by Alta Hensley
“And I want you to be happy. What will it take to make that happen?”
She pulls away and looks into my eyes. “You,” she states simply. “I just need you to make me happy.”
20
Ember
* * *
It had been a long day and a grueling hike getting the sisters to Isaac’s cabin. Christopher and Isaac were able to carry Violet the entire way, while Holly and I carried the supplies. Once we had them settled into the cabin, Christopher and I decided it would be best to come back to the chapel before dark, spend the night one last time, and then head out for the meadow at first light. Though Isaac offered his place for us to stay, both Christopher and I felt we needed some privacy so we could figure out our own future. We still have so much to discuss, and we really need some time to just be us… one last time before the craze of starting our new life begins.
Goodbyes were hard, but we all promised to stay in touch. Isaac promised to watch over Holly and Violet until we get word to them that Scarecrow and Papa Rich have been arrested, and knowing this made it possible for me to walk away. As hard as it was to leave them, I know deep down that they are happy now. They are living their lives the way they want to and on their terms. I could never force them to do anything but.
“It’s just me and you now,” Christopher says as we enter the chapel.
“It’s so quiet,” I say, walking over to the fire that is only embers now. It won’t take me long to get it raging again, and I get to work quickly before the room gets any colder.
Christopher comes up from behind and wraps his arms around me, kissing the side of my neck. “I know today was rough on you. But I’m proud of you. You put their needs before your own, and I’m proud.”
“It was hard. I want them with us, but I also know how hard it is out there… in society.”
“Which is why we need to come up with a plan so it isn’t so hard for you. Starting with the fact that we aren’t going back to New York. You won’t ever have to see my mother again or have the media hounding you. Wherever we go, we’re going to keep it secret. It will take a damn good private investigator to hunt us down, and if they do… we’ll leave again.”
His words fill me with so much hope for the future. “What about your job?”
“I’ll get another job if I want. Money isn’t an issue for me, as you know. I love taking photographs, and that doesn’t have to stop just because I don’t work for The Rolling Stone. I can take freelance down the road if we decide it works for us, or I can take pictures for pleasure. Regardless, as long as I’m with you, I’ll be happy.”
“And your mother? Can you really walk away from her?”
He counters my question with one of his own. “Can you really walk away from Papa Rich?”
“It’ll be hard,” I admit.
“And it will be hard for me. But it’s something we have in common. We won’t be the first couple to have to deal with toxic parents and figure out how to handle that. They both deserve to be in jail, and hopefully that happens.”
“So where do we go?” I ask.
“Do you still want the desert?” he asks, clearly thinking of locations.
I shake my head. “No. I like what you said earlier about living in the mountains. Being up here in the trees… this place makes me happy. Could we maybe find a place nearby? I don’t mean living off the grid, but maybe a small mountain town?”
He tightens his hold on me and kisses me on the neck again. “I love that idea. A cabin with a wood stove and a carved bear out front.”
“Just ours.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “Just ours.”
“Someplace that they can’t reach us. Never again.”
“Never again.”
I spin around and press my lips to his, instantly feeling the fire ignite inside me. Funny how hope for a good future acts like an aphrodisiac.
“We’re all alone,” I whisper seductively. “Just you and me. We don’t have to be quiet.” I nibble his lip and lower my hand to his crotch, which is already hard to the touch. “We can be loud. We can be very, very loud.”
“Careful,” he playfully warns. “You’re awakening the beast.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be careful,” I say as I dip my fingers down his pants and lightly caress his pubic hair. “I happen to like the beast.”
“Take off your clothes,” he orders.
Without hesitation, something I know the alpha in him expects—immediate compliance—I stand back and, with as much grace as I can muster, remove each item as seductively as I can. I know we aren’t in the sexiest environment, but I want to please him. I want him to feel the desire I have inside for him. I can’t give him lingerie and high heels, but I can give him complete surrender.
Christopher sits back on the wooden table, crosses his arms against his chest, and gives a wolfish grin. I get the feeling he’s enjoying what he sees.
“Stand naked before me,” he commands once all my clothes are removed.
I do so without protest, loving the sense of seductive power I feel from doing such a simple act.
“Turn in a circle and allow me to see that ass of yours.”
I do as he says, turning my back to him, feeling his eyes burn against my skin.
“Spread your legs wide.” I comply. “Bend over so I can see you on full display.”
I pause for a moment—forcing myself to block out the dark memories of what that command would bring in my past—but do as he asks, knowing my future is so much better.
“Spread your cheeks for me. I want to see the hole that I plan to claim.”
My heart beats hard against my heaving chest, but I reach behind and pull apart the fleshy mounds of my ass. The cold breeze of the chapel caresses the most intimate of spots, sending shivers down my spine and over every inch of bare skin.
I remain in position and feel a drop of arousal run from my pussy to my thigh. I can smell my desire, and though I know his eyes are feasting on the sight before him, I can’t help but feel a mixture of humiliation and desire in my stance. The push and pull of the two emotions seems to drive my need for more even higher.
I hear his footsteps approach. I remain in position, determined to stay that way until he gives the command to move.
