Epilogue
TAMSYN WAS SURPRISED by how quickly sleeping on hard ground felt familiar again.
Which said less about the tent accommodations and more about the fact that she generally preferred her nights to include a proper mattress, climate control, and a bathroom that did not require pulling on a pair of hiking boots.
Still, as she lay on her back in the glow of the lantern hanging overhead, lying on a double sleeping bag with the crisp scent of pine and cold earth wrapped around them, she had to admit this setup had its charms.
Mostly because her wife was right next to her.
Isla was lying on her side with one arm folded under her head and the other draped lazily over Tamsyn’s bare stomach.
She’d already stripped down to a pair of black boxer briefs.
Her long legs and soft skin looked deliciously enticing in the lantern glow, and Tamsyn had absolutely no business still getting this worked up by the sight of her after all this time.
But there she was.
Back in the middle of nowhere. Back to dirt and pine and the level of quiet that made every small sound feel bigger and scarier.
Outside, the night hummed with cicadas, the occasional croak of a frog, and the hoot of a distant owl.
Wind moved through the trees in long, whispering strokes.
Somewhere in the distance, something else made a noise that neither of them chose to identify because they had no desire to ruin their first night of many in the tent with wildlife paranoia.
No matter where they were or what they were doing, Isla still looked so good Tamsyn could barely stand it. Tamsyn’s mouth curved when she caught Isla looking. “You realize this is probably the best either of us is going to look or smell for a while.”
Isla’s gaze moved slowly over Tamsyn’s body. “Then I say we should appreciate it properly.”
Tamsyn laughed softly and slid her hand over Isla’s stomach. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day.”
“It does,” Isla murmured, shifting closer. Her hand settled at Tamsyn’s waist. “I want to assure you that once we’re sweaty and filthy and living like little woodland creatures again, I’m still going to want you. But right now I get to have you clean, warm, and naked in a tent.”
That sent a pulse of heat through Tamsyn’s body. “We have always been ridiculously good at this.”
Isla’s mouth curved. “Sex in the wilderness?”
Tamsyn brushed her nose lightly against Isla’s. “Yes, that. And finding each other irresistible, no matter where we are.”
Tamsyn’s laugh dissolved into a sharp inhale as Isla’s teeth grazed her neck.
The tent’s nylon walls fluttered in the breeze, and the lantern light cast shadows across Isla’s bare shoulders.
Her hands slid beneath Tamsyn’s tank top, fingertips skating up her ribs as she peeled it over Tamsyn’s head.
Every touch was like a slow-burning fuse.
“Still overthinking the wildlife?” Isla murmured against her throat, hooking a thumb under Tamsyn’s shorts.
“Not anymore.”
Isla’s smile was a brush of lips as she pulled the shorts over Tamsyn’s hips, down her legs and tossed them somewhere near their tangled boots. Isla straddled her wife’s hips with her boxers riding low enough to make Tamsyn’s pulse skip. “Better?”
“Getting there.” Tamsyn gripped Isla’s waist and then traced her thumbs over the arc of her hipbones. “But you’re still wearing entirely too much.”
Isla leaned back just enough to reach between them, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her boxers. “You’re impatient.”
“Very.”
Isla pushed the shorts down her thighs, and Tamsyn helped peel them the rest of the way off before they landed in a soft heap on the tent floor.
Tamsyn’s breath caught. Isla settled over her with a familiar heat, and for a second she could only hold on and look at her.
Isla bent forward and brushed her mouth gently over Tamsyn’s. “Hi, wife.”
The word wife did something dangerous to Tamsyn’s chest. Her hands slid up Isla’s back, then around to her breasts, holding her there. “Hi.”
Isla kissed her again, slow and deep this time, and Tamsyn felt her smile against her mouth. “You’re so beautiful. How did I get this lucky?”
Tamsyn’s fingers tightened softly at her back. “I think we both won the ultimate love lottery.”
“We did,” Isla whispered as she shifted down Tamsyn’s body.
