I knew Emie was dealing with a lot. But knowing she felt the same connection between us made me one hell of a happy man. Now I just needed to make her realize that one week was nowhere near long enough.
“We agreed, Locke. Just one week. This is not some fairy tale where we get to ride off into the sunset. We can’t just get married and have some happily ever after with two-point-five children, puppies and kittens playing at our feet, and a goddamn white picket fence.” She shook her head and shrugged out of my arms, putting some distance between us as she shot me a frustrated glare.
“Why the hell not, Em? What the fuck’s stopping us?” I wasn’t oblivious of the fact that we’d only been together mere days, but it didn’t matter when it felt like my heart had known her for a lifetime. “The answer is nothing.”
She stalked back to the trail, heading for home when I grabbed her hand and forced her to stop running away from me. “I’m not having this conversation, Locke. It’s not up for discussion, because you don’t get a say in this. Unless…you don’t feel like dealing with me, and you’d rather I just leave now.”
“For fuck’s sake, Em. You know that’s not what I want. But a week…it’s nowhere near enough.” I’d only suggested a week because she’d wanted to leave right then and there, and I couldn’t let that happen.
“Then maybe we should be making the most of the time we have together, instead of standing here and arguing with each other.” She fisted her hands around the fabric of my jacket and pulled me to her for a kiss so intense, it felt like she’d bared her soul to me. And though I kissed her back with everything I had, it already felt like I was losing her.
I had to find a way to convince her to stay…had to find a way to make her mine.
And there was one surefire way…
Breaking from our kiss, I turned her around and pressed her to the closest tree, yanking her jeans down past her hips and quickly freeing my cock, brushing it against her cunt, which was slick with need. “Tell me this is what you want, Em. Tell me you fucking want me.”
“I want you, Locke… I want you so fucking bad.” Her words had me thrusting into her, burying myself in one deep stroke as I took her bare, knowing full well what I was doing. I wrapped her hair around my fist and pulled her head back so I could bite her neck, loving how she gasped and thrust her hips back against me, taking me deeper and quickening our pace.
Emie had my head spinning, and with each moment she spent in my arms, she claimed yet another piece of my heart and left her mark on my soul. Losing her would be like losing a part of me…and I just couldn’t let her walk away. Not without one hell of a fight.
Trailing bites up the length of her neck, I covered her mouth with mine, our tongues clashing as my free hand cupped her breast and pinched her nipples, before wandering down past the swell of her stomach to tease her clit. She bucked up against me, my fingers circling the swollen nub of flesh as I pounded into her, the energy of my orgasm building at the base of my spine like an electric storm.
Our pace was fevered, my name already on her lips like a mantra, her cries filling the quiet woods as she came and I chased her orgasm with my own, my thrusts finally slowing to a stop as I filled her with my cum, my cock pulsing deep inside her.
I knew we’d said we’d use condoms, and even though I’d asked before taking her bare, I still felt a twinge of guilt. And yet…at the same time, I knew damn well why I’d done it this time around. She was looking to run—and I was looking for a reason to make her stay.
The thought of her carrying my child had me pressing a gentle kiss to her chilled cheek, my words but a whisper on her skin. “I’m never letting you go, Em. Even if I wanted to…I don’t think I could.”
Pulling free of my cock, she pulled up her jeans while I tucked myself away, and then she turned to face me, her eyes roaming my face before she slipped her arms around my waist and let me hold her tight. Time seemed to stand still, the bond between us only growing stronger. But as the weather shifted once more and snow started to fall, the spell was broken and we made our way home in silence, her hand in mine, with Bear running ahead.
“Let me get a fire going.” Once inside, I shrugged out of my jacket and stole a kiss, but as I turned to go, she grabbed my hand, her eyes dark with worry.
She could barely look me in the eyes, and it had me worried that I was running down the clock on her departure—and it’d be a hell of a lot sooner than I wanted. “I don’t want your brother wasting his time trying to find me. My memory’s back. There’s no point in him trying to track me down.”
So she did have her memory back. She’d hinted at it before, but up until now, I didn’t have a definitive answer. And though I had a million questions for her, I let them go, knowing I’d only end up pushing her away. “No worries, love. I’ll text him and let him know.”
“Locke…” There was such a hesitation in her voice and a tension in her body that I couldn’t help but think the worst was about to come. “There’s so much you need to know…but I don’t know if I can tell you any of it.”
“I know, baby.” She’d been on the verge of panic since we left Seattle, and though I didn’t know what had her so worried, I doubted it’d make any difference to the way I felt about her. “We have a week before we have to give any of it a second thought, a week where it’s just the two of us, in the here and now. Nothing else matters, Em.”
“You can’t know that…” When her tears spilled over, I kissed them away, my heart breaking for her. “I’m not who you think I am.”
I cupped the back of her neck and bent my head to hers, needing her to know that I was on her side. “That’s where you’re mistaken. Because I know exactly who you are. You’re sweet, and smart, and caring—and you’re hurting. I don’t know what happened to you, but I see the pain in your eyes, and it’s killing me. So for fuck’s sake…don’t shut me out, babe.”
“It’s not that I want to, but I’ve been on my own for a few years now, and I’m not sure I know how to let anyone in.”
“All I’m asking is that you stop pushing me away and stop trying to run. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded. “I can try.”