Uncharted by Adriana Anders

Chapter 35

Elias couldn’t sleep, despite his exhaustion and the relative safety of their surroundings. It wasn’t just the unfamiliarity of holding Leo in his arms, it was the fear of losing her. What if this was it? This one night, his only chance at being with her.

He couldn’t relax, couldn’t lay his mind to rest. If this was it, he wanted to be awake for every single second.

So, rather than fight wakefulness, he embraced it and let himself be. With her, let her smell comfort and stir him, let her low, cute snore reassure him, let the feel of her body restore him.

He must have fallen asleep for a while, because maybe half an hour before sunrise, he came to and found her awake.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice rough and groggy.

She nodded.

“Sleep any?”

“Yeah. Really well, actually.”

A predawn light shone through the room’s single window, glowing blueish. “Want to see something?” he asked, though really, they should try to sleep a bit more.

“You know it.”

Fuck, he loved her. And not in the sweet, comfortable way he’d loved Karen, but so deeply, the feeling so raw and harsh and new it hurt. He didn’t love her with his heart, he loved her with his skin and bones and guts. Or maybe his heart, but not one of those pretty ones that people drew with their fingers in the air. No, his love was coarse and earthy and real, pumped full of blood and its own electric current.

“Come on,” he said, as gruff and unpolished as the yeti she’d called him. “Boot up.”

Without a word, they dressed. He grabbed his rifle and led the way out the door and up a set of rickety wooden stairs. Around the corner, through a wooden structure, out the door, and up more steps, then more. The river rushed alongside them, washing ice and snow and debris from the top of the mountain to the lake, accelerating breakup.

His lungs puffed faster as they rose to the top of the peak. Though subtle, there was a change in the air after yesterday’s storm. It didn’t smell like winter anymore. It was full of rotting grass, fermented berries, and decomposing remains, newly unearthed and cloying. Death giving way to the fresh flush of life. Seedlings and buds popping out with their own sharp perfumes. Sulfur from the springs wafted on the air, weighted by what smelled like mushrooms but was actually mud, thawing after months beneath the snow. It wasn’t good or bad as far as scents went. It was just…Alaska. Just life.

Bo trotted up beside him and stopped, one paw raised, ears pricked. Out of habit, he stopped with her, chuffing out a lungful of air when Leo bumped into him. She put her arms around him to steady herself, silent and no doubt ready to roll in case of trouble. He pressed his hand to hers and squeezed once, not as a sign of intrusion but of affection. He turned and smiled and held back the desire to pick her up just to hold her. “Almost there,” he whispered, his eyes scanning the east for that first glow. “Better hurry.”

Faster now, he climbed, the half-rotted, creaking steps warning him to tread carefully. About twenty yards from the top, the sun pierced through and he knew it would be worth the extra trip.

At the top, he waited, grabbed Leo’s hand, and held her still. “Close your eyes.”

She did without hesitation.

“Here.” He sat on a rock and pulled her onto his lap, enjoying her weight on him. “Okay, open.”

He craned his neck to watch her face instead of the view and for a second, there was no reaction, nothing. Then he felt her indrawn breath.

He tore his eyes from her and looked, making himself see it as if for the first time. Funny how his lungs did that same capture and release hers just had, his mouth dropped open like hers, his eyes wide and avid, taking in the scene like they were hungry for beauty.

“I’ve never…” Another shaky breath from Leo, this one deep and slow. “This is astonishing.”

He nodded, rubbing the side of his face against her shoulder.

“There’s a name for this, right?”

“Alpenglow.”

“I thought it was a sunset thing.”

“Happens when the sun’s just below the horizon.” He shrugged, feeling like a dog offering up a bone.

“Hugging the horizon.” She lifted her shoulders and settled back into him with a sigh.

Content and calm, he put his cheek to the side of her head and took it all in—the star-dusted sky, still flirting with night, the jagged edges of the mountains, carved sharply in the east and opposite, washed with the sun’s nascent glow. None of it looked real, though he knew from experience that it didn’t get more solid than this. Society’s constructs, now that was a load of bullshit. But this, right here—this was the real stuff.

