Epilogue
Emery
The air up here is so crisp it almost hurts to breathe, but in the best way. Autumn has painted the whole mountainside in shades of amber and crimson, the leaves crunching under our boots with every step. It’s perfect, but it’s also making sneaking around impossible.
Deep down, I don’t entirely mind. Not when I’ve got a view that would make any other woman jealous.
Callan’s a few paces ahead of me, navigating a particularly rocky section of the trail. He’s a distraction wearing a long-sleeved flannel that’s doing all sorts of things to my body.
We’re supposed to be hunting some rumored wolf that’s been seen by the locals. People have described this animal as bigger than the average-sized one, but with our crunchy steps, I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.
He’s sweating, and there’s this sheen across the back of his neck, and a few strands of hair are sticking to his temple, and he keeps wiping his forehead with the back of his hand like it’s some kind of inconvenience instead of the most distractingly attractive thing I’ve seen in my entire life.
Sometimes, I wonder if I’m just as bad as the animals out here. Walking behind him like this, the only thing I want to do is pounce on him.
“Hey.” Calling out to him, I lift my camera when he stops to turn. Without warning, I capture my favorite kind of photo. The one that I don’t have to show anyone else.
Already catching on, one corner of his mouth lifts up in amusement. Holding still for me, he drifts toward me when I lower the device to check out the result. Hovering over my shoulder to look, his breath tickles my skin. “Do I look good?”
He always reaches for compliments, too. Even if he doesn’t light up like a person normally would, there’s always that low rumble that leaves him every time he’s pleased.
Biting my lip, I consider the image looking back at me. “Maybe I need one without your shirt. What do you think?”
As the corners of his eyes crinkle and the pack on his back hits the ground, he doesn’t waste time fumbling with his buttons. As always, he’s trying to make me happy.
“Pants, too?”
Doesn’t hurt that he’s an overachiever.
Looking around and taking in our surroundings, I consider the chances of someone coming across us if we continue down the path we’re on. While I’m thinking, he pulls off his shirt. Just like that, my concerns turn to dust. Just like that, I’m carefully setting my camera down.
His eyes gleam as he watches me clutch at my own shirt. “So much for a photoshoot, huh?”
With this man, I’m willing to make a porno. Whatever it takes to get his hands working on those jeans hugging his hips.
“I love it when you get like this, you know?” Rumbling with amusement, the sound gets choked off when my shirt is gone.
Today was a good day to leave my bra behind.
With a curse and a groan coming from his lips, it’s not long before we’ve flipped roles and he’s more animalistic.
His mouth is on my neck, hot and insistent, while his fingers work at the button of my jeans with an urgency that makes my head spin.
The denim slides down my legs, and I step out of them, kicking them aside without a second thought.
The forest floor is probably not the most comfortable place for this, but right now I couldn’t care less.
There’s a blanket in his pack, meant specifically for weak moments like this, but neither of us moves to get it.
His hands are too busy gripping my hips, pulling me against him, and I’m too busy tugging at his belt like it’s personally offended me.
“Emery.” His voice is rough, strained. “We’re outside.”
“I noticed.”
“Anyone could—”
“Then you’d better be quick.” I smile against his mouth, and the growl he lets out in response vibrates through my entire body.
Always enjoying me being the naked one, he stops short of just freeing himself past his boxers. The air is cool against my skin, but his body is so warm, so solid, pressing me back against the soft bed of moss we somehow stumbled onto.
Autumn light filters down through the canopy, dappling his shoulders in gold and amber as he hovers above me. He looks like something I dreamed up. All sweat and muscle and wanting, his eyes are hungry as they roam over me.
“You’re so beautiful,” he breathes, and it’s not a line he repeats daily; it’s just him, saying the thing he’s thinking because he never learned how to hide from me.
I pull him down, and then there’s no more talking, just the sound of our breathing, the rustle of leaves beneath us, the occasional call of a bird somewhere in the distance.
While I may not have found some big wolf, I can say this trip wasn’t wasted. Not when I have Callan always there beside me, ready to replace my disappointments with anything involving him.
Catching his face, I can’t help the lopsided smile that forms. “I love you.”
Letting out a soft groan, he shoves his face into the crook of my neck and thrusts his way inside. Feels good, but not as good as him expressing his own feelings.
“You are my world…” Kissing my neck, he scoffs. “But if you keep playing dirty, then I’m not going to hold back.”
Laughing loud enough to scare the squirrels, I do what I do best. I push and tell him that I love him again, over and over, excited for whatever he has planned.