Chapter 6
Zane
The first faint traces of dawn filter through the curtains, casting a warm glow over Aspen”s slumbering features. My chest constricts at the sight of her lying so peacefully beside me, tousled crimson curls spilling across the pillowcase. It almost doesn”t seem real after all this time.
Almost involuntarily, my fingers reach out to ghost along the delicate line of her jaw. Aspen murmurs something soft and unintelligible in her sleep, her full lips pursing into an unconscious pout.
God, she”s so damn beautiful.
Unable to resist the pull, I ease closer until the solid weight of her curves presses flush against me. Aspen stirs, eyes fluttering open for a heartbeat before drifting shut again with a contented sigh. She nestles deeper into my arms, her leg slipping between mine in a slow, sensual glide.
The thin cotton blanket between us does little to disguise the swell of her breasts, the heat of her core radiating against my thigh. It would be so easy to surrender to this again. Just a simple shift of my hips, a tug to rid us of these last flimsy barriers, and I could drink deep from that intoxicating well once more.
Beneath the searing lust is another ache, one I”ve carried far too long. A soul-deep craving for the kind of intimacy that has nothing to do with tangled sheets and sweat-slicked skin. The kind only Aspen has ever managed to offer.
One of her restless hands skims along the ridges of my abdomen, her nails lightly scoring my flesh in a way that has my muscles clenching. I growl low in my throat, the sound rumbling through us both.
”Aspen...”
The husky rasp of my voice seems to rouse her further. Those emerald eyes open, still glazed with the vestiges of sleep. For a suspended moment, she simply stares at me—taking in the hard planes of my features, the intensity of my stare. Slowly, the hazy desire clouding her gaze clears as the reality of our tangled forms settles in.
Abruptly, her entire body goes rigid in my arms. Aspen sucks in a sharp breath, her features schooling into a carefully neutral mask.
”Zane. I wasn”t...” She trails off, swallowing hard as she subtly shifts away from me.
I resist the instinctive urge to tighten my hold, to keep her bound against me where she belongs. Instead, I simply hold her stare, keeping my expression open and unguarded. ”It”s just me, Red.”
The childhood nickname slips out unbidden, and Aspen”s mask fractures ever so slightly. A fleeting shimmer of tenderness softens her features before the shutters descend again. But she doesn”t pull away further, some of the rigid tension easing from her muscles.
”We should talk,” I murmur after a loaded pause, reaching out to tuck an errant curl behind her ear. ”Really talk, for once.”
Aspen”s lips purse, but she gives a jerky nod of assent.
Taking a fortifying breath, I push up to sitting and lean back against the headboard. She mirrors the movement, drawing her knees up to drape the sheets over her body in a loose cocoon. I can practically hear the gears turning in Aspen”s head as she worries that plump lower lip, clearly steeling herself for whatever”s to come next.
”I want you to stay.” The words tumble out in a low rumble. ”I want us to rebuild the camp together.”
Aspen”s brow furrows as she processes my declaration. ”You”re serious? Even after our disagreements about how to approach it?”
”More than ever,” I affirm with a nod. ”Look, I”ll be the first to admit I was being stubborn as hell about sticking to the ”authentic” Silverpine experience and resisting any modernization. But after seeing how fired up you were getting over the possibilities...”
”So, what? You think we can find some middle ground?”
I lean in closer without conscious thought, the scent of her surrounding me in an intoxicating cloud: vanilla and sun-warmed cedar. ”I know we can. We”re a hell of a team.”
”What about my job?” Aspen asks, chewing on that lush lower lip in a way that draws my gaze like a magnet.
I hold her stare, keeping my expression impassive despite the raging need to reach out and smooth the crease furrowing her brow with my thumb. ”Quit.”
She blinks, clearly taken aback by my blunt response. ”Just like that? Zane, I”ve worked my ass off for years to build my career.”
”And how”s that making you feel?” I challenge, arching a brow. ”Fulfilled? Happy?”
Aspen”s eyes blaze for an instant, that fiery spark I”ve always loved roaring to life. But it”s fleeting, quickly banked as she glances away with a helpless shrug. ”My life is in the city. My house, my friends...”
”None of that”s real,” I rumble, unable to keep the edge of frustration from seeping into my tone. ”Silverpine, what we had here—that was real. More real than any bullshit corporate ladder or cookie-cutter suburban existence you”ve been telling yourself you wanted.”
But she”s nothing if not stubborn, that chin lifting in defiance. ”So what, I”m just supposed to drop everything and start over here? In Silverpine?”
I lean in closer, letting my gaze roam over those delicate features that have haunted my dreams for far too long. ”Where you belong.”
