The Night I Claimed Her

An Exclusive Bonus Scene from The Landscaper

Bonus Chapter: Silas’s Perspective

The Night I Claimed Her

This exclusive bonus chapter takes place after Chapter 7, from Silas’s point of view.

* * *

Four years.

Four years since I touched a woman. Four years since I wanted to. Four years of silence and solitude and convincing myself that part of me died with Sarah.

I was wrong.

Callie is asleep in the crushed wildflowers beside me, her body still trembling with aftershocks, her skin flushed and marked with evidence of what we just did. What I did to her. What she let me do.

I should feel guilty. Should feel like I’ve betrayed something sacred.

Instead, I feel alive for the first time since I buried my wife.

* * *

She stirs against me, making a soft sound that goes straight to my cock. Already hard again. Already wanting more.

Four years of nothing, and now I can’t stop. Can’t think about anything except the way she felt around me. The way she screamed my name. The way she looked up at me with those eyes—trusting, wanting, completely surrendered.

“Silas?” Her voice is sleep-rough. Satisfied.

“I’m here.”

She turns in my arms, pressing her naked body against mine, and I have to bite back a groan. She’s so soft. So warm. So fucking present in a way that makes everything else feel like a fever dream.

“You’re thinking too loud,” she murmurs against my chest.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Tell me.”

I’m silent for a long moment. Words have never been my strength—even less so after five years of talking to no one but myself. But she deserves something. Deserves to know what’s happening inside my head.

“I’m thinking about how I want you again,” I admit. “Already. Still inside you, and I’m already thinking about the next time.”

Her breath catches. “Silas—”

“I’m thinking about how I want to take you back to the house and fuck you in an actual bed. Slow this time. Make it last for hours.” My hand slides down her spine, settling on the curve of her ass. “Then I want to bend you over the kitchen table. Take you against the shower wall. Every surface in that house until you can’t walk through a single room without remembering what I did to you there.”

She makes a sound that’s half moan, half laugh. “That’s… a lot of surfaces.”

“I have four years to make up for.”

The words come out rougher than I intended. She goes still against me, then pulls back to look at my face.

“Hey.” Her hand finds my cheek, cupping gently. “You don’t have to make up for anything. This isn’t about catching up or filling a void. This is just… us. Right now. Whatever we want it to be.”

“What do you want it to be?”

She holds my gaze. “Everything.”

* * *

We don’t make it back to the house.

One minute we’re lying in the grass, talking about futures and possibilities. The next, she’s straddling me, her hands braced on my chest, her hips moving in slow circles that make my vision blur.

“Callie—”

“Shh.” She leans down, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Let me.”

Let her. Like I could stop her. Like I’d want to.

She takes me inside her slowly—so slowly it’s torture. Inch by inch, her body opening for me, stretching around me, until she’s seated fully and we’re both breathing hard.

“Fuck,” I grit out. “You feel—”

“I know.” She starts to move. “I know.”

This time is different from before. Before was primal—me chasing her through the grass, pinning her down, taking what I needed. This is something else. This is her in control. Her setting the pace. Her using my body for her pleasure while I lie back and watch and try not to lose my fucking mind.

She rides me like she was born to do it. Hips rolling, breasts bouncing, head thrown back as she chases her release. The morning sun catches her hair, turns her skin gold, makes her look like something out of a dream I never dared to have.

“Beautiful,” I rasp. “So fucking beautiful.”

Her eyes meet mine. “Touch me.”

My hands find her hips—gripping hard, helping her move. Then sliding up to cup her breasts, thumbs brushing her nipples. She gasps, rhythm faltering, and I take advantage. Thrust up into her, hitting that spot that makes her scream.

“Again,” she demands.

I give her again. And again. And again.

Until she’s not riding anymore—just holding on while I fuck up into her, my hips pistoning off the ground, my cock driving deep with every stroke. The slick sound of our bodies joining fills the clearing. Birds scatter from nearby trees. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I register that anyone could walk by, anyone could see—

I don’t care. Let them see. Let them know she’s mine.

“Silas—” Her voice breaks. “I’m going to—”

“Do it.” I reach between us, find her clit, press down hard. “Come on my cock. Let me feel it.”

She shatters.

The clench of her inner walls is almost painful—tight and rhythmic, pulling at me, demanding everything I have. I last maybe three more thrusts before I’m following her over the edge, burying myself deep and spilling inside her with a roar that echoes through the garden.

She collapses onto my chest, boneless and shaking.

I hold her there, both of us gasping, hearts pounding against each other.

“Mine,” I whisper into her hair. “My Callie.”

