Yet, they didn’t.

But still, Adam nodded. “Yeah, as much as I really, really want to come with you; I think it would be better for me to keep an on things here and keep the halfway house under a watchful eye. If there’s someone prowling the campus and up to no good, I don’t want them targeting those kids. They’ve been through enough as it is. Besides, I think you could use some quiet time, and it would probably be the quietest if only one of us goes with you. But that means I have dibs on alone time with you when you get back.”

I laughed and leaned over to snuggle up against Adam’s chest.

“Agreed,” Michael said. “What do you think, Lisette? Want to take a couple days in Asheville this weekend?”

I nodded my head against Adam’s soft shirt. “Yeah, for sure.”

When Michael and I got to the cottage, everything was exactly as we had left it. Michael had hired a little old handyman that lived not too far away to keep watch on the place for the year until we returned. He did a good job of running the pipes every so often and making sure things were running smoothly and undisturbed. He even kept up my garden for me.

We were only going to stay for a couple of nights, and immediately after we walked into the cottage, I felt a weight lifted off me and began to relax a bit. It was the perfect temperature outside and all the trees on the mountainside were showing off a brilliant display of orange and red and yellow leaves that shouted a burst of color at the sky. We sat on the mountaintop with blankets and a bottle of wine, and we waited for the sun to go down. Even here amidst the solitude, I still felt a little worried. But I also felt safe and at home.

It made me not want to go back to Lineage.

“Are you thinking about not wanting to go back?” Michael asked me at the exact moment that I had been thinking about it.

“Yeah,” I said. “Actually, I was. How did you know?”

He chuckled. “Well, for one thing I can always tell when you’re deep in thought because you do this thing where you curl your lip up and smoosh your chin.”

I laughed at the thought of how that must look. “That doesn’t sound like a very attractive look,” I said.

“You’re always attractive to me,” he smiled, gazing into my eyes. “The other way that I knew, however, was because it’s exactly what I was thinking. And so I thought maybe you were thinking the same thing, too.”

“We do have to go back though,” I said. “For a while longer.”

Michael nodded his head slowly. “I know.”

At first, I had thought that nine months would go by really fast, but then when I thought about being here, it seemed to make the nine months pass really slowly. I didn’t know which way I wanted it yet, because whether it went by fast or slow, each scenario had its things to make it seem either too short or too long for what would come next.

“Look,” Michael said as he pointed up at the sky.

I looked to where his finger seemed to touch the night and I saw a shooting star. I’d never seen one before and it was magically beautiful.

“Make a wish,” he said.

“What if I have more than one wish to make?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Then you have to choose.”

My mouth started running away with me. “What if I can’t choose? What if I want to keep both of my wishes?”

Michael turned and looked at me. He knew as well as I did that we were no longer talking about stars and wishes. And as my eyes met his, I watched him draw in a shockingly calm breath of fresh mountain air.

“Sometimes,” he said as he leaned over me until I started to lay back onto the blanket on the ground, “Our wishes choose us. And when that happens, you just need to open yourself up to it and let it inside.”

I reached up to wrap my arms behind his neck and twist my hand in his hair. Sometimes I felt like we were destined to be together, just like the stars in the sky. I kissed him and pulled him over me as he pressed against me and our clothes began to feel like an intolerable barrier between our bodies. Under the light of the sky, we undressed each other and pulled the blankets over us as our bodies laid against each other in the warm little space that we created. And I’d never felt closer to anyone in all my life.

I got the sudden and overwhelming feeling that we could create wonderful things together, just the two of us.

I giggled as I stared deeply into his gorgeous eyes. “Remember how much you said you missed making love to me on the mountainside beneath the stars?” I asked.

He didn’t hesitate to feather his lips against my own. “Yes.”

I sighed with relief. “Kiss me.”

“With pleasure,” he growled.

He captured my lips and all of my worries fell to the wayside. He rolled on top of me, blanketing me with his warmth as his thick dick fell between my spread thighs. I reached my hand down and wrapped my fingers around his pulsing and ready cock, stroking it just like his tongue stroked the roof of my mouth. He trembled as I moved my thumb and forefinger in the slightest circle with just the right amount of pressure along the tip of him, making him undulate and twitch with every movement I made. I loved controlling him like this. Feeling him succumb to me with just the tip of my finger teasing him.

And damn it, I loved the way that it felt like my hands controlled his body in that moment.

His big, muscular, incredible body became a quaking and reactive reflex in my hand. His tongue stuttered and his growls became soft groans as he shivered against me. He gasped against my lips. He sighed down the back of my throat. And when I sucked on him tongue, he became a whimpering mess against my body.

He loved every minute of it, just like I did.

And I didn’t want our moment to end.

I heard him sucking in breaths of the cool air as he tried to keep himself from exploding. I felt him bucking against my hand, wanting more of me. All of me. Just like I wanted him. When it reached the point where I could no longer keep my body from wriggling beneath him, he pulled himself from my hand and pushed between my thighs.

And when he penetrated my depths, our lips crashed together as he swallowed my sounds.

“Holy fuck,” I groaned.

He shivered against me. “So perfect for me. Holy hell.”

Our bodies rocked together while our moans of pleasure rode on the breeze as if we, too, were a part of the primal nature that surrounded us. The sounds of skin slapping against skin echoed off the corners of the mountain tops as the stars in the sky twinkled above us. As if to clap and cheer us on. I gasped his name as my back arched. I felt his cock pulsing against my walls as my nails raked against his back. He marked my neck with his teeth, his dick stroking every wonderful part of me as my body spiraled out of control.

“Shit, Michael. Please. I’m so close. I just--.”

His lips teased the shell of my ear. “Come for me, Lisette. Come for me, and never let me go.”

“Oh, fuck!”

My eyes squeezed shut and my back arched so deeply I thought it might break. Michael’s face fell to my bare tits as he lapped at my puckered peaks. My pussy pulsed around him, milking him for all he had as he rutted deeply against my body. Seeking out the friction he so desperately wanted before he exploded inside of me.

Chanting my name like an effortlessly prayer.

“Lisette. Holy hell, Lizzy. Shit, Lizzy. My Lizzy. Always. Forever. Holy fuck.”

As he collapsed against me, I gazed headily up at the stars. I watched them spiral into an endless abyss as the world tilted around me, dragging me around in its current. I’d never felt so beautiful and so wanted as I had laying there with Michael pressed against me. His heated breath, pulsating against my skin. His cock, still sheathed in my warmth.

And our intermingled juices, slowly trickling down my ass.

Although we were there at our precious cottage in Asheville for only two days, we savored every moment of it that we could and filled each sensual night with lovemaking on the mountain beneath the night sky and the glowing moon.

Memories I’d always hold near and dear to me, should I ever lose him.