Ember
Violet storms past me and walks over to the fire where Holly is, ignoring that I stand right by the door. She’s upset, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen her this way.
“Holly,” she snaps, “I think we should go get some wood from the barn. We need—” She looks over her shoulder at me. “—some space.”
Christopher also walks into the chapel. He’s taking deep breaths, and I know him well enough to know he’s doing everything in his ability to not yell. We both step out of the way as Violet and Holly walk outside, and the coldness coming from them is far greater than the chill from the open door.
“She’s right,” I blurt to Christopher as he enters the chapel more. I heard the entire conversation between Violet and him.
“No, Ember. She’s not right. She’s scared. I understand that… or at least I’m trying to. I’m trying my best to understand what you are all feeling.”
“But you don’t, and you never will. That’s the problem and will always be the problem. You and I come from two different worlds. We’re different. And I don’t see that fixing simply because you come up here and demand we all three leave with you.”
He peers over his shoulder at me. My heart falls to the pit of my stomach at the hurt I see in his eyes.
“I want to be with you, but I can’t just…. I hated New York.” I pause and take a deep breath. “I wanted so badly to be the wife you deserve, but that place was swallowing me up whole. I felt trapped there. I felt like I was drowning in thick mud, and no matter how hard I tried to fit in… I didn’t. I missed Hallelujah Junction. I missed my old life. I didn’t want to tell you that, because I was scared you’d think I was crazy. I mean… maybe I am crazy. How could I possibly miss a place that held me captive? But I did.”
“It’s normal for you to miss what you’ve always known.”
“It was more than that. It was more than the Stockholm Syndrome the therapist mentioned.” I take another deep breath to drum up the courage to finally tell the entire truth. “I fantasized about you and me back in the schoolhouse. I missed our chain around our ankles. I missed the time it was just you and me… connected. I liked that we shared the same air as we took each breath. I liked that I had to walk with you in cadence as the metal jangled around our feet. I missed the warmth I felt from your body at all times because there was never any space. I missed our captivity. I missed you,” I confess, unconsciously reaching out a hand, beckoning his touch.
He stares at my hand and then at my tear-filled eyes. His expression is firm, unbreakable, then softly it melts. He turns so he faces me fully, his body taking up the entire space of the doorway.
I stand still, barely breathing, my hand still outstretched. “I do want you. I want it more than anything. I just don’t know how to want all that comes with you.”
“Do you really feel we can’t fix this? Do you think we can’t be together simply because of New York? Because I’m here to tell you that we can fix anything.”
The weight of my past feels like a hundred-pound brick rests on each shoulder. “I don’t know how to be normal. I tried. I hope you saw how much I truly tried. I wore the clothes. The shoes. I tried to go to the parties.”
He simply nods.
“When I was growing up, reading every romance book I could get my hands on, I would dream of the day I’d find my own Prince Charming and go to the fancy parties and live in the large house with lavish furniture and chandeliers in every room. And then all of a sudden, I had it. I had it all. But what it really became was a deep, deep hole that I sank into.”
“So, we don’t go back to the house. I should have found our own place right at the beginning,” he says. “And if you hate New York, then we’ll move someplace else. Maybe a small town with less noise and action.”
“And what about you? That’s your home. That’s who you are. I can’t pull you away from everything you’ve ever known any more than you can pull me away from what I have grown up with. We are who we are.”
“And you think we need to do that apart? Be who we are?”
I tense, fighting the devastation that threatens to consume me. I search his face, his posture, for some clue as to what he feels. “Yes,” I barely whisper.
“You’re wrong.” Christopher takes the few steps that separates us and grabs my hand. “You and I have one thing that is stronger than all else. Love.”
Tears well in my eyes; pain wells in my heart. “We are the demented love story. Remember?”
He pulls me into his arms, burying my face against his chest. “But a love story, nonetheless. I love you, Ember. I know that with every inch of my being. I also know I can’t live without you. So, yes, if we both have to start over so we can begin anew, then so be it. The question is if you are willing to.”
I nod against his warmth. “I want to. I want to so badly. I’m just scared. And I love you. I love you so much that it actually hurts when I think about it. My chest tightens to the point of pain.”
“Then we fight,” he murmurs against my hair. “We fight against every single person getting in our way. No one will block us any longer. No one and nothing. You are my bride, and I’m taking you back.”
“How? There’s still a storm outside, and based on what Holly says, it could keep going for days,” I counter, clutching tighter to him. “And I know you said we’d call the police on Richard and Scarecrow. But then where does that leave Holly and Violet?”
“We’ll figure it all out.” He looks out the door at the snow falling and then closes it behind him. I realize the door has remained open the entire time. Maybe giving us both the option to flee. A choice we’ve both decided against.
He then tips my face up to meet his, his eyes filled with a blend of love and passion. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
I turn to walk away and put some logs on the fire, knowing Holly and Violet will be back with a fresh pile of firewood soon. Christopher grabs hold of my wrist and pulls me close to him. He leads us to my private corner with nothing but a tattered sheet, concealing what I know is coming next.
“Not yet,” he says. “Don’t walk away yet.”
“But the fire… I should tend to the fire.” I turn away again, but he pulls me harder.
I look over my shoulder, down at my wrist that is firmly gripped, and then back into his eyes.
He tugs my arm toward him, giving me no choice but to stumble up against his chest.
“Kiss me,” he orders in a gruff whisper.
I follow his direction gladly. I want nothing more than to feel his lips against mine.
