The Darkest Embrace Read Free Page B

might still be light in the sky, but here in the forest, night was already close. The front door opened and a shadowy figure emerged holding a lantern. Jessie was already getting out of the truck, but paused at the sight. Surely the man wasn’t ducking to get out through the door?
    “Hi! Freddy Romero.” The man held out his hand toward Max and gave Jessie a nod. “You’re late. Got scared you weren’t coming.”
    “Ran into a little trouble on the road,” Max said.
    Freddy gave a startlingly loud laugh, his teeth bright and shining in the growing dusk. “Deer.”
    “Yeah, how’d you know?”
    “My brother Jason told me,” Freddy said. “Said he came across you. Everything okay?”
    Max nodded. “Yep.”
    Jessie moved closer to him to look around Freddy. “It’s lovely here.”
    “Right, right. Let me show you around, get you settled. Get out of your way before the storm hits,” Freddy said with a grin that was closer to a leer. “Give you your privacy.”
    The tour of the cabin took ten minutes, five minutes longer than necessary, as far as Jessie was concerned, because there wasn’t really much to learn. Freddy paused in the doorway with his lantern, pointing out a list of places where they’d find instructions, if they needed them, for the hot water heater, the stove, the hot tub.
    “Hot tub!” Jessie said happily with a grin at Max, who looked surprised. “Yay!”
    “It’s new,” Freddy explained, and finally left them, closing the door behind him.
    Jessie turned to Max, who was giving the cabin an appreciative looking-over. As soon as the door clicked shut, she was in his arms, her mouth on his. She wasn’t sure at first if he’d catch her if she jumped, but when his fingers slid down her back to hook under the curves of her ass, she leaped. He caught. In just a few steps he’d carried her to the back of the couch facing the fireplace in the cabin’s main living space—it was the perfect height for her to settle on with him standing between her legs.
    They’d kissed before, lots of times, but this time there was a promise in the way his tongue moved against hers that hadn’t been there before. Max reached up and tugged the elastic band from her ponytail and buried his fingers into the hair at the base of her neck, tipping her head back to he could get to her throat. His mouth moved over her tender skin. The press of his teeth made her gasp.
    She wanted him like fire—had been wanting him for months. Jessie tugged Max’s shirt from his jeans and ran her palm up his flat stomach. Warm skin. The tiny scruff of hair on his belly. A little higher, to the curve of his ribs, then down again to slip her fingers just inside his waistband. Not far...just...a little...
    His cock, hard in his jeans, pressed her clit when he pushed his hips forward. Jessie spread her legs wider, hooking her ankles over the backs of his thighs. She leaned back a little, confident his hand between her shoulder blades would keep her from tumbling backward over the couch. Max mouthed her throat, nipping and sucking until she couldn’t stop her moan. At the sound of it, he shuddered and opened a button on her blouse. Then another. One more, his mouth following the opening fabric, until he found the slopes of her breasts exposed by her demi-cup bra, so carefully chosen for just that reason. Her nipples were already tight and aching, jutting through the lace, and when Max found one with his lips, Jessie thought she might explode right then.
    The heat that had been fluttering in her belly since the trip started had moved downward, centering in her clit, being teased so mercilessly by the pressure of Max’s erection. She pulled him harder against her, and they rocked back together with such force that the couch creaked and the shade of the lamp on the end table rattled. Breathing hard, Max broke the kiss.
    “Wait,” he whispered.
    Thunder rumbled outside, echoing her frustration. Jessie frowned. “Wait? No.”
    Max