Chapter 24
EVANGELINE
Isit in the Porsche on the gravel shoulder of the cliff turnout south of Riggins with the engine off and the heater off and the windows up and my hands flat on the leather of the steering wheel, and I wait.
The cliff turnout is the cliff turnout I was at on Monday at sunset.
The cliff turnout is where we fucked in her truck bed as the sun went down.
I have done a thing my husband would have done.
The chief nodded to me when I left the fireground.
I do not know what the nod means.
I know what I am going to take it to mean.
I am going to take it to mean do not get her killed, Mrs. Clark, and I am going to take it to mean do not get her in a courtroom, Mrs. Clark, and I am going to take it to mean do this and do it well and do it from a phone that goes out with the trash, Mrs. Clark, and do not make me drive out of the city to find you again.
I do not move.
I wait for Max.
---
She came around the bend eventually.
I see the truck before I hear it. The truck is a county-issued red pickup with a crew cab and a toolbox in the bed and a ladder rack and a roof bar with the lights off.
The truck pulls up behind the Porsche.
The truck stops at six feet.
Max gets out.
She is in her uniform pants and her boots and a dark long-sleeve undershirt with the collar at her throat. There is soot at her jaw under her left ear.
She walks to the driver's side of the Porsche.
She does not knock on the window.
She stands at the driver's-side door and she looks down at me through the glass, and her eyes are the colour of sea glass, and the sun is up over the canyon now, and the light is on the side of her face, and I open the door.
"Evangeline.”
"Get in."
She walks around to the passenger side.
She gets in.
She shuts the door.
She smells of smoke and the smoke on her body is the thing she has been my whole life, and the first time I smelled it was when she saved my life, and I have wanted it on me every day since, and it is in this car now, and the windows are up, and the heater is off, and I can smell her.
Smoke and something unmistakably her underneath.
I turn in my seat.
I look at her.
She looks at me.
“Evangeline, I am so sorry for your husband. I had no idea how I was going to feel about you.”
“Shh.” I say, putting a finger to her lips. “Someone would have killed him sooner or later. I think I know that. Deep down.”
"Max, I’m so sorry for making you think I had gone.”
Her hand is on my thigh and it squeezes. We are alone here. I lean over and kiss her.
“I missed you,” she whispers and she holds me close.
I kiss her again and press my tongue into her mouth. I feel heat building between my legs. I pull away slightly.
"I want to ask you for a thing."
"Ask."
"I want you to fuck me on the hood of this car."
She goes still.
"I missed you so much. Please.”
"Evangeline.”
"Yes."
"I am in uniform pants."
I shrug.
"Take them off."
"I am at a fire scene as far as the chief is concerned."
"You are forty miles south of the fire scene. You are at a turnout south of Riggins."
“Being here reminds me of the time in the truck bed and how amazing it was. There’s nobody going to come out here- look around, we are all alone.”
She looks at me. She does not look away.
She undoes her belt.
---
I get out of the car first.
I get out of the car at the driver's side.
I shut the door. I walk around to the front.
The hood of the Porsche is silver and the silver is warm at the front from the engine and the silver is warm at the back from the sun, and the lip of the hood is at my hip, and the windshield is at my back when I lean against the hood.
I take the coat off.
She gets out of the car.
She shuts the door.
She walks around to the front.
She is in the dark long-sleeve undershirt and the uniform pants are open at the belt and her boots are on the gravel and her hair is dark with sweat and the sun is on her face on the side, and she walks the eight feet from the door of the car to the front of the car, and she stops a foot from me, and she puts her right hand flat on the silver of the hood beside my hip, and she puts her left hand flat on the silver of the hood at the other side of my hip, and her arms are at my arms, and her face is six inches from mine.
"Evangeline,” she growls and I can’t wait for her to take me.
She puts her mouth on mine.
The kiss is the kiss of a woman who is in love with me, and the kiss is the kiss of a woman who knows I have just commissioned a fire for her, and the kiss is the kiss of a woman who is not going to talk about it on this hood, and the kiss is hers, and the kiss is mine.
I open under it.
I open under it the way I have opened under it so many times now.
Her hands are on my hips.
Her hands push the wide-leg trousers down at the hip.
I unbutton at the waist. The trousers slide down at my thighs.
I step out of one leg. I step out of the other.
The trousers are on the gravel at my feet.
The boots are on the gravel under the trousers.
The black silk is at my hips and the black turtleneck is at my waist and the cold air is at my thighs and the silver of the hood is warm at my back, and she has not taken her mouth off mine.
She lifts me.
She lifts me at the hips with one hand at the small of my back and the other hand under my thigh, and she sets me on the hood of the car at the lip of the hood with the camel coat folded under me, and the silver of the hood is warm and she puts her mouth at the side of my throat.
She lifts the black turtleneck up at my ribs.
She lifts it over my head.
The black turtleneck goes on the gravel.
"Lie back."
I lie back on the hood.
I lie back
She puts her mouth on me. She pulls my panties to one side and her tongue runs long slow strokes of me and tight circles of my clit.
I am filled with love and want for her and I feel my body respond immediately, my hips rising to her, I want to grind into her mouth. She recognises this and pulls my hips into her mouth holding them tight. I feel myself grind into the sudden pressure and I gush in her mouth moaning loudly.
She does not stop.
She does not stop because she has not been told to stop.
She puts two fingers in me as I lay spreadeagled and open for her and then adds a third. I moan again. She begins to fuck me with them. Delicious deep fucking, hard against my G spot. My body is going crazy for her. I can hear myself squelching with wetness.
"Look at me,” she says.
I lift my head.
I look at her.
Her eyes are so beautiful as she fucks me and she is looking into my eyes and I feel vulnerable and seen all at once. I feel her thumb against my clitoris as she fucks me faster. Thrusting in and out of me and it feels so so good.
My orgasm tears through me, overwhelming like a tsunami wave and I feel myself gushing again, all over her hand, all over the hood.
She stays inside me as she holds me through it. She leans down and kisses me and I taste myself on her lips.
"Evangeline.”
"Yes."
"I love you,” she says simply and I know it to be true.
"I love you too, Max."
“We can do this, you know?” she says. “We can live happily ever after, I promise I will do anything for you.”
“I know,” I say. And I want nothing more than this happy ever after with her.
“I want you to be mine,” she whispers.
She lowers her forehead to mine.
“I am yours,” I whisper. “Always.”
The sun is at the side of her face.
The cold air is on my wet thighs.
The canyon is in the morning.
I am in love with her.
I am hers.