Chapter 15: The Root Cellar

"Lock it," I said.

Ben turned on the bottom step and slid the iron bolt across the cellar door.

It made a clunk that went through the stone.

We both froze, listening for my mother's feet on the kitchen floor.

Nothing came.

The cellar was cold and low and smelled of earth and vinegar.

A single bare bulb hung on a string, and under it the owner's jars went back in rows into the dark.

Peaches, beets, green tomatoes, pickled things in glass, all of it glowing amber and red.

The walls were fieldstone, rough as a cat's tongue.

I put my back against them and looked at him.

"Don't be gentle," I said.

"Jodi."

"Don't be careful. Don't be sweet. I have had four days of you being careful."

"You told me to be."

"I'm telling you not to be."

He came down the last step.

His hands hit the stone on either side of my head, and his mouth came down on mine, hard enough that my head tipped back against the wall.

I dragged his flannel off his shoulders and he shrugged out of it.

I got his belt open on the second try and shoved my hand into his jeans, and he swore into my mouth.

"Quiet," I said.

"You're the one who..."

"Quiet."

He bit my lower lip, not quite gently, and I made a noise I would have been ashamed of in daylight.

He got my sweater over my head and my bra with it.

The stone was freezing on my shoulder blades and his mouth was hot on my breast, and the two things together made me see stars.

I gripped his hair.

"More," I said. "Harder."

He sucked hard, with his teeth in it, and my knees went.

He caught me with a hand under my ass and held me up against the wall.

"Jeans," I said. "Off me. Now."

He undid them one-handed, and peeled them down with my underwear, and I kicked one leg free and left the other tangled around my ankle.

The cold air hit me and I didn't feel it.

"You've been thinking about this since the pantry," I said.

"Since the breakfast table."

"Since I said please in the shower."

"Since you put your hand on my chest on Thursday."

He pushed his own jeans down.

He was so hard it looked painful.

I took him in my hand and squeezed, and he put his forehead against the wall beside my ear.