Liam always seemed to know what I needed, but now I needed him. I wanted him to touch me, to make my body come alive again. This might be our last chance.

Fingers fumbling with his pants, I unbuttoned them and started sliding the zipper down to expose his black boxer briefs. I could feel myself growing moist at the sight his arousal. My breath increased to rapid little pants, and a silly grin lit my face.

Electricity coiled low in my belly as I pulled his pants down his hips and exposed the sexy trail of hair leading down that delicious V at the base of his abdomen. I sucked in my breath at the sight and hooked his underwear with my thumbs, dragging it low enough for his growing erection to spring free.

“Mmmm… Somebody is happy to see me!” I giggled, eager to explore him.

“You have no idea.” He gasped as I leaned over and took the tip of him in my mouth, and his hips bucked at the hot contact. The scent of his musk filled my nostrils while I rolled my tongue around his tip. I could feel him swell in between my lips. “Oh!” He groaned with pleasure before pulling back and scrambling to his feet.

In the blink of an eye, he divested himself of his pants and underwear and crawled back in bed with me. Rolling me over onto my back, he positioned himself above me. Supporting himself on his hands, he claimed my mouth in a hungry kiss. His tongue probed the seam of my lips, dipping inside between tiny nibbles. A frisson of electricity shot through me, connecting to the coiled heat in my center. I felt a sudden flush sweep across my skin, leaving behind an excited dampness.

Liam broke our connection, and I felt a hitch in my throat as he slid down my body, peppering my breasts with kisses. Then he took my nipple into his warm mouth. At his touch, a shiver ran through me, and I moaned as the feeling in my belly coiled tighter and tighter. Releasing me with a wet pop, he blew gently on the moist tip, and it puckered in the cool air. I began to ache as the pressure built between my thighs. Want consumed me until I could think of nothing else.

“Oh!” I let out an airy gasp as I felt his breath across my stomach. He leaned to the left and began circling my belly button with one finger, making my skin quiver. Reaching lower down my pelvis, his fingers touched the soft mound between my legs. With his knee, he nudged my thighs apart and positioned himself on his elbows between them. There, he held me open and exposed to his hungry gaze.

At the touch of his tongue to my center, the fire inside me burned hotter. First he explored my outer lips, stroking me gently, hesitantly, before moving closer and closer to my nub. Need pulsing through me as he teased my sex.

My release, buried deep inside me, surged to the surface as his tongue found my clit. “Please,” I begged. “Please.” I could feel the wetness drip from my opening. My entrance trembled as he continued to make contact, repeating his licks and strokes with increasing pressure.

“Not yet,” he whispered. With his head buried between my legs, his voice sent little vibrations through me in all directions.

I almost came undone when I felt a single finger probe my center, meeting no resistance as it slid in, already slick with my dew. He set up a rhythm, pumping one finger and then two in and out of me in time with the strokes of his tongue. “Oh God, Liam.” I squirmed right on the edge of climax, the need to come overwhelming me.

“Not yet.” He chuckled, withdrawing from me and sitting up on his knees.

“No!” I cried, my legs splayed and chest heaving. The feeling of loss brought tears to my eyes. “I’m so close!”

“I’m not done with you yet.” He rolled me over on my belly and stuffed two pillows under my hips. He stuck another one under my bad shoulder, shifting my weight to the good one.

I felt him settle between my knees, his erection bumping up against me as he spread my cheeks. Cool air hit my steaming center and I whimpered in need. He leaned toward me, and his breath raised goosebumps on my ass cheeks. The throbbing head of his prick slipped along my seam, and I surged forward as I felt his cock bump against my opening. He withdrew for only a moment and then plunged himself into my center, making me cry out in ecstasy. “Ahhhhhh!”

He gripped my hips, holding me in place as he began to pump in and out. His thrusts made my breasts sway, and my sensitive nipples brushed against the sheets as a million zings of pleasure swept through me. “Liam!” I hissed, unable to form complete sentences.

“Yes, baby,” he grunted, his thrusts increasing in tempo.

“I’m so close,” I bit out. Dragging myself from that incredible place long enough to form whole words caused me physical pain.

“Come for me, baby,” he grunted. His hands squeezed me tighter as he surged in and out of me. I began to spasm around him. The pressure inside me peaked, and I came apart. A rainbow of exploding colors lit the back of my eyelids, and my entire body shook and beaded with sweat. My hips slammed back into him, meeting him thrust for thrust as my insides gripped him tighter, and I rode him to completion.