I flinch slightly when I feel his palm on my ass. “Keep them spread,” he growls.
I’ve come to recognize the sound of his voice that means my body will pay the price in the most wicked and delicious of ways. He morphs into a beast, and I know exactly the tone.
I hear it now.
“I want to fuck your ass. I want my cock buried in this tight little hole.”
My heart beats so hard I can feel the pulse in my temples. I swallow back the lump in my throat, trying not to break the position I know he wants me to hold.
“I don’t have lube,” he says. “So, I’m going to fuck this ass with your juices alone.”
Panic mixed with a forbidden desire to have him do just as he pleases rumbles within me.
He swipes his fingers along my pussy, collecting the wetness, and presses them past my puckered hole. He coats every inch of my hole, preparing it for entry with my desire only.
He moves me to the edge of the wooden table and presses me down to lie on my stomach against the cold surface. “I’ll go slow, but this is going to have more friction and won’t be easy.”
I tense but nod. I want this. I want to feel him inside me in the most intimate spots of my body.
“I’ll be gentle, but this will take some time for you to adjust. I can’t slide in with as much ease. I need you to relax, submit, and open up.”
“Is it going to hurt?” I ask.
“Yes. Just the way you like it.”
I nod again. Yes, just the way I like it. Only Christopher truly understands my need for a darker touch. My hunger for a little edge.
He lowers himself over my back and begins to softly kiss the side of my neck, my shoulder, my earlobe—each kiss sending tingles to my
throbbing pussy. His cock presses against the crease of my ass, and I know the soft caresses are only a ruse to trick my body into relaxing before the rough claiming of my ass begins.
“I’m scared,” I finally admit.
“Breathe….”
“I’m scared it will hurt too much. It will be too dry,” I admit, fearful of the unknown. “But no matter how much I cry out, don’t stop,” I direct. “I want it. I want to feel you fuck my ass with nothing preventing the friction. Make my ass raw,” I murmur, knowing that my own primal beast inside has finally been unleashed.
He reaches down with his hand and guides his cock to my tight back entrance. Very slowly, and with so much control, he presses the tip of his dick past the tight ring. He pauses so I can get used to the initial shock, the spread, and the burn from only having my own slickness as lube.
“Relax. Open yourself to me,” he groans in my ear, following the words with soft kisses to my neck.
He pushes farther, causing me to gasp. The bite, the stretch, the erotic feeling, it all becomes too much. I miss the lube. I miss the ease.
I shake my head. “You’re too big for me. I think I’ll tear without lube.”
Christopher whispers in my ear, “Take a deep breath.” I do as he asks. “Take another one, and relax your muscles. You need to trust that once I am fully inside you, it will feel good. Submit yourself, your apprehension, and your complete body to me.”
He reaches a hand around my front and finds my clit. He expertly circles his finger around it, giving me the exact sensation I need to allow my ass to fully take him. I focus my attention on the pleasure his finger gives me and am able to ease the muscles of my anus completely, pushing back against him to drive him even deeper. Doing so allows his dick to fully be rooted in my ass balls-deep as I cry out his name in pain and in pleasure.
I’ve come to realize I love and crave the two feelings combined above all.
“That’s it, Ember,” he praises as he slowly pumps his thickness in and out. “Let me claim that ass of yours. Let me make you mine.”
My bottom hole stretches to impossible levels and is dry without the lube, but I enjoy the stinging friction and look forward to every biting thrust he gives me.
His gentle thrusts become a little more aggressive. Each push drives slightly deeper than before. Tingles in my ass become sparks of ecstasy. My dark channel pulsates around his massive dick, and I scream out his name. Tears of surrender course down my face as I allow every sensation to swamp my body. I don’t resist. I don’t fight. I don’t think. I simply am.
My mewls and whimpers bring on a few more driving thrusts, and Christopher finally ends the ass-fucking with a roar as he shoots his seed in my dry hole.
We remain frozen, bent over the table, our life still in flux, Papa Rich and Scarecrow still out there. But right now… this very second, we have calm. We have us. And I realize that is all I need.
21
Ember
* * *
“They caught the sonofabitch!” Christopher announces, his eyes full of excitement and body tense with emotions as he hangs up the phone. “They have both Richard and Scarecrow in custody.”
“Oh my God,” I barely squeak out. “They found them?”
“They came back for you as we knew they would, and the Feds were waiting.” He walks over to the television and turns on the news.
I stare in disbelief as I watch Papa Rich in handcuffs being escorted by police into a building. His head is up, shoulders proud, and not an ounce of remorse is present in his face. Commentary about capturing the Ghost Town Killer rings in my ear as I watch the man I believed I loved walk toward his end of destruction. No one can die from his hand any longer. No more misery can be cast down upon the poor, unexpected trespassers.
He’ll never get to be a ranger again. Only a prisoner.
They cut away and show Scarecrow in a wheelchair being pushed through a media storm and surrounded by police. He looks pathetic with his one leg. They’ve removed the straw stuffing of his other leg, which I’m sure has him pissed off. They took his identity and his dignity by forcing him to be pushed in a wheelchair by someone else. I feel for the person escorting him. I wonder if he still smells like onions, body odor, and feces.
