The next morning I’m up and out early like usual. I spend a few hours in the woods, checking traps, laying bait. I’ve been lucky so far, catching a couple rabbits and no signs of bears. We’ve had some dustings of snow, and the thick blanket will come soon, but with any luck I’ll catch a couple more before it falls.

And with some more luck, we’ll continue to stay off the Corretti family’s radar. All’s been quiet on that front. I can only hope it stays that way.

The last trap I check is a winner: a nice, fat turkey. Just in time for Thanksgiving. Family holidays haven’t ever meant much to me. But maybe Olivia will like it.

It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction, hearkening back to caveman days. I am man. I provide meat for my woman.

I picture Olivia back in the cabin’s kitchen wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else. Her full globes pushing against the cotton, I can tease her while she cooks. Maybe I’ll stand behind and play with her, make her nice and wet, then make her suffer through dinner before I let her cum on my cock.

Because tonight that’s what she’ll be doing.

Enough waiting. Enough build-up. Tonight’s the night.

I’m a fucked-up beast. I know that. I’ve seen too much and I’m jaded as hell. She’s a virgin, almost 10 years younger than me. She deserves romance and flowers, candlelight dinners and moonlight walks. She deserves some guy who’ll write her poems about her hair and take her home to meet his mom and dad.

What she’s got is me and I’m going to fuck her raw. I’m going to plow into her, spread her so wide she’ll think she’s going to split open. The way she gets so wet for me, I’m going to piston in and out of her slick pussy fast and hard. I’m going to take her on every surface of the goddamned cabin. Eat her and bend her over and spank her and fuck every orifice that virgin has until she knows, deep in her soul, how much she belongs to me.

I’m going to get her pregnant, make her round with my child, bind her to me forever.

I might have a prayer at stopping myself if it weren’t for one fact. The look in her eyes tells me she wants exactly the same thing.

I bring the turkey home, skin, carve and clean it out back, then carry it in for my woman. She looks so pleased to see me it almost makes me beam. I’m not a man who beams. Something might give me a fleeting ghost of a smile. But a full-on, whole-face beam that radiates up from my chest and makes my whole body swell with joy? Not Knox Mater.

Until I walk into my cabin, stew cooking on the stove, my woman in a tight little white-T shirt with no bra, and she looks up at me like all her prayers have been answered. What is this, domestic bliss? Love at first sight? Whatever it is, I’m all in.

“Brought this back for you.” I lay the turkey down on a platter, wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge.

“Oh my gosh! How did you do that?” She seems to think most of my outdoors skills are magic. City girl.

“Set a trap.”

“This is going to be amazing. We can have a real Thanksgiving feast!” She claps her hands together, smiling up at me. “Who do you usually have Thanksgiving with?”

“Whomever I’m stationed with.”

“Oh, right. I don’t know much about being in the military.” Is she blushing? When is she going to learn she never has to feel shy around me?

“What smells so good?”

She tells me about the stew she made, excited for me to taste it. She offers me up a spoonful. My eyes close as I taste, it’s so good.

“Damn, girl.” There’s more I’d intended to do, chores that could keep me busy until seven or so like usual, but not tonight. Tonight I want to be with my woman.

Showered and shaved, I join her in the kitchen. I offer her a beer and she takes it, tapping my bottle in a little toast. She chats lightly, her words washing over me, making me feel strangely calm. Since my last tour, only silence has eased my jangling nerves, and even that still left me wound tight. With Olivia’s happy chatter, I feel myself relaxing, almost like she’s massaging me with her voice. I can smell her when she brushes past me, all womanly curves.

She’s wearing my sweatpants and they’re practically dropping off of her, riding so low I can see a slice of the panties I bought her. I know lace and silk are supposed to be sexier, but the sight of her in those tight bikini briefs yesterday had more than done it for me. Something about the innocent white cotton combined with how wet she gets for me underneath creates just the right mix.

I want to pounce on her like a wolf, but waiting, knowing I’m going to take her tonight, is delicious, too. I wonder if she knows it. The way she keeps looking at me, the lingering glances, biting her lip, I think she does. My cock is hard in my jeans as I lean back against the wall, watching her cook. Her gaze keeps returning to my bulge, eyes wide. It’s all yours, honey. I think, but I don’t say it. Not yet. I’ll let my little virgin work up to it, come to terms with her own hunger and then give her all the access she desires.

I set the table and serve us as she goes to freshen up. Lord knows what she’s doing in there. She has no makeup, not that she needs any. When she comes out, it looks like she’s brushed her hair. It’s gleaming in the warm lights of the cabin. My beauty.

I have another beer as we eat, with fresh, crusty bread alongside the stew. This is what we’ll feed our children. Here, somewhere else, I don’t care. Wherever she wants to be. Though probably not Chicago. A frown pulls at my mouth.

