He swallowed hard. “Now?”
I chuckled softly. “Whenever you want.”
He glanced around like he was making sure we were alone. The sun had dipped behind the mountains, leaving a velvety purple twilight. Birdsong had been replaced by the hum of crickets.
“I want to watch the stars come out with you.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Can we do that?”
“Yes. We can do that.”
We unzipped both sleeping bags, spread one out on the ground next to a fallen log we could use as a backrest, and pulled the other one over top of us. He draped an arm around my shoulder and I snuggled into him, resting my cheek on his chest.
“Do you know any constellations?” I asked.
His body shook with laughter. “You have no idea how glad I am that you asked that.”
I craned my neck to look at his face. “Why?”
“Because until a month ago, I could reliably find theBig Dipper, but that was about it. And then I saw a pretty girl standing outside in the tiniest pajamas, looking at the stars, and wouldn’t you know it, I found myself a new hobby.”
“You did not!” I pushed off him a little so I could see him better.
He grinned. “I did. I downloaded an app on my phone and practiced every night. Now I don’t even need the app. Are you impressed?”
“Impressed?Jeremiah. I am delighted.” I leaned in so my lips grazed his earlobe. “Tell me all about the constellations, so when I fuck you under the stars I know all their names.”
I heard the hitch in his breath, felt the flex of his hand on my thigh. It was the only warning I had before he hauled me into his lap. He kissed me, hot and desperate, like I was the oxygen he needed to breathe. I twisted so we faced each other, my thighs straddling his hips.
I couldn’t get enough of him. His slick tongue against mine. The scrape of his callused fingers on my ribs beneath my shirt. And then my shirt was gone, my bra was gone, and Jeremiah leaned back against the fallen log and stared at me with a look of pure awe.
“Fuck, Lennon.” He swallowed audibly. “Fuck.”
His eyes moved over me like he was trying to take in everything at once. I felt his gaze like a physical caress.The evening air chilled my skin and I craved the warmth of his hands.
“Touch me,” I whispered. “Please touch me.”
There was a tremor in his fingertips as he grazed my jaw. “I have to tell you something, Lennon.”
“Now? Can’t it wait until morning?” I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to take off his clothes.
“It has to be now. Before…” His breath shuddered as I covered his hands with mine and brought them to my breasts. “No unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven. You, Lennon…you’re my heaven.”
His words set off an earthquake inside me. Broke all my jagged pieces apart and fit them back together in a new shape. I was left rearranged from it. The way this man treated me…it altered everything I thought I knew.
I kissed his temple, his nose, his lips. “There is nothing you can say that will make me want you less.”
His eyes met mine. “I killed my uncle in cold blood.”
His words shocked the hell out of me. I sat back and looked at him. With anyone else, that might have given me pause. But I had never known anyone who felt the weight of his own soul as keenly as this man. “I’m sure he deserved it.”
He laughed hoarsely and lowered his forehead to my chest. “You can’t absolve me without hearing my whole confession.”
“Then tell me.”
“When they banished me, my uncle promised to watch over my sister. Ensure she found a husband who was godly and kind. I believed him. Trusted him. I sneaked into the compound to see her before I went to basic training. By then I’d been out for long enough that I understood it was a cult and had no interest in returning to that life. I wanted Hannah to come back with me—my foster parents said they’d take her in. But she refused. She was still just a kid, and this was all she’d ever known. So I left her a sealed envelope with money and instructions for how to contact me. Two years later she used it.”
I held his hands between us, wanting to comfort him. “You went and got her.”
He nodded. “She was already married. Fourteen fucking years old, and my uncle made her his fourth wife.”
