The huge man standing behind the counter in the trading post looked like a bear pretending to be a human with thick black hair that seemed to cover his entire body. His brows rose when we walked in, and his eyes narrowed as he scanned us.
“Howdy,” he said. “Awful late for you folks to be out.”
“We’re just passin’ through,” Trey said. “You have an open room we could rent for the night?”
He stared at us a moment longer and then nodded. “I do. Not many people passing through in the winter.”
“We like it that way.” Trey smiled, all calm confidence. “Nice and quiet.”
A smile tugged at the giant man's mouth. "Well, that's for damn sure. I'm Zeke. You looking for one bed or two?"
“One,” Trey said without hesitation.
Butterflies erupted in my stomach, remembering what he’d said last night. I want you in a place that’s warm so I can see every beautiful inch of you without worryin’ about you getting frostbite.
“I’m Flint, and this is my wife Sara.”
My wife.
I managed a smile when Zeke’s eyes landed on me, my heart still pounding.
Zeke surprised me by smiling back. “I got just the room for you.” He turned and grabbed a key off the wall behind him. “Number 3. Normally we charge extra if you want hot water, but I’ll throw it in for free tonight.”
The surprise on Trey’s face matched my own.
“Thank you. That’s very generous,” I said, hoping he understood how much of a gift he’d just given us.
His smile softened, the expression at odds with his stature. “My pleasure, miss. You folks need anything else?”
When we said no, he pointed to the stairs on the other side of the room and wished us a good night. We climbed up the squeaky stairs and made our way down the hall to the door with a large number three painted on it. Trey unlocked the door and we stepped into the prettiest room I’d ever seen. Old faded floral wallpaper covered the walls and a thick green rug lay over the wood floors. In the corner stood a metal radiator, then a large bed with four wooden posts sticking up in the air, and a small dresser. Trey locked the door behind us, and I kicked off my boots before moving through the room to peer into the small adjoining room to find a bathroom, complete with a working toilet and a large clawfoot tub. I turned and looked at Trey in astonishment.
“This is incredible.”
He grinned. “I’m glad you like it. I wish we could stay longer, but it’s just a little too close to the hold for comfort.”
I grinned back, warmth sparking through me. “We’ll just have to make the most of it then.”
His eyebrows raised, his eyes sharpening on me as they darkened with desire. “You sure you don’t want to get some sleep? Or a bath?” he asked carefully.
Gods, this man. I loved him. I loved him so much that it made my heart ache with the beauty of it.
“I just want you.”
The emotion that flooded his face made my eyes burn. He crossed the short distance between us in just a few quick strides, and then he kissed me so fiercely it made me realize how much he’d been holding himself back before. I ran my fingers through his hair again, exploring what made him groan against my mouth or made his breath hitch. He broke away from my mouth to trail burning kisses down my neck, his tongue dipping into my collarbone as he worked my jacket off my shoulders at the same time. As soon as my jacket hit the floor, I did the same to his, taking the opportunity to splay my hands across his broad chest. My head tipped back, knocking against the wall as he continued to torment my neck. Already my breath came in short pants and my skin buzzed in anticipation.
His hands gripped the hem of my shirt, and he pulled back just enough to catch my eyes, silently checking. I raised my hands, holding his gaze and hoping he could see the desperate want that roared through me. He gave me a truly sinful smirk and slowly pulled my shirt up and off, letting it drop to the floor. He went still, eyes drifting across my chest, and while I still felt flickers of insecurity about the awful brand on my chest, they were easier to ignore when he gazed at me with so much blatant hunger.
I slid my hands under his shirt, my fingers searching until I felt the small raised scar on his stomach. That desperate moment when I’d pressed my hands against the bloody wound seemed like another lifetime ago.
“That’s my favorite scar,” he said, his voice low in a way that did something pleasant to my insides.
I rucked his shirt up, but he was too tall for me to pull it off. He grinned and pulled it the rest of the way off, and I let my eyes drift across his naked chest, admiring the lean muscle. His breathing quickened as my hands trailed up, tracing the same path my eyes had taken, across his chest and shoulders and then down his arm until my fingers brushed the faint scar in the shape of my teeth marks from where I’d bitten him.
“Not this one?” I purred, a sly grin crossing my face.
