Page 23 of Mountain Void

Well-fucked.

She’d never used such coarse language in the past. She and Lorenz had always made love. But tonight, she couldn’t think in those terms. The only thing they could offer each other was sex. So she had to phrase it like that.

By the time she pulled into her driveway, her hands were steady again. Steady was good. If she was going to do this—and she was—she wanted to enter into it clear-eyed. No pretending this was anything other than what it was.

She parked—careful to stay on her side of the line, this time—and got out of the car, waiting for Lorenz to park out on the street. He unfolded his long legs from the car and stood facing her. Breath fogged the air between them, but he didn’t move.

“Still on the same page?” he asked quietly.

Charlie nodded. “I’m not going to change my mind.”

A flicker of something he’d kept hidden until now—hunger—crossed his face. “Good.”

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, the warmth of the house wrapping around her. Lorenz followed, closing the door behind him.

Charlie took a moment to look at him—really look. At the familiar planes of his face, and the new ones these last six years had etched there. At his shoulders, which had always seemed to her wide enough to take on the weight of the world.

She reached out first, because she knew he wouldn’t.

Her hands settled against his chest, right over his heart. Lorenz covered her hand with his larger one, warm and steady.

“Take off your jacket,” she said.

Thankfully, he didn’t make her ask twice. He shrugged out of the jacket with practiced efficiency and set it over the back of a chair.

Charlie swallowed.

God, he was beautiful. Those thick forearms, corded with muscle. Strong biceps. The movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. Every inch of her throbbed in awareness.

She took off her own jacket and stepped closer, close enough that she could feel the heat of him now. Her palms returned to his chest, fingers splayed to feel his heartbeat.

“So,” she said lightly, because light was good. She had to keep things light.

One brow lifted. “So?”

She stood on tiptoe and tilted her head back to meet his gaze.

“So beautiful,” he said, as his lips came down to meet hers.

And it was the first time, but also not. Because she knew this warmth. She knew the feeling of those devastating lips on hers. Her body knew just how much passion hid behind that stoic facade.

The kiss wasn’t tentative. It was careful, but only in the way someone handles something precious. Charlie closed her eyes and let herself feel—the way his mouth explored hers and, when their tongues finally touched, everything inside her sizzled, in a kiss that felt well-known but also new.

“I could kiss you all night,” he said, when they finally had to breathe.

“But then we’d be wasting an opportunity.” She took a quick step back and reached for the hem of her sweater.

The soft black knit slid easily over her wrists and her neck. She let the moment stretch, dropping the item on the floor before looking up.

Lorenz stilled, his jaw locked tight as his green eyes tracked every inch of her, as if he’d never seen her before.

“You’re going to kill me,” he said quietly.

Charlie was glad she’d worn her lacy black balcony bra, the one that made her breasts look a size larger than they really were.

“You’ll survive,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him towards the staircase. Towards her bedroom. She wanted no ambiguity at all between them.

Her bedroom was the calmest spot in the house. All warm linen. Neutral. It was the room where she’d learned to sleep alone again.