Hannah held on to Cain, her arms around his middle. Her pack bounced on her back as the four-wheeler drove up the county road, then turned right onto a narrower road that led into the forest.

They were deep into National Forest land now, far from civilization, so far that all-terrain off-road vehicles were legal. Hannah held on tighter as they turned another corner and pulled into a clearing. A nice flat place to set up a tent, plus a fire ring.

It wasn’t backpacking, but it was the next best thing.

Cain dropped Hannah and their gear off, along with a pile of firewood he’d strapped to the back, before he took off again to retrieve the rest of their things from his truck. By the time he returned, Hannah had set up their tent, unpacked their sleeping bags, and arranged the firewood near the small blackened pit surrounded by stones.

Once they finished setting up, Hannah started making dinner. Since they were “car camping,” she’d insisted on bringing real food, something other than freeze-dried meals or the boring dried food that backpackers ate. Cain had grumbled about that, but when he sat down to fire-cooked pork chops and potatoes, he seemed more than happy.

“Good call with the pork chops,” he said, tossing his bones into the trash they would have to string up high to avoid attracting bears.

“See? Wasn’t it worth bringing that tiny little cooler with us?”

“Maybe,” Cain said, a hint of stubbornness still on his face.

Cain had tried to argue that the cooler, no matter how small, wasn’t backpacking, and that real mountain men didn’t have coolers. Hannah told him yes, they do, but they’re just filled with beer. That seemed to shut him up. And when she pulled out a small bottle filled with a brown liquid, his eyebrow went up.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“What do you think it is?” she said coyly, pouring a little of the golden juice into her metal camp cup and sliding it over to him.

Cain picked up the cup and took a whiff of what was inside, a smile reaching his lips. “Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea bringing you along after all.”

Hannah stuck her tongue out at him.

Cain’s eyes twinkled. “I can find a good use for that.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” She had a pretty good idea what Cain would say, but she wanted to hear him say it.

“Like wrapping it, along with those beautiful lips, around my cock,” he said, swirling the bourbon in her metal cup.

Hannah looked around at their beautiful campsite, at the tall conifers and the fading blue sky and the mountain ranges in the distance. “Well, after you sacrificed your weekend of backpacking to bring me out here, and let me bring the contentious cooler, I’d say you might have earned yourself that pleasure.”

Cain raised his eyebrows, watching her as she stood from her chair and kneeled in front of him. Hannah glanced around again. There wasn’t a soul anywhere, nor had there been on their drive up. Even if other campers arrived, it would be dark by then and not that difficult for Cain to quickly zip up before anyone figured out what they were doing.

Hannah unzipped Cain’s shorts and yanked down his briefs just enough to expose him, erect and waiting for what she’d promised. She stroked his cock a couple of times, admiring its strange perfection and its uncanny ability to make her feel amazing. Sure, it was actually the man behind the cock doing most of the heavy lifting of making her shudder with pleasure, but it was a nice cock nonetheless.

She looked up into Cain’s brown eyes, their expression the usual perplexing mix of too many things for Hannah to understand. Just like Cain.

Then she bent forward, taking him into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the tip. She felt his hands on her head, gently caressing and stroking rather than guiding or pushing, letting her lead. She then took his entire length into her mouth, and felt his grip tighten just a little, for just a moment.

She sucked and licked and stroked him, his hands buried in her hair. She’d never been a huge fan of blow jobs, and had always assumed it was because no woman really wanted to give one, and only did so because it was the right thing to do for a man who was willing to go down on her. Yet, kneeling there on the forest floor with Cain in her mouth—under the tall trees and breathing in the mountain air—she was not only enjoying it, but a warm heat had begun to seep through her and stir in her belly. He felt good, and it felt good to make him feel good.

And if her jaw hadn’t begun to get tired, she could have stayed right there, on her knees, until the warmth built to a wildfire in her. She pulled away to rest for a moment. Cain tilted her head up to face him.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “I’m great. I just need to rest for a second.”

His eyes narrowed. “Your face is flushed.”

“I’m… turned on.”

He smiled a little, then jerked his head toward the tent. “Let’s go.”

They got up and headed into their tent as the early evening sky turned dusky and purple. They stripped off their clothes, both ignoring the rapidly cooling temperature. Cain looked down at his erectness.

“Can you keep going?”

“I think so,” she said, wondering what he had in mind.

