When they had finished their dinner and were walking back along Main Street, they passed by the club and Aubrey faltered for a moment as she looked up to it and seemed to be in awe.

  “It’s a massive building, isn’t it,” she said as if she were thinking out loud.

  “It sure is,” he smiled. “When I was a kid, it felt like an absolute palace… In fact, at one point, I even found it kind of scary.”

  He laughed and so did she.

  “But I didn’t just tell you that,” he winked.

  “I wonder how Mia is getting on,” she mused. “At least it’s still standing and isn’t a pile of ash on the ground.”

  Carter laughed but the uncomfortable feeling returned, and he was glad when Aubrey carried on walking and she rounded a corner away from Main Street and into the more residential areas.

  She stopped when she reached the glass door of a small apartment building. Carter looked up and could see there were maybe only three floors and it looked fresh and clean as if it had been recently refurbished.

  “Why don’t you come inside?” she asked him, playfully as she held his hand and walked toward the door.

  Carter smiled and leaned in to kiss her. She tasted incredible, and each time he was so close to her and his lips met with hers, he felt himself falling deeper.

  He didn’t want to leave her there, and he knew there was no way he was going to walk away…

  He may have just had the best date of his entire life.

  Aubrey was one hell of a game-changer.

  12.

  Upstairs in her apartment, Aubrey opened some wine and they sat down on the couch and locked their legs together before they chinked their glasses together.

  It had been such an incredible few day, and now they had been on such a romantic date, she didn’t want the evening to end.

  Each time she looked at him she felt herself becoming more and more turned on. He did things to her that no other man had ever done. Just looking into his eyes made her ache for him. Her nipples became hard and her heart fluttered. She wanted to taste all of him.

  He took her glass from her and placed it down on the coffee table alongside his and then he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her hard on the mouth. She had been waiting for this moment since the second she had lay eyes on him. She eased herself back into the couch cushions and pulled him toward her, so his body was pressed on top of hers and she could run her hands up and down his torso, she dug her nails into his back over the top of his shirt and moaned as he gasped and pressed down on her harder.

  She opened her legs so he could climb closer and he reached down between her legs and slid a hand up to the buttons on her pants, slowly but with longing and need. Aubrey moaned as he hooked his fingers into her waistband and into her panties and pulled them down so he could work his hand in further and find her engorged pussy, which was already soaking wet and desperate for him.

  As his fingertips found her opening, he dipped one inside of her slowly. She was so wet for him; he grunted with approval, and when he pulled it out, he stroked her slowly, slicking her juices up and down her clit to bring her as close to coming as he could. Aubrey threw her head back and gasped, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and bit her lip. He was so strong, and his hands were all over her, pleasuring her and making her hot and on the verge of tipping over the edge at any moment. She held onto him tightly and could barely control herself any longer when suddenly, he teasingly took his hand away, rose to his feet and pulled her with him before he picked her up, and slung her over his shoulder.

  “Where’s your bedroom?” he panted.

  Aubrey motioned to one of the doorways off the main hall and Carter walked with her, kicked her bedroom door open and threw her down on the bed. She lay there waiting for him, and he pulled her free from her pants and tore her panties to the side and threw them down on the floor. She watched as he reached for his shirt and began to unbutton and pull it off over his chest. He threw it down and when she looked up at his incredible muscles and his tanned physique, she gasped again. He looked so sexy and strong, and she saw that on his left arm, he had the tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon. She held her breath as she watched him work downward to his belt buckle. He undid it with a snap and unbuttoned his jeans, pulling them down to reveal the biggest, most impressive cock she had ever seen.

  He took hold of her by the knees and pushed them back as he climbed between them, and as he put his weight down on top of her she felt the power within him. He was like an animal. He was so strong and dominant she knew that she was completely at his mercy. He reached down and took hold of himself and positioned himself at the opening of her slick, juicy pussy before he looked into her eyes. He was going to take her, and she was so full of anticipation that she could barely breathe.

  He slowly and powerfully slid his entire length inside her.

  As she wrapped her legs around him and he began to thrust in and out of her at just the right pace, Aubrey threw her head back and clung to the headboard. He was opening her in ways she had never been before, and his power and the way he was able to dominate her was so perfectly frightening; it was a turn-on. She moaned with delight as she dug her feet into the base of his back, driving him deeper inside of her as he grunted and groaned and she felt the heat in his skin get more intense and feverish.

  Carter was like nothing she had ever known. It was as if he knew exactly where to touch her and how… He was meant just for her, and their bodies were meant to fit together, it was so incredible that she never wanted it to end.

  He pumped himself in and out of her, hard and fast, and just when Aubrey didn’t think she could handle his immense girth anymore, Carter’s body tensed, his thighs pinning her down into the mattress as he grunted hard and came, hot and heavy inside of her.

