Untethered

22 | Fishing & Forgiveness

WARNING: CHAPTER 23 IS PRIVATE
~*~*~

Leaning her head against the car door, Emma tracked the passing cornfields and dairy farms without really seeing them. The sky was shot with pastels from the early morning rays, and she'd been up most of the night. But lack of sleep did not stop a satisfied smile from playing at the corners of her mouth, which was still slightly swollen from the voracious kisses rained upon it the night before.

Ryan had tried to convince her to go to sleep, but she just couldn't. She had lain there, gazing at his face in the shadowy light, tracing every angle and contour. It was almost a physical touch. So much so, that as if he'd actually felt it, he had growled, rolling over her, tangling his long, roughened fingers into her curls, tilting her face up, and his mouth had descended hungrily onto hers.

He kissed and caressed her, literally for hours, in the most blood-boiling make-out session she had ever experienced. At the end of which, when the room had lightened, and the dawn chorus was beginning, she was left in a blissfully hazy euphoria. They hadn't even had sex, and she was more thoroughly sated than she'd ever been in her life. She'd very nearly said those three-little-words, but even in her love-drunk state, they still just wouldn't come, yet.

She smiled. He loved her, though. That he was giving her a chance to make up her mind, made her certain she would get there sooner, rather than later. And the sooner, the better. If last night showed her anything, it was that her body was starving for him, craving more of his touch. Just more of him.

She shivered and sighed contentedly.

"I don't even want to know what that look means." Evan's gruff tone suddenly cut through her musings, and she felt her face warm.

They had been driving in companionable silence for an hour and a half. Partly due to neither being particularly chatty in the morning, and partly due to each of their thoughts being occupied with other things.

"Screw you," she retorted, her lips twitching a little. "It's none of your business anyway." She stuck her tongue out at him petulantly.

"Yeah, well try to pull your head out of your ass so I don't have to unload everything by myself. I want to be unpacked and have the cabin ready so we can go fishing this evening." He jerked his head toward the road ahead of them, "We're almost there."

Emma sat up, and looked out the window, for the first time actually paying attention to the passing scenery. Sure enough, the farmland had turned to densely wooded forest, and they had pulled off the main highway some time ago.

She grinned, ignoring his surly attitude, and rolled down her window, reveling in the fresh, earthy air coming from the woods around them.

"It's been so long since we've been up here, Ev! I'm really glad we'll have some time before you have to go back to San Diego," she said, her expression a mix of wistfulness and nostalgia.

"Me too, sis," he replied with a small smile. "Plus, I have some things to talk to you about, and this will be the perfect time."

She raised an eyebrow, but when he didn't continue, she just shrugged and went back to staring out the window. Tight-lipped dumbass.

~*~*~

Several hours later, Emma was fidgeting impatiently. "Alright, Ev, it's been long enough," she declared, casting her line out the opposite side of the small fishing boat. "I want to know what you want to talk to me about."

They had spent the morning and afternoon getting the water running, flushing the pipes in the cabin, cleaning the dust and cobwebs from the corners, shaking out the bedding, putting groceries away, and unpacking.