His answering grin was downright dangerous. He caught my hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing down to the middle of my forearm. “I could give you a matching one if you want.” He sank his teeth into my forearm just hard enough that I let out a little gasp. Then he swirled his tongue over the mark, warm and soothing, his eyes still locked on mine.
Gods, I felt drunk, intoxicated by him. “I can think of better places for you to put your mouth.”
He made a strangled noise, surprise mixing with the blazing heat of his eyes, and then he kissed me again. His hips shoved into mine, pushing me back into the wall. He wasn’t holding any of it back now, pouring all of his emotion and need into how he touched me and kissed me.
Let go, I reminded myself. Let him in.
“I lied to you earlier,” I breathed, and he pulled back to look at me, wariness in his eyes. “My favorite color is the color of your eyes.”
His eyebrows raised, but that sunshine smile chased away the concern. “Brown?”
“Yes,” I gasped as his fingers brushed over my nipples. “I’ve never wanted to get lost in someone’s eyes before I met you.”
“I can understand the feeling,” he said hoarsely, watching my face, “because I’ve never seen eyes as beautiful as yours.”
“Green like glass bottles,” I teased, arching toward him.
“You saw right through that, didn’t you?” His smile turned sheepish.
“You’re not very good at hiding how you feel,” I murmured with a smile, reaching up to brush his wavy hair out of his eyes. “You live everything you believe out loud.”
He grinned, then dipped his head and caught one of my nipples in his mouth making me gasp, and the next few minutes were lost to the sensations of his tongue and teeth and hands on my breasts. He slowed as he moved upward, pressing his lips to the brand on my chest like he had last night. I leaned my head back against the wall, tears burning in my throat at how reverently he kissed the part of my body I thought no one would ever look at with anything but disgust.
His hands trailed down to the waistband of my jeans, lazily undoing the buttons and sliding my pants and undergarments off my hips torturously slow. As soon as they hit the floor, however, he hauled me up into his arms. I sucked in a breath at the sudden movement, wrapping my legs around his waist as he made his way toward the bed. He laid me down and then took a step back, staring at me, every bare inch just like he'd promised.
“Beautiful,” he said in that low, rough voice.
I smiled wide, and those blooms in my chest felt like a whole damn garden.
I rolled onto my side, watching him undress further and blatantly admiring him as more of his lean muscled body came into view, and as he dropped his pants, I could see how much he wanted me.
“Have I ever told you,” I asked in a conversational tone, “that you are the most handsome man I’ve ever seen?”
He prowled back toward the bed, and the heat in his gaze almost made me shiver.
“I never had a chance in hell tryin’ to push you away. Especially when you look at me like that.”
He grinned as he reached the bed, but he didn’t join me. Instead he gently but firmly grasped my ankles and tugged hard enough that I tipped onto my back and slid across the bed with a gasp.
“Have I ever told you,” he asked in a matching casual tone as he sank to his knees at the side of the bed, pulling my legs over his shoulders. “That I have dreams about doing this.” He shifted forward, pressing a kiss to my inner thigh, and I shuddered. “And when I wake up,” His lips ghosted across my opposite leg. “I can’t remember your taste.” His teeth scraped the skin of my inner thigh and a cry escaped my lips. “Just that I couldn’t get enough.” Another kiss and I whined with frustration. He raised his head and met my eyes, looking so fucking smug.
“Trey,” I pleaded.
His warm breath glided across my skin as he chuckled, but then his arms wrapped around my thighs and pulled me even closer as his tongue flicked across my slit.
“Fuck,” I gasped, my hands clenching handfuls of the blanket and my hips bucking, but his arms tightened around my legs, holding me in place.
His tongue moved in slow, languid strokes like he had all the time in the world, and he hummed deep in his throat. My legs trembled, toes curling.
“Oh my gods,” I gasped.
His tongue delved inside, licking and swirling. When his mouth moved upwards, his fingers replaced his tongue, and I cried out, straining against his hold on my legs. I panted, trying to keep my moans quiet, but then his tongue swirled over my clit, and he sucked and I dissolved into pleasure. His fingers kept pumping, tongue flicking until my release faded. He emerged from between my legs, that smug smile firmly on his face.
“Better,” he said.
“What?” I was still trying to catch my breath.