Cain lay back, his head on his tiny pillow. “Sit on my face, Grace Kelly.”

Hannah laughed and did so, straddling his face while turning to face his feet. She gasped when she felt his tongue on her, stroking her and sending little shockwaves through her. She lay herself down on him, taking him into her mouth again and continuing what she’d started.

Or had he started it? She couldn’t remember. She could recall nothing but the intense feeling of Cain stroking her with his tongue, his hands on her legs, and his cock in her mouth. It was all too good, like a circuit of intense pleasure traveling through them both, her making him feel amazing and him making her feel amazing all at once in an endless loop of ecstasy, until she could no longer tell where the pleasure had begun. She got lost in it, losing all sense of time and place, her entire body weightless and floating in a sea of amazing. Then Hannah’s orgasm built to a peak and erupted like a volcano, the fires bursting inside her and spreading through her. She cried out, any sound muffled by Cain filling her mouth, the intensity of her orgasm only making her take him harder and deeper.

Soon, she felt it. The tiny bit of salty taste, before the rest filled her throat and slid down it as Cain squeezed her legs hard. She pulled her mouth from him, gasping for air, and she lifted her hips off Cain, knowing he probably needed to catch his own breath. Hannah collapsed next to him, warm and glistening with moisture, and Cain lay there in the almost-darkness, looking a little dazed.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Cain placed his warm hand on her leg for a moment, their version of post-sex cuddling. It was perfect.

Once Hannah started to regain her senses, she wanted to ask him if he’d ever done that before, come while busy going down on the person making him come. Then she realized… she didn’t want to know. It was okay if he had, but she didn’t want to know about it, just like he hadn’t wanted to know about men she was dating. But she’d never done anything like that, never felt anything like that before.

As they lay there, basking in the glow of their carnal exultation, Hannah felt herself getting cold. High altitude after dark wasn’t for naked people—not her, at least—even in summertime.

She began fiddling with her sleeping bag.

“What are you doing?” Cain asked sleepily.

“I’m cold.”

He pulled her to him, his warmth immediately nestling into her and settling her. He pulled her sleeping bag over them. “This isn’t cuddling, by the way. It’s me keeping you warm. I’m just being chivalrous.”

Hannah smiled. “You mean by taking care of people like you do.”

“Oh, Jesus,” he moaned. “That again?”

Hannah laughed at that. She loved calling him on his softer side, the one he hated admitting to, but the one she’d grown to realize was a fundamental part of who he was. Even a clueless fool like her could see it hidden beneath that gruff exterior and brutally honest way.

She lay there, in his arms, no longer chilled and feeling no need to separate herself from him. After some time passed, Cain spoke.

“Feel like going for a drive?”

“Sure,” she said, having no idea what Cain had in mind but more than eager to find out.

They changed into warm clothes, and Hannah put on her gloves and beanie before she joined Cain on the four-wheeler and took off into the night.

The wind was cold but the air was comfortable, smelling of fresh pine needles and damp forest floor. Cain drove them farther up the road, deeper into the forest until they reached another clearing. The clearing offered them a nearly 360-degree view of the night sky, unpolluted by city lights.

Cain pulled a blanket out of his pack and spread it out on the sloped ground, right up against a hunk of smooth rock. They sat on the blanket, and Hannah rested her head against the cold rock and peered up at the stars that blanketed the dark sky. So many of them.

“How I’ve missed this,” she said quietly.

Cain stared up at the sky. “When you were running High Peaks, during the night, did you ever stop to look up at the stars?”

Hannah bit her lip. “I didn’t.”

“Next time, do that. Notice everything. Take it all in. That’s what you’ll remember most for years to come.”

Hannah said nothing. For the first time, she began to see what Cain was talking about. On her regular runs, she’d noticed things all the time—the dappled light in the forest, rocks covered in colorful lichen, wildflowers dotting the meadows. But once she’d started training, and certainly during her race, such things had faded to the background as she focused on her heart rate monitor, pace, and goal.

They sat in silence for a while. Cain seemed especially quiet as he pondered the sky. Suddenly, Hannah had a thought.

“Grizzly?”

“Mmm?”

“Why did you leave the Army?”

There was silence for several long moments. Then a sigh. “I was burned out.”

“Did you serve overseas?”

“Yup. I’ve been overseas on and off since finishing med school. Sometimes in war zones.”

