“You’re not going to get eaten by a bear,” he said.
“You would have to sacrifice yourself for me,” she said.
“I would?”
“That’s chivalry, Logan. A man must stand when a lady enters the room, and he must lie down and allow a grizzly bear to eat him so the lady can run away.”
“That’s not very progressive of you.”
“Well, when it comes to bears I’m very traditional.”
“Good to know.”
They went into the tent, and she smiled when she saw the sleeping bags were zipped together.
“I like your version of camping,” she said, taking her clothes off and sliding beneath the covers.
“I’m a simple man,” he said, taking his shirt off, and then the rest of his clothes, getting into the sleeping bag with her.
It was so quiet out there. When he turned the lantern off inside the tent, so dark. But she knew the feel of him now. His body had become familiar, and there was something exciting about that.
She moved her hands over his chest, and he wrapped her up in his arms, kissing her.
She made love with him, knowing that she loved him.
She remembered what he had said back in the motel in Tahoe.
That right in that moment, they were the only thing that was real.
She knew now that it was true. They were real. This was real.
It wasn’t a break from real life. This was real life.
The way she lived it from now to forever was up to her.
TWENTY-SEVEN
She hadn’t thought such a thing would be possible, but the intensity between them increased as the days went on. He touched her more during the day, and at night…
She’d had plenty of sex in her previous life.
This was something else. This was fire and intensity and a total lack of inhibition. When he wanted something, she wanted it more. Every demand he made, she had one of her own.
There wasn’t a boundary between them.
Every night they burned through that passion, and the next night it came right back. With breathless, sweaty intensity.
She wondered if it was so intense because he felt that deadline too.
But they saw a giant bison in North Dakota, and enjoyed the drive through Michigan, and then they got to break out their passports to head into Canada, going into Ottawa. It was beautiful. More like a European city than any place she had ever been. The architecture was stunning, the scenery was amazing. It was something new. Something else new that she was doing with him.
They spent the day walking around the city, in no particular hurry, and then had dinner in a place that overlooked one of the rivers.
She looked at him across the table, and her heart suddenly felt too big for that space in her chest. “This is what it would be like,” she said. “If we went to Europe together.”
“Too bad I can’t drive a car over there.”
She felt edgy and restless. Afraid. “We could just go. We don’t need an excuse.”
