Page 25 of Oops I Fell For The Lumberjack Next Door

"Maybe not. But blaming you for it was." She meets my eyes. Direct. Red rimmed. Open. "I'm sorry, Briggs. For fifteen years of a story that was never true."

My chest breaks open. Quietly, somewhere deep, a fracture that's been holding for a decade and a half finally gives. I reach across the table. Take her hands. Her fingers lace through mine, warm from the mug, trembling.

"I need to tell you something else."

"Okay."

"I fell for you in college. Before Ryan ever did. Sophomore year. You walked into our dorm room with an armload of books, you laughed at something I said about the dining hall, and I forgot how to breathe. But you were already with him. And I was loyal to a man who didn't deserve it. So I buried it."

Her lips part. A small sound. Her hands tighten on mine.

"I've loved you for fifteen years, Margot. Every version. The twenty year old with the glasses and the books. The woman who drove three hundred miles with a cat and a bottle of Merlot. The one who told me to go to hell on her broken porch. All of them. Every single one."

She stands up. Comes around the table. Puts her hands on my face. Her palms are warm. Her thumbs trace my jaw, my beard, the bones underneath.

"I love you." Her voice is raw. Wrecked. Beautiful. "I love you, Briggs Holloway. I love you, and I'm sorry it took me fifteen years to see you clearly."

She kisses me. Both hands on my face, mouth on mine, pouring every apology and declaration into a single act. My arms wrap around her. Pull her down onto my lap. She straddles me in the kitchen chair, her chest against mine, fingers in my hair.

"Take me to bed." Against my mouth.

I stand with her. Her legs wrap around my hips. Down the hall to my bedroom, the bed I've slept in alone for eight years, the room that smells like woodsmoke.

She unwraps her legs, stands, pulls the tank top over her head. No bra. Her breasts are heavy, beautiful, and I cup them with both hands. Thumbs rolling over her nipples until she arches into me.

The sweatpants come off. No underwear. She came over in pajamas with nothing underneath, which means she walked through those trees knowing exactly where this was going.

My clothes follow. Shirt. Jeans. Boxer briefs. She looks at me. All of me. Her eyes track down my chest, my stomach, my cock already hard, and her lips part.

She reaches for me. Wraps her hand around my shaft. Strokes once, base to tip, her thumb circling the head. My hips jerk forward.

"On the bed." Her voice has dropped. Low, certain. "Sit against the headboard."

I do what she says. Back against the headboard, legs out. She climbs onto me, straddling my lap, knees on either side of my hips. My cock presses against her stomach. Her pussy is wet against my thigh, and the heat of her drives rational thought from my head.

"Condom." I reach for the nightstand drawer. Roll it on while she watches, lip caught between her teeth. Then her hand wraps around me again, positions me at her entrance, and she sinks down.

Slow. Inch by inch. Taking me all the way in while her forehead drops to mine, eyes closed, mouth open on a sound that comes from somewhere deep. She's tight. Wet. Every nerve ending in my body is focused on the place where she's wrapped around me.

She starts moving. Rolling her hips in a slow grind that has me gripping her waist hard enough to leave marks. My mouth finds her breast. Tongue circling her nipple, sucking, teeth grazing. She gasps, grinds harder.

"God, Briggs. Right there."

My hands guide her hips. Lifting her, pulling her back down. She plants her hands on my shoulders, riding me faster, her breasts bouncing with every stroke. One hand slides between us. My thumb finds her clit, slick, swollen. Circles it with firm pressure.

Her rhythm falters. Speeds up. Her nails dig into my shoulders.

"I'm close." Breathless. Forehead against mine.

My thumb presses harder. Circles faster. My hips thrust up to meet her on every stroke, driving deep. She clenches around me so tight my vision blurs.

"Come for me, Margot."

She falls apart. Body arching back, head tipped, mouth open on a cry that fills my bedroom. Her pussy pulses around my cock in waves, and I follow her over. Burying deep. Hands locked on her hips. Emptying into her with a groan that comes from the center of my chest.

She collapses against me. Sweaty. Shaking. My arms around her, holding her steady. Her face buried in my neck. Both of us breathing hard in the warm quiet of a room that hasn't been this alive in years.

"Stay." My voice is rough. "Not tonight. Stay. Here. With me."