“Turn around slowly.”

  Julia was perfection, as if a master sculptor had created exactly what God intended.

  Finders keepers.

  I dropped the flannel shirt and pulled the thermal one over my head. I’d removed my boots earlier, making it too easy to unbuckle my belt and quickly lose my jeans to the floor. Still wearing my silk boxers straining to contain my erection, I offered Julia my hand. Her energy flowed through our touch as I walked her to the rug before the fireplace. I didn’t say a word as she sat on the soft rug and lay back, lifting her arms over her head.

  She was a fucking angel come to earth.

  I didn’t deserve her.

  The calls I’d received warning me against marriage were right. The calls came from people who knew me. Julia didn’t know me and yet here she was laid out, a beautiful vivacious gift that I would never tire of nor return.

  In the light of the fire, lighter and darker shades of blond were visible in her hair. Such as the predator I was, I lowered myself to the rug and crawled over Julia until my lips were again claiming hers. Her hands came to my shoulders as her arms then wrapped around my neck.

  Her kiss tasted like wine.

  I prized myself away, letting my kisses rain lower, enjoying every inch of the flesh she offered me. Each nipple was licked, sucked, and nipped, leaving a peppering of goose bumps over her flesh. Her moans and whimpers superseded the crackling of the fire. I didn’t stop as my tongue found her core. One lick and I knew she was wet and ready.

  One lick and I wanted more.

  Spreading her knees farther apart, I buried my face where soon my cock would be.

  “Van.”

  She called out my name as her body writhed beneath my ministrations. Swirling her clit, I inserted two fingers into her tight pussy, creating a rhythm as her hips bounced in time. By the way her legs tightened around my head, I knew she was close. I curled my fingers and nipped her clit. The room filled with her wordless sounds as she came undone in my grasp.

  When her gaze met mine, a blushing smile filled her expression. “That was...”

  “Just the beginning.”

  “I’ve never come that hard with oral.”

  Butler was a dick.

  “Oh, there’s more to come.” I smiled. “Pun intended.”

  I stripped out of my boxer briefs and crawled back over her until our lips met. My tongue danced with hers. “See how good you taste?”

  More pink came to her cheeks, giving her a glow in the fire’s light.

  Carefully, I guided my cock to her warm and wet heaven. With my elbows near her face, I stared down at Julia, taking in her youth, her beauty, and her trusting gaze. “Keep your eyes open, Julia. I want to watch you come this time. Don’t look away.”

  Opening her eyes, she nodded.

  With each inch, my hunger grew until I slammed deep inside her. Her squeal reverberated through the room, giving me pause. “I want you so badly.”

  “Don’t stop.”

  I waited, giving her time to take me in. Even without moving, just having her tight walls contract around me was ecstasy.

  She nodded as her lips met mine. “Take me. I want all of you.”

  It was her repeated invitation, and I wasn’t going to turn her down. Pistoning my hips, I eased in and out, filling her with each thrust as she dug her fingernails into the rug’s fibers and held on.

  Her marvelous pussy, sensual noises, and expressions ranging from pain to bliss were feeding my hunger. Call me a chauvinist, but knowing that no one else had done this to her filled me with a caveman-like need to keep her here and never let her go.

  Julia’s eyelids fluttered as she held on to my neck, our noses touching.

  My balls grew tighter as I thrust faster, knowing she was again close and wanting to watch her display as she came.

  It was as her body stiffened that I saw the splendor in her eyes.

  That was the incentive I needed as I laid her shoulders back to the rug and lifted her bent legs to my shoulders. The sight before me was stunning. The end of my glistening cock was inside her wet pink pussy. Lifting her torso into my arms, I thrust upward.

  “Oh, Van.”

  Fuck, it felt good.

  In this position I was buried deeper than I’d been before.

  Julia’s youth and fitness allowed her the most satisfying flexibility. With her basically folded in half in my arms, my cock had the perfect angle as my hips pistoned with unabandoned need.

