HEN WE GOT to his cabin, it was almost dark. The mountain air mixed with scents of old wood and worn leather. It had chairs and books, rugs, curtains. A kitchen with cupboards and crockery. A fridge that was clean inside. The cupboards even had food in them.
It was one of those places you step into and it feels like you’ve known it all of your life, even though you’ve never been there before. It had a familiar way of hugging you inside.
He stood behind me on the deck. I leaned against the rail and looked out over the snow covered trees on the slope before us. His heat rose against me.
His hand was on my arm. I took hold of him. “We don’t have to go back tomorrow, right?”
The anarchic rumble of his laugh set me alight inside. “We don’t have to go back ever.” His big arms wrapped around me. “We can stay up here. Eat all the deer and rabbits. Start on the squirrels I guess.”
I felt safe here, wrapped in his arms.
“I wonder how long it would be, before we had to start on the farm livestock. Before we had to start rustling sheep and cattle. Taking bites off the herds.”
“You always have to be an outlaw?”
“What choice would we have?”
“Well, I know it’s a crazy scheme but, we could try buying some of them. A sheep maybe. Or a cow. Just for the larder. It would save the inconvenience of the life on the run.”
“Would it be as much fun, though?”
“That would mainly depend on how we spent the long evenings.”
His body felt like a wall. A shield that would keep me safe. Safe from the world. Safe from invaders. Bandits. Hostiles. Hunters. What was I thinking? I had nothing to worry about up here. But it made me feel good. Thinking about how this man, this big mountain man, would protect me. If I needed protecting.
We could stay here. Forget about my job. And his.
“There could be something for you, you know. Something like, I don’t know, you do some contracting, maybe?”
“With my background?”
“Do you have any other convictions?”
“I’m hopelessly in love with you and devoted, too.”
“I meant criminal convictions.”
“Couple of weeks ago, I’d probably have said that was a criminal conviction.”
“But do you?”
“No. Only the murders of the Bonaventura twins.”
“We can get that overturned.”
“You’re reaching a long way, Vesper.”
“You could get a private investigator’s license. Do some contract work?”
“Does the bureau use contractors?”
“Not for investigations, no. But plenty of attorneys do… Won’t you even think about it?”
“It has to be me making the adaptation. Is that the only way that this can go?”
“No, not necessarily.”
“Oh,” I turned to see the flash of his teeth as he grinned, “You’d come over to the dark side?”
“Well, I’m not sure that I would be totally opposed to that.” I was teasing and he knew it. Somehow that was more comforting than I can say, “Only…”
“Hmm?” he held me tighter, “Only?”
“Only I’ve been told I might not be, you know, I might not be very good at it.”
“I heard that.”
“I lack something. Apparently. ”
“The criminal mind?”
“Something to do with my motivation.”
I held onto his arms. It still made a silly thrill of surprise inside me how strong he was. And how big. He made me feel like a teenage girl. “Mm.” I nuzzled my head back into his chest. “Something along those lines.”
“Not having the necessary streak of venal self-interest?” His hug was getting me hot now. And wet “The opportunistic hunger?”
“I believe that was mentioned.” His bulge pressed insistently against my ass. My hips rolled against him. I said, dreamily, “That sort of a thing, at least.”
“Mm. Not sure if there’s an easy cure for that situation.” I thought I felt one, rising behind me.
“Nothing you can suggest? Nothing to recommend?”
“Well, in some circumstances…” he held my throat. His thumb traced my chin.
My voice was trailing “Yes?”
“It probably wouldn’t work for you, though.”
“Mmm?” I clawed behind me. Squeezed and pulled his ass. Pushed my head back into his chest.
After, in the cool moonlight, on his huge brass bed tangled in the mess of damp sheets I asked him, “Your name isn’t really Horse, is it?”
“Mm?”
“Do you trust me enough to tell me?”
“My given name? Nobody knows it.” He pulled me closer. “I haven’t uased it since I was in school.”
“Don’t you like it?”
“I didn’t then. I thought it was stupid. I kind of dropped it.” He looked into my eyes. “It’s ‘Hunter.’” And there was a catch in his voice.
Propped up on my elbow, I looked in hs face. “So instead you went with the perfectly sensible ‘Horse.’ Makes sense.”
His grin spread wide. Was that vulnerability I saw in his eye? Probably not.
I laid my head back on his chest. “Hunter.”