Her mouth trailed kisses between her breasts and down her stomach.
Each kiss was soft, and Tamsyn’s breath grew shallow as Isla moved lower still.
She pressed her lips just below Tamsyn’s belly button, then inched further down until her shoulders were between Tamsyn’s legs.
Tamsyn’s hands went to Isla’s hair. “You’re trying to kill me.”
“Not yet.” Isla glanced up through dark lashes, then pressed her mouth to the inside of Tamsyn’s thigh. Her breath was warm and close, and Tamsyn’s hips shifted involuntarily.
Then Isla’s tongue was on her, sliding between her folds in one slow, firm stroke, and Tamsyn nearly forgot how to breathe.
Her head tipped back against the sleeping bag as Isla licked her again and then circled her clit with a flattened tongue.
Every nerve in her body focused on that single point of contact.
“God, Isla.”
Isla hummed against her, the vibration sending fresh heat through Tamsyn’s body. Her tongue moved faster now, flicking and teasing until Tamsyn’s thighs trembled. Then Isla slid one finger inside her, and Tamsyn gasped.
“OMG, yes.”
Isla pumped slowly, her mouth still working Tamsyn’s clit in perfect rhythm. The combination was overwhelming. Tamsyn gripped Isla’s hair harder as her hips moved against her wife’s mouth. Isla added a second finger, curling them just right, and Tamsyn’s breath came in ragged gasps.
“I’m close,” she managed.
Isla didn’t slow down. Her tongue moved faster and her fingers pumped deeper until Tamsyn felt herself unraveling. The orgasm hit hard and suddenly, ripping through her in waves that left her shaking.
For a moment, neither of them moved. Then Isla crawled back up Tamsyn’s body, kissing her way across her stomach and ribs until her mouth found Tamsyn’s again. The taste of herself on Isla’s lips sent a fresh spark of heat through her.
Tamsyn grinned and grabbed her wife’s hips. “Come wrap those thighs around my face and sit on my mouth.”
Isla bit her lip, and then her smile turned wicked. “Careful what you offer, wife. I might decide this is how I want to spend every night for the next five months.”
“Sounds like the perfect itinerary.”
Isla let out a moan and moved up Tamsyn’s body until her knees bracketed Tamsyn’s face. Her thighs trembled slightly as she shifted her weight, hesitating for just a second before Tamsyn’s hands gripped her hips and pulled her down.
The first contact made Isla’s breath hitch. Tamsyn’s tongue swept through her folds, and Isla’s fingers found the tent’s support pole for balance. She rolled her hips front to back, and Tamsyn groaned beneath her, the sound vibrating against her center.
“Right there,” Isla murmured.
She moved faster, grinding down as Tamsyn’s tongue circled her clit. The angle was perfect. The pressure was exactly right. Isla’s head tipped back as her thighs tightened around Tamsyn’s face, and she rode her wife’s mouth with growing need.
Tamsyn’s hands gripped her ass, steadying her, and when Tamsyn’s tongue flicked faster, Isla felt herself unraveling. Her orgasm washed over her in a fierce rush. Her body shuddered as pleasure pulled a moan from her throat.
Tamsyn pressed a gentle kiss to her inner thigh. “I love you.”
“I love you back,” Isla said as she moved down beside her wife.
Tamsyn tugged the double sleeping bag up over them, cocooning them together until there was no space left between their bodies and no chill left in the air around them.
Isla tucked herself against Tamsyn’s chest and draped one thigh over her leg.
She was already half melting into sleep.
Tamsyn pressed a kiss into her hair and pulled Isla closer against her.
She had a feeling the next five months were going to stretch them, strengthen them, and bring them even closer.
TAMSYN HELD HER PHONE at arm’s length while she and Isla squeezed into the frame. Behind them stood the Pacific Crest Trail Southern Terminus Monument. Just beyond it, the desert hills rolled toward the Mexican border.
