I awake just after dawn to birdsong.

My face is buried in Rachel’s soft neck, her silky hair around me like wings.

I smile. Breathe in the smell of her. The morning air. Fresh and cool with only a hint of the heat to come.

She stirs, letting out a little moan.

“Good morning,” I murmur, kissing the back of her head. “How did you sleep?”

She sighs dreamily. “Best sleep I had in years.”

“You didn’t dream about bears.”

She pauses, as if remembering. “No. No, I dreamed about you.”

“A good dream, I hope.”

“You’re only in good dreams,” she says and then shifts so she’s gazing at me. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“No. This is all real.” I look up and my eyes scan the horizon, the sun barely lifting above the peaks. Polly is grazing nearby, Fletcher is sleeping. The world looks new, is new. Everything is different now with Rachel in my arms. Better, brighter.

I smile at her. If she’s feeling different after last night, I can’t tell. But what I can tell is that I’m not rushing out of this sleeping bag. Last night was amazing but that’s not the end of us, it can’t be. Not when I’m dying to be back inside of her, to watch her come this time while I’m deep within.

I kiss her softly, running my hand down over the swell of her breasts, to her belly, testing the waters. She kisses me back, making sweet little noises at my touch. I’m so darn hard and ready to put this morning wood to good use.

The only problem is a sleeping bag doesn’t leave much room, especially with two people.

“Hold on,” I tell her, reaching over and unzipping it until it’s lying flat on the mat and we’re exposed to the new world. In seconds, I’m naked.

“Lie back,” I tell her as I crawl over her, my hard, bare cock bobbing between us. I put my hands on her shoulders and nudge her back while I settle over top of her. I run my thumb over her lips, pushing gently until her lips wrap around it. With an achingly beautiful smile, she sucks softly and I feel the jolt right through me, all the way to my toes.

“I don’t think you realize what you do to me, what you’ve always done to me,” I murmur to her, one hand moving her underwear down her legs as she shimmies out of it. I remove my thumb and pull her top over her head as she arches back to let me.

I stare down at her tits, so perfect, spilling to the sides. They seem to glow in the light of sunrise, pure and flawless, her dark pink nipples hardening before my eyes. I bite my lip, trying to control my hunger, and gently blow air across her breasts. She arches her back again – so fucking gorgeous – and I watch her skin prickle as I trace the goosebumps across her chest with my flat tongue.

She makes this breathless gasp—we’re both so drowsy still with sleep—and I press my body down on top of her so she can feel how hard, long, and ready I am, the weight of me. Her eyes widen but they aren’t afraid. Not of this. She knows that she can handle it and handle it well, take me for all that I give her.

I kiss her neck and spread her legs apart with my knee. I breathe her in, the smell of our sex from last night hitting me like a fucking bomb, causing my dick to grow hot, my skin to get tighter.

I pause, even though my body is like a gun with a quick trigger, and take it all in. Rachel Waters. My raven girl. Here on my sleeping bag, surrounded by my land. She’s under me, naked and vulnerable and willing. She stares up at me with trust, with want, need, and submission. She’s giving herself to me as I give myself to her.

It means a lot more to me than she could possibly know.

I take a shaking breath at how real this all is, and while keeping all my weight on one arm, my free hand snakes between her legs. My eyes close at the feel of her warmth—she’s hotter than the summer sun and I could drown in her arms.

I bury my head into the crook of her neck making small, quick bites along her delicate skin until I find the soft, delicate lobe of her ear. She likes this. She always has. I lightly tug on it between my teeth until she moans, her fingers digging into my shoulders.

Trying to steady my breath, I slide my hand up to her clit and a low, guttural groan rises up from my chest. She feels like heaven—just as soft and silky as last night, and absolutely wet.

“You’re so perfect,” I tell her as I push two fingers inside her.

A gasp catches in her throat.

Tight. She’s so fucking tight.

