I’d come to know her in depth at school, in the classroom, in the church. But seeing her among the evergreens and chasing her through the snow, I gained new perspectives.
Nature gave her a deep sense of wonder, like a salve for her mind, a place to rest her thoughts. She didn’t belong in the city. She wasn’t happy in a mansion. I couldn’t even picture her in a classroom anymore.
This was her home, amid the mountains, rivers, beavers, opossums, bats, and falcons. This was where she belonged, and I was right here with her, absorbing the land, welcoming it into my lungs, knitting her to my soul.
Our footfalls became our heartbeats, the trees our cocoon. Here, safe in our private world, we formed a ride-or-die connection that thrived in the forbidden. It was raw. It was dangerous. It was our comfort. We floated in a sense of wakeful dreaming.
I spent two weeks with her in the mountains, and for the first time in my life, I felt no inner battle. No regrets. She was the greatest blessing heaven could’ve given me, and I wouldn’t misuse or squander this gift. I would cherish her and protect her at all costs.
“Uh-oh.” She lay on her side in the bed, facing me. “I see brooding eyes.”
Neither of us wore a stitch of clothing, yet the only parts of us that touched were our gazes.
“My thoughts are pure joy,” I murmured.
“You know what’s pure joy? My silk pillowcase. Since your face is pressed to that cotton abomination, it’s no wonder you look so darkly menacing and grouchy.”
She said this while snuggling into her shiny ivory pillowcase, which was absurdly juxtaposed with my plaid flannel sheets. She was the only person I knew who would bring a fancy pillow covering to a cabin in the mountains.
It was also one of the few high-maintenance things about her. She didn’t wear makeup or paint her nails or fuss over her hair. But she was rather protective of her pricey undergarments. Whenever I ripped one, she turned feral.
She was a contradiction of her upbringing. A spoiled rich girl with integrity and a beautiful mind that she could put to use in a million different ways. I knew, whatever she decided to do in life, she would use that brilliant brain to make the world a better place.
I just needed to keep her safe until I figured out how to deal with her mother and Tucker Kensington.
“We need to discuss our return to school.” The words felt like sand in my mouth.
“Don’t be a buzzkill.” Her expression shuttered. “We have three days.”
“School resumes in three days. I need to go back tomorrow. I’ll send a car for you the day after. We need to stagger our arrivals to avoid suspicion.”
“No.” Sadness leaked into her voice. Then harder, firmer. “No.”
“Listen to me carefully.” I reached for her face, my fingers sliding into her hair. “We’re going to take every precaution possible. No more sneaking around.”
“What?” She clutched my wrist against her neck. “What does that mean?”
“It means that once we leave this cabin, we must return to a professional relationship.”
“That’s ridiculous. We never had a professional fucking relationship. What are you even talking about?”
She was right, of course. I didn’t know how we would maintain distance while spending every minute together in the classroom. But I refused to fuck this up. It was her and me against the world, and we would win. End of story.
“I’m your guardian. I’ll stay with you. I’ll keep you. I’ll fucking roar for you. If anyone fucks with you, I’ll be their nightmare. I’ll burn down the goddamn world for you. But I can’t do that if I get caught.” My chest buckled beneath the gravity of my decision. “No sex. No touching. No risks.”
“For how long?”
“Until you graduate.”
As if the words slapped her, she reared back, flinching with pain in her eyes. “That’s five months!”
Hiking the trails with her had become one of my greatest pleasures, but it didn’t light a candle to the feel of her body—gripping, clenching, sucking, pulling—as I sank inside her.
When I’d taken her virginity in the church, I’d never come so hard in my life. But it was like that every time with her. We fucked like rabbits. My dick was chafed. Welts, bruises, and hickeys covered her flesh. I wanted my marks branded on her permanently as a declaration to all that she was mine.
But there could be no declarations. No public claiming. No one could know.
“When you’re in the residence hall, undressing or taking a shower, you can’t let anyone see these.” I ran a finger over the bites on her tits. “Until they fade, keep them covered. They’ll raise questions.”
“I don’t care.” Air expelled from her nose with little heat. She knew I was right. “Dammit, Magnus. We can be careful, just like before. Lock the doors and—”