Aspen”s bravado falters, her shoulders sagging infinitesimally as uncertainty clouds her eyes. ”How can I know you won”t just disappear on me again?”
The raw vulnerability in her question pierces straight through me, stripping away the last vestiges of bravado. I suck in a harsh breath, feeling those old demons stirring in the depths of my gut. Instinctively, I want to retreat, to deflect. To keep Aspen at a safe distance so she can”t see the shredded, damaged parts.
But she”s already seen them, hasn”t she? She was there when it all fell apart, when I shattered into a million jagged pieces in the wake of Mitch”s death. My closest friend, my partner in crime who lived for the same adrenaline-soaked thrills I did.
Until that final climb when everything went horribly wrong.
The visions come rushing back in a torrent—the first ominous rumblings of the rock slide, panicked shouts as the cliff face sheared away around the group of climbers from camp. I can still remember the desperate scramble to get lines anchored and haul them out before it was too late, but it wasn”t enough. The sickening crunch of impact as massive boulders slammed into them, the screams as bodies crumpled.
Among the fallen was Mitch, his death hitting me the hardest, leaving a wound that never truly healed.
”I never meant to hurt you, Red.” The words rasp out, my voice sounding like gravel after miles of silence. ”When Mitch died, I...”
I trail off, swallowing hard against the lump burning in my throat. Aspen doesn”t speak, doesn”t move. She simply holds my stare, silently encouraging me to keep going. To release the torment I”ve been choking on for years.
”His death was my fault,” I force out in a raw growl. ”We were all pushing the limits, always seeking bigger thrills. That’s what got so many of them killed. I was so arrogant, so goddamn reckless thinking I could keep pushing the limits with no consequences. And Mitch... he paid the price along with the others.”
My fingers curl into fists, nails biting crescents into my palms. The sting helps ground me, allows me to keep the memories at bay for a few precious moments longer.
”I couldn”t face it. Any of it,” I admit, the shame coating each word like ash on my tongue. ”So I ran. As far and as deep into the backcountry as I could, trying to outrun the guilt and pain by losing myself out there.”
Saying it aloud, giving voice to the self-loathing that”s haunted me for so long... it”s like a vise unclenching around my battered soul. Little by little, the knot lodged in my throat eases as Aspen holds my stare, her expression a blend of tenderness and new understanding.
”You were punishing yourself,” she murmurs, realization dawning in those vivid eyes.
”And I let it destroy everything good in my life. But being back here with you...” I pause, struggling for the right words. ”It”s like I can finally breathe again, Aspen. You reawakened something in me I thought was dead and buried forever—hope for the future. A future we were supposed to build here, together.”
Reaching out, I brush the pad of my thumb over the plump swell of her lower lip in a whisper-soft caress. ”I”m not that stupid, selfish kid anymore who took the most important person in his life for granted. I”m here, Aspen. All in, if you”ll have me.”
Aspen stares at me for a suspended moment. Then, without a word, she surges forward and crushes her mouth to mine, all fierceness and need as her fingers knot in the hair at my nape. In one rough tug, I shred the flimsy fabric separating us away, baring Aspen”s body to my hungry gaze.
Pulling back, I drink in every gorgeous inch—from the swell of her breasts to the gentle flare of her hips, that rich crimson thatch leading to the molten center I crave like oxygen itself. God, she”s so damn beautiful.
“Will you have me, Red?” I ask with every ounce of restraint I can muster.
“Zane…” she breathes, her eyes shining with emotion. “We”ve always belonged to each other. Always.”
I cup her face in my hands, my voice raw with reverence. ”God, Aspen, you have no idea how much I”ve needed to hear that.”
She smiles, a teasing glint in her eyes as she slides her hands down my chest. ”And you have no idea how much I need you,” she murmurs, and there”s a silent plea in her stare that makes something deep inside me unravel.
I can never deny her—not really.
Shifting onto my knees, I blaze a scorching trail down the center of her body with my lips and tongue. Aspen arches into each caress, her back bowing in the most delicious invitation as I map every dip and swell, exploring the valley between her breasts, tasting the salt and sweetness of her skin. I take one rosy nipple into my mouth, suckling gently, my fingers rolling the other pebbled bud.
My lips blaze a path down her stomach, my tongue dipping into her navel before continuing south. I pause at the apex of her thighs, my breath hot against her damp curls. Her scent, musky and sweet, fills my nostrils, driving me wild with need. But this isn”t about me, not right now.
This is about Aspen, about showing her just how much she means to me.
I press a soft kiss to her mound before parting her folds with my fingers. I look up at her, our gazes locking as I lower my mouth to her center. The first taste of her on my tongue is a revelation, intoxicating and addictive all at once. I lick her slowly, savoring every drop, listening to the way her breath hitches when I find that sensitive bundle of nerves.