The way she squeezes around my fingers, holding me, makes my eyes momentarily roll back in my head. My cock swells to the breaking point and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold back. I’m practically panting, working her like this, and she squirms, her head rolling from side to side, that mouth of hers wet and open. Wanting more.

I can watch this for days.

Look at what I do to her.

Her breath catches, and her round tits heave upwards, the skin even more pale against her summer tan. I run my tongue over her nipples, hard pebbles that respond to my every touch, every smooth lick, and she groans again, louder this time. I want to take her to the limit, I want her inhibitions stripped bare.

Out here, in the wild, I want her wild.

I want to watch it all under this rising sun, watch her glow and radiate until she’s blinding me. I want her light to banish all the dark years.

I push my fingers in further and the groan deepens. Her hips jerk upward, again and again, nearly desperate. Watching her writhe and moan underneath me, from just my fingers, feels better than any shot of whisky.

I can’t take much more. I make a fist around my rigid shaft and position it at her entrance. Her eyes flutter open as I slowly rub my swollen head up and down her silky cleft, taking my time to tease her, to tease myself.

I don’t need the teasing.

I suck in my breath, trying to hold back.

It’s the hardest thing. Every nerve in my body is ready to slam deep inside and fuck her until we’re off the sleeping bag and rolling in the dirt. It takes all my strength to slowly ease my way inside her. She’s so hot and wet as I slowly push in that I begin to shake, my muscles contorting, trying to regain control. I pause and take in a deep, wavering breath before I continue.

Her face twists as I sink deeper.

“You feel me?” I whisper hoarsely to her. “You feel all of me?”

She tries to nod but she’s moaning, caught up in delirium. She’s so fucking tight, like a vise. Both of us are breathing hard, sweat building on my brow, our skin damp. When I’m in deep, I slowly pull out again, watching my cock as it withdraws, glistening with her wetness.

There are no words. No thoughts. Just this. Just us, making love under an early sky.

She grabs the edge of the sleeping bag, curling her fingers around it.

I reach down, gliding over her stomach, and place my finger on her clit and rub in small, lazy circles, making her wetter. I work at her until I feel her widen, her legs spreading more, and then I push in again, deeper. Her hips buck up against me and now she’s even tauter. I can plunge deeper and I know I’m hitting all her sweet spots. She gasps and I grab her hip, holding on tight, my fingertips sinking into her soft skin.

She’s so wet and lush, I could lose my body, my heart in her forever.

But I don’t have forever.

The sun is rising higher.

The birdsong fades away, buried by our labored breaths.

I’m close now. So close.

My pace becomes quicker as my balls rise, tighten, threatening to let loose inside of her. They smack against her skin, the slapping noise filling the air as I pound her in and out, in and out, quick and relentless, bringing me to the edge. Droplets of sweat trickle off my forehead, splashing onto her below me.

I groan loudly, unable to keep quiet. Out here, we can scream all we want. The need in me to come is too sharp, too hard, too much. I slide out slowly and watch my thick shaft, shiny with everything she has, then I plunge back in. My whole body shudders.

“Come for me,” I murmur roughly. “Come with me.”

Her eyes meet mine and I’m in love, I’m so in love with her, still in love with her.

Oh fuck me.

I work my fingers into a frenzy, her face contorting, her mouth opening like a flower while I slam into her harder and harder.

“Oh my god!” she cries out. “Oh god, Shane!”

She’s shaking.

I’m shaking.

I swear the ground is shaking too.

Then I’m coming.

Hard.

I take in a deep breath and let out a low, guttural cry as my strained muscles let loose and the orgasm rips down my spine, shooting out through every vein. I see the fucking stars. The moon. The sun. The world.

Then there’s nothing of me left.

I’m empty. Sated.

Spent.

