Lucas

“Better?” I ask a few minutes later, seizing the opportunity to gaze down at her. Even weighed down by stress and exhaustion, she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. 

“Much, thank you. I can’t tell you how badly I needed this.”

“That has to change, sweetheart. You have to tell me when you’re overwhelmed. Even if you’re uncomfortable sharing the details, I need to know you’ll at least tell me enough so I can be there for you.”

When her eyes drift back up to the sky and she doesn’t respond, my frustration gets the better of me. “If this thing between us is going to work, you need to talk to me, Embree. You don’t have to tell me everything that’s in your head, but I can’t handle another day like today. I can endure a great many things, especially if it means I get to keep you, but lies and deceit… that I’m not sure we can survive.”

A quiet gasp slips past her lips before she whispers, “You’re right. I’m so sorry, Lucas.” The way her chin quivers leaves me desperate to comfort her, but the empty apology stops me in my tracks. She uttered those same words to me yesterday as we addressed this very same topic, and still, she lied to me again.

“I don’t need an apology, Embree. What I need is the truth. I don’t expect you to tell me your secrets before you’re ready, but I do expect that when something is wrong, you’ll be honest about it. You lied to me again today, and if that wasn’t bad enough, you had Hannah corroborate the lie. Do you have any idea what that feels like? To know that the woman I love more than life itself is in trouble, but she refuses to tell me what’s going on, let alone allow me to help her. It makes me feel worthless. It makes me feel like you don’t trust me to take care of you.”

“That’s not it, Lucas. I do trust you. I swear to God, I do,” she insists.

“Then why the lies? After your exam today, why pretend everything’s okay when it’s so obviously not?”

“I don’t want to hurt you…” her words spill out in a rush of frustration, but then her eyes grow wide like she wishes she hadn’t said them.

“Embree…” I force myself to pause, taking a breath to rein in the mix of conflicting emotions that have me teetering on the edge. The last thing I want is to say something I’ll later regret. “Nothing hurts me more than when you lie to me. You forget I know you, that I can tell when you’re being evasive and untruthful. What happened today, the way you and Hannah both lied straight to my face, you hurt me, Embree. And I don’t say that to make you feel bad or to manipulate you into telling me your secrets. I’m telling you that because for me, lies in a relationship are a hard limit.”

When she stares up at me with a look of devastation shimmering in her eyes, that familiar ache inside my chest flares to life. Her reaction speaks to her mistrust. Whether her hesitation is about her trust in me or our relationship, I don’t know. Either way, it doesn’t bode well for the future I have planned for us. 

The thing is, I’ve already lost this woman two times in my life. The first time, I was a grief-stricken 17-year-old kid with no options. The second time I lost her was to a trick of the mind, a game I played to help me survive the unsurvivable. There too, I had no chance to fight for her, but this time… this time I absolutely do. And it starts right here, right now.

“Just tell me this, Emb. Do you want to be with me? When you close your eyes and imagine your future, am I the man standing at your side?”

With tears in her eyes, her answer is instant, “Yes. More than anything. All I’ve ever wanted is to be with you.”

“Then, for now, I’ll accept that as enough.” I lean down and take her lips in a tender kiss that’s as much to ease the turmoil in my head as it is to prove to her I mean it. “As long as you see a future with me, I won’t push. I’ll be patient and wait until you’re ready, but make no mistake, I’m not giving up. I intend to fight for you. For us. For now, I’ll give you time to figure things out on your own, but I need you to promise me that in the meantime you won’t shut me out, that no matter what, you’ll let me be there for you.”

“I promise,” she nods a few times in earnest.

“Say it, Emb. No more hiding from me. No more lies. Promise me.”

“I promise you. No more hiding, no more lies.”

“And you’ll tell me? When you’re ready, you’ll finally tell me what’s going on?”

“Yes. Please, Lucas. I need you.” Her tone is suddenly fraught with fear and desperation, setting off yet another round of alarms in my head. Unfortunately, they’re just as quickly cut off when she sits up to straddle me and then pulls off her dress. “I need you,” she repeats as her hands move down to undo my belt.

