Page 233 of Once Upon a Fable

Perhaps it was his hands yet again around my throat, or maybe it was the fact he’d let me go and hadn’t checked to see if he needed to kill me to make me stay. Or maybe it was just because I’d reached my limit of being afraid, and this was now my new normal.

Either way, I only got to enjoy the sun’s golden rays for a few minutes before sleep crept over me, inching with its foggy fingers and pulling a velvet curtain over my mind. It soothed. It comforted. It erased the bruises around my neck, the bruises around my heart, sucking me deep, deep down into healing darkness.

* * * * *

I dreamed of softness and sensuality.

Two things that’d been missing in my life for far longer than when I’d first found this valley. I dreamed of my lovely lavender house. I strolled through my living room and ran my fingers over the back of my tan suede couch. I smiled at the TV as some cheesy rom-com played and inhaled with the utmost gratitude the scents of a vanilla cake baking in the oven.

Domesticated perfection.

I’d returned to my home that sheltered and protected me.

But it wasn’t lonely like before.

On the mantel, photo frames of a life shared with another replaced emptiness. In the fridge, beer rested beside my choice of white wine. In the bathroom, two toothbrushes existed instead of one.

I hugged myself in joy.

There was another person inside my perfect little home—a man who cherished and desired me. A man who came up behind me, spun me around in his arms, and settled his mouth over mine before I could see who my dream lover was.

I melted into his touch.

I gave him everything because he’d done the same for me.

He loved me to the tips of his toes.

And I loved him to the highest cliff I could climb.

The kiss started exquisitely sweet. A barely-there caress, a nip, a smile, a brush of promises. I moaned as he teased me, his hands worshiping as he gripped my waist and pulled me against his muscularbody.

We both shivered as his obvious arousal dug into my stomach.

I laughed into his mouth.

He groaned into mine.

We didn’t need to speak to know just how much we needed each other and just how effortless it was between us. He knew what I was thinking before I did. I knew what he wanted before he could tell me. Everything between our hearts and minds was linked on a level that couldn’t be labeled.

Marriage couldn’t explain this. Friendship couldn’t describe this.

The only explanation could be fate.

My hands slinked into his hair, tugging a little as desire pooled in my belly. The soft kiss was now a tease. I wanted more.

He opened wider and took me harder, his lips firm and possessive. The first lash of his tongue hunting mine made my knees buckle. He wedged me against the couch and his hard body.

His hands roamed as he kissed me deeper. He palmed my breasts and pinched my nipples. He dragged his fingers down and down, dousing me in flames. With one hand he kneaded my hip while the other rocked against my clit.

I cried out, my moan swallowed by his deepening kiss.

He was everywhere. In my mouth, my mind, my heart. I couldn’t get a clear thought. I didn’twanta clear thought. All I wanted was him. Inside me. Taking me. Granting the release rapidly coiling in my core.

“Please...” I murmured into his mouth. “I need you.”

He reared back, his eyes burning with endless passion. His lips were kiss-swollen, and his scruff bristled like a caveman...but something was wrong.

Those eyes.