  Harder and harder.

  Faster and faster.

  This was the definition of insatiable desire.

  Her petite hands held tight to my neck as I continued recklessly staking my claim. It was as my orgasm built that she came again, her entire body trembling in my grasp. It had been so long since I’d engaged in sex fueled by pure desire that I’d forgotten the number-one rule of safety and precaution. As my seed pulsated out of me, filling her, I didn’t care.

  That caveman need wanted only one thing.

  To never let Julia go.

  Julia

  If men were supposed to reach their sexual peak at eighteen, I couldn’t imagine what Van had been like then. After a marathon session of incredible line-blurring sex, including but not limited to the rug, the sofa—over the arm of the sofa to be more precise, against the large windows, and with me balanced on the dining room table, we claimed satiation and exhaustion. As I stood on wobbly knees with evidence of our evening activities on my skin, Van slipped on his boxer briefs and handed me his flannel shirt with the sexiest damn grin.

  “I like you wearing that.”

  As I put my arms through the arm holes, I lingered, taking in the scent of his cologne and the softness of the material. “I like wearing it.”

  Reaching for my clothes, I felt the warmth in my cheeks. “So...I guess this is good night?”

  “I’m a lot of bad things, Julia. Despite my parents’ faults, they raised a gentleman.” He offered his arm. “May I escort you to your suite?”

  Giggling softly, I placed my hand in the crook of his bent arm. “You are a gentleman, Mr. Sherman.”

  “I’m not,” he said, as we ascended the staircase, “but I know how to act like one.”

  When we entered the sitting room of my suite, I tossed my clothes onto a chair. “Thank you for the escort.”

  His green orbs glistened with the desire from earlier. “If I stay in here, that blurred line will cease to exist.”

  “I believe after the dining room table, the line completely disappeared.” My gaze met his. “Did we clean the table?”

  He laughed. “Yes.”

  “I guess I was preoccupied.”

  Honestly, I wasn’t certain that I could physically handle more of what we’d done. My body was sore and worn out in the best of ways. I lifted myself up on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “We can talk about the line, if it still exists, in the morning.” I turned to go into the bathroom. Before I shut the door, I said, “Good night, Van.”

  This was my way of not being clingy. I wasn’t in the market for forever. Walking away, even to the bathroom, gave Van an out without either of us feeling abandoned.

  After taking care of business, cleaning myself, brushing my teeth and hair, and deciding to keep Van’s shirt as my nightgown, I opened the door. The sitting room was empty. Van was gone.

  I stood for a moment, contemplating his departure. There was nothing to overthink. I’d offered him the door, he took it. Besides, if we were to maintain any form of line, he’d made the right move.

  Turning off the lights, I made it back to the large bedroom when I heard a knock.

  ‘There are no people for miles...’

  His words from earlier left little confusion regarding who was at the door to my suite.

  When I opened the door, Van was standing with one arm on the doorjamb, looking sexy with his messy hair, five o’clock shadow, no shirt, and low-hanging blue jeans. “Yes?”

  “You forgot this.” He pulled my bra from behind his back.

  A smile came to my lips. “Oops.” I retrieved my bra.

  “I thought you might not want to leave it out for Margaret to find.”

  “Who’s Margaret?”

  “She’s Mrs. Mayhand’s daughter.”

  I was trying to remember. “The woman who cooks?”

  “Yes. She and Margaret come here every Friday morning. That’s tomorrow.”

  “Will she make it through the snow?”

  “It’s stopped. Margaret’s husband will be here in a few hours to plow my lane. I usually leave for the office before seven.” Van looked down at his shirt that I was wearing and back to me. “I wanted you to know because even though no one heard or saw us tonight, tomorrow, if you decide to go to the kitchen dressed as you are, you may run into Mrs. Mayhand or Margaret.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m glad you told me.”

  The clock on the bookcase said that it was nearly one in the morning. “Do you care if they know I’m here?”

