fall Read Free Page A

sometimes.
    He looked somehow both younger and older
all at once.
    His body was coiled, his heat was
blazing.
    He stroked her better than ever, and she
was getting wet.   She was soaking
him with her juices, and he was fucking her and making love to her all at the
same time.
    Outside, the waves pounded.
    Inside, he began pounding too,
rhythmically, pushing and pulling, and every time was ecstasy.   Every time was magic, and they were
building to it, building to the climax, and she dipped her forehead against his
shoulder and grit her teeth.
    “Come for me,” he told her, a command.
    She did as he commanded, instantly
climaxing, coming for him, and her entire body shook and shuddered and she
cried out.
    “I’m coming,” she told him.   “Oh, God, Cullen.”
    “Come on my dick,” he said.   “Get me wet, baby.”   His cock slid faster in and out.
    She came again, her body almost feeling
out of control now, it was so intense.   She felt like she had transformed into pure pleasure.
    Everything negative, everything
bad—had been exorcised like demons.
    All that was left was him, inside of her,
making her feel so good.
    So good.
    “Oh my God,” she cried.   And she came again, even stronger.
    “I’m coming too,” he said.   “Fuck.”
    And he shot his load inside of her, and
pushed deeper, his entire body tensing and then releasing everything all at
once.
    They finished, and he crashed down on top
of her, kissing her softly.   “I love
you so much,” he said.
    After lovemaking, they lay entangled in
bed together, and Ivy watched the light and shadow play across the ceiling.
    Cullen stroked her hair and trailed his
fingertips lightly across her shoulders.
    “This feels perfect, doesn’t it?” she
sighed in contentment.
    “Yeah, pretty much.”   He chuckled.
    Ivy turned and looked at him.   “Is something missing?”
    “Just a couple of clowns, a dancing bear,
and a lion tamer.”
    She shook her head at his joke.   “I’m serious, Cullen.   This is all I need.   You and me, just like this.”
    He continued smiling, but she could tell
that he wasn’t denying that he felt the same.   “I agree,” he finally said, his tone
soft.
    “Why did it have to be so difficult to
get to this?”
    “Because,” Cullen told her, “I’m a
difficult man.”
    “Not really.   Not deep down.”
    He laughed.   “Deep down, and up top too.   I’m difficult from head to toe.”
    “You want people to believe that so they
don’t mess with you,” she said, and her hand grabbed his hand.   “You’re soft underneath it all.”
    “Maybe so,” he said.   “But if so, you’re the only one who’s
ever seen it.”
    “You hide that part of yourself.”
    He nodded, agreeing that he knew it.   He was aware of it.
    Cullen turned and looked at her.   “When you’re young, and people mistreat
you, you find that if you can keep a tiny part of yourself safe and guard it,
there’s something that can’t be touched,” Cullen told her.   “You keep it away from the world so that
nobody can take it away.   The
deepest part of yourself.”
    She swallowed, feeling the enormous power
of what he was admitting to.   “Who
hurt you?” she asked.
    Cullen lay back and closed his eyes.   “I don’t like thinking about it.”
    “Your father,” she said.
    “Isn’t it always,” he sighed.
    “Not always,” Ivy said, thinking about
her mother.   Her mother, who’d
nearly killed her with love.
    “Well, in my case it was.”   Cullen opened his eyes but he seemed to
be far away.   “My father loved me,”
he said.   But it was as if he was
trying to convince himself.   “He
could be mercurial.   Demanding and
angry at the strangest times, and then he could be funny and charming and a
blast to be around.   But mostly he just
exerted control.   He controlled
everything and everyone in his life.   Especially me.”
    “Did he hurt you?   Physically?”
    “Sometimes,” Cullen said.   “He