“Yours,” she agrees. “And you’re mine.”

* * *

Later—much later—we finally make it inside.

The house is quiet. Warm. Full of afternoon light that slants through dusty windows and makes everything feel suspended in time.

I cook for her. Eggs and toast, nothing fancy, but she looks at me like I’ve handed her the moon.

“I didn’t know you cooked,” she says, perched on the counter in nothing but my flannel shirt.

“Had to learn. Up in Montana, it was cook or starve.”

“Tell me about it? Montana?”

I flip the eggs, considering. “Cold. Quiet. The kind of quiet that gets inside you and doesn’t leave.”

“Do you miss it?”

“No.” The answer comes faster than I expect. “Thought I would. Thought leaving would feel like losing something. But now—” I look at her, this woman who’s somehow cracked me open without even trying. “Now I think I was just waiting. Hiding until I was ready to come back.”

“Ready for what?”

“You.”

Her eyes go soft. “Silas…”

“I know it sounds crazy.” I slide the eggs onto a plate, turn off the burner. “We’ve known each other two weeks. But I’ve spent four years learning to trust my instincts. Learning to read what my body’s telling me. And my body’s telling me—” I cross to where she’s sitting, bracketing her with my arms. “My body’s telling me you’re the reason I survived.”

“Survived Montana?”

“Survived everything. The grief. The silence. The years of thinking I’d never feel anything again.” I press my forehead to hers. “You woke me up, Callie. And now that I’m awake, I don’t ever want to sleep again.”

She kisses me then—soft and sweet, tasting like morning and possibility.

The eggs get cold.

Neither of us cares.

* * *

The kitchen table, it turns out, is exactly the right height.

I discover this when she hops off the counter, reaches for the eggs, and I decide I’m not done with her yet. One second she’s reaching for a fork. The next, she’s bent over the oak surface with her ass in the air and my handprint blooming red on her skin.

“Silas!” She’s laughing and gasping at the same time. “The food—”

“Later.” I kick her legs wider, run my fingers through the wetness already gathering between her thighs. “I told you I wanted every surface. I’m a man of my word.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“Four years, Callie. Four years.“

She stops laughing when I slide inside her.

This angle is deeper—I can feel every inch of her, hot and tight and perfect. She moans into the table, fingers scrambling for purchase on the smooth wood, and I set a punishing rhythm that makes the legs scrape against the floor.

“That’s it,” I growl. “Take it. Take all of me.”

“Harder—”

I give her harder. Give her everything I’ve been holding back for four years. Every fantasy I didn’t let myself have. Every need I buried in the Montana snow.

She comes twice before I let myself follow. The second time, I reach around to pinch her clit while I’m buried balls-deep, and she screams so loud I’m sure the neighbors would hear if there were any.

When it’s over, we’re both collapsed over the table, breathing hard, covered in sweat.

“The shower,” she pants. “You mentioned the shower.”

“You can’t possibly—”

“Try me.”

I lift her, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her upstairs while she laughs and beats her fists against my back.

The shower takes longer than expected.

We use all the hot water.

Neither of us minds.

* * *

Afterward, we lie in her bed—an actual bed, finally—and watch the evening light paint patterns on the ceiling.

“Sarah would have liked you,” I say quietly.

Callie goes still against me. “Yeah?”

“She always said I needed someone who wouldn’t let me disappear. Someone who’d drag me back to the world when I tried to hide from it.” I stroke her hair, marveling at the softness. “That’s you. You don’t let me disappear.”

“I don’t want you to disappear.” She props herself up on one elbow, looking down at me. “I want you right here. In the garden. In this house. In my bed.”

“In your life?”

“In my life,” she confirms. “However complicated that gets. I want you in it.”

I pull her down for a kiss—long and slow and full of promise.

“Then that’s where I’ll be,” I tell her. “For as long as you’ll have me.”

She smiles against my mouth. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Outside the window, the garden waits—half-wild, half-tamed, full of secrets still waiting to be uncovered.

But right now, in this moment, there’s nowhere else I want to be.

Four years of silence.

One woman to break it.

And a future I never thought I’d want, suddenly spreading out before me like spring after the longest winter.

* * *

The End

Thank you for reading this exclusive bonus scene!

Want more of Silas and Callie’s story? The Landscaper is available now—and their journey is just beginning.

Book Four: The Cop introduces Dane Mitchell, who’s about to show Callie that protection isn’t just physical—and that some walls are meant to be broken.

The Renovation Project: Eight men. One woman. One house that changed everything.

Never Miss a Release

Get new release alerts, exclusive bonus content, and reader-only giveaways.