“Imagine what we might have been in another life,” I murmured, the air in the car coiling with tension and heartache and so much damn longing that it actually fucking hurt to breathe it in.
“I wish it could have been this life,” she said, her voice cracking a little as a tear slid down her cheek, glimmering wetly in the faint starlight. “Goodbye, Nash.”
“Goodbye, princess,” I rasped, frozen to the spot as she reached for the door handle and let herself out.
I watched as she walked away through the trees towards the cabin with cracks forming all over my skin and breaking open as the first person I’d cared about in a hell of a long time walked away from me and the foundations of my soul were rocked apart by each step she took.
I cranked the ignition, threw the car into reverse and managed to get it turned around with some manoeuvring between the trees, possibly denting my door in the process and not giving one shit.
I just needed to get away from here. From her. From the fucking ache in my chest and that look in her big eyes which told me this whole damn thing was on me. That it was my choice. That I was the one turning my back on her. On us.
I tore down the dirt track way too fast, aiming for the road at the end of it and some kind of relief to this all-encompassing grief as I turned away from her for the final time. Left her behind. Gave up on the only shot I’d really had at something good in so fucking long that I couldn’t even remember the last time.
What the fuck am I doing?
My foot slammed down on the brake and I jerked into the seatbelt as the car skidded to a halt half way down the track. I barely even thought about what I was doing as I threw the car into reverse and twisted in my seat to look out the rear window at the dark track and accelerated up it as fast as I could, squinting to see.
When I made it back to the end of it, I yanked on the parking brake, ripped my belt off and threw the car door wide as I leapt out. I didn’t even bother to close the door behind me as I ran through the trees towards the cabin with my heart thrashing in my chest and my skin crackling with an energy so fierce that I couldn’t ignore it for a second longer.
The wooden cabin was nestled between the trees, covered in moss and ivy and looking like a part of the forest itself. A thin line of smoke rose from a stone chimney to the left of it and a heavy door faced me as I tore towards it.
I grabbed the handle and threw it wide, scanning the open space inside in one sweeping glance that took in the wood panelled walls, simple furniture, king sized bed to the right of the room, bunks to the back and the fireplace with the freshly lit blaze coming to life inside it.
But I didn’t give a shit about a single thing in that room aside from the girl who leapt to her feet before the fire, her eyes widening in alarm as she turned to face me, blonde hair swinging around her shoulders.
“What if I don’t want it to be goodbye?” I demanded, my heart drumming a war beat in my chest so damn loud that I was sure she could hear it. “What if I can’t say goodbye to anybody else I care about?”
“Then don’t,” she said, her voice rough with desire and that was all I needed to hear.
I threw the door closed behind me, locking out the winter and plunging us into darkness which was only slightly lessened by the orange glow of the fire blossoming in the hearth.
I crossed the room in five long strides, catching Tatum’s face in my hands and tipping her chin up so that I could capture her lips with mine. I drove her back against the stone mantelpiece with a groan of longing as I kissed her with all the passion of a dying man offered a final meal. But she was more than a meal, she was a feast fit for gods, she was temptation embodied and every sin I’d ever dreamed of committing. She was my salvation and my demise all in one and I was done resisting her.
She gasped as I kissed her, her arms curling around my neck as she tugged me closer, giving me room to press my tongue between her lips.
We were burning up with passion and months of denying what we hungered for and as I drove the solid length of my erection against her flesh she moaned with pure, carnal need.
Her hands slid down my body as I drove her back against the wall and she caught the hem of my T-shirt in her grasp, yanking on it in a clear demand.
I forced myself to break our kiss, pulling back so that she could tear it over my head then planting her lips on mine again as she threw it aside.
Neither of us asked how far this was going to go. There was no stopping us now. Not this time. The heat between us was burning too fucking hot and neither of us could bear to deny it for another second.
She tried to kick her boots off, cursing when the laces wouldn’t give, her teeth dragging my bottom lip into her mouth as her frustration brimmed over.
I grabbed her hips and lifted her off of the floor
