Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
Nell woke with Ryder spooning her from behind, one arm resting across her waist. His breath warmed the nape of her neck.
Ryder’s hand moved over her stomach and settled beneath the hem of the shirt she’d worn to bed.
Nell could feel him hardening against her, and she instinctively pressed back into him.
His breath changed. His mouth found the curve of her neck, and his palm traveled higher under her shirt.
“Are you awake?” he asked, his mouth against her skin.
“Mostly. Enough.”
His hand slipped beneath her shirt and spread over her ribs.
He traced the underside of her breast before cupping it, his thumb moving slowly across her nipple.
Nell’s breath changed. She pressed back against him as his mouth found the side of her neck, then turned her head far enough to catch his lips with hers.
He continued touching her until she began to shift restlessly against him. Then his hand traveled down her stomach and paused at the waistband of her panties.
“Keep going,” she whispered.
He touched her without hurry, his mouth warm against the back of her neck, while the last of sleep loosened under his hand. When he found the pressure she wanted, Nell let her eyes close again. Pleasure gathered softly rather than striking all at once.
She reached back and curled her fingers around his cock. Ryder’s forehead came to rest between her shoulder blades. His hand slid between her thighs. Nell lifted her top leg over his, opening for him, and reached behind to guide him.
He entered her slowly.
The position held them close from shoulder to knee. Ryder stayed still until she pressed back, then moved in a long, unhurried stroke. His mouth brushed her shoulder. Nell caught his wrist and kept his hand where she wanted it.
He followed the rhythm of her hips. The sheets dragged across her bare legs while Ryder’s chest stayed against her back and his fingers moved with the steady pace she set.
Pleasure tightened low inside her. Nell turned her face toward him, and Ryder kissed her at an awkward angle that made his nose bump her cheek. She smiled against his mouth. He did too, but neither of them stopped.
Her body drew taut. Ryder held the same pace until the tension broke, and Nell gripped his arm as the release moved through her.
He climaxed with his face against her hair, breath rough at her ear.
They lay there while the light through the curtains went from gray to gold.
Nell got up first and went to start getting ready for the day.
After they showered and dressed, Nell suggested spending the day at the Oregon Zoo.
Ryder bought their tickets online, picked up his camera, and they left the apartment.
Before driving to the zoo, they stopped at Dutch Bros for two vanilla lattes and two lemon poppy seed muffins.
When Ryder parked near the zoo, they had already finished eating.
On the way through the parking lot, they finished the rest of their coffees.
At the entrance, Ryder pulled up their tickets, and an attendant scanned both barcodes before waving them through.
Families clustered around the maps and stroller parking inside the Entry Plaza.
A little boy was already demanding to see the elephants while his mother tried to explain the route.
They followed the signs for the Pacific Northwest section.
Shade covered the paved path as they left the plaza behind.
Fir branches softened the morning light, and running water threaded beneath the crowd noise. At the river otter enclosure, two sleek bodies shot through the pool, twisted around each other, and vanished beneath a ledge just as Ryder raised his camera.
“They saw you,” Nell said.
He lowered the camera. “They’re avoiding documentation.”
An otter surfaced at the opposite end of the pool with only its nose and eyes above water. Ryder turned toward it, and the otter disappeared again.
Nell laughed. “You’re giving paparazzi.”
They climbed with the path, stopping when the crowd collected at an enclosure. At the snowy owl habitat, most visitors stared at the obvious perches. Nell followed a scatter of white feathers against pale rock until a rounded head turned and one yellow eye opened.
“Back left,” she said. “Above the darker branch.”
Ryder leaned close enough that his temple touched hers. “I don’t see—oh.”
The owl blinked once and became part of the rock again.
Ryder studied the enclosure for another moment before taking the photograph. Nell kept pointing out things he might have missed, and Ryder took the time to find each one.
At the cougar habitat, they didn’t have to search. The cat lay in full view just beyond the glass, its tawny body stretched through a patch of shade, one heavy forepaw extended and its face turned away from the visitors.
Ryder lifted the camera. “A predator secure enough in its dignity to decline the chase entirely.”
“You were very sympathetic to the lynx in that documentary when its dinner escaped.”
“That lynx worked hard.”
“The hare probably preferred the outcome.”
The cougar’s ear flicked. Otherwise, it refused to contribute.
The path opened into Pacific Shores, where the sea-otter and harbor-seal habitats surrounded broad pools with underwater viewing windows.
Sunlight glinted on the water and shifted across the concrete.
Children crowded the glass at the sea-otter pool, calling out whenever an otter surfaced.
Nell and Ryder found an opening just as one rolled onto its back near the window and hugged a blue plastic enrichment ring to its chest. It shoved its nose through the ring, kicked once, and spun sideways.
Ryder laughed beside her. “Finally. Commitment to the performance.”
The otter released the ring and dived. A second one shot upward through a trail of bubbles, rolled at the surface, and began grooming its face as if the crowd didn’t exist.
They found the polar bear farther along, wet fur clumped along its shoulders as it crossed a rock shelf. One enormous paw landed close to the water, claws dark against the pale hair. Ryder lowered the camera after two photographs and simply followed its progress.
In Primate Forest, a gibbon call rang across the path, louder and wilder than the surrounding voices. Nell stopped. Ryder stopped with her. They waited for another call, but only stroller wheels and footsteps came through the trees, so they kept walking.
For lunch, they stopped at Aviary Café. Ryder ordered a burger and Nell chose a chicken wrap.
When their food was ready, they carried it to a table in the plaza seating area, sharing the fries that came with his burger.
Cinnamon sugar drifted from the Elephant Ears stand nearby.
They ate while watching a sparrow make a successful run at a piece of bun beneath a stroller.
After they were done with their lunch, they split a warm elephant ear dusted with cinnamon sugar on the way out of the plaza.
The first outdoor viewing area at Elephant Lands offered sand, logs, and no elephant.
A sign directed visitors toward another section, and they followed the path until a cluster of people at the next railing told them the animals had chosen that side.
An elephant stood near a feeding structure, dust caught in the folds of its skin.
Its trunk moved over the ground, testing the sand before curling around a piece of food.
Nell took his hand. His thumb moved across her knuckle, and she leaned into him while the elephant lifted its trunk and moved on. So did they.
Giraffes crossed an open pasture farther along the loop, their movement too smooth for the improbable length of their legs. Ryder stopped for a photograph. The lions lay in the sun with the complete indifference of animals that had already decided how to spend Sunday.
They reached the exit pleasantly tired and followed the families back toward the parking area. Nell climbed into the truck, stretched her legs into the passenger footwell, and rested her hand on Ryder’s thigh once he pulled onto the road.