  Aubrey trembled beneath him, Carter was reaching new depths and it felt incredible, as he kissed her neck, he thrust into her one final time and she spiraled out of control and over the edge. Her orgasm tore through her, her whole body quivering as she unraveled beneath him. She bucked her hips and gasped and moaned, his slick muscles pressed down on her and she bit her lip and screamed as she came hard again and again.

  When she was completely spent and couldn’t take it any longer, he slowly withdrew and held her neck as he kissed her gently on the lips. He was trembling too, but as they looked into each other’s eyes, she felt something change between them. They were bonded deeply, more than she had ever been to someone she had slept with.

  “That was incredible,” he panted as he kissed her again. “It was so right.”

  Aubrey couldn’t even speak, she was still in the throes of too much pleasure, but as Carter cradled her in his arms, she knew right then and there that she had found something life changing.

  She had been in doubt when they had met, but there was no turning away now. Carter had been sent to her, and she had the feeling he was going to completely change her life.

  13.

  Aubrey looked at her watch as she skipped away from the office and made her way toward her mom’s house. Another couple of days had passed by at work and she had been up in the clouds during all of them. Her colleagues had commented on how happy and excited she seemed, and she didn’t know how she had managed to keep her time with Carter to herself. But she was a private person, and she didn’t want to be grilled and become the office gossip. She was enjoying every moment that she spent with him, and to have this just for the two of them.

  They had spent hours on the phone each night, talking about their hopes and dreams. They met up once or twice a day, discussed the Martin Hall disappearance and looked into things that they thought could be good leads. But it was proving harder than she had thought it would be, and he was becoming less and less eager to talk about it. It was a good job their passion was high, and they could barely keep their hands off each other. Every time her phone pinged, and she saw his name her pussy tingled at the thought of what he could do to her and how she knew he could make her feel. They had found something so unique and powerful, and it were as if they had known each other for a lifetime. She was already in deep. She had let him break down her barriers when it had come to being unsure of whether she could do a relationship, but every time they were together it became obvious that they had something so pure and special, and she was falling harder and harder for him each day.

  He had texted her during the day, almost every hour, and had filled her in on everything he was doing. He lived an exciting life, that much was obvious. He was constantly on the go, doing things for the club and working with a group of guys he seemed to treat like family. He spent a lot of his time out in the wilderness, which she loved, especially as she had been right about him being the outdoors type. He called her on his hikes and told her he was sitting by clear blue lakes and thinking about her, begging her to take the day off and to come out with him.

  She wished she could… she truly did… but she couldn’t risk losing her job. Even though, for Carter, it would be totally worth it…

  On the nights he was working, Aubrey would venture down and sit at the bar with him, their legs tangled up together as he did the books and she tapped her foot to the music. It was fresh and exciting, and just being there with him, watching him in his element made her fall for him ever harder. If she couldn’t be there, he would text her from the club and tell her about what was happening. Mia had been settling in well, and he thought she was a good worker, and Victor seemed impressed with her too. This had given Aubrey the best feeling to know that her friend had finally seemed to have found a working environment that suited her and where she was appreciated. She hoped this would be a turning point for her, and from now on, she would have a stable workplace and not have to worry.

  Carter had fast become the first person she spoke to in the mornings and the last person she spoke to before she went to sleep. He sent her fun messages, jokes, and memes; he just seemed to get her humor and get her in general, and she never felt as if she was trying with him, they just seemed to click together effortlessly.

  She thought about him all the time… He was deep inside her mind, and when they weren’t tangled up together in bed she could still feel him inside of her, as if he had left a part of himself there and she was going to hold on to it forever. It had been the most fun she had had in a long time, but because of it she had also neglected to spend as much time as she normally did with her mother. Since she had told Carter about her father and what had happened to him, she had been missing her mom more and more and really felt they hadn’t been together as much lately, even if they still saw each other several times a week and spoke every day.

  When she turned the corner and saw her family home at the end of the small, quiet street, she smiled and felt warm inside. Her mother’s car was parked in the driveway and the flowers in the window baskets were bright and blooming with the most incredible colors.

  “Hi, Mom!” she called as she opened the front door and went inside. The delicious smell of cooking was wafting through the house and Aubrey knew, in an instant, that it was her mother’s legendary roast chicken.

  “Hello, darling,” her mom said as she wandered down the hallway and wrapped her arms around Aubrey’s neck and breathed her in. They hugged each other and Aubrey felt like a kid all over again, coming home from school and jumping up for hugs before telling her mom about her day with her friends.

  “You’re looking well,” her mom said as they wandered into the kitchen and sat down at the island in the center of the room.

  “Thank you,” Aubrey smiled. “You do too.”

  Her mom looked at her suspiciously and then raised her eyebrow.

  “You look different,” she said as she narrowed her eyes with a mischievous grin. “Brighter and fuller of energy.”

  Aubrey shrugged and tried to play it down.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said half-joking.

  “It’s a man,” her mom said, holding up her finger as if she had just solved the crime of the century. “I can tell… You never were very good at hiding when you had a crush.”

