Burn Season novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Not Once

I walked up the mountain ahead of him, and he followed me past the cairn.

Neither of us said a word about the line.

Verna stood on the cabin porch with her tin cup and watched him limp up the last switchback.

"I sleep on my good ear," she said. "That's the right one."

"Verna," I said.

"I'm just telling you which ear." She went inside and shut the door.

I climbed the tower stairs with Walker behind me, and I pushed the trapdoor open on a sky so full of stars it hurt to look at.

I did not light the lamp.

The glass room was black and silver, and the whole Bitterroot lay out under us, asleep.

"Sit," I said.

He sat on the stool with the glass feet, the same one we had stood on in the storm.

I stood between his knees and put my hands on either side of his face.

This time I kissed him first.

I did it slowly, with my mouth open, and he made a sound against my lips that I felt in my knees.

His hands stayed on his thighs.

"You said once," he said, against my mouth.

"I said a lot of things."

"Rory."

"You kept it. You kept it so well I wanted to scream." I pulled back far enough to see him. "So I'm the one asking. Not once. Tonight, and I'll decide about tomorrow when it comes."

His throat moved.

"Say what you want."

"I want you to fuck me in the dark where no one can see, and I want to hear you."

He closed his eyes.

"Okay," he said, and for the first time it did not sound like giving in.

I pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it.

I unbuckled his belt with slow hands, and he lifted his hips so I could get his jeans down past the wrapped ankle.

His cock sprang free, thick and flushed, and I wrapped my fingers around it and watched his stomach jump.

I knelt on the cold floor between his legs.

"Look at me," I said.

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