“Emb…” This isn’t like her, which reaffirms that I should stop this. The sense of panic behind her words and actions is something I should address, but I’m so fucking turned on by her boldness that I lose that train of thought. “Fuck,” I hiss as my hips draw up, desperate for more of the pleasure she invokes when she wraps her fingers around my hard cock.

“Condom?”

“Wallet. Pocket,” I’m so lost to the sensation of her hand touching me that I barely manage to pull the words together. The anticipation of what’s to come scrambles my thoughts, obliterating the critical thinking part of my brain, and reducing me to nothing more than primal need. I need to fuck her. Hard. Fast. Desperately and completely, if only to erase the fucked up feelings of the past week. 

When she slides the condom over me, my hips rush up to meet her. The way those whiskey-hooded eyes stare down at me with intense hunger damn near unmans me, and I helplessly squeeze her hips with such force I fear I may leave a mark. If I was thinking with my right mind, the thought of bruising her flawless skin would turn my stomach, but right now, with so much pent-up frustration the thought of marking her speaks to the man who is determined to stake my final claim on her.

She’s fucking mine.

And I refuse to allow anyone or anything to fuck up the future that’s destined to be ours. I survived captivity. She survived my abandonment and subsequent marriage to the selfish asshole who left her. As far as I’m concerned, that we found our way back to one another after all these years speaks to the certainty that is us.

When she positions me at her entrance and slides down over my shaft, we both gasp. Tangling my fingers into her hair, I pull her down into a searing kiss. Like she knows what I need, she surrenders so beautifully, parting her lips and allowing me to have my fill. Plundering into her mouth, my tongue twists around hers in a rhythm that matches the way her hips undulate over me.

The pace she sets speaks to her desire to lose herself in pleasure, which I totally get. After the hellish week we’ve had since her mother’s visit, I can’t think of any better way of exorcising the demons threatening to steal our happiness. It’s why I take her hips in my hands, pulling her pelvis down and against me as I thrust up, and deep inside of her wet, warm heat.

Unlike every other time we’ve made love, this time we’re untethered. Despairingly wild. Our movements are frantic and urgent in a way that speaks to the toll this awful week had on the both of us. We’re not only desperate for release, but to restrengthen the soul-deep connection that’s always bound us together.

When she clenches around me with a needy whimper, I almost lose it. With determination the likes of which I’ve never known, I pound into her. Harder and deeper. The hint of pain as her nails score into the flesh over my shoulders elicits a groan from deep inside my chest. Then suddenly she’s up, bouncing on top of me, her eyes closed and her head tipped back. She’s so fucking perfect. So goddamn glorious.

“Take off your bra. I want to see those beautiful breasts bared to the moonlight.”

Without hesitation, she does as I ask. The sight of her naked chest under the night sky as she erotically moves over me, damn near blows my mind. When she reaches down to touch herself, stimulating that bundle of nerves I wish I could fucking taste, my balls draw up in warning. I’m so damn close. Too goddamn close.

“That’s it, Emb. Touch yourself. Fuck, you’re a goddamn dream,” I huff through heaving breaths. “You close, sweetheart? Please, tell me you’re fucking close.”

“I’m there…” And just like that, our worlds explode. Colliding in wave after wave of unbelievable pleasure that’s blinding and so damn perfect. Together we fall off the precipice, holding on to one another as we succumb to the power of our bodies as every pleasure center sparks to life, shaking us down to the very essence of who we are until we’re melded together. Two souls forever bound as one.

It reaffirms my resolve.

Embree is mine. 

And I will do whatever it takes—move heaven and earth if I fucking have to—to ensure I never lose her again.

Want to read ahead? The next 2 Chapters are available FREE if you FOLLOW ME on REAM!!! (https://reamstories.com/arianaclarkauthor)

Please remember to like, comment, & review. For updates on this and future stories, remember to follow me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note:

Though I'm proud of Lucas for confronting the issues with Embree head-on, part of me wishes he'd pushed her a little harder. I know he loves her, but I'm concerned he's putting his own feelings aside in hopes she comes around and eventually tells him what is happening. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. Are you at all concerned that he's willing to wait her out or do you think he should have demanded an explanation for why she lied to him?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NEW CHAPTERS post at 3:00 PM EST on Tuesdays & Thursdays!!!