  “They know.”

  I stood taller. “They do?”

  “Not who you are but that I have a houseguest.”

  “You’ll be gone?” I contemplated meeting these people without Van present. If I were to stay for a while, Fridays would come and go. Tomorrow, or today, was as good of a time as any. “I’ll be fully dressed before leaving the suite.”

  Van’s devilish grin returned. “As your employer, I am considering a dress code, a uniform.”

  Heat returned to my tired body. “We can discuss that and the invisible line tomorrow.”

  Van took a step closer, crossing the threshold and reaching for my face. “I have meetings tomorrow and am overbooked because of meetings I canceled for today.” He kissed my lips. “Never have I wanted to play hooky this badly.”

  I reached for his hand. “Did you turn off all the lights?”

  “The house is secure, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  My focus went to where our hands were connected. “Mr. Sherman, do you cuddle?”

  His eyes opened wide at my question. “Do I cuddle?”

  The answer seemed obvious in his surprised expression and the emphasis he’d placed on the word, yet I pushed. “Yes, do you cuddle or are you a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am type of man?”

  “Of late, I’m mostly neither. Historically, I would say wham-bam.”

  I tugged his hand toward the bedroom. “Tonight, you’ll cuddle.”

  “Remember my rule.”

  “I do. When it comes to sex, you lead the way. Tonight, you led the way many times. Now this isn’t sex. It isn’t even an invitation for more.” We were in the bedroom. “This is sleeping and cuddling.”

  His skeptical expression morphed. “I’m not declining your invitation. However, if I wake and your sexy body is there, I can’t promise cuddling won’t become sex.”

  I pulled back the covers on the far side of the bed and walked around to the nearer side and did the same. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I assessed the man staring at me. “Maybe instead of never enough, your memoir should be about your inability to respect boundaries.”

  “I respect them, Julia. I see them as challenges.”

  “Challenges you must overcome.”

  “Every challenge must be overcome.”

  “Turn off the light, Van. I want to go to sleep and since our employer-employee line has been obliterated, I want to cuddle. Come cuddle.”

  He didn’t argue as he turned off the light and climbed into the big bed beside me. The king-size bed was larger than the one in the cabin. We both moved toward the middle. “Thank you,” I said as I settled next to him. With my leg near his, I knew he’d taken off the blue jeans and was back to his boxer briefs.

  “Good night, Julia.”

  “Good night.” I fell asleep tucked in the fold of his strong arm, with my head on his chest as his heart thumped a lullaby.

  I woke to an empty bed and soreness in muscles that until recently I hadn’t known existed. Stretching on the soft sheets, I rolled to where Van had slept. With my head on his pillow, I inhaled, smelling his cologne. Beyond the windows, the sun shone, reflecting off the snow. Closing my eyes, I recalled last night.

  The dining room table had been an incredible experience. With me perched on the edge, my knees bent, and my feet on the table at my sides, I had a ringside view of our bodies coming together.

  I’d gone from never having sex to being fascinated by the sight of Van’s large cock moving in and out of me. He was both thick and long, thicker than Skylar. I wasn’t completely inexperienced; I’d seen an erect penis before. While Skylar and I never had intercourse, we’d done petting and oral.

  This was different. Seeing the stretched skin and veins all covered in our come and glistening under the dining room chandelier as Van moved in and out of me was satisfying and unbelievable at the same time. It would seem that the physics of what was happening was impossible; he was too big or I was too small, and yet we fit perfectly.

  Maybe the visual was why some people liked porn. It was one of the many things I’d never done—watched porn. But in my mind, what we’d done was different. I hadn’t watched two strangers or two actors. I was there, seeing our connection, hearing the noises we made, feeling his girth as he filled me, smelling his skin against mine, and tasting his kisses.

  I couldn’t have prized myself away.

  Even remembering the scene had my tired muscles clenching at nothing.

