“I don’t even have a bathing suit,” I say stupidly. A part of me does want to go in. The heat would feel amazing right now.

“Just come in with your bra and panties then. I won’t touch you. I won’t even look while you get in. See?”

He turns around and faces the other direction.

When would I have a chance again to be in a hot tub in the middle of the woods under a black sky littered with stars? Probably never. This kind of thing doesn’t happen to me.

Damn it to hell. I pull off the hoodie and slip out of the sweatpants. “Don’t you dare turn around,” I say as I climb into the tub. I wasn’t expecting the water to be so hot. “Holy shit,” I say, sucking in a breath and slowly sinking into the churning water. I feel like I’m going to cook in here.

“Can I turn around now?”

“I guess. But stay over there.”

He has a big grin on his face when he turns to face me. “It feels great, doesn’t it?”

I keep my body as low as possible under the water so he can’t see me. “It does feel good. I shouldn’t be in here, though.”

“Why? I won’t let you drown.”

“I just feel like I shouldn’t be doing things like this with you.”

He flicks some water into my face. “Stop thinking everything you do is wrong, Evelyn. Fuck. No wonder you have panic attacks. You’re so hard on yourself. Just let yourself have fun and stop thinking it’s wrong.”

“It is wrong, Storm.”

“Evelyn, if you want to do these things, and you enjoy it, maybe that should tell you something, ya know?”

“Really? What should it tell me, Storm? That I should just do all sorts of things I want to do, just to have fun, regardless of the consequences or who I hurt?”

“No, I don’t think you should hurt anyone. But if doing things that make you happy hurts someone else, then maybe you shouldn’t be with them. Right? It’s your life. You gotta make yourself happy.”

“I don’t want to talk about this. I just want to relax in here, okay? Isn’t that why we’re in here? To relax?”

“Yes. And to be warm after freezing our asses off for two days.”

Being outside in the dark, with just the dim glow of the Christmas lights and the stars above is simply beautiful. Off in the distance, I can see the light of another home, but it’s pretty far. I can see why Storm likes it here. It’s so peaceful. No traffic, no houses on top of each other, no nosey neighbors. I’ve always wanted to live in a place like this, far away from people and surrounded by nature. If I lived in a place like this, on a huge piece of property in the woods, I’d have a few dogs, and some chickens, maybe even a miniature goat or pony.

I feel guilty sitting in a hot tub while Michael is home alone worrying about me. I hope John called him and told him I was okay. I have no idea what he told him or how he explained the situation, but I hope he didn’t spin it like I was spending the night with some random stranger enjoying myself.

Aren’t I, though?

“Evelyn, I can see the little crazy hamster in your head spinning in circles. Stop worrying.”

I splash water into his face. “Stop analyzing me.”

“You’re going to regret that.” His wicked smirk is back. Within seconds, he is across the tub and is right in front of me. “Turn around,” he says.

“What? Why?”

He puts his hands on my shoulders and turns me around, positioning me right in front of one of the jets. And when I say right in front of one of the jets, I mean its jetting right between my legs. Yes. There.

“Storm—” I try to back away, but his chest is right up against my back and I can’t move.

“Shh...” he whispers against my ear. His hands slide down my arms, all the way to my hands, splaying my arms out and pressing my hands against the rim of the tub, holding me there. The pulsing water against my clit is amazing. As much as I want to get away from it, it feels so good I just can’t. My body wants to stay right where it is.

“Shut your mind off and just let go,” he whispers.

I lean back against him, my back flush against his chest, and my head on his shoulder, and the erotic pulse of the water takes me into a euphoric trance. Once again, I can feel his hard cock pressing against my ass. Only this time with just a thin, wet material between us, the feeling is amplified. It’s almost flesh on flesh. He doesn’t move or touch me at all as I writhe against the water. He just holds my hands against the edge of the tub so I can’t move away. Being held there by him, trapped by his body is only arousing me even more. I could turn around right now, wrap my legs around that muscled body of his, and feel him slide into me. Never have I been more turned on or in such a frenzy to have an orgasm. I feel like every part of my body is aching to be touched, to be filled. My entire body begins to tremble and thrash as multiple orgasms quake through me, finally leaving me limp as a ragdoll. He releases my hands and slowly turns me around.

“Feel better?” he asks his voice husky and low.

