belly button and bobbing toward me with every heartbeat. He’s glorious, the stunning example of manhood I’ve held every other man to and that no one has ever lived up to.

I lick my lips in preparation, and Aubrey’s hand jerks to the base of his shaft, squeezing tightly as his breath hitches. “Woman, you keep looking at me like that and licking your lips, and I’m gonna come before you even touch me with that naughty tongue.”

I smirk at him, letting the velvet-over-iron skin glance along my cheek, rubbing him softly. “Well, if I can’t look at how gorgeous you are and I can’t lick my lips at how delicious I know you’re going to taste, what can I do?” I tease, knowing my words will rile him up even further.

“Suck me off, Ana. Like you said. Suck my cock in that pretty little mouth, past your pouty lips and down your tight throat.” His thumb swipes at my bottom lip as he tells me exactly what he wants, spelling out exactly what I want too.

No longer willing to tease either of us, I follow his request—okay, his demand, but I happily oblige. He groans as I take him in, deeper and deeper with every bob up and down his length. His precum tastes good on my tongue, salty and sweet like the man, and I work to get more and more of the treat, wanting every drop until I get his full release.

His hands grip the armrests of the chair tightly, the wood squeaking under his grip. I rise to the head of his cock, swirling my tongue lazily around the crown and hollowing my cheeks as I lift his hands, guiding them to the sides of my head. He looks down, the question in his eyes. “You sure, Sweet Ana?”

I nod, never letting go of my suction along his cock and humming my agreement. I feel him jump in my mouth in response as his fingers curl, grabbing handfuls of my hair. I let him guide me, not surprised when he goes deep, holding himself in my throat for a second before retreating to do it again. I fight to swallow with him in my throat, the difficulty worth it when he cries out in pleasure from the tightness around his cock.

And that’s enough to release his control. He begins bucking wildly, gripping my hair tightly and moving me with him as he fucks my mouth, shallow but fast. His breathing is choppy above me, and I have spit oozing from my lips to run down my chin, coating his balls. I run a finger along the midline of his balls, feeling the mess we’re making and loving the raw filthiness of it. I grip them, urging him to release, and get a split-second of warning as his balls pull up tight before he explodes in my mouth.

I gulp him down, rope after rope filling my mouth as he roars above me. I suck him clean, getting every drop and wringing every bit of pleasure from his body until he collapses bonelessly back in the chair.

I listen as his breathing recovers, my cheek pressed to his thigh and his fingers tracing lazy circles through my hair, soothing where he’d gripped me. We’re quiet, the crackles of the fire and Rex snoring in the corner the only sounds in the cabin as the storm rages on outside.

My voice is quiet, not wanting to break the spell but needing to return to where we were before, when I decided I was ready to know. That was a big step for me, and while I’m still terrified that whatever he says won’t be enough to justify his actions, I recognize that we’ve both come a long way and have been through a lot since then. “I wasn’t ready to listen before, but I am now. What happened back in high school?”

Aubrey swallows, the audible gulp a reminder of how hard this is for him too. “Oh, yeah. The storm interrupted us.”

Outside, there’s a rumble of thunder, and I stroke along his thigh, encouraging him as I look up at him. “Don’t rush. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

Aubrey lets out a sigh and nods slowly. “I can’t start the night I left . . . there’s too much background. I have to start earlier, when I got the Oregon offer.”

“I remember that. Things were going so well.”

Aubrey nods. “I thought I had everything. School was kicking ass, football was going well, but most of all, I had the world’s best girlfriend. I thought my life was on the highway to heaven . . .”