I swirl my tongue around her clit, applying just the right amount of pressure that has her bucking against my face.
”Oh god...” Her fingers tangle in my hair, guiding me, urging me on. I slip a finger inside her, then another, curling them to find that secret spot.
Her thighs quiver against my shoulders as I work her with my mouth and fingers, feeling her walls tighten around me as her orgasm builds. Frantic now, she grinds against my face, chasing that elusive release.
”Zane... oh god, please...”
I suck her clit into my mouth, flicking it with my tongue, and that”s all it takes.
Aspen cries out my name as she comes, her body convulsing around my fingers. I keep lapping at her with broad, leisurely strokes as she rides out the aftershocks, prolonging her shattering high until she”s a panting, boneless mass sprawled before me. Only then do I ease back onto my haunches, drinking in the sight of her utterly debauched and spent.
Aspen blinks at me through a heavy-lidded daze, her chest still heaving. There”s something so beautifully unguarded about her in these moments, stripped bare in every sense of the word. It makes me ache for her in a way that has nothing to do with physical cravings.
”Come here.” Her voice is a throaty rasp, laced with a naked longing that has me surging over her.
Our mouths collide again, and I groan against the lush heat of her tongue as it strokes along mine. Aspen”s hands roam freely, mapping the hard ridges and planes of muscle with a reverence that makes me shudder. I can”t resist the urge to rock against her, grinding my aching shaft against her leg. She whimpers into my mouth, those lush thighs parting as I settle between them.
”I need you inside me,” she says, teeth scraping against my ear.
I nearly blackout at the husky demand, every muscle going rigid as I fight for the last threads of control. Reaching between us, I grasp my cock, angling the swollen head against her entrance. Aspen mewls, her fingers flexing against my shoulders as the broad crest parts those honeyed folds.
Inch by torturous inch, I ease myself into that searing haven until our hips are flush, our ragged breaths mingling. Aspen”s eyes drift shut, those lush lips parting on a breathless whimper as she savors the exquisite fullness of me sheathed so deeply inside her. I mirror the reaction, my own gaze falling to the point where our bodies are fused so intimately.
”Look at me, Red,” I command in a guttural growl.
Only when her emerald eyes flutter open do I move, rolling my hips to withdraw nearly all the way before driving home again in one powerful thrust. Aspen”s head thrashes, a guttural keen tearing free as her nails score lines of fire down my back. The sting only spurs me on, each punishing stroke reigniting the wildfire between us.
There”s no sense of urgency this time, no frantic race toward completion. We simply bask in the luxury of relearning each other”s cadences and rhythms, savoring every ragged gasp and whispered endearment. I lose all concept of time as our bodies undulate together, the only sounds our mingled cries and the slick glide of sweat-slicked flesh.
At some point, our frantic tempo shifts, slowing to something deeper and more sensual. I ease onto my back, pulling Aspen astride me so we”re chest to chest. She braces her hands on either side of my head, that glorious crimson mane tumbling around us as she begins to move with a slow, hypnotic roll of her hips.
”So goddamn beautiful,” I rasp, trailing my palms down the sleek curves of her sides. Aspen”s head tips back, her lips parting on a breathless moan as she takes me deeper with each achingly gradual descent.
I could stay like this for hours, basking in the velvet heat of her surrounding me as we make love with an unhurried tenderness. But I can already feel the telltale flutters building low in my groin, that delirious edge drawing inexorably closer.
My grip tightens on Aspen”s hips, guiding her into an increasingly frantic tempo as that scorching spiral tightens further. She meets my urgency stroke for stroke, her inner walls beginning to flutter in those telltale contractions around my aching cock.
I growl her name like a prayer, every muscle going rigid as I hurtle over that blissful cliff. Aspen”s own cry echoes off the walls as she shatters apart above me, her release milking every last pulse from the depths of my own.
We cling together through the aftershocks, foreheads pressed tight as we struggle for breath. Sweat-slicked and sated, our limbs tangle in a familiar way that feels more like coming home than anything I”ve known in years.
”You and me, Zane,” Aspen whispers fiercely against my lips, her fingers brushing the damp hair from my brow. ”Whatever comes next, we do it together. No more running, okay? I can”t lose you again...”
The words trail off in a murmur, and I silence them with another searing kiss. My fingers tangle in those glorious scarlet tresses, cradling her skull as I pour every last ounce of certainty and conviction into the molding of our mouths.
”Never again, Red,” I rumble against the silken heat of her lips. ”You”re stuck with me this time.”
Aspen”s brilliant smile is the only answer I need as we tumble back into the rumpled sheets, finally whole again after far too long spent broken apart.