It’s barely out of her mouth before I do, practically exploding deep in her as she keeps moving back and forth, and it’s all I can do to stay upright as I release myself into her again and again.
When I finally stop coming I think I’m shaking, and I bend forward gently, kissing Clementine on the shoulder and then on the lips when she turns her head toward me.I wrap my arm around her waist, and I never, ever want to move again.
ChapterTwenty-One
Clementine
This is betterthan it was, I think.
We’re covered in sweat and we still haven’t moved, still kneeling and leaning against the wall of the lookout, fifty feet off the ground.The thought just comes to me, out of nowhere, but I know it’s true.
I put my hand over Hunter’s, on my waist, and slide my fingers between his.He kisses the back of my neck, and I wonder if it can be this good off the mountain, down in the real world, where he leaves to go fight fires and I stay in Lodgepole and wonder if he’s okay.
You have to try, I think.You know this is worth it.
Hunter finally slides out and then sits with his back against the wall, pulling me to his chest.It’s a long time before I look at him, then look down at myself, then start laughing.
He just looks at me quizzically.
“We’re still both wearing shirts,” I say.
He looks down, then starts laughing.
“It’s not a good look,” I say.
“You weren’t complaining,” he says, tilting his head back.
I put my hand on the floor to shift my weight, and something pinches in my palm.I look closer in the dying sunlight, holding it up in front of my face, and Hunter takes it in his other hand.
“I think I got a nasty splinter,” I say.
“Looks like it,” he says.“That from the railing?”
“Yeah, they’re old and my hand slipped,” I say, poking at the splinter with my other hand.
“I seriously thought you were falling over for a second,” he says.“Scared the shit out of me.”
“Good thing I didn’t,” I say.“For one thing, there’s no way youdon’tget charged with murder.”
“For another thing, I’m glad you’re not dead,” he teases.“That was my first thought, actually.”
I tilt my face toward him and he kisses me.
“Aren’t you sweet,” I say.
“Come on, let’s go fix your splinter,” he says.“And maybe tomorrow there will be a whole day where you don’t hurt yourself.”
“Don’t get too excited about that,” I say.“I’m a magnet for minor injuries.”
I could getthe splinter out pretty easily myself, but I let Hunter do it at the tiny table, under the light of a Coleman camping lantern.Then we sit on the cot and watch the glow of the fire, a map in front of us.When the wind blows the right way, I can smell the smoke.
An hour after nightfall, there’s a helicopter.It circles the glow a couple of times, then flies away again.
“I guess our work here is done,” I say.
“Think they can give us a ride out?”Hunter asks.
It takes me a long time to fall asleep.The cot’s uncomfortable, it’s too hot with my sleeping bag on and too cold with it off.There’s a fire.I’m worrying, stupidly, that Hunter and I can only be together in pieces at a time, as teenagers or in lookout cabins, that going out into the world is what wrecked us before and it’s what will wreck us again.
