Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Clementine
Now I really feel eighteen again, because I’m naked in public and horny as hell. Hunter’s kissing me so hard that he’s pushing me backward, his tongue deep in my mouth as he slides his fingers around my clit, pinching it gently.
“I probably taste like jizz,” I whisper when I pull back.
“Yup,” he says. “And when you kiss me in a few minutes I’m gonna taste like pussy.”
I laugh and he kisses me again, one arm around my waist, his other hand rubbing me in slow circles. He’s the only person I’ve ever talked to like this, in this perfectly candid, honest, I-like-your-dick way.
I think it’s because we did a lot of experimenting without a lot of time when we were teenagers, so any shyness about saying things like, “a little to the left and lick faster,” was pushed aside in favor of more orgasms.
It doesn’t even feel dirty. It’s hot, and it turns me on like crazy, but it just feels honest and normal.
He pulls his hand out from between my legs, and then before I know it, he’s rolling both of us over onto the rock and I’m on my back, facing the sky, Hunter between my legs as he kisses the hollow of my throat.
He sucks one nipple into his mouth and flicks his tongue across it. I groan in appreciation, and he does it again, to the other one. He keeps pinching them as his lips move to my stomach, and he looks up at me.
I try not to giggle, because it tickles, and he pushes my thighs apart, running his fingers along the sensitive inside as I squirm. Then I feel his face there, too, sucking gently on the soft skin.
“Hey,” I say, laughing. “No hickies.”
“How am I supposed to keep track of how many times I’ve eaten you out?” he says, his voice buzzing, his lips almost brushing up against me.
I suck in a breath.
“Day planner?” I say.
He used to give me a hickey on my inner thigh every time he ate me out, and sometimes I would have seven or eight at once. I thought it was hot until I went to a waterpark with my family.
Hunter laughs, and then his tongue swipes hard across my clit.
I make a noise somewhere between a grunt and a moan, clenching my fists at my sides. He licks me hard again, his tongue flat but curling and really, I don’t know what he’s doing exactly but Jesus he’s good at it.
He keeps going, moving his tongue fast and hard and exactly the right way to make me moan my face off, and I’m moments from coming when suddenly his tongue stops. He pauses. I’m holding my breath.
Then he licks me in a slow circle, around my clit, pushing his tongue between my lips and back up. He licks me everywhere but my clit, and I want to scream in frustration.
“Tease,” I gasp.
His tongue makes another slow circle, and I swear I whimper, willing my body to climax somehow, even if he refuses to touch me right, but then he’s licking me again slow and hard.
“God yes,” I whisper, and then I come like I’m falling over a cliff, moaning, my eyes closed and my back arching.
Hunter doesn’t stop. Even when each lap of his tongue makes my whole body jolt, he doesn’t stop, and I put my hands in his hair, breathless.
“That was it,” I say.
“You mean that was one,” he says, grinning.
Then he shifts position slightly and his fingers slide inside me, bending at exactly the right spot.
I think I grunt, but then Hunter has his mouth back on me and I think he’s sucking gently on my clit, just barely caressing it with his tongue as he does. His fingers rub the spot inside me, and God, he’s relentless.
In no time at all I’m coming again and I’m whispering fuck, Hunter, fuck over and over again because my mind’s pretty much gone blank.
This time he stops, and it’s a good thing because I don’t know how much more I can handle. He rests his head on my hip and I run my hand through his hair, taking a deep breath, because I feel like the shock of my climax is still rattling through me.
“I think I could eat you out all day,” he says, his thumb stroking my lower belly. He almost sounds sleepy, and I wonder what would happen if we just fell asleep here.
Probably sunburn and bears, but it’s a nice thought.
“Your jaw would get sore,” I say.
“I’d have to work up to it,” he says. “Like a marathon. You don’t just run a marathon, first you run two miles, then five, then twenty.”
I sit up, cross-legged, and he pushes himself up to kiss me.
“Told you I’d taste like pussy,” he says.
“Gross,” I say, and kiss him again, this time with tongue.
After a while we quit making out and just lie there, on the rock, like giant satiated lizards or something. I keep having the urge to say dumb things to him, like I love you or move to Lodgepole or let’s get married or how many kids do you want?
I know it’s just because of those chemicals the brain releases after sex, but it surprises me how solid those dumb things feel.
Try waiting until you’ve dated for a whole week before you start naming your kids, maybe?
Ridiculous.
I’m still lying there, my head on Hunter’s chest, when he suddenly jerks to half-sitting, and I slide off. He’s looking upward, and after a second, I follow his gaze to the column of smoke.