I lean against her, trying to feel my limbs, my grip on her hips slick with sweat. I brush the damp hair off her forehead, grinning at her beautiful face and kiss the small beauty mark on her jaw. She used to hate that mark and Maverick, such a dick, would tease her for it when we were younger. She’d try and cover it with makeup but I always wanted her just like this, clean-faced, flushed and letting me see the real, beautiful Rachel.

“Good morning,” I whisper to her.

She grins at me lazily. “You already said that.”

“But now it’s a real good morning.”

“You can say that again.” She reaches up, running her fingers down my face. “I never thought this would happen.”

I close my eyes at her touch. “What do you mean?”

“I mean when I decided to come back here. You, me…it was never a possibility. I planned on hating you until the day I died.”

I swallow hard. That’s not the best thing to hear after sex, or anytime, really.

She exhales sharply, looks away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh.”

“I get it,” I tell her. “I really do.”

“Just because I didn’t think it was a possibility, doesn’t mean I didn’t want it to happen.” I frown. She looks at me with big eyes, glacier blue, and I see her truth in them. “I used to wonder about all the what ifs. What if you hadn’t broken up with me, what if I stayed in North Ridge, what if you had run away with me. I would wonder if I’d ever truly love someone the way that I loved you. And I tried. I tried to love. Turns out the hardest person to love was myself.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” I say under my breath, knowing that struggle all too well.

“And I thought, what if I came here and the past was erased and I could just use my heart again to its full extent. But I pushed it away because it wasn’t real. It wasn’t possible. The best I could hope for was closure.”

“And did you get it? Closure, I mean?”

“I thought I did. But then, Shane…what are we doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“This,” she says, pressing her hand against my chest. “Us. This isn’t closure Shane. Is it for you? Is this putting something to rest so we can both walk away, unchained? Or is this slipping the chains back on? This is just opening another door, maybe one that should stay closed.”

I shake my head, not liking this fear in her voice, how she doesn’t see what’s really burning between us. “Love isn’t a chain, Rachel. It’s not a shackle. Love is what sets you free, love doesn’t confine. What I feel for you…it’s wild and it’s raw and it’s as fucking real as that sun above us.”

“And what do you feel for me?” she asks so quietly I lean in to hear her better.

Her question stuns me.

“It’s not obvious?” I ask, running my thumb over her lips before placing my hand at her heart, her soft bare skin warming my palm. “Rachel, I love you. I loved you then, I love you now, and I loved you in all the light and darkness in-between. I love you with a wildness I can’t tame.” I pause, my chest tightening as I feel everything hang in the balance, resting on my words. “Please tell me you feel that from me, that you feel it too. Tell me you’ll at least run with it for a while.”

She stares up at me, her eyes searching mine, looking for all the answers I’ve already given her. “Shane…” she says softly. “This isn’t my home anymore.”

“Yes it is. I’m your home. I’ve always been your home even when you’ve been somewhere else, even when you were hating me, trying to forget me, my heart has been your home.”

God, can’t she see that? See that she always has and always will belong with me?

She closes her eyes and gives a quick shake of her head. “I have to go home soon. I have to.”

“You don’t.”

“Shane, please,” she says, staring at me, pleading with her eyes. “Put yourself in my shoes. I have a life over there. I have a condo, a job, a –”

“Yes, I’ve heard it all before,” I snap at her. I inhale deep and sharp, trying to keep my cool. “Look, I know that this isn’t easy and that you’ve worked really hard to build that life there. All I’m asking is that you try and build that life here.”

Her brows knit together delicately. “You say that like you have an idea what it’s like to start over. And how could you? You never left this damn place.”

“Rachel…”

“It’s true.”

“You’d have me every step of the way. You’d have your mother. You’d have Mav and Fox and my dad and grandpa and Del, even Jeanine.”

“But it doesn’t fix everything.”

I stare at her. “What do you need to fix?”

“You think that by coming back here my life will get back on track? Let’s say I find a job here that I do like. Let’s say a bunch of wonderful things align. Do you think that’s going to fix what’s wrong with me, fix this hole inside, fix all the damage that’s been done? Your love is a start Shane, but it’s not enough.”