“You taste even better than I dreamed,” he rasped, crawling up my body to claim my lips again.
I could taste myself on his lips and tongue, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I wrapped a hand around his cock, and he groaned against my lips.
“I want you,” I breathed, stroking him and making him shudder.
“You sure?” he asked, staring me in the eyes, and I could see his desire as well as his restraint written all over his face. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable—”
“Trey,” I interrupted, a soft smile on my lips, “I love you.”
He went so still I was half afraid he stopped breathing.
“I love you, Trey, and I want you,” I repeated in a whisper, my eyes prickling.
“I love you.” His voice sounded rough with emotion, and then he captured my lips in a desperate, bruising kiss that made our teeth click together.
This time when I moved, he moved with me. His cock sank into me, and the pleasant burn made me gasp, He paused, looking worried.
“Are you—” he started to say.
“Trey,” I interrupted him again, my voice a demand as I gripped his hips, “I want you to fuck me.”
His smirk crackled with heat. With one thrust, he sank himself fully inside me, and I dug my fingernails into his hips with a moan. He began to move, rolling his hips slowly, and I threw a leg over his hip to try and pull him even deeper. I wanted him, all of him. His smirk deepened and he drove into me deeper and faster, our hips snapping together. The coiling tension in my center built like a fire.
“Tell me what you want, Bones,” he rasped.
“More,” I moaned. I couldn’t get enough.
He suddenly gripped my upper arms and hauled me up, his cock still buried inside me as he kneeled on the bed with me sitting in his lap. I gasped at the new angle, the new pleasure.
“Fuck.” My head tipped back as his hips set a rhythm.
“You’re so beautiful,” Trey breathed, and then his lips were on my breast, his tongue swirling around my pert nipple and I went over the edge again. The burning was both pleasure and pain until it built to the point where I instinctively let go.
“Bones, open your eyes,” Trey gasped, stilling.
I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them, but when I opened my eyes, I froze. I was glowing. All of me. Glowing. As though sunshine ran through my veins and beamed through my skin in a warm golden light.
“Oh my gods,” I got out.
“Beautiful.”
I met Trey's wide eyes and in the light of my skin, they looked like honey. I could see my eyes reflected in his, wide with shock and fully glowing golden, no white or pupil to be seen. My heart lurched at how jarring, how inhuman it looked. I bent down, pressing a kiss to his neck so I couldn’t see my reflection anymore. His breathing hitched, so I did it again, scraping my teeth lightly over his pulse point.
“Bones,” he groaned.
I slid my hands back into his hair and he suddenly tipped us until my back hit the bed, pushing my knees up against my chest. He pounded into me, his hand reaching between our bodies and teasing my clit, and I cried out as pleasure barreled through me again. Shortly after, Trey gasped out a string of swear words mixed with my name and shuddered. He dropped his forehead to mine, both of us gasping for breath and covered in a sheen of sweat.
“Am I still glowing?” I murmured, dazed.
He pulled back to glance down at me and grinned. “Just a little.”
I held up a hand and stared at my skin. It glowed faintly, but it was still glowing.
“What the fuck?” I breathed.
“Good thing you didn’t light up the forest like a beacon yesterday.”
“Oh my gods, this would happen to me when I’m trying to disappear.”
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’d be lying.”
“You will be sorry when you can’t have me again unless we’re in a windowless room.”
"Oh shit." His smug grin vanished into a forlorn expression, and for some reason that’s what did me in.
I started laughing, and it wasn't long before he joined me, both of us dissolving into manic laughter. By the time we managed to stop, the glow had faded to my relief. I curled into him, tilting my head up to gaze at him.
“I love you.” My voice caught.
His hands came up to cup my face, stroking my cheekbones with his thumbs. His beautiful eyes glimmered. “I love you, Bones.”
We lay there tangled together for a while, our hearts returning to a normal rhythm. I started to drift off when Trey shifted.
“You still want a bath?” he murmured.
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
I heard him chuckle. “Only if you promise not to fall asleep and drown.”
“You better come in with me just to make sure.”
He grinned. “Safety first.”
Hot water poured from the faucet, sending steam billowing around the room. From what I knew, this used to be a mundane, normal thing in the Before, but to me, it seemed almost magical.
“Could the Vault have hot water?” I asked.