We both stare for a long, long time.
“It’s bigger,” I finally say.
“Yeah,” he says.
Another pause.
“Shit,” he says, and stands.
For the first time since we got to the waterfall I feel naked, and I look around, wondering if someone else arrived while we were half-dozing, but there’s no one around. It’s just us and the column of smoke above, not much bigger but definitely bigger.
Neither of us says anything as we get dressed again, put on our packs and our shoes, and head away from the waterfall. Before we leave, I take a pebble from the side of the pool, then look back over my shoulder as we leave, wishing I’d brought a camera. It really is a beautiful place.
Hunter goes first down the boulder scramble, saying that if I fall he can probably catch me while the reverse isn’t true. I think he’s right, and even though I go on boulder scrambles all the time and don’t fall, I don’t argue with him.
For now, at least, his protective concern is sweet, though it’ll probably get on my nerves in a couple months.
I hope this lasts long enough for me to get annoyed, I think, just as my foot sends a shower of pebbles down the slope.
Hunter stops and looks back at me.
“I’m fine,” I say, and he nods.
It’s late afternoon by the time we get back to the lookout, and we’re mostly quiet the whole way back, glancing at the smoke every so often. My brain has started blossoming with worry, from what if it gets to the lookout before we can leave to what if Hunter has to hike in there to fight it?
It’s a tricky hike on a sunny day, in perfect conditions. Forget carrying heavy equipment in a smoke-filled canyon.
The moment we get back, I call it in to Mike. We talk for a while. Then Randy’s in his office, and they’re trying to share a radio, and it’s kind of a shit show but the three of us discuss the fire for a while.
Randy’s still sure it’ll burn itself out, even though he admits that he can see the column now, though only if he uses binoculars.
Mike’s found a map of towns and settlements in the area, and after a while, the conversation devolves into Randy insisting that it’s nothing to get excited about, and Mike just repeating how far various points of civilization are from the fire.
I think they’re driving Hunter crazy, so he goes outside for a while.
Hell, they’re driving me crazy, but this is my job so I can’t leave.
When he gets back, they’re still doing the exact same thing, but it’s not like I can hang up on my boss so I’ve just got my head down on the kitchen table, listening to Mike tell Randy that Eaglevale is only fifty miles from the current fire, and with the right conditions and bad luck, it could be there tomorrow.
“But it’s not the right conditions,” Randy is saying.
Hunter comes up behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders, massaging the tense muscles there. I let Mike and Randy argue as I lean back into him, his thumbs rubbing small, hard circles up and down my neck.
“They still at it?” he murmurs into my ear.
“Yeah,” I say, sighing. “I just want to know whether we need to leave now, or in the morning, and whether...”
I stop talking, because I’m about to say whether you’re gonna have to go fight this thing, but even if he doesn’t go to this one, he’s going somewhere, and I get to worry about that.
“Whether what?” he asks.
I swallow.
“Whether you’re gonna have to hike in there and fight this thing,” I say. “It’s dangerous.”
“It’s always dangerous,” he points out.
I want to say yes, I know, but I never had a say in this and I don’t have to like it, but I don’t. Hunter chose this, and he knew what he was getting himself into, and that decision had nothing to do with me. I can take it or leave it, but I can’t start a fight about it.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Take it, I think.
“I know,” I say, and look up at him. “Sorry.”
He leans down and kisses the top of my head.
“I practically pitched a fit when you climbed on some rocks today,” he says. “It’s okay if you worry about me.”
“McKinnon, come in,” Mike’s annoyed voice is saying. I grab the radio and press the button.
“Yes?” I say.
There’s a long, dramatic sigh.
“Hike back tomorrow,” he says. “We’ve requested air surveillance for this thing, so we’ll have eyes a lot closer in case it breaks bad.”
Hunter and I look at each other. I was secretly hoping for another day here, just hanging out and fucking a lot, but this extra day was pretty good.
“Roger that, boss,” I say.
“Great. See you then. Over and out.”
“Over and out,” I say, then put the radio on the table and tilt my head up at Hunter.
“The professionals are coming—”
The radio sounds again, and Mike’s voice comes through.
“McKinnon, are you there? I forgot something.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“If this fire becomes a problem, tradition dictates that you get to name it,” he says.
“I do?”
“You found it,” he says. “I recommend not naming it after yourself, in case it kills someone.”
A quick shudder runs down my spine.
“Thanks,” I say.
“Think about it,” he says. “And hope you don’t get to name it.”
“Roger that,” I say.