  The clock on the bedside said it was after nine. That meant that Van was at his office and there could be two women I didn’t know downstairs. If they knew I was here, they probably thought I was hiding.

  The truth was that I had slept a blissful sleep in Van’s arms.

  Unlike in the cabin, this time the air beyond the bed wasn’t frigid.

  In the bathroom, I unbuttoned his shirt. As I did, standing before the large mirror over the vanity, I saw red and pink splotches were visible on my neck and breasts. While I’d felt the coarseness of Van’s whiskers and enjoyed how they teased my sensitive skin, I hadn’t realized that they’d left their marks. I looked closer. My eyes opened wide, followed by my gaping mouth.

  I had a hickey.

  Oh my God, I hadn’t had a hickey since...I couldn’t remember.

  Has Skylar ever given me a hickey?

  I couldn’t recall. Gently, I palpated the skin as my smile bloomed. Being that the small bruise was on my breast, it would be easy to hide.

  Am I crazy that I’m not angry that Van has left behind a mark?

  Should I be upset?

  I wasn’t at all.

  Yes, our line had been blurred to the point of obliteration. And yet, as I stepped under the warm water within the glass shower, I had no regrets.

  I was an adult woman who made a choice on her own, based on her own desires. Regret was the farthest thought from my mind as I washed my hair and gently washed my body. Being here, just outside Ashland, in Van’s large house was where I wanted to be.

  Today was Friday.

  I’d walked out on my forever a week ago. Last Friday night was when I’d left my engagement ring on the counter. It was the last time I’d spoken to my best friend. I contemplated the timeline, following the white ribbon and spending time in Ashland before the interview.

  The days blurred, just like Van’s and my line.

  Thoughts of the canceled wedding came like lead weights pulling me down into the depths of the Great Lake. I imagined the wedding dress my mother and I had selected—another weight. The large venue, flowers, and decorations—more weights. The guest list—hundreds more. My forced smile as I took my vows—the anchor was large enough to keep an ocean liner from moving.

  I hadn’t even realized how close I’d been to drowning.

  Now, instead of sinking, for the first time, I spread my wings and flew, soaring through the cobalt blue sky. Possibilities I never imagined were before me. Feelings I never realized I was missing were coursing through me.

  Van’s and my attraction was new and exciting.

  Surely with time it would fade.

  It wasn’t as if we’d have marathon sex sessions every night forever.

  Besides, I wasn’t looking for forever.

  With my hair dried and secured in a low ponytail, minimal makeup, and wearing a long sweater, soft stretch pants, and warm socks, all covering any marks Van had left behind, I reached for my laptop bag. As I did, I saw the note.

  * * *

  Julia,

  There’s no rush. Feel free to relax all day. After all, you (and I) were rather active last night. I’m not sorry I woke you. You’re so damn responsive, I couldn’t help myself.

  * * *

  Warmth crept up my cheeks.

  I had thought that was a dream. Unlike the other times, during the night, our middle-of-the-night connection was slow and sweet, the lovemaking phase after the fucking. The memories returned as I’d held on to him as we both reached our peaks and floated back to earth.

  I continued to read:

  * * *

  The information I promised you to use to write the memoir is now in the library. Feel free to make that room your study or office. I’ll try to be home at a decent hour. After all, we have a line to erase, or was it discuss?

  I can’t recall. I’m having trouble concentrating on this note with you in the next room.

  Have a good day,

  Van

  * * *

  I picked up the laptop bag and stuffed his note inside. Opening the door of the suite, I was off to find a late breakfast and the library. Maybe Mrs. Mayhand or Margaret could help.

  Van

  My thoughts continually circled back to the beautiful woman I’d found in the freezing snowstorm. I wasn’t a man who saved people or did anything without the promise of reciprocation. That knowledge alone had me questioning myself and my motives.

  What do I want?

  Do I want to keep Julia?

  Do I want her to see me as others don’t, as someone who saves instead of destroys?