“You’ll miss this.” Her voice touched that deep, aching place inside him.

Everything he’d been feeling wadded up in his throat, knotting hard and implacable.

He tightened his arms and forced words past the obstruction. “You’re talking like you know what’s next.”

When she shifted, he didn’t expect her to twist and lean back to get her leg over, squirming until she straddled him. His arms loosened but stayed around her to keep her from falling backwards, and something about the trust in that one move hollowed him out and somehow made him whole again.

“We’re next,” she whispered as she wrapped her cold hands around his hot neck. “You. Me.” She glanced to where the dog sat, tongue lolling, ears half-perked, content to enjoy the scenery alongside her people. “Borealis Thorne.”

He’d already started shaking his head when she moved her hands up and into his hair, catching it in her fingers and tugging. The sting tingled from his head to the bottom of his feet, pooling warm between his legs.

“Us” was all she said before she put her lips to his to prove it.

Christ, he could die right here, in this sun-washed place, with the scents of newborn life all around him. He could die and he’d be fine. More than fine. He’d be in heaven.

***

Pleasure hummed through Leo’s nerves, buzzing over her skin and loosening her bones, even through the coat and the layers of clothes. She’d forgotten her gloves in her haste, which would be a problem if her fingers weren’t warm against Elias’s face and in his hair and raking through his backwoods beard. His mouth—so grim when she’d first seen him—was nothing but heat and lush pleasure. And hunger. Mostly that, which she couldn’t help but echo.

Her hips moved of their own volition, circling slow and hard against his erection. It made her want him all the more. His desire—so obvious it was almost innocent—was as appealing as his hard exterior and molten center. Earning this man’s trust was the best thing she’d ever done.

Because together, they were more than the sum of their parts.

He groaned and tightened his hold, lifting his hips to get more, harder, closer. Fuck, she loved this—him. The way their brains worked and their bodies played and everything they did made sense. Together.

His mouth opened and she slid her tongue alongside his, his taste and smell as perfect as any part of the landscape. The thought made her eyes open and land on his. His opened a second later, the sun refracting through the green like through a glass bottle, his pale tan skin washed in pink and orange, the half-night sky still above him.

She went still, framing his face with her hands, and leaned back.

“What?”

She chuffed out a nervous laugh and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“You look spooked.”

She opened her mouth and shut it, fell forward, and put her head on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear.

“For what?”

“Showing me this.”

“Figured you’d like it.”

Humming her assent, Leo closed the gap with his neck and kissed it, letting her tongue slide over his skin, under his chin, and up, rubbing her face to his soft beard and then putting her nose to his. “You smell good.”

He gave her a disbelieving smile.

“You do. Like a safe, warm place. It’s sexy.” She grinned, a little abashed. “I’m know. I’m ridiculous.”

“You’re beautiful.”

Something shifted—a bank of clouds scuttling across to block the sun’s rays, stealing dawn’s heat and light and with it the feeling that they could stay here forever. They turned, as one, cheeks pressed together. “Show’s over.”

She nodded, breathing him in, along with the bittersweet cocktail of Alaska coming to life after a long winter. With one last look at the blue and white and pink of the world waking up, Leo pressed her lips to his, and rose. “I’m starving.”

He stood and looked down at her, his expression peaceful and happy, smile almost young. “Then let’s get you fed.”

***

Ash almost stumbled when he caught sight of the building. It was hard to see in the early light, but he didn’t need details to know. They were here. If not now, then recently. He could feel it, could taste their presence on the air. There was nothing magic about it either. All signs pointed here. And who wouldn’t prefer a roof over their heads, given the chance?

“Shit.” Deegan came up beside him. “What the hell is that?”

“Old copper mine, I reckon.” He glanced around at the thick forest and the racing river and amended that. “Or gold. Probably gold.”

“Think they’re in there?”

After a long, slow inhale, Ash nodded. “Yes. I do.”

Deegan didn’t wait before trundling off up the path like a fucking bulldozer set on devastation.

Rather than yell or call him, which would surely let anyone know they were here, he hung back and peered through the morning’s tepid light.

He’d gone about twenty meters when the scent of sulfur hit him and another few steps more when the bell started ringing.