Page 82 of York

My body tensed and pulsed.

Despite the heat, goosebumps rose across my skin.

I tried—really, I did—to keep my gaze on his face. But there was no stopping how I scanned his wide chest, the deep cuts of his abdominal muscles, and the way his sleep shorts made it clear he wasn’t wearing anything below.

When the moon caught the material, I could make out the outline of his cock, making my sex clench hard.

It felt like I watched him forever, but when my gaze made it back to his face, he didn’t give me that slow, lazy smirk like he’d caught me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Can’t sleep. Decided to get some air, clear my head, then try again.”

“Afraid to go into the woods?” he asked. And I appreciated him not immediately badgering me about why I couldn’t sleep.

“Well, snakes.”

Not a whole lot scared me about being out in the wilderness. I’d seen and experienced so much. But venomous snakes scared the shit out of me. Venomous snakes, moose, and polar bears. That was it.

“No cottonmouths around here. It’s too late for a diamondback or canebrake. You might encounter a coral snake around here. But more at dawn or dusk. It’s a little late for them now. Plus, if you stay on the path, you’re even less likely to see anything.”

“If I get bitten, I’m sending you the three-hundred-thousand-dollar bill.”

With that, we moved onto the well-worn trail in the woods.

“Do you guys walk in here a lot?”

“This leads to the shooting range. We spend a decent amount of time there, keeping sharp. Or blowing off steam.”

“I’ve heard things about the range. Not sure how comfortable I am with Denny around it.”

“It’s basically impossible for a stray bullet to escape, given how it’s been built. And once everyone started having kids, they put up a big fence to keep them from getting anywhere near it.”

“I’m not against it as a whole. But it needs to be a discussion with Denny. I understood guns when I was a kid. But her life hasn’t been around them yet, so that needs to be a discussion.”

“We’ll get there. For now, I’ve asked everyone to go to the indoor range if they want to practice.”

“Always thinking ahead,” I said, glancing over at him.

He was mostly in shadow, with just streaks of moonlight across his face when he moved between trees.

“We shouldn’t go too far. What if Denny wakes up?”

“Velle is in the kitchen, scrubbing out the cabinets.”

“At this hour? Why?”

“He does it on occasion. Think it’s a stress thing. For a guy always trying to get us to talk about our feelings, he’s shit at letting anyone in on his own.”

“That’s always the way, isn’t it? The people who need it the most are always giving it to everyone else. Oh, you weren’t kidding about the fence.”

It was a massive, wrought-iron rectangle encompassing the enormous mountain of dirt on three sides.

“What’s under the dirt?”

“The berm itself is about ten inches thick on each side of a heavy lumber core, as well as sandbags. I think there might even be some commercial ballistic material in there. It’s gotten thicker and thicker over the years. Everyone worried about the kids.”

He unlocked the gate with a code and moved inside.