“Watching them both, so far away, almost seems like being cheated. I didn’t get to see them arrested for myself,” I confess.
“I know,” Christopher says. “It took everything in me to not be up on that mountain waiting for their return. But at the same time, we have to move on. We can’t be held captive by them forever. They aren’t part of our story anymore.”
“This doesn’t seem real,” I say under my breath. “I thought they’d never catch him. Never.”
Christopher walks up behind me and places his comforting hand on my shoulder as we watch together. “Agent Martinez told me that they’re going to want us to testify. I’m going to get an attorney right away to handle everything for us and help guide us through this storm.”
I look up at him, instantly in a panic. “But what about our home? Will the media find us? You said where we’re at is secret. It’s ours. Only ours.”
I love being in our cabin with no reporters waiting outside. Is that all going to change?
“We’re going to stay hidden the best we can. I’ll have our lawyer be our point of contact, and though we may have to travel to testify, we’ll deal with the media and authorities away from our house. Our home will be our sanctuary always.” He leans down and kisses my forehead. “I promise. I like the peace and quiet here just as much as you do.”
Christopher had kept his word the minute we flew off the mountain. We didn’t go back to New York, we had no interaction with his mother, and he found us the cutest cabin in a small mountain town called Pinesville. The town consists of one market, a post office, a pet store, a barbershop, and some other small businesses. It’s quaint, charming, and already feels like home. We’ve met a couple of the people who live in the town, but they all seem to keep to themselves as we do. It’s friendly, but not overly so. And if they know who Christopher and I are due to the media, they aren’t letting on that they do.
Christopher is taking nature pictures and seems to love it. We go on hikes, and he gets lost in snapping one photo after another. We’ve settled into a routine of love, happiness, and contentment that I never thought possible. But I always knew in the back of my mind it was temporary. We were working on borrowed time because Papa Rich would enter my life once again.
And here he is.
On the television, so far from me but also so close.
“I’m not sure I can face him,” I confess, staring at the man who at one time was my only family. The only person in my life who meant anything. The man I believed to be my Papa Rich.
I don’t recognize the man anymore.
And not because he changed. No… he’s the same man. The same evil man.
I just have my eyes open now. I can truly see the truth.
He’s not my Papa Rich anymore.
He’s Richard. He’s the Ghost Town Killer. He’s a bad, bad man and was my kidnapper.
Christopher lets out a deep breath and begins rubbing my back. “I wish I could tell you that you don’t ever have to see him again. But I know you and I will be key witnesses in his trial. He’ll be in the courtroom when you have to take the stand.”
“What about your mother? Will we have to see her?”
He continues to rub small circles on my back. “It’s likely. She’s now a part of this court case as well. There’s no way she’ll be able to walk away from this with her hands clean. No matter how much money and how many fancy lawyers she throws at this, she aided a wanted felon. It’s a crime, and I don’t see her not having to pay for what she did to you. But my mother is no longer my concern. She gets to deal with her legal issues on her own.”
“Are we going to tell the authorities the truth about what she did?” I ask, prepared to lie if that is something Christopher wants.<
br />
Louisa is his mother, and I completely understand the pull of family and what they can make you do or not do.
“I’ve already told Agent Martinez everything. I’m not going to lie for that woman, and I don’t expect you to either. She’ll have to pay for what she did one way or another. Knowing her, it will just be through her pocketbook. She has a way of getting out of everything bad. But regardless, she lost me in the process. She’s dead to me, just as Richard is to you.”
I reach for the remote and turn off the television. I don’t want to see his face or hear the grating voices of the reporters any longer. “It’s been so nice the last couple of weeks here with you. I just don’t want to see it end.”
Christopher walks around me and sits next to me on the couch. He takes both my hands into his and looks me straight in the eyes. “It won’t end. We may have to take a small detour, but we’ll return to this. I love it just as much as you do.”
“I’m afraid that once we go back to that life, you may realize you miss it all. City life could pull you back.”
Christopher smiles. “I haven’t missed a thing. I’ve been asking myself why I waited so long to do something like this. I’ve always loved the mountains and vacationed near here often. So, to be able to live here every single day… it’s like a permanent vacation.” He leans forward and kisses me. “I’m making this change for me just as much as I’m doing it for you.”
“We need to let Isaac, Holly, and Violet know that the chapel is safe,” I suddenly realize, wondering how long it will be for us to get out to see them all.
“I already made sure that happened,” Christopher says. “The Feds want to keep us happy right now so we cooperate with everything they need from us. I asked them to send one of their men to Isaac’s immediately. Once the dust settles, we’ll head out there and visit. See how they are settled in and if they need anything from us.”
I’ve missed the sisters like crazy and can’t wait to see them again, but I also know it was impossible to go back before they captured Richard and Scarecrow. We had to remain in hiding for our safety as well as theirs. Plus, we didn’t want to give any clues to Richard and Scarecrow that we had already fled the mountain.