Chapter 1 🏍️
ANNA
The room was cloaked in shadow, a sanctuary hidden away from reality, where the outside world didn’t exist and time itself dared not intrude. Tension hung in the air like storm clouds that were dense and electric, trembling with anticipation. His thumbs brushed slow, languid circles against the inside of my thighs, coaxing a shiver that trembled all the way up my spine. Then he leaned in, breath hot against the tender skin beneath my ear, his lips brushing against it like a secret being whispered directly into my soul.
My breath stuttered as every nerve sparked to life beneath his touch, as if he’d lit a fuse that had been waiting far too long to burn. A soft gasp escaped me, unbidden, as his hands explored my curves, reverent and possessive. When his thumbs swept over the thin silk covering my nipples, I arched into his touch; the sensation was so sharp, so decadent, it nearly unraveled me.
Chris kissed his way down my neck, slow and consuming, like a man tasting sunlight after years in the dark. His arousal pressed hard against me, the friction unbearable in the most delicious way. My body ached for more. Each kiss, each graze of skin, each hungry sound that left his lips only wound me tighter.
His mouth was a drug, and I was already far too deep to come back from the high.
“I need you,” I whispered, breathless and undone, chasing his touch as my hips bucked into his hand. “Please, baby… I need you inside me.”
Chris pulled back, eyes dark with hunger, his voice low and rich with heat. “Use your words, Anna. Tell me exactly what you want.”
“You,” I gasped. “I want you to fuck me. Please.”
His answering growl was primal, andintoxicating. “Greedy girl,” he murmured, slipping my panties aside and thrusting two fingers inside me. “Is this what you need?”
I cried out as he set a brutal, delicious rhythm, each stroke driving me closer to the edge. His mouth claimed mine, fierce and all-consuming, as if trying to memorize the taste of me. He pinned my wrists above my head, devouring me with a hunger that made the world fall away.
Panting, shaking, I moaned into his mouth as his tongue explored mine. His fingers never stopped, relentless in their purpose. He made his way down my body with agonizing slowness, his touch both punishment and reward. When he finally knelt between my legs and buried his face in my heat, my back arched off the mattress and a broken cry tore from my lips.
Chris’s tongue was wickedly skilled and unforgiving. My hands tangled in his hair as he devoured me, licking and sucking, circling my clit until I was a quivering mess beneath him. Then he slid two fingers inside, curling them in just the right way to make me see stars.
The orgasm crashed over me like a tidal wave, both raw, and all-consuming, ripping a scream from deep within my chest as my body convulsed around him. Still, he didn’t stop. He milked every last wave of pleasure until I was lost in a trembling daze, lost in the euphoria only he could give me.
And then he was above me again. Hismouth on mine, the taste of me still lingering on his lips, his hardness pressed against my stomach like a promise yet to be fulfilled.
“I want to feel you,” I breathed. “Inside me. Now.”
Chris’s control snapped. He flipped me over, pulling my hips up, guiding himself to my entrance. He leaned over me, his breath hot on my ear.
“This what you want, Anna?” he growled, voice rough with lust. “You want me to fuck you like this?”
“Yes,” I whimpered. “Please… I need you.”
He thrust into me in one deep, claiming stroke, making me cry out, my fingers clawing at the sheets as he filled me completely. His hips met mine with brutal precision, each thrust deeper, harder, faster. I met him stroke for stroke, gasping his name, the sound of our bodies slapping together the only rhythm that mattered.
“You feel so fucking good,” he groaned. “So tight. So perfect.”
His chest pressed to my back, one hand winding around my throat while the other found my clit, circling it in time with his thrusts. The dual sensation was blinding. I was unraveling beneath him, inch by inch.
“I’m close,” I gasped, vision blurring. “Chris, I’m going to…”
“Cum for me,” he demanded, voice like thunder in my ear. “I want to feel you pulsing around me.”
I shattered around him, screaming his name, my body convulsing as wave after wave of ecstasy ripped through me. Chris didn’t stop; he thrust harder, deeper, until he finally pulled out, flipped me onto my back, and entered me again in one powerful motion. Wrapping my arms around him, I held on as he took what he needed.
“Cum for me, Chris,” I whispered against his lips. “I want to feel all of you.”
With a ragged groan, he exploded inside me, his body shaking, mouth pressed to my shoulder as he let go. When he collapsed on top of me, our sweat-slicked skin tangled together, I felt safe…for a single, fleeting moment.
“I love you, Anna,” he whispered, voice cracked with emotion. “I love you so fucking much.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I kissed him softly, tasting the salt of our love and grief. “I love you too, Chris,” I whispered. “Forever and always.”
But as the glow faded, as the dream began to dissolve like mist in the morning light, a chill ran down my spine.
“This isn’t real… is it?” I whispered, voice trembling. “You’re not really here.”
Chris brushed his lips against my forehead, his eyes filled with something too big, too sacred for words. “I love you with everything I am,” he murmured. “But it’s time to wake up now.”
“No,” I sobbed, clutching at him. “Please, not yet. I’m not ready to lose you again.”
“I never left,” he whispered. “Tell Tori I love her. Tell her Daddy will always be with her.”
“I will,” I cried. “I promise. I’ll tell her every day.”
He smiled, radiant and fading all at once. “Wake up now, my darling Anna.”
I reached for him…desperate, and wild…just as his image dissolved into light. The dream fractured, and I was alone.
My eyes snapped open to a room bathed in dawn, my body slick with sweat, and my pillow damp with tears. The ache in my chest felt unbearable, a hollow wound that never healed. Every night for a year, I’d seen him… Touched him… Loved him… and lost him all over again.
Sometimes it was his funeral. Other times, the night I got the knock on the door…the night everything broke. Two officers, with faces heavy with pity, standing on my porch. One look told me everything: Chris wasn’t coming home. He’d been working undercover with the drug task force. His cover had been blown. The bullet had been fatal.
They said he didn’t suffer. As if that made it easier.
But nothing made this easier.
My body still burned with the ghost of his touch, the echo of his voice still warm in my ears. I rolled onto his side of the bed, cold and empty for over a year. My arms wrapped around a pillow that would never be him. I ached for the way he held me; for the way he used to pull me close and whisper I love you in the dark.
I missed everything…his scent, his laugh, the way his body fit around mine like a second skin. My heart would always know him. My soul would always ache for him.
And even in my dreams, I was still learning how to say goodbye.
~
