Page 296 of Once Upon a Fable

If I let them have me again, I’d hurt her.

And I would rather kill myself than ever raise a hand against her again.

She was too good.

Too kind.

Too perfect.

Far, far too perfect for the likes of me.

“I have to go.” Pushing her off me, I struggled with the weight of my soaking jeans, doing my best to haul them up while trying to climb out of the tub.

She sat in the sloshing water as I almost fell headfirst into the dirt. Dirt that’d turned to mud thanks to all the water we’d displaced while rocking.

Holy shit, we’d slept together.

Not through coercion or threats. It wasn’t commanded or unwilling.

We’d both wanted it.

Both lost ourselves to the best thing I’d ever experienced.

Was it the best for her too?

Had she been with others who made her feel this way?

A growl rumbled in my chest, full of sick possession. The thought of anyone going near her now? Fuck me, I’d tear them into motherfucking pieces.

She wasmine.

Mine and...I’m not mentally stable enough to claim her.

Backing up, I zipped up my jeans and pulled down my clinging, wet T-shirt. “I...I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

Gemma blinked with wary eyes as she sat in the middle of the bath.

The strangest sensation of being tethered to her rippled through me. An invisible rope from my heart to hers, so much stronger and unbreakable than the chain binding us together.

“Wait for me. We’ll go in together,” she said quietly, standing in the bath and revealing her stunning body. Water sluiced down her flat stomach, droplets dripped from her pubic hair, her breasts still held shadows from my fingers where I’d fisted her.

I stumbled backward, my cock swelling all over again.

This woman was an aphrodisiac. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of her.

“Help me out. We’ll get dressed and spend the night together.” She smiled sweetly, and I almost buckled to my knees in devotion.

God, I wanted that.

Everything she said sounded incredible. We could snuggle by a fire. We could read a book. We could make a meal and watch the sun come up and talk. Talk like friends, like lovers, we could laugh and share and fuck and—

My mind went utterly blank.

I blinked as my world was erased to nothing but white. A blinding white light that swept away every sense, time, and location.

I didn’t know how long it lasted, only that it came and went like a switch. A flash and a crash, making me trip to the side as color and sound, smell and feeling all slammed into me again.

Gemma stood before me, her hands on my cheeks, her face worried. “Speak to me. Say something—”