  “This is more than a crush,” Aubrey said as she sighed back against the back of the barstool and dreamily looked off into the distance. “I think this may be… the one.”

  When she said the words, she wanted to slap her hands over her mouth to stop anything else sappy from escaping… but it was the truth.

  Her mother’s eyes widened, and she stared at Aubrey.

  “Well, it’s a good job you’ve come to see me,” she said as she patted the countertop and reached for an uncorked bottle of wine that was to the side of her. “Because we clearly have a lot to discuss.”

  She poured her and Aubrey a glass and slid it over to her daughter. Then she headed for the cabinets to grab plates so they could eat.

  “Oh Mom,” Aubrey sighed. “We really do… you have no idea.”

  Once they had finished eating and were clearing the plates away, Aubrey noticed how quiet her mom seemed to become. They had spent the whole of the past two hours talking about Carter, and she had divulged as much information as she could without giving away too much of her privacy. Her mom seemed genuinely excited and pleased for her and had even remarked at how she had recently been worried that Aubrey would never consider falling in love because she had always been so independent and was so good at looking after herself.

  Aubrey had agreed with her, but she explained how Carter had opened her mind to the possibilities of spending a life with someone else. She could still take care of herself, but she could spend time with him too and see how they merged their lives.

  But now, after all of the exciting discussion, she could see that her mother had gone quiet and even looked a little sad.

  “Are you okay?” Aubrey asked as she went and stood beside her.

  Her mom turned to face her, and her eyes looked full of emotion, but it was hard to tell if it was happy or sad.

  “I’m fine,” her mom said as she took hold of Aubrey’s hand. “Just hearing you talk about Carter like that reminded me of how I felt when I met your dad.”

  Aubrey smiled.

  “It’s true when they say that you know when you meet the right person,” she continued. “I knew it when I met your dad, and it sounds like you know it now.”

  She gave Aubrey’s hand a reassuring little squeeze.

  “I want you to enjoy every moment,” her mom said.

  Aubrey hugged her and was so glad to be there with her. She always felt her best when she was at home spending time with her mother, it was almost as if she felt guilty for having given so much of her time to Carter. Seeing how supportive her mom was being of her mom made it even sadder that she was without her dad.

  “I’ve been thinking about dad a lot,” Aubrey admitted. “I was wondering if you’d mind if I went and looked through some of the old boxes of his things in the attic?”

  Her mom looked over her shoulder and smiled.

  “Of course, you can,” she said. “The door’s unlocked up there, just head on up.”

  Aubrey stepped into the hallway and went up the first set of stairs to the center of the house where her mom’s bedroom, her old one which she still slept in when she would come to stay over the holidays, and the spare rooms which had long been turned into art studios and rest areas for her mom to enjoy her hobbies were.

  She looked at the foot of the stairs that led up to the attic floor, and she breathed in deeply before she strode forward and made her way up to the top of the house. As her mom had told her, the key was in the door at the top of the stairs and it was unlocked. She pushed it open and stepped inside and instantly a rush of memory hit her. The attic still smelled exactly the same ‒ a mix of essential oils and paint which her mom stored up there, along with their Christmas decorations and her dad’s belongings which they had never been strong enough to let go of.

  She closed the door slightly behind her as she stepped in. She looked up and around and the sights came flashing back to her, memories burst into her head as she saw little trinkets and ornaments that had been placed up there but had once lived downstairs in the main body of the house. Her mother was so good at decorating and keeping the place feeling fresh, but she rarely did ever throw anything away. She loved to keep the pieces of her past, even if it meant storing them up in the dusty attic.

  Aubrey found the boxes with her father’s belongings and she opened one of them and started to leaf through old notebooks and pictures. She could still recognize his handwriting anywhere, and she loved the fact that her dad had spent some of his spare time writing stories and jotting down notes on things he planned to write when he had some spare time. She remembered the fantastical stories he used to tell her before bed about the wolves and bears who roamed the woods around Lone Reach and the dragons who protected the mountains. She moved to the next box and opened it to see some of the magazines he had collected over the years. He had been a lover of the outdoors and a keen fisherman. Her mom had told her plenty of stories of how he used to go up to the lakes that were dotted around the mountain to hunt, and she couldn’t help but think of Carter and how maybe he had been somewhere her father had once been when he had called her earlier that week.

  She put the lids back on the boxes, and when she moved to the last one, opening it wide, her gaze was instantly drawn to a picture that was framed and sitting on top of the rest of the items.

  Aubrey felt her brow furrow as she reached in and picked it up, and when she held it out in front of her, it felt as if the floor was falling away beneath her.

  It was a photograph of her father up somewhere in the wilderness, and he was standing with some men… but it was one man in particular who caught her attention… A man who looked incredibly like Carter. She swallowed and held it closer to her face. Barely daring to breathe. This man was clearly not Carter, but he looked like an older version, maybe it was his father? He had to be a relation in some way.