His hand slid under the hem of my fleece again, warmer this time, bolder, splaying over my skin. His touch was fire…slow and deliberate fire. His fingers moved up my side, leaving a trail of heat under my shirt that made my breath catch.
I arched slightly into him, unable to stop the movement.
He exhaled sharply. “Sienna…”
“I know,” I whispered again, because words were failing and need was taking over. “Please don’t stop.”
His thumb stroked my waist. “Tell me if you change your mind.”
I shook my head. “I won’t.”
He kissed me again deeply and hungrily, as he claimed me, and I noticed the world blurred softly around the edges.
The sleeping bag rustled as he shifted over me, bracing himself carefully and strongly.
His weight settled over me just enough to make my breath crack in my throat. His hand traced the line of my hip, lighting every nerve it touched.
My fingers slid under his shirt, feeling the warmth of his skin, the tension in his muscles. He inhaled sharply, lips faltering for a second before kissing me harder and deeper. Every movement was more urgent than the last.
I tugged him closer as our bodies aligned with a heat that made every rule, every argument, every reason to be careful evaporate into nothing.
“Carson,” I whispered against his mouth, breath trembling. “I want—”
He kissed me before I could finish, swallowing the confession, answering it with one of his own.
His hands slid beneath the fleece, the sleeping bag shifting, heat rising between us like a matched spark.
Everything was warmth and breath and tangled limbs and the quiet, aching sound of two people trying desperately to stay quiet in a tent that felt too small for this much electricity.
His lips brushed my ear, my jaw, my throat, every kiss dissolving another piece of my restraint.
“You’re… incredible,” he whispered again, voice broken. “I can’t—God, Sienna, I can’t stop.”
“Then don’t.”
He lifted his head, eyes dark, locked on mine, one breath apart.
“Are you sure?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
And as he kissed me again, stealing the air between us as everything else drifted away.
The tent.
The rules.
The lies we told ourselves.
The world outside.
There was only him.
Only us.
Only the moment his hands slid beneath my layers, and the sleeping bag closed around us like a cocoon of heat and inevitability—
And everything melted into something we could never undo.
