Chapter Forty Seven
The small wood fire crackled very softly in the stone fireplace of the isolated cabin as the heavy summer rain continued to pour down relentlessly in sheets outside the windows. Stone had carried my entire shivering frame completely inside the building after our intense, emotional reunion on the covered porch steps, his own dark clothes completely soaked and dripping with rainwater just as much as mine. We stood perfectly still, dripping puddles onto the middle of the warm wooden floorboards, staring directly into each other's eyes with a wave of raw, unspoken, and deeply consuming need that felt heavier than the storm outside.
I slowly reached my cold, trembling hands up and tenderly cupped both sides of his thick, stubbled jawline, feeling the hard bone beneath his
