Page 35 of Fated, Allegedly

She's already wet as I push two fingers and slide them inside, curling against the spot that makes her hips lift. My thumb finds her clit and rubs in tight circles. She breathes out my name and rocks onto my hand. I keep the rhythm steady until her thighs start to tremble. When she comes the first time it's quiet, a long shudder and the tight clench of her pussy around my fingers. I work her through it, slower now, then sit up against the rough wall of the bunk and pull her with me.

She straddles my lap, knees bracketing my hips. I guide the top of my cock to her pussy, and she sinks down onto me in one long, controlled slide. She takes me deep bringing a low sound that feels dragged from somewhere under my ribs. She braces her hands on my shoulders and starts to move, slow rolls of her hips that let me feel every inch of her gripping me. I keep my hands on her waist, then higher, mapping the shape of her, the way her body shifts as she takes me deeper. Our mouths stay close, sharing breath. I watch her face, the soft parting of her lips every time she sinks down.

I thrust up to meet her, matching the rhythm, and the bunk creaks under us. She leans in so our chests press together; I feel the rapid beat of her heart against mine. My hands slide down to her ass, guiding her, pulling her tighter onto my cock with every roll. I reach between us and rub her clit with two fingers, matching the pace of her movements. Her head tilts back as she moans louder, I place my other hand in the center of her spine, and a broken sound leaves her as she comes a second time. Her pussy flutters hard around me, and the squeeze almost takes me with her.

I hold on, slowing it down so that I can keep going. Then I shift. I wrap an arm around her waist and roll us carefully so she's on her back again, but I don't stay there. I pull out only long enough to turn her onto her side, facing the wall, and settle in behind her. One of her legs I draw up and back over my hip. I slide back into her pussy from behind in one smooth thrust, deeper this way, and the angle makes her scream. I keep one arm banded across her chest, hand splayed over her heart, and the other low on her hip, holding her steady while I start to move. Long, deep strokes that let me feel every inch of her. She reaches back and digs her fingers into my thigh. I bury my face in the curve of her neck and breathe her in, fucking her slow and thorough, my cock dragging across the place inside that makes her voice break. I pick up the pace, hips snapping forward, the wet slap of skin on skin filling the shack.

"Fuck, Nash." She screams, soft and wrecked.

I can feel the pressure building low in my spine. Her pussy keeps tightening in little pulses. I keep the arm across her chest, keep the deep thrusts, and when she shatters the third time the clench of her body is too much. I bury myself and come with a low, punched-out groan, both of us coming together like it's the last time.

I stay there for a long moment, still buried deep, forehead pressed to the nape of her neck, both of us breathing hard. My cock is still half-hard inside her, twitching with aftershocks. Eventually I ease out, making us both shiver. I shift us carefully onto our sides on the narrow bunk and pull her back against my chest, one arm still banded across her. She tucks her head under my chin. Outside, the wind moves through the trees. Inside, the only sound is our breathing evening out. I drag the thin blanket over us and keep my hand splayed low on her stomach, feeling the steady rise and fall of her. Neither of us speaks for a while. Her hand traces a scar on my shoulder.

"Six weeks," she says.

"Since we met."

"Six weeks, and I've spent thirty-one years being extremely careful about everything." She props up on an elbow. "Tell me about after. I want to hear it out loud from you, because I've been building it in my imagination and I'm worried I invented the whole thing."

"There's a house," I tell her. "Fifty yards up from my parents', empty since Hazel's brother died. Good roof, bad wiring, a woodstove that draws like a chimney fire. It's got a south room with four windows and no purpose."

"That's a lab."

"That was the thought."

Erin puts her forehead against my collarbone. "Keep going."

"You'd have your permit. You'd be out on the water at six most mornings and back for lunch." I run my hand down her back. "There'd be a lot of arguing about the tractor. My father would be insufferable about your microscope. My mother would feed you until you couldn't walk."

"And you?"

"I'd still be a game warden. That doesn't stop." I take a breath. "There'd be nights I'd be out with the pack and you'd be alone in that house, and I'd want you to know that's not me carrying something away from you. That's just my obligation."

"I know."

"And there'd be a morning, some morning, when we'd have this conversation in daylight instead of six hours out from going under a lake."

She's quiet. Then: "I want the part where it's boring. That's what I've worked out about myself this month. Everyone assumes I'm here for the mystery. I want the Tuesday in November where nothing happens and there's soup."

"Then we'll have soup."

We talk about the other thing at seven, sitting up with the blanket around us both.

She turns to face me. "Your bond picked me. I've had weeks to decide what I think about that, and here it is. I'm glad it happened, because it put you in my life. And it has absolutely nothing to do with why I'm staying."

"Erin…"

"Let me finish, I've rehearsed." She takes my hand. "I'm staying." Her voice goes rough. "Nothing I've decided is fate. Fate can't make somebody grow. That's just you, Nash, being better on purpose, over and over, where nobody was watching."

I can't speak.

"I love you." She says it steady, chin up. "If we walk out of that hole tomorrow, I'm choosing this."

I pull her in and hold her hard enough to hurt us both.

"I've loved you since you were annoyed about a binder," I tell her. "But I've chosen you since the night you told kids that time is part of a number."

The allied leaders are in the yard when we come down, and I do the last thing on my list before the fighting starts. I bring Erin to the fire with my hand at the small of her back and I don't let go of it.