Chapter Twelve #2
“All right.” He didn’t look away from the valley.
“My sister’s name is Avery. She got involved with a guy.
Real piece of shit. Nobody caught it at first because she’s tough, and smart.
She hid the signs from all of us and pretended to have a normal life.
He finally put her in the hospital before it all came out.
” He paused, jaw working. “I went to see him after I saw her. I broke his face and put him in a coma. He never woke up.” Silence.
Not the heavy kind. Just a fact, sitting in the open.
“They gave me ten years for aggravated assault and I served six. I lost my job and the career I’d built with it.
My wife left the day I was arrested, using the surrounding chaos to get a divorce pushed through.
Looking back, she probably only stayed for the status it gave her in the community.
” He looked over at me, finally. “That’s the whole story, Juniper.
I beat a guy to death for abusing my sister. ”
“What happened to your sister?” My voice was weird. It came out rougher than I meant.
“She runs a bar in Louisville now. Married a decent guy and has two kids. She’s good.” He smiled and I could see he loved his sister and her children.
We stared at the sky and the expanse of green and gold and red spread out in the valley below. As the sun sank lower, the golden light seemed to illuminate the mountain tops in the distance.
“God. In the shop. I told you what would happen if you killed him, like I was explaining something.” I looked up at him. “I’m so sorry. That was an insensitive remark.”
“You only said it because you were worried about me.”
I reached for his hand. It was bigger than mine, callused and warm.
I laced my fingers through his. My breath came easier, suddenly.
I’d made my choice, and it felt so right to choose Inferno.
We stood like that, both of us looking out over the valley, clinging to each other, as the wind picked up along the ridge.
There was nobody around for miles. Not a house in sight, and the road behind us had little to no traffic at present.
We could do whatever the hell we wanted, and nobody would care. That might’ve been the point.
Inferno turned, pulling me toward the patch of grass near the edge of a clearing at the roadside park before the ridgeline fell away from the overlook. We were well away from prying eyes, even if there had been anyone around.
Once we were enveloped in the foliage of the surrounding trees, I stepped into his embrace, leaning up to kiss him. He lifted his hands to frame my face as we kissed, fingers warm against the cold rise of my jaw, and he tasted like the wind and coffee and mint. And home.
I sighed into the kiss, and he responded with a low hum, deep in his chest. The sound vibrated through him into me, and I pressed closer, my breasts mashed tightly against him through our clothes.
He caught my lower lip in his teeth, a gentle challenge on who exactly was in charge here. Then he pulled back slightly. “If you don’t want me to fuck you right here, you better say so now. Otherwise, I’m going to make you scream.”
I laughed, half feral. “I started this, didn’t I?”
He grinned and slid his hands down to my hips, thumbs hooked just under the hem of my shirt. There was nothing tentative in the way he touched. He squeezed my breasts, kneading the small mounds before tugging at my nipples. The idea of saying no never even crossed my mind.
I popped the button on my jeans and shimmied them down my hips, not all the way off, but enough he could get to my pussy.
The ground was uneven, so I nearly toppled over, but he caught me around the waist and held me there.
Goose bumps rippled along my arms. He ran his hands over them, slowly, then down to my ass, cupping and squeezing.
Looping an arm around my waist, he slid his other hand into my panties to find my clit.
“Fuck!” I gasped before screaming. The sound was cut short by Inferno’s hand over my mouth.
“Hush,” he growled, his mouth at my ear making me shiver. “Not a sound or I stop.”
The wind whipped my hair around my face. I tried to stay quiet, tried to remember how to breathe. He worked my jeans and panties down to mid-thigh. “You want to do this out here?” His hand slid between my legs, two fingers tracing my slit between my pussy lips.
“Where else would we do it?” I tried to sound casual, but my voice came out ragged. “Because I want to do it, no matter where we are.”
“Good.” He stood then, and I felt him line up behind me, the head of his cock pushing in slowly. He took his time, stretching me, inch by inch, until he was fully seated and I was gasping from how full he made me feel.
