He crawled over top of me and started kissing me gently, getting me riled up all over again when I didn’t even think I could. He murmured sweet nothings into my ear as he kissed up and down my neck, licking and sucking lightly as he went before doing the same to each breast until I was writhing beneath him, but this time there weren’t any words shared between us, just this burning fire in both of our gazes as he held eye contact with me and slipped his hard cock back inside me. This time, he wasn’t brutal. This was a claiming in an entirely different way, and I couldn’t let my mind dwell on it too much because if I did, I might cry from the intensity of it all. He thrust into me in rhythmic, slow movements that made tears spring behind my eyes. I was so close to unraveling underneath him all over again, and I didn’t know if I could handle it.
“Let go for me, sweetheart,” he murmured against my lips, and my whole body was so full of pleasure with nowhere left to go. I cried out as it rushed over me in waves, so strong my vision blurred at the edges. His body stiffened after a few more thrusts as he spilled into me, and he started murmuring gentle praises in my ear. That was when I noticed he wiped a tear away from my cheek.
I was so thoroughly fucked, both metaphorically and physically, because I knew in that moment, all I could see were the strings between us.
Lachlan had taken quite a bit of time off from the firehouse to focus on the Christmas tree farm these last two weeks. Families were still trickling in from the post-festival buzz, but I knew that wasn’t the real reason he’d stepped back from work. No, that was far less wholesome. The man had laid me out and fucked me on nearly every surface of this place. The cabin. The office. The back of his damn pickup truck. We hadn’t been able to keep our hands—or mouths—off each other since my parents had left. The only place we hadn’t done it was out in the woods, and I was fairly certain the only thing stopping us was the cold temperatures.
But beneath all of the mind-blowing sex, quiet dread had begun to settle in my chest, like frost creeping along the edges of the windowpane. Christmas was tomorrow. The rush had slowed. The tree farm had fallen into a calm, post-season lull the last few days. And now that everything was quiet, it was harder to pretend I didn’t know what was coming.
After officer Miller, had seen us all together at the festival—Lachlan and me with my parents—all smiling like some picture-perfect Christmas card, they’d all backed off. No more patrols had stopped by the house. No more questions. Everything had been quiet.
Lachlan had plans now for the farm. Events, workshops, cozy seasonal fun that would bring in money during the slower seasons. His life was back on track.
Which meant our lie had done its job.
We were supposed to let this go.
But I hadn’t. Not really. I’d just clung harder to whatever time I had left.
And today had made it harder than ever.
We’d picked out a Christmas tree this morning, turning the whole thing into a date that hadn’t felt fake at all. Lachlan had told me he hadn’t put a tree up in his house since he’d started this whole business, since he was surrounded by trees all day and it hadn’t been like he had family visiting for the holidays, so I’d told him we would remedy that, even if we only kept it up for a week. I’d wanted to experience that with him.
We’d laughed over coffee, dragged the tree home together, and made cookies from scratch in the kitchen. I’d meant to tease him about sampling every single one of them, but when I’d looked over and seen the way he’d kept taking a small bite from each, the warmth in my chest had shifted. It wasn’t about being careful anymore. I trusted him. I hadn’t realized that shift had happened until today. There’d been no need to test them. But he’d still done it to make me feel safe and it had undone me. Had filled my chest with heat so heavy, it had ached.
Then we’d done all the decorating. We’d strung up the lights and ornaments, the radio playing soft, vintage Christmas songs in the background. He’d even suggested we make our own bulbs—little DIY crafts with glitter and paint that had felt silly and perfect in the same breath. I’d watched him fiddle with his longer than necessary, fingers careful, brow furrowed. I’d assumed he was just getting overly precious with it, wanting to make it just right. It had been adorable to watch this hulking lumberjack of a man do arts and crafts.
And now, as I stood off to the side, arms wrapped around my middle, I watched him in the glow of the Christmas lights. He danced in front of the big front window with Tony as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” played softly through the speaker. He held Tony’s front legs gently, swaying with him in clumsycircles while the tree glowed behind them, and I felt something crack open in my chest.
It was too much.
Too sweet. Too good.Too real.
The day had been perfect—every moment soaked in the kind of warmth I’d stopped believing I deserved. And as I stood there, watching the man I wasn’t supposed to love slow dance with my dog that he still claimed was a pain in his ass in front of our Christmas tree, I felt my throat tighten. I swallowed hard, blinking fast against the sudden sheen in my eyes.
This was everything I had ever wanted. And it was all borrowed time. I’d soak up my last days before I packed my things to leave. But until then, I’d enjoy this.
Lachlan walked to the back door with Tony, letting him outside, and then he turned to me, his eyes roving over my body as he moved toward me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, biting my lip, already noticing the heat in his gaze. He grabbed the extra set of Christmas tree lights that we hadn’t used for the tree from the couch and gripped them in his fist.
“I want to have a little fun,” he said as he kissed me and slowly started taking off my clothes. I moaned into his mouth at the plans I could imagine sifting through his head. Once we were both naked, we stumbled over to the couch, where he tied me up with the lights and teased me until I was breathless, and then he inserted that damn toy and turned it on.
I couldn’t touch him with the binds on my wrists and it was just as infuriating as it was hot. He moved me until I was straddled over his lap, completely at his mercy. I could feel his hard cock as it ran against the part of the toy that was on my clit. All I could do was try to grind into him, but without him being inside me and the use of my hands to be able to keep my balance, it felt hopeless. He watched me squirm as the vibration of thetoy and the glide of his cock against me drove me into madness. I was aching to be filled. He played with me until I cried out in pleasure as he sucked and nipped at both of my nipples.
Then he gripped my waist, lined up the head of his cock at my entrance, and slowly sank me down on top of him. I groaned at how full I felt with him and the toy inside me. He changed up the vibrations again before he gripped my hips and started pumping in perfect rhythm with me on his cock. I fell apart again and again. Soon, I was so full of pleasure, I felt like it just kept climbing and climbing. I didn’t think I’d be able to come again. The room filled with the slapping sounds of our damp skin as he continued to grip my hips and thrust me down on him and our moans of pleasure. Fuck, I loved it when Lachlan was vocal for me, letting me know even though he wasn’t the one bound and at my mercy, I was still making him tremble. It was too much and not enough all at once.
“Give me one more, sweetheart.”
“I can’t. I—”
“You will,” he growled and shoved a hand between us to put more pressure on the toy against my clit, making the vibrations and the next thrust of his cock send me over the edge. I cried out and couldn’t hold myself upright anymore, my head landing on his shoulder as I panted into his neck. With his next thrust, he was cursing into my neck as his cock pulsed inside me with his release.
We stayed there panting for what felt like forever. I was beginning to feel the ache in my wrists and shoulders from the lights. When Lachlan finally untied me and we untangled from each other, I was sure he was going to need a new couch after the mess we had made on it.
The next morning, I could already feel the distance between us. Lachlan was gone for work by the time I rolled out of bed. I made coffee, but we didn’t get to have it together this morning, and I pretended the ache in my chest was just the caffeine withdrawal.
I worked for a while, answering emails I didn’t care about, then took Tony for his morning walk. The world was still and cold and reminded me a lot of how I currently felt. I couldn’t stop thinking about the inevitable conversation that Lachlan and I would have to have.The talk.The one we’d both been tiptoeing around since my parents had left. There had been multiple moments I’d thought it would come up, but then the topic would change and we’d both continue to act like it wasn’t there. But I knew there were only so many times you could ignore the elephant in the room.