Whoa.

I jerk my head back, shaking inside.

My love is not enough.

Not enough.

I’m not enough.

“Okay,” I tell her, pushing off of her and getting to my feet. I quickly slip on my briefs and start getting ready. No sense in just lying on a sleeping bag all morning and throwing barbs at each other when there’s important shit to be done.

“Shane,” she says, getting dressed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, you did,” I tell her, glancing at her as I pull on my jeans. “You have a sharp fucking tongue sometimes, you know that?”

“I know. I’m sorry. Look, I—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell her quickly, practically ripping the sleeping bag away from under her feet. “We need to get moving. Take Fletcher to the vet, deal with the damn cows some other time.” I glance over at Fletcher who has been snoozing in the grass by Polly all morning. He actually seems a lot better but he’s going to the vet anyway just to make sure. “Fuck, I wouldn’t mind finding that bear right now and giving him a real piece of my mind.”

“Shane. Please. I hate it when you’re mad at me.”

I give her a look. “Then quit saying shit you know I’ll get mad at.”

“You have to understand how fucking broken I am!” She throws her arms out, features strained and red with frustration.

“I do understand!” I yell at her. “I’ve understood from the day I first saw you. The day I decided I was going to protect you no matter what. That I was going to be there for you no matter what. And I know that maybe my love isn’t enough to fix all the horrible shit that was done to you and I know I tried in my own way and I just made things worse and I get that being here is hard and it’s not just about me. Okay, I know. But why can’t I be there for you in the here and now? Why can’t we work through this together? You don’t have to repair yourself on your own.”

“Maybe I do,” she says, rubbing her lips together. “It’s what I’ve been doing so far. Six years is a long time.”

“But it’s not as long as the rest of your life.” I study her, my chest feeling like I’ve got a jackhammer inside, all my nerves on fire. I’m high as the fucking sun one minute and the next I’m slipping in a raven’s grave. “Rachel. Everything you feel you need to do, you don’t need to do it alone anymore. I’m here for you whether you like it or not.”

She watches me for a moment and I can’t tell if she’s just weighing her options or letting anything sink in. Then she just nods at me. “I’m going to go pee.” She goes behind the pines just a few feet away and I turn, giving her privacy, feeling like my heart has been trodden on by a million hooves.

When she returns, I’ve got mostly everything packed up.

Since Sybil didn’t make an appearance during the night, she gets on Polly, I stay on foot and lead the way, Fletcher on the other side of me until I’ve decided he’s had enough and put him up on the horse with Rachel. He’s a pro at this, a dog that can ride.

We do this for hours, until my feet are screaming with pain inside my boots from walking for so long, but I want to give Rachel her distance. She needs it, even if it’s just her up on a horse and me in front of her.

We’re a kilometer from the ranch when I spot the ghostly form of Sybil grazing on the dry grass to the right of us.

“And there she is,” I say, mainly to myself.

Sybil raises her head, eyeing us and I pretend to ignore her, hoping it will spur on her interest. If I go after her and push her, she’ll just back up and run. Usually this tactic doesn’t work as well with horses as it does with humans but after a few moments she slowly starts walking behind us, not wanting to be left behind.

It’s then that Rachel finally says something. Guess it works on her too.

“Shane.”

“Yeah?” I look over my shoulder at her.

She stares at me, her expression open, almost…hopeful. “No matter what happens, I don’t want to leave it like this. We owe each other more than that. After all this time. Can we keep being with each other like this?” She licks her lips, nervous. “Do you think we can just try and make every second count?”

I know what she’s asking. Let’s be together until she leaves. But if my heart is barely holding on now, what’s going to happen to it when she’s gone?

How the fuck can I go through that all over again?

But I’m a fool.

And I’m in love.

So I say yes.

We’ll make every damn second count.