For the next five or so months they would be hiking through desert, mountains, forests, and snow. The thought was a little terrifying. But also extremely exhilarating.
“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” Tamsyn said, adjusting the straps of her teal Osprey backpack, which she’d spent weeks packing and repacking until everything balanced just right and the bag no longer felt like an elephant sitting on her back.
Isla’s setup was almost identical, except hers was lilac.
“I never doubted us,” Isla said, slinging an arm around Tamsyn’s shoulders. She leaned in and kissed her cheek, and just like always, Tamsyn instinctively tilted into it.
“I didn’t either,” Tamsyn said truthfully. “But I know Mikey did. He looked so shocked when we asked him to go on a road trip with us to Campo.”
Isla laughed. “To be fair, most people don’t celebrate getting married by hiking across three states. This is, after all, our delayed honeymoon.”
“So worth the delay,” Tamsyn said, beaming.
And it was. Everything about this moment was picture-perfect.
The air was dry and warm already, scented faintly with creosote and dusty sagebrush.
Nearby, a tiny lizard darted across the gravel and disappeared beneath a rock.
The breeze teased the back of Tamsyn’s neck in that delicious way that made goosebumps rise along her arms. “Come on,” Tamsyn added, tilting the camera until the monument was framed perfectly behind them.
“Let’s take a selfie. We should probably get going. ”
“We’ve got all the time in the world,” Isla said, but she leaned closer anyway.
Tamsyn tapped the screen again and again until a whole series of selfies littered her camera roll.
Thankfully, she’d packed a portable battery pack because she couldn’t imagine hiking two thousand six hundred and fifty miles of trail to the Canadian border and not documenting every breathtaking mile of it.
She glanced down to review the latest photo.
Two ecstatic faces with wind-blown hair and eyes squinting against the late morning glare stared back at her.
She’d post it later on Instagram for her family and friends, and if she had time, she’d send a couple to Isla’s sister Mallory, who had asked her just that morning to send a new photo of the two of them for her wall.
Apparently, Isla and Mallory were civil.
Or as close to civil as Mallory could manage.
According to the Stone family, Mallory had genuinely thought Isla had died when she’d watched the live airing of Outlast Her.
She’d then promptly sworn to everyone that if Isla survived, she would, quote, “stop tormenting her.”
So far, she’d kept her word, and Tamsyn was glad for it. She’d always hoped to get along with her family-in-law. And she did. She loved them all.
Looking back, Tamsyn still couldn’t believe how perfectly everything had fallen into place.
Isla had been the one to pop the question.
She’d done it fairly soon after they’d moved in together in Santa Monica.
They’d walked along one of the quiet Venice Beach canals and as the water turned gold under the evening sun, Isla had gone down on one knee.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the wedding had taken place only a few months later at a small outdoor ceremony in Stowe, Vermont, with the Green Mountains blazing in early autumn colors behind them.
Many Outlast Her contestants had been invited, including Barra, who had become a dear friend they saw every time they visited New York. Barra had even gotten ordained online and officiated their wedding. Her booming voice had made them all cry and laugh at the same time.
During all that, Tamsyn had left teaching and returned to school to study entomology. Meanwhile, Isla had hung up her modeling shoes for good and opened a small modeling agency in Santa Monica, focusing on diversity and raw talent.
Their lives weren’t just full; they were brimming.
Tamsyn slipped her phone into its designated pocket and looked north. The trail stretched in a dusty ribbon, winding through the scrubby desert hills. She felt the same electric jolt she’d felt when they’d kissed in that powder room.
And again, bumping into each other in the Flinders Ranges.
And again, when she saw her waiting at the altar with the mountains glowing behind her, leaves swirling around their feet while Barra’s voice echoed as they promised forever.
This is where life began.
Although, of course... it already had.
“Ready?” Isla asked, holding out her hand.
“Ready,” Tamsyn said, tangling her fingers with hers.
And together, they stepped onto the Pacific Crest Trail.
Book Three: Sweet Surrender