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My blood went cold as a long howl echoed through the night. Shadow shot up, growling with ears pulled back. Eric placed a hand on my leg as I shot up beside him.
“It’s okay,” Eric said gently, rubbing over the spot his hand burned onto my leg. My heart pounded.
“I thought wolves weren’t meant to be in this area,” I said breathlessly.
“They’re not. It could be a wild dog. It’s okay,” he reassured. “Shadow.” His singular word silenced the dog, who licked his lips and reluctantly laid back down. Following suit, I tucked back in beside him. Although Eric spoke sweet things calmly, I could feel the tension in his body. Was it possible wolves lived in the mountains? I mean if there were bears and coyotes, surely wolves weren’t a stretch.
Not that anything could get into the cabin… but still. It was a reminder that we were far from any city.
“Good night, Cassidy,” Eric said gently, his thumb still stroking over my leg. I curled a little further into Shadow, a part of me wishing that it was Eric instead. I was grateful for my genius of using the dog as a buffer because my heart was starting to betray me. But didn’t it always?
“Good night, Eric, don’t dream too many naughty thoughts of me,” I threw in with tongue in cheek. His growl rippled through me, his hand squeezing tighter.
“You keep that talk up and it won’t be wolves you’ll be scared of.”
I bit my lip, smiling, and tucked into the comfiest, most insulated sleep I’d had in months.
Chapter 22
Eric
After getting caught in chatter with Ann and Patrice thirty minutes after our café closed, Cassidy had finally been able to drag herself away and I was able to not so subtly kick the two croons out.
“You can’t keep her all to yourself the whole time,” Ann had said with a mischievous grin. I imagined she was filling time until Coots returned home this weekend. He always worked in the neighboring town during the week and so without Patrice, Ann often found herself bored. Every year I came back not much had changed. Well, except this year of course.
I wanted to make sure we returned to the cabin before dusk, especially considering I’d promised Cassidy a personal lesson of wood chopping. I’d grumbled my complaint when she’d first asked me. And yet somehow she’d managed to twist my arm yet again.
We now stood around the thick tree trunk I used to cut the pieces of wood on top of. She looked out of place in her bright pink jacket, sizing up the smaller piece of wood I’d managed to find for her. Cassidy was staring at it with as much concentration as she did all the recipes Lori had given her recently. Shadow was laying on the porch, his head nestled on his paws as he napped.
“Okay so you swing over with all your might?” she asked enthusiastically.
I chuckled, imaging whatever that might’ve looked like to her. Cassidy had the height and build of a runway model and bulging muscles was not a part of her charm. She picked up the axe, and I took two steps forward. “Woah, there,” I chuckled. Where she lacked in strength, she made up with enthusiasm.
I wrapped my arms around her, assaulted by her sweet honeysuckle scent. My nose nuzzled into her cascading blonde curls, and I envisioned what it’d be like to wrap them around my knuckles and tug. My cock twitched. I cleared my throat and spaced my legs wider, shuffling her hands down the handle of the axe.
“Like this?” she asked breathlessly. I was curled around her tiny frame, neatly tucking her in my arms. If I curled in slightly more I’d be able to rest my chin on top of her head, almost tempted enough to do so. “This makes it harder.”
I found myself distracted by her smell, the blanket of cool air doing nothing to penetrate our collective heat. My cock twitched again, rubbing against her mid-back. Even holding her like this made my body react on its own. “What makes it harder?” I growled.
She licked her lips, looking up at me ever so slightly; her arms had gone limp around the handle; I was mostly holding the axe now. “You… holding me like this.” Those big blue eyes looked up at me through thick eyelashes. Fuck. My cock was throbbing as I stared at those plump lips, considering how they might feel around my swelling cock. “You make it hard to focus.”
Shamelessly, I wrapped my hand around her waist and pushed her back so she could feel the steel of my cock digging into her back. She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes filling with immediate lust. “That makes two of us, snowflake,” I growled.
She completely let go of the axe as she stood up on tippy toes, her back brushing against my cock as she wrapped a loose hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in. She strained to angle around, that heated gaze reeling me in silently. I crashed my mouth onto hers, losing all resolve.
A little moan escaped her as she twisted around fully and threw her hands around my neck, trying to pull me down further. With one arm still hanging loose with the axe, I bent over and rounded my other arm under her ass and lifted her, so she could hitch her legs around my waist.
Her hand tangled through my hair as her hips ground ever so slightly against me, her body pleading for what my cock throbbed for. I walked us into the cabin, consciously aware of the weapon in my hand. I hadn’t yet made it to the door when I pressed her against the wall, my cock pushing hard against her jeans.
She moaned and I become entirely lost in her. She kissed along my jaw, her hands snaking under my long-sleeved shirt, those devilish little nails dragging down hungrily. Shadow moved out of the way as I carefully dropped the axe at the entrance and carried her through to the sofa.
“Eric,” she moaned my name, her hot breath filling me. Were we out of our fucking minds? Her legs folded around me as I sat on the sofa, my cock straining painfully beneath my jeans. Our hands were everywhere, her little hips rocking back and forth, the friction killing us both.
Her tongue was razor sharp against soft lips. Cassidy acted like a starving animal. We’d both been deprived and this tension had been rolling through us for weeks now. I wrapped my hand around her throat, pulling her back and staring into her lust-filled gaze. She couldn’t move due to the way I handled her, but in the way she stared back with hooded eyes, I knew she fucking loved it. Those hips continued to try and work me through the jeans.
But I realized with sudden clarity that Cassidy was someone who would want more than just this. Sex I could do, but her obvious heart that showed beautifully and transparently wasn’t something I could return in full. She deserved better than that.
“I don’t have a condom,” I growled. “And you’re practicing celibacy.”
