“Stone,” she said again, as though my name was the only thing left inside her. Mind too full, s, t, o, n, e seeping through the cracks in her skull.
Stone, Stone, Stone, I imagined her thinking.
My name was no longer mine, but a siren’s sword.
Then she placed her hands on my waist, keeping me still as she lifted onto her toes. She kissed along my jawline, seducing me—a man who had never been seduced before by a woman. I held the back of her head, feeling her mouth slide along my skin with naked lust.
Circe, Circe, Circe,I was thinking as her warm fingers slipped inside my coat and under my shirt, meeting my skin. When she kissed my neck, I dropped my head back and closed my eyes. It was all intoxicating.
Until she pushed me up against the tree.
The action stirred something within me.
Memories of the bark at my back.
The burn.
She kissed my neck, and it snatched me up, taking me back tothe twine of the grain sack cutting into my throat.
She kissed my neck,my feet scraping the earth.
I returned to that summer night,hanging from the tree, desperate for the ground, with sweat sliding down my face.
It was all too familiar. “We should be on our way.”
Her wet mouth slid across my throat, sending shivers through me as she dropped her hand to the front of my pants.
She latched on to the button, holding me hostage.
My mind screamed, and I dropped my hand to her tiny ones.
With my pulse racing, I paused her for a moment.
I curled my fingers, ready to throw her across the snow and into a tree.
But then her lips left my neck so she could look me in the eyes.
She pressed her forehead to mine.
We stood there in the cold, my hands clasped firmly to hers, my last link to control.
She knew I didn’t fuck under the sun.
She also knew whattheyhad done to me.
She knew, but she was here, and I was here, and somehow I trusted her.
Then my hand slipped away.
The sound of my zipper descending struck a chord somewhere inside me.
My jaw flexed, and I swiped a palm down my face, collecting fear.
I’m still afraid, I once told her.
My pants were hanging off my waist.
One tug and they would fall.
