Taken Bride by Alta Hensley

13

Ember

I’ve wanted this.

I’ve lied to myself, pretending that I didn’t.

I want Christopher.

I’ve always wanted Christopher.

And now that I have him, I’m never letting him go.

“Take off your clothes,” I say, my strong will coming back.

I feared I lost this part of me. The strong woman who asks for what she wants.

He does as I demand, his eyes locked with mine the entire time. He then slips his hand around my waist, repositioning us so he’s on top of me fully. Fingers laced, thighs rubbing against thighs, my breasts molded to his torso, his cock resting at my entrance—heavy and hot.

Not wasting another moment, he moves to kneel before my face and places his hard dick to my lips. I look up and into his eyes. No words need to be said. I open up my mouth and allow his cock to lie against my tongue. My natural instinct is to pleasure him. It’s always been the one thing I want to do to him more than anything else.

Pleasure him.

I’m good at this.

I thrive at this.

I’m proud that I can do this so well.

Watching bliss blanket his face fills me with a purpose I didn’t know existed before I met this man, and I wonder if I will ever get to experience it again in my lifetime if indeed Christopher and I have to part ways. As I suck up and down his ready dick, I fully submit to an old hope for the future that now renews.

Maybe… just maybe… we can have a happily ever after.

Maybe he can rescue me from this mountain, and we can have it all.

Maybe I can truly be free and not captured in Papa Rich’s web.

Maybe… just maybe.

Up and down, I move my mouth until I’m rewarded by my name escaping his lips in the most passionate of ways. My name never sounded as good as it does the moment it slips from his mouth.

I add my hand and begin to pump his cock while licking all around it. His body shakes and tenses, and he pulls me away as he takes a deep breath.

“I’ve missed your kiss,” he says, his gaze dipping to my lips. “I’ve missed everything about you and what you do to me. But mostly, I miss the way you make me feel. I was so scared I’d never be able to tell you this. I was so scared we’d never be like this again.”

His moment of vulnerability only spurs me on. I need it. I need it to regain my strength, to take hold of my confidence, to return to the Ember I was working so hard to be.

Reflexively, I slip my tongue across my mouth, waiting for his to make contact.

Slowly, he pulls me up to him.

We kiss, soft, romantic, and pure.

Husband and wife blocking out all the bad around us.

He slides his hand to the wetness of my sex, driving my thirst for him to be inside me to a whole new level. I approach the edge, wanting desperately for more. “Please, Christopher. I need you.”

Christopher cups my face and plants a slow, deep kiss on my lips. His mouth blazes a path from my lips to the base of my neck. I let a sensual moan escape regardless of how quiet I’ve been trying to be, hoping to encourage him to keep going.

Skimming my fingers down his rippled stomach, I simply moan and wait. I know he’ll give me exactly what I want if I just wait. I can count on him. I can rely on him. Always.

“You’re mine, Ember. Mine forever, no matter who tries to get in the way of that.”

I gasp at the sensation of his cock pressing against me at the end of his declaration.

Closing my eyes in ecstasy, I dig my fingers into his shoulders as he presses beyond the tightness, entering me completely. The delicious sting is quickly replaced with an erotic pleasure that captures my breath.

He continues to place gentle kisses all over my neck and face while his thick shaft probes deeper within. The contrast of soft and hard manages to push me toward that familiar edge. Sparks, electricity, pure primal need washes over me, drowning me in pleasure as we both rock each other into completion.

There is nothing else but us.

Christopher and Ember.

I don’t know how long we lie there, but I take the time of silence to focus on his breathing and the beating of his heart. I touch the tiny curls on his chest and trace my fingertip over the ridges of his stomach. I’m hypnotized by the feeling of contentment and security, but I also know we can’t stay in this little euphoric bubble forever.

“I’ve missed you so much, Ember. I’ve missed the feel of you in my arms,” Christopher murmurs into my hair.

“I missed you too. More than I thought possible.” I smile at him as I pull away from his warm embrace, and I put on the last of my clothing, wishing we could be naked in each other’s arms forever. But I have Holly and Violet to think about. Not to mention the storm is still raging outside, and the biting wind is forcing its way inside the chapel. They’ll be back from the barn soon simply because they will have no choice.

“I want us to leave the minute this storm allows,” he says, the determination in his eyes as unrelenting as the tone of his voice. It’s clear the reality of our situation has hit him again, and his moment of sex-induced amnesia is gone. “I want you back in my life, and I want us to forget this place and any future places Richard offers.”

When I open my mouth to protest, Christopher cuts me off. “And I don’t give a fuck what wedding vows Scarecrow made you say, or the fact that they think you are now his wife. No fucking way. Do you hear me?”

“It’s just…”

I look at the pulled curtain offering us the limited privacy we needed—faded and worn—knowing what’s on the other side.

My new life.

A life that now involves other people. Though I have just met them in actual days, if feels like a lifetime. They get me, I get them. We walk the same path in life and always have. When I look at them, it’s like looking in a mirror.

“It’s not that simple,” I finally say.

“Yes, it is,” Christopher says, sitting up and reaching for his shirt. “This isn’t open for discussion, Ember. I don’t want to be an asshole, but I will if I have to be. We’re leaving this place, and it’s final.” He then stands and puts on his pants. “I get it. We have shit to work out, but we’ll work it out together. I’m going to get you as far away from this madness, and I’m never going to let you come this close to those sick fuckers again.”

“Except this ‘madness’ also includes two women who I’ve become close to. I can’t just leave them here. And I get the feeling they are determined to stay.”

“Then we’ll allow them to do what they want. But you will not stay. Period.”

“I can’t leave without them. It’s not an option. What do you think Papa Rich and Scarecrow will do to them when they return and find me gone?”

“What Richard and Scarecrow will come home to find is the police waiting to arrest their asses.”

I sigh deeply. “You say that. But the police haven’t exactly been much help since the day we left Hallelujah Junction. I don’t really have faith in them.”

The truth of the matter is I don’t really have faith in anyone. Which I suppose is sad. Funny how I saw life in such a happier way when I was being told lies and mentally being held captive in a schoolhouse in a ghost town with a serial killer as a “father.”

Maybe Louisa was right about me—I’m broken. Just a freak. And the reality is… I belong here with Holly and Violet. They get me. They are me in a sick and twisted way.

“Ember….”

I lean forward and give him a quick, avoiding-the-topicpeck. “I hear footsteps in the snow outside. Holly and Violet are here.”