“Did you get combat fatigue? Or whatever the doctor version of combat fatigue is? Or did something happen, something bad?”

More silence. “It’s a long story.”

Hannah hesitated, not knowing where that line was between honesty and getting too personal. “I don’t mean to probe. I just… I’ve never been with a combat veteran before, or any military man, so I don’t know if asking shows that I care or if it’s bad form.”

“It’s not bad form. I just… I hate talking about that stuff.”

She took Cain’s hand, cooled from the night air. His fingers curled around hers. “I figured. But what kind of person would I be if I didn’t at least ask? If I didn’t want to know more about you and what makes you you?”

Cain turned and looked at her. “You want to know what makes me me? This, right here. Being out here, in nature, staring at the stars, without people bugging me.”

“Well, you have one person bugging you…” Hannah said, smiling.

He turned away, looking up at the sky again. “You bug me less than most.”

Hannah took that for the compliment it was, and turned her eyes skyward again. As she studied the dense stars, part of her wished Teagan was there to point out what was what. She could never remember any of it.

“What do you see up there?” Cain asked.

“Shapes. Triangles, parallelograms, rhombuses…. What do you see?”

“The infinite.”

“How very sci-fi of you.” Then a thought occurred to her. “Is that why when I showed up at your cabin and asked you where I was, you said ‘twenty-first century Earth’?”

Cain chuckled. “I forgot about that.”

She faced him again. “Who says something like that, other than my friend Teagan, who writes science fiction and can pull that off?”

He made a face. “Who knocks on a stranger’s door and asks ‘Where am I?’ No ‘Hey, I’m lost’ or ‘Where’s the nearest main road?’ or anything intelligible…”

She smacked him on the chest. “I was tired!”

“Tired?” he scoffed. “You were on the verge of collapse, and just being pigheaded. Why were you so testy, anyway? I know that wasn’t just the fatigue talking.”

“You were being so damned bossy and overbearing, and you wouldn’t just give me what I wanted. And you call me pigheaded…”

“I’m still bossy, and in that case I was right. At least my pigheadedness was for a good reason.”

“Fine,” Hannah relented. “I was obstinate. I shouldn’t have run home.”

“Then why did you?”

“Because I hate asking for help,” she said, a little defensively. “I like knowing I can figure out a problem on my own, and I hate when other people try to solve it for me.”

“People, or men?”

“Anyone,” she insisted. “Although it’s usually men who try. You happened to be right that night, but most of the time these guys have no fucking idea what they’re talking about and they talk down to me like I must be hapless and stupid because I have blonde hair and two X chromosomes. It pisses me off.” Her own father was one particular culprit, but Hannah didn’t mention that.

Cain gazed at her. “Does that happen to you a lot?”

“Not as much as it used to. I’ve perfected my ‘fuck off’ look over the years.”

He laughed, squeezing her hand as he gazed up again. “Yes, you have.”

“Oh, you like it.”

“I do. The only thing sexier than Grace Kelly is Grace Kelly with an attitude.” He glanced at her again. “Promise me you won’t change it.”

Hannah smiled. “Never.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, the chilly air seeping into her coat. Cain let go of her hand and put his arm around her, gently pulling her against his warm body. Hannah rested her head on his shoulder, still staring up at the stars, imagining herself up on Spruce Pass during the High Peaks 100, gazing up at that same summer sky. They sat there for some time until Cain spoke.

“I think I’m ready for a fire, and maybe a little more of that bourbon.”

“Me too. Do you like marshmallows?”

He turned to her again, the eyebrow raised in disapproval. “You brought marshmallows?”

“Maybe.”

“Great,” he muttered.

“What’s wrong with marshmallows?”

“I love them, that’s what. And when your lame foot gets better, it’ll be yet another thing I have to lug up the hill when we go backpacking.”

“You’ll take me backpacking with you?” she said, unable to hide the joy in her voice.

“I have to now. You’ve made yourself too useful to me.”

Hannah’s breath caught in her throat. And, inexplicably, tears came to her eyes. Just a couple. Who was this guy, whose life she’d literally stumbled into, who’d become someone she loved to be with?

And she felt scared. Really scared.

But it didn’t change anything, right? They would enjoy one another when they could… no muss, no fuss. That’s what Cain wanted too.

Yet, as the two of them stood up, folded their blanket, and headed back to camp, Hannah knew. This was far more than that.