Her face flushes, and she looks down at her hands. "It's embarrassing."
"I just told you about my wife abandoning our daughter. I think we're past embarrassing."
She laughs softly, then takes a breath. "I fell for the wrong man. His name was Richard. We worked together at a veterinary practice in Denver. He was one of the senior partners, I was an associate. We started dating, and I thought... I thought it was real. He told me he loved me, that we'd build a practice together, that I was different from everyone else."
Her voice goes bitter on that last part.
"Turns out he had a wife. And three kids. In the suburbs." She looks up at me, and there's pain in her eyes. "I found out eight months into the relationship when his wife showed up at the clinic. She knew about me. Apparently, I wasn't the first, but she wanted to make sure I knew about her."
"Jesus, Marley."
"My friends told me I should stay in the city, ignore what happened, keep living my life. But I couldn't." She wraps her arms around herself. "I felt like an awful person for almost ruining a family, even though I didn't know. And I felt stupid for believing his lies. I needed a new challenge, a new place to start fresh and be my own person without judgment."
"Why a small town?" I ask. "Why Blackwater Falls specifically? This place isn't exactly thriving. We've got the Savage Riders MC clubhouse on the outskirts, half the businesses on Main Street are boarded up—"
"I have no idea, honestly." She smiles slightly. "When I was looking at places to move, Blackwater Falls just... popped up. Felt right. And it was one of the few places I could actually afford to buy a property and start my own practice." She pauses. "Maybe it was the 'Black' in the name that attracted me. I was in a pretty dark phase."
I can't help but chuckle at that. "Black for a dark phase. That's some poetic irony."
"Right?" She looks up at the clear blue sky. "Do you believe in destiny, Tucker?"
"I don't know. Do you?"
"I never did. My father taught me to believe only in what I could see and touch. Science, facts, evidence. But lately..." She trails off. "Lately I've started to think there might be something else. Whatever it is... The universe, God, destiny, I'm starting to have faith in it."
I look at her sitting there on the blanket, the sunlight in her hair, those lips curved in a small smile…
"You make me want to believe in everything," I say.
She blushes and adjusts her glasses. "I'm not used to getting compliments."
"I'm not used to giving them." I lean back on my hands. "I haven't been on a date in so long I've forgotten how to act. Pretty sure I'm screwing this up."
"You're not." She smiles at me, "You're doing great, Tucker."
We finally start eating. The sandwiches I made, the pasta salad, some grapes and strawberries Marley packed. I try to focus on the food, on the conversation, on anything other than how beautiful she looks sitting across from me.
But then she picks up a strawberry and bites into it, and I watch her plump lips wrap around the fruit, sucking the juice, her tongue darting out to catch what drips down her chin.
Fuck.
My mind goes places it absolutely should not go. Places involving those lips wrapped around my cock, sucking, those gentle brown eyes looking up at me from below while I thread my fingers through her hair and—
I need to fucking stop.
But I can't stop. Can't stop imagining what she'd look like naked, all those curves on display. Her soft skin under my rugged, work-worn hands. It's such a mismatch. She’s smooth and perfect, and I’m rough and scarred, but I'd treat her right. I'd worship every inch of her.
Unless she asked me to be rough. Then I'd unleash everything on her. Pin her down, make her beg, show her exactly what years of pent-up desire feels like when it finally breaks free.
My cock is straining against my jeans now, hard and throbbing, and I shift uncomfortably on the blanket. I feel like a fucking teenager who's never had sex before, about to explode just from watching a woman eat fruit.
I still have desires, of course. I'm not dead. But I usually just take care of them in the shower, quick and efficient, thinking about nothing in particular. I don't remember the last time I got a hard-on in front of someone, let alone someone I actually want.
Images keep flooding my mind. Marley naked beneath me, those full breasts in my hands, her thighs wrapped around my waist. The sounds she'd make when I push inside her, the way she'd gasp my name—
"Tucker?"
I startle, nearly dropping my sandwich. "What?"
