She did without hesitation.
“Here.” He sat on a rock and pulled her onto his lap, enjoying her weight on him. “Okay, open.”
He craned his neck to watch her face instead of the view and for a second, there was no reaction, nothing. Then he felt her indrawn breath.
He tore his eyes from her and looked, making himself see it as if for the first time. Funny how his lungs did that same capture and release hers just had, his mouth dropped open like hers, his eyes wide and avid, taking in the scene like they were hungry for beauty.
“I’ve never…” Another shaky breath from Leo, this one deep and slow. “This is astonishing.”
He nodded, rubbing the side of his face against her shoulder.
“There’s a name for this, right?”
“Alpenglow.”
“I thought it was a sunset thing.”
“Happens when the sun’s just below the horizon.” He shrugged, feeling like a dog offering up a bone.
“Hugging the horizon.” She lifted her shoulders and settled back into him with a sigh.
Content and calm, he put his cheek to the side of her head and took it all in—the star-dusted sky, still flirting with night, the jagged edges of the mountains, carved sharply in the east and opposite, washed with the sun’s nascent glow. None of it looked real, though he knew from experience that it didn’t get more solid than this. Society’s constructs, now that was a load of bullshit. But this, right here—this was the real stuff.
“You’ll miss this.” Her voice touched that deep, aching place inside him.
Everything he’d been feeling wadded up in his throat, knotting hard and implacable.
He tightened his arms and forced words past the obstruction. “You’re talking like you know what’s next.”
When she shifted, he didn’t expect her to twist and lean back to get her leg over, squirming until she straddled him. His arms loosened but stayed around her to keep her from falling backwards, and something about the trust in that one move hollowed him out and somehow made him whole again.
“We’re next,” she whispered as she wrapped her cold hands around his hot neck. “You. Me.” She glanced to where the dog sat, tongue lolling, ears half-perked, content to enjoy the scenery alongside her people. “Borealis Thorne.”
He’d already started shaking his head when she moved her hands up and into his hair, catching it in her fingers and tugging. The sting tingled from his head to the bottom of his feet, pooling warm between his legs.
“Us” was all she said before she put her lips to his to prove it.
Christ, he could die right here, in this sun-washed place, with the scents of newborn life all around him. He could die and he’d be fine. More than fine. He’d be in heaven.
***
Pleasure hummed through Leo’s nerves, buzzing over her skin and loosening her bones, even through the coat and the layers of clothes. She’d forgotten her gloves in her haste, which would be a problem if her fingers weren’t warm against Elias’s face and in his hair and raking through his backwoods beard. His mouth—so grim when she’d first seen him—was nothing but heat and lush pleasure. And hunger. Mostly that, which she couldn’t help but echo.
Her hips moved of their own volition, circling slow and hard against his erection. It made her want him all the more. His desire—so obvious it was almost innocent—was as appealing as his hard exterior and molten center. Earning this man’s trust was the best thing she’d ever done.
Because together, they were more than the sum of their parts.
He groaned and tightened his hold, lifting his hips to get more, harder, closer. Fuck, she loved this—him. The way their brains worked and their bodies played and everything they did made sense. Together.
His mouth opened and she slid her tongue alongside his, his taste and smell as perfect as any part of the landscape. The thought made her eyes open and land on his. His opened a second later, the sun refracting through the green like through a glass bottle, his pale tan skin washed in pink and orange, the half-night sky still above him.
She went still, framing his face with her hands, and leaned back.
“What?”
She chuffed out a nervous laugh and shook her head. “Nothing.”
“You look spooked.”