I can barely even open my eyes. The heat of the water coupled with all the orgasms has utterly exhausted me mentally and physically. “I hate you. Why do you keep doing that to me?”

“What? Orgasm assistance?”

My eyes snap open. “Seriously? Did you just say that? I don’t need assistance.”

“I think you do. Tell me if you’ve ever felt like that before.”

I push him away. “Leave me alone, Storm. I don’t need your help to get off.”

Lies, lies, lies. I can’t remember the last time I had an orgasm prior to this weekend. It’s been a while. I fake it with Michael most of the time because I just can’t get there, and he won’t stop until he thinks I have. It’s easier to just fake it and move on. As long as he has one, I’m happy. I don’t need to have an orgasm to be happy and satisfied.

Or at least I didn’t think so. Until Storm made me hump a water jet. Wow. That felt good.

“We should go inside. I don’t want you passing out in here.”

I am too jelly-like to argue with him. I let him help me out of the tub, and I sit on a chair while he gets us towels out of a wooden cabinet off to the side of the deck. My entire body feels like mush. I dry off in silence and slowly pull my clothes back on, avoiding eye contact with him. When I’m dressed, I go back inside and leave him outside to close up the tub and turn the lights off.

It’s midnight. I just want to go to bed. The sooner I can get to sleep, the sooner tomorrow will be here, and I can get away from Storm forever. He is totally a bad influence, luring me into strange orgasmic situations I never, ever would have done under normal circumstances. I wonder if this is how he spends most of his nights, just getting woman off at every tick of the clock.

I don’t say anything to him when he comes into the house and locks the glass door behind him.

“You’re giving me the silent treatment now?” he asks, poking at the fire and adding another log. “Just because of that?”

“You know I don’t want to do those things, Storm. You keep turning my body against me.”

“Maybe you should give your body what it wants.”

No. I am not going there with him. I just want him to be quiet and leave me alone so I can go back to my normal state of being, boring as it may be.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the bedroom and you can get some sleep.”

I silently follow him down the hallway to a huge bedroom with a monstrous four-poster bed all done in mahogany wood with matching dressers. The walls are painted a deep wine color, and thick white carpet covers the floor. Off to the side is a private bathroom.

“Wow. This is beautiful.”

“Thanks. This is my room, but you can sleep in here. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

I know a saw another closed door in the hallway that I’m pretty sure led to another bedroom. “Isn’t there a guest room down the hall? I can sleep there, I don’t mind.”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s not a bedroom. I just store my shit in there and it’s a mess.”

“Oh. I can’t take your bed, Storm. You’ve been scrunched up in a truck for two days. You deserve to stretch out.”

“It’s fine. The couch is huge. Niko and I sleep there a lot. No worries, okay?” He ruffles my hair. God, I hate that. It goes back to being cute. “There’s a bathroom right there if you need it.”

“Okay. Thanks. I feel bad taking your bed, though.” I’m not just saying that, I truly do feel bad. It feels unfair. “I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”

He starts to walk toward the door. “Absolutely not.” He turns to face me again. “In the morning, I’ll take you to town so we can figure out what’s up with your car, and you can call Michael and get yourself home.”

“Sounds good.”

With that, he leaves. I don’t know why a room always feels strangely empty after he walks out. I undress, leaving just my panties on and climb into the huge bed. This must be a king size bed. It’s bigger than any bed I’ve ever been in. I sink back into the soft pillows and pull the comforter over me. It’s down and just heavenly soft. Being able to stretch out and having the softness of the sheets surround me is incredible. I feel like I’m lying in a cloud.

My eyes are getting heavy as sleep attempts to pull me under. My body and mind are exhausted from the last few days. I want to close my eyes and slip away from it all, but I can’t. My mind keeps wandering back to Storm... in the other room... on the couch with his dog. His ability to annoy me is huge and his so-called orgasm assistance is by far the worst thing I have ever done. I know it’s cheating no matter how he tries to spin it. But there is definitely something else there, hiding under the surface—something pulling us to each other like a magnet.

I crawl out of the bed and find my sweatshirt, pulling it over my head. I don’t bother putting my pants back on. I quietly tiptoe out into the hallway and down into the living room. He’s just sitting on the couch. His back is to me so he doesn’t know I’m there. He’s sitting there in total silence, just staring out the windows into the black nothingness of the night. I quietly step closer to him.