Page 63 of Ethan

“Yes, I want that too.” She rolled the condom down over him, lifted her hips, and impaled herself onto him. Once she settled they both went still for a few seconds, catching their breath, looking at each other in the moonlight. Then she started to move. His hands went to her hips as he lay back down andwatched her face, open and beautiful above him. She tossed her head back and rode him hard.

Ethan sat up again, kissed her deep, then rolled her onto her back and settled between her thighs. This time he didn’t take his time. He thrust into her, making her gasp, her legs wrapping tight around his waist as he drove them both toward the edge. When they fell over together her scream echoed off the mountains and they both laughed, breathless and undone, the sound swallowed up by the wide Montana night.

He rolled to his side and pulled her against him, both of them breathing hard, staring up at the sky.

The stars hadn’t moved. The mountains hadn’t moved. The world had gone right on turning while they’d come apart up here on this rise and he found that quietly amusing.

She laughed softly beside him, like she was thinking the same thing.

“I scared the wildlife,” she said.

“You scared me a little too.”

She turned her head to look at him, and he looked back at her, her hair loose around her shoulders, her eyes bright in the moonlight, and he thought that he was so far gone it wasn’t worth pretending otherwise.

She reached up and touched his face, just briefly, her fingers tracing his jaw.

“I’m happy, Ethan,” she said simply.

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm.

“Good,” he said. “Stay that way.”

She smiled, then looked back up at the stars and he did the same, her tucked against his side, the Montana night wide and quiet all around.

He thought about what he’d said to her on the sofa. That he was falling for her.

He was past falling.

He just wasn’t ready to say that out loud yet.

****

Naomi hadn’t lied to herself. She was happy. Genuinely, quietly happy, unaware of what she was missing until now. After her marriage fell apart, she decided she was done with love. It cost too much and paid back too little. She’d believed it right up until she couldn’t anymore. She couldn’t imagine her life without Ethan now. It was that simple and that terrifying.

He shifted slightly beside her, and she raised up to look at him.

“Ready to head back?” he asked.

“Did you bring me up here for sex?” she teased.

“Yep.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear without apology. “Caught me.”

She laughed and he looked at her for a moment, his expression shifting into something quieter.

“Hey.” His thumb traced her cheek. “Stay with me tonight.”

She looked at him. “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

“What about the men seeing me leave in the morning?”

“They can get their own girl.” He chuckled when she laughed. “Besides, you can head over before anyone’s up. I’m awake by five.”

She looked at him in the moonlight, this careful, steady, impossibly handsome man who’d brought her wildflowers and driven her out under the stars and asked her to stay.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll stay.”