Chapter Eighteen
Jasper
“Wren?” I called, feeling like an idiot as I wandered through a field of near-identical tents calling her name.
A blonde head poked out from a tent ahead of me. Something settled in my chest even as my heart rate increased. I picked my way across the dry field towards her.
“Jasper, what are you doing here?” Her face went blank. “Did Kara send you to check on me?”
I shook my head. “I wanted to see you.”
Her eyes widened.
I ran my eyes over her face. She looked tired. Her eyes didn’t have that sparkle they did when we first met.
“Can I come in?” I gestured towards her tent and the corner of her lip ticked up. She waved me in. I kicked my shoes off and crawled into her space.
“So you wanted to see me?” She crossed her legs and sat facing me.
I nodded and licked my lips. “I’ve avoided relationships because I didn’t want someone waiting on me or worrying about me. I know you feel the same.” I took a breath. “Today when I heard someone was hurt where you were working, I did wait and I did worry.”
Guilt flashed across her face and I quickly continued.
“If I’m going to wait and worry about you anyway, then why should we be apart?”
“Jasper…”
I raised my hand. “I know we only met once but I had fun fighting with you. I loved talking to you because you understand this life. And the night of the wedding by the creek…” I shook my head to avoid getting lost remembering.
I reached out and took her hand, noting the dirt under her nails and the scratches on her skin.
“I think we should try to be more to each other than a memory.”
“You heard someone was hurt and showed up here, yelling my name and trying to find me.” Her eyes looked sad as she held mine. “That’s why this doesn’t work. That’s why this has never worked.”
I nodded. “I knew that when I came here. I had to see you and talk to you about all this face to face. But if you agree that I’m yours and you’re mine, then things would be different.”
“How?” she sounded exasperated.
“I can’t promise that I won’t want to track you down from time to time. But I can promise I’d respect what you do enough to give you space to do it.”
Her face softened and my heart buoyed at the possibility that my half-baked plan may have worked.
“That’s a pretty great promise.”
I nodded. “And we can have a system where we check in with each other. Keep the worry down as much as we can. The rest we can just figure out as we go, giving each other space to do what we love while still coming together at the end of the day. Physically or through text, or whatever.”
“Space is easy to give. It’s togetherness that could be the hard part. I mean, you had to track me down in a field, Jasper.”
“I know and we’ve been lost on a mountain and had sex under the stars. This is who you are and who I am. It can be who we are too.”
“This isn’t going to be easy.”
“I know, but I can’t get you out of my head and I want to try. Maybe it won’t work but I want to try.”
I held my breath while she studied my face. She squeezed my hand and that smile came back. “I want to try too.”
We grinned at each other like idiots, then she tackled me onto my back. I landed on the slippery surface of her sleeping bag, hearing it shift beneath me. Her face hovered over mine. “I don’t have much time.”
She kissed me hungrily and I reached blindly for the tent flap, forcing the zipper closed. It wasn’t privacy exactly but maybe that was our thing. “Me either, I have to go back to Springwood tonight for a shift tomorrow morning,” I said against her lips.
“I have to be up at five to spend twelve hours swinging an ax.”
“That sounds exhausting, guess I should be on top,” I teased.
“Oh yeah, you’re doing all the work.”
I didn’t mind. I’d brave being tired at work tomorrow to have her under me.
I flipped us so I was hovering over her and kissed her again. As I explored her mouth I slid my hand between us and undid the button and zipper of the dark cargo pants of her firefighting uniform.
I could hear people talking in the area. The tents were close together and it was a busy camp. Not the most romantic setup but Wren wasn’t a five-star hotel kind of person, and neither was I.
I worked her pants and panties down her legs, exposing her pale skin to the air. I got her clothes off one leg and left the other in place.
I couldn’t wait any longer to taste her.
“Your beard tickles,” she said as I lowered my head between her spread thighs but when I licked over her center for the first time any more words died on her tongue. She moaned deeply and my cock gave a twitch behind my zipper. I adjusted my grip on her thighs. The skin smooth under my rough palms.
I spread her wider, seeking her center and devouring it in a way I hadn’t when I pressed her against that tree back in Colorado.
She thrust her hips up towards my face and I doubled down, swirling my tongue, teasing and tasting, until she grabbed my shoulders and cried out my name.
Her body writhed under me and I held her tight, keeping my mouth on her clit, forcing her orgasm longer. When she finally collapsed on her back I gave her a satisfied smile.
She returned it with a lazy one of her own. Her body was limp on the bed and she reached towards me. “Pants off,” she said, her voice betraying how tired she was.
I leaned over and kissed her lightly. “We don’t have to if you’re too tired, you know. You had a hell of a day.”
“You’re sweet,” she said, running her hand over my cheek then into my dark beard. “But I think I’ll get over my long day faster if I can get off again.”
I brought my hand to my waist and popped the button on my pants before lowering the zipper. “Guess I have my orders.”
She gave me a mock salute and I got rid of my pants and boxers. As I was about to lower myself over her, she stopped me with both hands. “Nope, shirt off too. Long day means I get all the eye candy.”
I laughed, “Eye candy, huh?”
“I mean yeah, have you seen you?”
“You didn’t feel that way the first time we met,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes. “You being an ass doesn’t mean I didn’t think you were easy on the eyes.”
I tugged my shirt off my head and tossed it aside. “I thought you were easy on the eyes too, even as you were telling me off in an airport.”
“I’ll do it again, just tell me where and when.”
“I have a different destination in mind right now,” I said, stroking my cock to full hardness before bringing it to her center.