He started moving, fucking me slowly at first, then with more force as I pressed back against him. I braced my hands on the tree. I could feel the wind on my bare ass, the sweat gathering between my shoulder blades, the bite of the air on my ass just before he smacked one cheek.
Inferno gripped my hips with both hands, pulling me back onto him in hard, even thrusts. I loved the way he claimed my body. I craved it. I wanted to belong to this man, wanted to mark this moment on my body, so I would never forget.
He slowed, just a little, and bent over me, mouth at my ear. “You like it when I fuck you?”
“Yes.” My voice was a breathless whimper. “Harder!”
He obliged, and the angle shifted, and all at once my whole body was on fire. I came fast, in a messy, desperate thing, and he didn’t let up even a little. He chased me right over the edge, then followed after with a groan that was all animal possessiveness and satisfaction.
He finished with a few savage thrusts, then slumped against my back, his forehead pressed between my shoulder blades. I stayed braced on the tree, trembling all over, every muscle spent.
When I finally straightened up, my hair was a disaster and I was half-naked in the fading light.
And I had Inferno’s seed leaking from my pussy and down one thigh.
He helped me pull my jeans around my hips, but that’s as far as we got.
And I didn’t even care. I turned and faced him.
His hands were still on my hips, holding me there, like he was afraid I’d drift off if he let go.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face against him. “Inferno.” His name was more of a sigh.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I’ve never wanted anything in this world the way I want you.”
He stilled, urging me to look at him with his fingers tilting my chin. “You have me, Juniper. I’m yours. I’ll keep you safe as long as you’ll have me.”
I meant to kiss him then, but he beat me to it. He lifted me to cradle me in his arms, then sank to his knees on the plush grass beneath the trees. I laughed, and he laid me down before leaning in to kiss me again.
When he ended the kiss, he lay back with one arm under his head and the other one around me. I had my head on his chest and sighed in contentment before settling still against him.
We lay there for a long time, neither of us saying a word.
And yes, I was fully aware he’d come inside me.
I had an implant, but this was a line I had never crossed before and, though I didn’t regret the act, I admitted to being uncomfortable with how right the claim felt. And we both knew it was a claim.
The sun dropped behind the ridge, turning the whole valley gold and pink before fading into a dark blue. I watched the sky until the stars started coming out, little pinpricks of light in the wash of twilight.
After a while, Inferno rolled onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow. He looked at me like he wanted to memorize every inch of my face.
“You ever think about what comes next?” he said, voice low. “After all this is over?”
I thought about it. I really did. I pictured a life where I woke up next to this man, made him coffee, maybe bitched about how he tracked crumbs all over my kitchen.
I imagined what it would be like to just exist together, not because we were both broken, but because we’d put ourselves back together and decided to try for something better.
“Yeah,” I said. “I think about it.”
He nodded, satisfied. “Good. Because I want to be there with you in that future.” He held me tighter, kissing the top of my head.
Eventually, we straightened our clothes a little better, laughing and swearing as we shook grass out of our hair. We walked side by side back to the bike a few short feet away, shoulders touching. It was quiet, just the sound of the wind blowing gently through the trees.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket but I ignored it for a second, not wanting to break the spell. But the second time it buzzed, I fished it out with a sigh.
There was a text message from an unknown number, but the photo preview gave me chills.
I opened it, looking at the image as my heart raced.
Though slightly pixelated, the photo showed the two of us at the overlook, my arms around Inferno’s neck as he cupped my ass and pulled me in for a kiss.
The photo was taken from far away, maybe a long lens or a phone with a good zoom.
The angle was wrong for it to have been taken from the road.
Whoever took it had been closer than that, and likely hidden in the trees on the opposite side of the road and higher up.
For a second, I felt nothing. Then the cold settled in, a sharp spike of fear in my gut. I handed the phone to Inferno. He stared at the screen for a long time, his face going hard, his hand tight around the phone, his jaw clenched.