“What’s wrong?” She looks at me, concerned and so attentive.

“Nothing, baby.” I reach out and cover her hand in mine. “I just want to keep you safe.”

“I’ve never felt safer.” She blushes as she says it, as if surprising herself at the confession.

I pull her onto my lap. It’s where she belongs. Her words are a sweet balm to my soul. The hero I’d wanted to be when I’d enlisted. Now with Olivia in my arms, I feel like one.

She melts into me as we kiss, her sighs and coos telling me of her pleasure, her desire. I caress her hair, her back. Her breasts are huge and pressing into my chest, her softness against my hard muscles. It’s like we are all that is male and female, coming together.

I cup her face in my hand, looking down into her eyes. “I want to make you mine tonight. All of you.”

She freezes up. All that sweet, melting arousal? It dries right up, gone in an instant.

She scoots off my lap. “Tonight?” Her eyes dart around as if looking for an exit.

What the fuck? “You’re still scared,” I realize.

“I’m just confused,” she protests, eyes wide and wild like a cornered animal.

“You still don’t trust me.” I rise, pushing my seat back, taking a step closer. “You still can’t admit you want this.”

“It’s not that.” She’s breathing fast, nervous. “It’s not you, it’s… I’m…” She can’t look at me, can’t stop fiddling with the base of the T-shirt, working it in her fingers. Tension and anxiety radiates out of her. She’s so unsure and inexperienced. She needs me to take charge.

“You need more instruction.”

She looks up, mouth open at my assessment, surprise mingling there with arousal. Yes, I read her right. I’m getting to know my woman well. I know what she needs.

Stern, I give her orders. “Shirt off. Pants and panties, too.” She looks up at me, trembling. “I will not fuck you tonight,” I explain. “But I will teach you how much you’re going to love it. Now strip.”

With shaking fingers she takes off her clothes, each inch of her bare flesh exposed like a prize I’ve won.

“Get up on the bed on all fours.” I stand, fully clothed, pointing to the mattress. She’s unsure, but she climbs up and assumes the position. I stand behind her, my hand gentle on her ass, caressing her buttocks, her quivering flesh. “Part your thighs and spread your cheeks for me. I want to see you.”

“What?” She clenches closed, looking around at me with shame and fear. “You want me to what?”

I smack her ass, hard, and she whimpers. “Get back on all fours.” I smack her again and with a little sob she obeys. “Now do as I say.” My voice gentle, I caress her warm flesh, grazing my fingers near her ass crack. “Spread your thighs wider, grab your ass cheeks and pull them apart for me. I want a good look at you.”

With another muffled sob, her mouth in her pillow, she starts to comply, easing her thighs further apart, tilting her ass up and grabbing her generous cheeks in her hands. But she doesn’t pull them apart, showing me that most private part of her.

“Don’t make me do this,” she pleads.

Hand firm at her lower back, to reassure and command, I ask, “Do you trust me?”

“Y-yes.” She trembles under my touch.

“Now spread,” I growl, my stare fixated on her hands. Finally obedient, she grabs her ass cheeks and pulls them apart. A groan tears from my chest. With her thighs spread, her ass tilted up, I can see so much. Her forbidden hole, puckered and pink, unbreached and innocent. Down below it, glistening and slick, her pussy is coated in her juices.

“Look at that,” I hiss and from the tone in my voice, she can tell I’m feasting on the sight. “Look how much you want this.”

“No—”

“No?” I bring my fingers to her pussy and she pants, tense. Lovingly, I bring them to her mouth, rubbing them against her lips until she parts and sucks. “That’s it. Taste how much you need my instruction.”

She moans, licking like a good girl.

“You see baby?” I return my fingers to her pussy, giving her one, then two fingers up inside. She’s so tight even that much stretches her. “You think it’s going to hurt when I fuck you. And you’re right. At first it will.” She whimpers. “But then you’re going to love it so much.”

“Knox,” she pants, starting to buck back onto my fingers, starting to want them deeper.

“Think about how big my cock is.” I massage her channel and she moans. “I’m going to stretch you. And you’re going to take it all, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she groans, giving me what I want.

“Tell me what you’re going to take.”

She whines like she’s in heat, fucking herself on my two fingers. “I’m going to take your cock. All of it.”

“That’s my good girl.” She shudders at my words, lost in how good they feel, how my words and fingers stroke her inside and out.

Without warning, I bring my slick fingers around to her asshole. “I’m going to fuck you here, too.”

“No!” She pulls away, actually trying get away from me on the bed.

“Get back here.” I spank her, hard, pulling her hips back up into position. “You take what I give you.” Whack, I bring my hand down again and again on her plump ass as she cries out.

“Now stay still.” I bring a hand to her pussy to massage her clit. The other goes back up to her asshole. She shivers, but doesn’t pull away.

