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“I’m going to add a stone angel on either side eventually,” I murmured.

The wind moves the grass around the granite, and I don't need to touch anything. I don't need to straighten anything. Taking a breath, I let it out slowly, all the way down, which is a relief. My hands are hanging at my sides, relaxed. This surprises me.

The stillness of this place gets into me and my thoughts stop racing. The noise in my head is gone. The breaking and entering, the camera, the ear, my fucking desk, all of it. The calm seeps through me now.

I take Manon’s hand and pull her a couple of steps to her side of the headstone, on the grass, facing it. Then I let go and take one step back, so there's a yard of distance between us. I want her to look at it for a moment.

She waits for me to say whatever it is I brought her up here to say.

“There are no birth dates,” she observes.

“Something for later…”

I see she’s no longer shying away from me. I close the distance between us after a while, and wrap my arms around her from behind.

"Do you remember what I promised you a few months ago?" I say into her ear. "On your mother's bathroom counter. Your dress round your waist. After I'd had my mouth on your pussy and left you right on the edge..."

She shivers, and I let out a low growl and drag my nose along her neck, letting the scent of her fill my head. Her breath catches.

She wants me to touch her. Nothing’s changed.

"You said—" Her throat moves as she swallows. "You said the next time I came, it would be here."

"On the grass, near your name. Loud enough to wake the dead." I straighten up and look down at her as she turns her head to me. Her pupils have gone wide. "I keep my word. You know that about me by now."

"I know."

"And I made you a different promise before that one." I take her chin between my finger and thumb and turn her whole body around to face me. "That first time we spoke, by the water. Do you remember?"

"You said you wouldn't touch me," she says after a pause, "unless I asked."

"So, ask me."

I let go of her chin and take one step back. I slide my hands into my pockets, so she knows I'm not going to reach for her. Whatever happens next either comes out of her mouth or doesn't happen at all.

It feels like forever, waiting for her to speak. Then she closes the distance between us, gathers a fistful of my shirt, and pulls me down to her mouth.

"Touch me," she says. "Now. Here."

Thank Christ.

I get my hand into her hair and drag her mouth up to mine. I don't kiss her softly. I've spent the whole night wanting to put my hands on her and not being able to. Now that she's asked, I take everything. She kisses me back the same way, and at one point she bites my lower lip hard enough that I taste blood. But I don't want her to stop.

Her hands slide up under my shirt. Her nails dig into my back and drag down, and she moans into my mouth, a sound that goes straight to my cock. I've got her coat open, off her shoulders and on the grass before I've thought about it. I walk her backward with my mouth still on hers until her back hits the headstone. She slides down onto the grass at its base, gets both fists in my shirt, and pulls me down with her.

"The ground's freezing," she says, breathing hard.

“Wait.” I lift her ass up and spread out the coat under her so she’s sitting on it. "You'll live now."

"Anyone can see through that fence."

"Then they'll see something worth getting out of bed for." I've got the sweater shoved up over her ribs. No bra under it. Her nipples are tight from the cold. When I put my mouth on one, she arches up off the ground. "Anyone walking over the hill this morning has other things to do, I’m sure. Turn over."

She looks up at me with her hair against the granite, her back pressed to her name, and says, "Make me."

I turn her, and she goes up on her hands and knees in front of the stone, jeans and panties shoved down to her thighs, and she gasps when the cold hits her. I put my hand flat on the small of her back and push until her chest is down, her ass is up, and her fingers are digging into the cold earth at the foot of the stone.

"Look at that," I say. "Right where I'm going to put you."