And nothing that happened in the woods—now or in the past—really mattered in any way.

She felt the pressure inside start to swell.

“Fuck,” she choked, her voice almost unrecognizable and her damp hair clinging persistently to her blazing cheeks. “God, I’m coming.” Her body was shaking uncontrollably as the tension built up with each of his thrusts.

“Yeah,” he said thickly, visibly holding back his own release. “Show me how you come.” His eyes were like nothing she’d ever seen in all her life. “Show me how you come when a man is giving it to you.”

He was giving it to her. She wasn’t making sure she came the way she normally did. All of him was big and strong and hard and too much. And all of him was pushing into her, pushing against her, pushing her over the edge.

Kelly came with a helpless sob, her body convulsing and her vision blurring. She felt him freeze, his cock buried inside her clenching muscles. Just as her waves of deep sensation started to lessen, she felt him pulsing inside her. Saw his tense face washed with an expression of helpless pleasure. Heard him give a rough, muffled shout as he finally let go of the tension.

Which is when she felt a familiar heaviness that always followed her orgasms.

Her body was saturated with a blissful languor in the wake of her climax, but she was more aware of the heaviness than normal. He was still holding her against the tree, his cock still sheathed inside her tight muscles, his hands on her thighs, his face buried in her neck, his breath even hotter than her skin.

She pushed against him slightly, just enough to get him to move back. In response, he let her slide back to her feet, and she leaned against the tree to keep herself upright.

“So what do you have to say now?” he asked, the smug smile returning to his lips, despite the pleased satisfaction reflected there.

Fuck, the man was arrogant. Not that he didn’t have reason to be. That might have been the best sex she’d ever had. But still. Nothing had changed. She was still at the edge of the woods with an arrogant stranger—and a client who hadn’t shown up.

She wanted to get away, to distract herself from the heaviness in her gut.

“Not bad.” She smiled at him, so he wouldn’t think she was regretting what had happened.

She wasn’t regretting it. It was sex. And sex would only ever be this one thing.

“We both know it was better than that.”

“Maybe. But your dog looks like he could use some water,” she said, “and I better get going, since my client was a no-show.”

He looked like he was going to say something, but stopped when she reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out her business card, which he’d tucked there.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his brow wrinkling.

“Taking my card back.”

“I can see that. But why?”

“Because my phone number is on it, and I don’t go for seconds.”

Something changed in his expression, a kindling of new interest. “What makes you think I want seconds?”

“I have no reason to think you do. But just in case.” She smiled and reached up to give him a quick kiss on the side of the mouth. “You’re pretty good. Not that you need any affirmation.”

She pulled down her skirt and smoothed her hair, so that she was respectable enough to be seen by the general public. She flashed him one more grin, since he was watching her quietly, and walked away.

She had to fight not to limp, since she was really sore, but she kept her walk even until she was out of the trees.

She was back in her car before her breathing evened out and her heart stopped racing. Her mind kept drifting back to the man as she pulled out of the parking lot, wondering who he was, what he was thinking now, what had made him what he was.

Wondering what it would be like to fuck him again and why she even wanted to.

But she kept fighting her mind, telling herself to focus on something else.

It was just sex. It was just a random man.

And it didn’t matter.

Something else mattered, though. Something she rarely acknowledged had awakened inside her from the encounter she’d just had.

She drove without conscious volition to another park—one all the way outside the city.

This one was all wooded—made up of nothing but hiking trails.

She sat in her car and stared at the sloping hills and thick trees, feeling a cold swell of panic rising up in her chest.

She hadn’t been to this park in eighteen years, and she didn’t even know why she’d just driven here.

It had something to do with that man—and nothing to do with him at all.

Chapter 2

Maybe the man had just been teasing, coming on to her with a smug attitude that normally worked with women. Maybe it had worked with her too. But he’d implied that she was weak, guided by soft feelings, incapable of being as strong and impersonal as he was.

And it wasn’t true. It just wasn’t true. She’d lived through hell eighteen years ago, and she could face anything after that.

Including this park. This woods. A certain hiking trail.

Even this wasn’t enough to break her.

So Kelly made herself get out of the car and stood holding on to the door until her legs stopped shaking.

She was aching between her legs from the sex she’d just had, and her back and ass were burning from the scratches. It was easier to focus on those sensations than on the fear that was growing, rising as she stared at the entrance to the trails.

There were a few cars parked in the lot, but no one was in sight. She stood a long time, trying to even out her breath, before she was capable of walking. She took step after step until she reached the trail’s beginning.

It was the one on the left. She knew it.

All she had to do was take a few more steps, and she’d be on the trail, into the woods. She’d known this trail by heart when she was a child, but other memories had blotted the knowledge out in the intervening years.

A familiar panic overwhelmed her as she neared the trees—dark depths and tangled branches that hid dark secrets.

But the fear was irrational. There were no dangers on this trail today. She wasn’t going to let a silly phobia cripple her like this. She could walk this trail—at least for a little while. She wasn’t so weak and cowardly as to turn back now.

Closing her eyes, she took ten steps down the trail, almost stumbling on a large tree root.

She had to open her eyes then, and the woods were already surrounding her. She turned instinctively and took a ragged breath as she saw the clear space and sunshine opening up back at the entrance.

She was shaking all over, and she heard her dad’s voice, coming from somewhere far back in her memory. He was telling her not to run on ahead.

He’d been a scientist—not a particularly athletic man in any way—but he’d enjoyed weekend hikes with her. He would tell her all about the trees and shrubs and birds and little critters, and she would try to race him up the steeper hills.

There was a curve in the trail now, and she forced herself to keep walking, even though her vision was starting to blur. She could barely breathe, and her heartbeat pounded in her head and her feet.

She was going to throw up. She was going to faint. She was going to fall into the darkness beyond the precipice she was barely clinging to right now, fall into the void.

She heard her father’s voice again, echoing through the years.

Kelly! Kelly Bird! Slow down! Wait for me!

She was out of sight of him now—beyond a curve in the trail. She was jogging, but she tripped on a big rock and fell on her hands and knees.