Our mouths meet, a pull neither can resist any longer. Our hunger demands to be satiated. Time and distance has kept us apart, but our true love never broke. His heart beats against mine as he arranges my body closer. The single kiss has the power to reunite us forever, forgetting all the wrong by both. The kiss is the period to our run-on sentence that seems to never end. One kiss speaks volumes for what is meant.
I want him.
I want him this very second… regardless of our current location and situation. Regardless that Holly and Violet can enter the chapel at any minute. And regardless that I don’t know if we will ever get our happily ever after. But I want him…
Now.
“I need to be with my wife,” he says as his eyes seem to darken right before me.
My heart skips, knowing he feels the same way I do. Our bodies are in tune, even though our lives will never be.
Without asking, without pausing, he removes my dress effortlessly, nothing beneath it to cover me. I’m completely naked, standing before my husband.
“I need you too, but….” I can feel the heat of his stare on my naked body, but I don’t try to conceal myself. I stand and await his next command.
“Don’t fight this. Stop fighting us.”
He leans forward, takes hold of my hips, and pulls me closer to him. Kiss by kiss, he lowers us to the makeshift bed, and then lowers further down until his face is inches from my sex.
“I want the taste of you on my tongue.” He doesn’t wait for permission but rather kisses my pussy, followed by licking my throbbing clit.
I tense at the invasion—thinking I’d never get to feel such pleasure ever again in my life. Part of me wants to stop, and the other part wants the feeling to never end.
He swirls his tongue in circles, lapping up every sign of my arousal. I moan with complete abandon, knowing Holly and Violet could walk in at any minute, but I can’t resist.
My body seems possessed by Satan himself—no doubt something Papa Rich would accuse me of. I have absolutely no power against the devil when it comes to what Christopher is able to do to my body.
Lick after lick, he brings my body to another level. Just when I believe I can take no more, he thrusts his finger past the lips of my pussy. In and out, he plunges, pulling gasps and muffled moans from me. I hide my face beneath a pillow in hopes of concealing my rising pleasure.
“Spread your legs wider,” he directs, his voice husky.
Suffocated by love at the familiar—yet so very distant memory—command, I do exactly as he asks without any hesitation. Lying beneath his shadow, I peek up from the pillow to see his face. The strong features, the firm lips, the sensitive eyes. The same expression I remember washes over his face… strength, love, passion. These are the eyes of my husband. The man I vowed to love. The man I vowed to spend the rest of my life with.
And yet… I ran.
I broke the vows.
I shattered everything.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur more to myself than to him. “I’m so sorry I left.”
“Shh,” he whispers as he places his lips to my pussy.
His intimate kiss forgives, but does he?
His body is offering amnesty, but does his heart?
He caresses my mound without saying a word, quickly following with a kiss to my belly and then my slit. Once. Twice. The kissing continues as heat ripples over my body in waves, leaving me breathless. “Christopher,” I whisper. “I—”
I want to apologize over and over if this is my penance.
Further words are lost as his kisses turn into licks and nibbles. The sting of his bites on my inner thigh makes me want to beg for mercy yet also leaves me wanting more. Moaning, gasping, whimpering, I close my eyes and give myself up to the moment… to Christopher and his show of forgiveness.
He pauses a moment, rubbing his hand along my heated flesh. Dipping his finger down the crease of my butt, he presses past and rests his finger at the entrance of my tight rosebud, teasing me with the unknown of what’s to come. Slight pressure is added, but not enough to break past and enter fully. Slowly, he lowers his other hand to my silky folds, wet with desire.
A deep moan rumbles in his chest and escapes as he thrusts his finger into my hungry sex. I buck against his hand, moaning in pleasure. Dizzy with the need for more, I do everything I can not to beg to be fucked right then and there.
I don’t want Holly and Violet to hear from outside, but at the same time, my body doesn’t care. I need Christopher. I need him now, and my body and soul nearly scream out in desire.
His finger is soon followed by a second as he pumps in and out of me, demanding my complete surrender to his touch. Trying my best to remain quiet but failing miserably, I can do nothing more but allow the climax to build. And when he removes his slick finger and presses it into my anus without warning, the orgasm rocks my body at an intensity that has me screaming out.
Submission, passion, and animalistic need for more explodes through my body like the crack of lightning during a desert thunderstorm. Moaning, I press against his hand, driving his finger deeper into my forbidden channel, his touch entrenched within me as I melt against him.
With one finger buried in the taboo, he places the palm of his other hand on my wet and needy pussy, continuing on with the stroking and caressing. One, two, three fingers are pushed inside my pussy, and I mewl as the erotic bite sends me to the edge once again. My breath catches in my throat as I hold back a cry of lustful yearning. I can’t focus, lost in a fog of bliss. Pleasure and pain weave themselves together, escalating until I cry out his name in a husky whisper that doesn’t sound like my own voice.
After the final orgasmic wave leaves my body, he cups his hand over my pussy, using it to adjust my body until I’m tucked snuggly into his arms. Instinctively, I nuzzle my face against the warmth of his neck, and my body melts to his. The feelings, the emotions… nothing can describe them.
Other than safe.
I’m safe with Christopher.
It’s the only time in my life I truly feel this way.
Safe.
“Tell me that you’ll never leave me again,” he whispers into my hair as he follows the command with a kiss to my head.
I pause, because I don’t want to promise things I can’t keep. I don’t know what happens next. I don’t know if I can do what he wants.
Can I simply leave?
Can I walk away from Holly and Violet?
Can I go back to the life in which I didn’t belong?
Instead of saying what he wants to hear, I pull away enough so I can kiss him.
The only thing I can promise right now is to always love him. That much will always be true.
“I love you, Christopher. I love you so much.”
I kiss him again, driving my tongue into his mouth, hoping my answer will do for now.