“That’s it,” I coax, working her body’s warm, slick lube around her tight, resistant ring. “Let me teach you everything about your body.”

She’s moaning now, softly, and panting, her fingers clenching in the sheets. “I’m going to teach you what you need. Even where you shouldn’t.” Slowly, I push my index finger past her entrance. She’s so tight, wrapped around my finger, and she cries out at the penetration.

“Knox, you shouldn’t!” She sounds frightened, and if she weren’t so wet I’d stop. But she’s dripping so much I know the forbidden is turning her on.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t.” I’m working her lube into her ass, thrusting in the same rhythm I’m using on her clit. “And you shouldn’t want me to, either.” She moans, and I feel her giving way, relaxing her ass, letting me in. “Only a naughty girl likes getting fucked up the ass.” I chastise her as I shove my finger up inside her further.

“Uggh.” She grunts and groans, wriggling her ass and struggling between giving in and admitting how good it feels, how much more she wants, and fighting me off. I keep at it, knowing which instinct will win out. “It’s wrong,” she gives one final protest.

“Yes, it is,” I tell her, finger-fucking her ass in earnest now. The sight of my finger slick and disappearing into her rear sends a fireball of lust through my loins. “But you like it.” I drop down, covering her back with my chest, mouth to her ear so I can whisper to her, just the two of us alone in our cabin. “You like getting fucked in the ass.”

She moans in agreement, like an animal in heat. I keep fucking her ass, slick and fast. “You can show me what a naughty girl you are,” I coax. “You can show me what you really want. Just me. I’ll take care of you. Show your man.”

She exhales a long, slow, quivering sob, and then I feel it, her complete relaxation. She lets me all the way in. I scoop some more wetness from her pussy and slick it across her asshole, then dive in again, this time forcing two fingers deep up inside her ass. She cries out with the unmistakable sounds of desire.

“Good girl,” I praise her as I fuck her, stretching her with two fingers up her forbidden hole. “Take it for me. Take it up your ass. And show me how much you like it.”

“Ohh, uhh.” She’s moaning and bucking, a hot mess of need as I start fucking her ass harder, faster with my fingers.

“I want it,” she moans, sobbing, admitting it.

“I know you do,” I answer her lovingly, getting rough as I give her a spank, then a harder finger fuck, all while I work her clit.

“I need it,” she pants, working her ass back onto my fingers.

“Yes, that’s it,” I encourage her confession, as I brush her clit again, readying her reward for her submission.

She’s whimpering and sobbing, her pussy coating my hand in arousal, working her hips back and forth to get my fingers deeper inside her ass. Her thighs quaking, ass tensing, I can tell she’s close.

So I stop. When I remove my hands, she whines loudly. “Please, Knox.”

“Tell me what you want,” I demand. She’s going to get it, but only after she shows me she’s fully learned her lesson.

“Knox,” she demurs.

“Tell me where you want my fingers,” I demand, smacking her bottom.

“On my pussy,” she cries out.

“And?” I smack her ass again.

“My ass!” she cries out. “Please! I need it.”

“You need me to finger fuck your ass,” I growl.

“Yes,” she pleads, a hot mess. “Please. Fuck my ass.”

“Who knows what you need?” I demand.

“You,” she sobs as she pleads. “You know what I need.”

“And now you’ll get it.” I shove my fingers back up her ass, fucking her hard. She rises up and back into me, shaking and sweating, fists in the bedsheets. “Now cum with my fingers up your ass like a good girl. Cum for me.”

“I love it!” she screams as she starts to cum on my fingers, her hot, throbbing ass spasming on one set, her juicy, drenched pussy on the other.

“That’s it, let it all out.”

She cums and cums for me and I keep coaxing more out of her. “I want it,” she sobs, starting to collapse onto her elbows, hips and ass still high in the air. “I want you. I need you to fuck me.”

“So good.” I soothe her with my voice and hands, caressing her along her back, her buttocks, her thighs. I draw her into my lap where she rests against me, completely limp. “You did so good. You made me so proud, taking it up your ass like that.”

She shudders and sighs against my chest. “That was… I’m…”

I kiss the top of her head, letting her know how much I treasure her, my jewel, my one true love. “You don’t need to speak, baby.” I settle at the top of the bed against a pillow, letting her lean against me. I’ll protect her now, as I’ll protect her the rest of my days.

“I want…” She’s trembling, needing to tell me something. “I’m sorry I said, at first, that I didn’t want—”

“Shhh,” I calm her, letting her know everything’s all right. “You don’t need to apologize. You were being honest when you said no. You were scared. But you won’t be any more.”

“I won’t ever be scared with you,” she murmurs, growing drowsy in my arms.

“That’s right.” I stroke her hair. “And tomorrow, baby girl, I’m going to make you all mine.”