First thing in the morning, we tacked plastic up over the broken walls of the room.

“Why are we doing this?” Maggie asked as she handed me the staple gun so I could secure another sheet of painter’s plastic. The ladder leaned slightly and Maggie reached to steady it.

“I want to keep any future damage to a minimum. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.” I reached for another piece to cover the last opening. “Most of the house is still intact,” I tilted my head, “even if a bit smoky. I want to keep weather and animals out until I can get back here to fix things.”

I had dragged the charred contents of the room out into the forest, and swept the space out as best I could. There wasn’t much I could do for the damaged walls other than cover them.

Maggie was on cloud nine, more than excited to resume her normal life. It didn’t take long for her to pack. She didn’t have much besides her clothes and notebooks. Once we had the cabin as clean as we could get it, we packed the car together and filled our afternoon with laughter and teasing.

Snap! I whipped a towel at Maggie and smiled when she yelped.

“Stop that!” Giggling, she danced away to hide on the other side of the car as I tried to smack her again.

“You can’t get away!” I laughed, vaulting over the hood after her.

“Nooooo!” she squealed, racing around the car again. “We have to go! Get in the car, Liam!”

Laughing my head off, I leaned against the car, balled the towel up, and threw it at her. I hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. “We’re almost done!” My ribs ached from the laughter as I took a deep breath and wiped my streaming eyes. “I left the extra food and electronics in the cabin. I figure I’ll be back soon. I can’t leave it like this too long.”

A sudden somberness fell over me, and I looked back at my poor cabin. After spending the past few weeks there with Maggie, it no longer held the same awful memories. In fact, I had a whole new appreciation for the bathtub. My reluctance to leave the home I’d avoided for so long took me completely by surprise.

“Hey, Liam, have you seen my notebook?” Maggie was looking through the bags we had loaded in the back of the car.

“Yeah, I think it’s in your backpack.” I turned back to see her top half in the side door, and her back half wiggling enticingly at me.

“Hmmm.” She rummaged for a minute before popping back up triumphantly. “Here it is!” She gripped the cap of her pen in her teeth, yanked it off, and flipped open her notebook to scribble something down. “Okay!” she announced when she was done. “I didn’t want to forget that line.”

“You ready?” It was a question I had to force myself to ask.

She wiped her wrist across her forehead and stood, hands on her hips, looking at our jumble of stuff. “I think that’s everything from the house. You ready?”

“I am.” I strode up the porch steps and grabbed the cloth case there. I didn’t dally, swinging back down off the porch and trotting over to the car. I slid my sniper rifle between two bags in the backseat and closed the door with a thunk. We were finally done.

Maggie wasted no time settling into the passenger seat. I joined her on the driver’s side, and we were off. I drove us down the winding path, which was just as overgrown as when we’d arrived weeks ago. Bittersweet memories assaulted me. Doubt crept into my mind. Will Maggie still want me when she no longer needs my protection?

“So they got him?” she asked, breaking my reverie as though she could read my mind.

“I don’t have all the details.” I gripped the steering wheel as we bounced down the road. “Ben and Leo are neck-deep in interviews and paperwork with the FBI, but Ryder confirmed he is in custody.”

“Who was it?” In my peripheral vision, I could see her cock her head and watch me.

“Some guy named Elmer Watkins. An introvert living in his mother’s basement.” I flexed my hands on the wheel. “Ben and Leo tracked him down.”

Maggie sat there, staring at me with her wide green eyes. “Have I ever met him?” Her mouth opened just a bit and her little pink tongue appeared between her parted lips.

“I don’t think so.” I kept glancing over at her. The frivolity and merriment of the afternoon was gone, and worry lines appeared between her eyebrows again. “He had tickets to all your concerts, but Julie says there’s no mention of his name on any visitor logs and no records of issuing any backstage passes to any of his aliases.”

“Why me?” Distress clouded her formerly sparkling eyes. “Why would he fixate on me?”

“Why not?” I reached over and wrapped my big hand around her dainty fingers. “He has a pattern of stalking women he sees in the media. It started with a teacher who was honored in the news and escalated from there.” I gently squeezed her hand, trying to warm them. “He had a shrine behind his bedroom door. Pictures he’d cut from magazines and photoshopped images of you and him together.” I choked on the words, unable to go on.

“Oh my God.” She breathed deep and the freckles stood out stark against her bone white face.

“Ben said it was awful.” I forced myself to relax my fingers. “But it’s over. We got him.” I didn’t tell her anything about the sealed juvie records we had opened. She never needed to know that.