*Ethan*
With a shudder of pleasure, I sink into the steaming water. I would have preferred sinking into Josie, which is the very reason that I forced myself to decline her invitation to assist me. My passions are on a short tether.
During each grueling step, I had envisioned her face, her smile, her soft voice urging me forward. When I had opened the door and seen her standing there, seen the relief, the joy wreathing her features, everything I felt for her that I had spent years denying … buried beneath caustic remarks and asinine behavior, drowned in drinks … burst forth like a volcano spewing ash and lava. And just as the molten magma covers everything near it, so had I wanted to envelop her, to take true possession, complete possession.
Josie wouldn’t have denied me, would have giv