"Technically parts of it could, but we've never been able to get the water heaters workin'," Trey answered. "There's some parts missin' or broken that we haven't been able to jerry-rig with scavenged parts."
“You ever think about what it must’ve been like in the Before?”
Trey leaned over the tub, one hand in the running water. I admired the way the warm light from the candles we’d found played across his lean body. His summer tan had faded, but I could still see the faint tan lines around his neck and waist.
“Oh of course,” Trey answered. “I love lookin’ at any books from Before that I can find. Seems impossible this is the same place.”
"I saw one of those airplanes once. It crashed in the desert. It was in pieces and gutted, but it was so fuckin' big. I dunno how they built somethin' that big."
“I dunno how they got those things up in the air,” Trey said.
“Me either,” I agreed, thinking about how huge and heavy even the smallest piece of the plane had been.
“So what’s the story you were told?” Trey asked. When I stared back in confusion, he clarified, “Why the world ended.”
I made a face. “Punishment from the gods.”
Trey made a face too. “Sounds like some pretty shitty gods to me.”
“What about you?”
"Oh, we heard all sorts of stories. I remember my dad telling me there was a war and everybody just killed each other. There was a real old lady in the Vault when I was a kid named Bugs. She seemed ancient so we were pretty sure she must’ve been there. Mac and I both asked her at different times and got two wildly different stories. She told me that monsters as big as mountains came from the sea and destroyed everythin’, but she told Mac everyone got sick with a disease that made them eat each other.”
I wrinkled my nose. “The Reapers had stories more like those. One of ’em was that everybody melted except for all the people who hid underground. That one scared the shit out of me.”
“Gross.” Trey chuckled.
When I climbed into the tub, I moaned. The hot water soothed my sore back and muscles. Trey climbed in behind me, the tub large enough for both of us, especially once Trey sat with his back against one end of the tub and I settled in between his legs, leaning back against his chest.
“Well this is nice,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“This is amazing,” I corrected him.
“Does it feel ok on your back?”
"Yeah, it's helping."
“Here, lean forward a minute,” he said, and I did, feeling a tiny flash of insecurity at baring my scarred back to him. He gently ran his hands across the healing scars. “Does it hurt everywhere?”
"You see the really thick scars?" I asked, and when he made a sound of agreement, I continued, "Those seem to hurt the most. But after walking so much, pretty much everythin' hurts."
He pressed into my back with his thumbs, avoiding the thickest scars. “Does that feel good or bad?”
“Mostly good.”
“Tell me if it hurts.”
He rubbed my sore muscles, and so long as he avoided the thick scars, it ached pleasantly.
“Tomorrow I’ll ask Zeke if he has any dried herbs or flowers,” I mumbled.
“I’m sure Zeke will have somethin’ you can use.” His hands left my back to wrap around me again. “Did that help at all?”
I smiled, leaning back into him. My back still ached, but it seemed looser. “I think it did. Thank you.”
Between the comfort of his body and the warmth of the water, my eyelids grew heavy. His fingertips brushed across my bare skin.
“Will you tell me about this?” Trey asked, his fingers landing on the brand on my chest. I stiffened, and he added, “You don’t have to, darlin’.”
I didn’t want to, but I doubted I’d ever want to talk about that day. I tried to steady myself, taking a few deep breaths. In the silence, we could hear the wind gusting against the house.
"The only people who knew what I could do were Juck, Vulture, and a man named Grip. After Grip died, Vulture started wantin' more—more power, more control. Normally, Juck would've shut that shit down right away, but he couldn't cause Vulture knew my secret and he wasn't afraid of threatening to reveal it. It started gettin' real tense between the two. Juck tried to get him killed a couple of times, but Vulture survived. So Vulture got real friendly with the gang. He was good at that—bein' charismatic and charming to get what he wanted. It reached a point where Juck knew if he killed him, the gang might revolt. And I—"
I sucked in a shaky breath. Trey’s arms tightened around me, his head dipping to press a kiss to my shoulder.
"Vulture wasn't a good person, but he'd been less cruel to me than Juck. So I figured if I was gonna pick a side, I'd rather it be his. So I started sneaking out to see him." My eyes burned, ashamed to admit the next part. "I did the same thing as before…with Rally, that boy I ran away with. I told him whatever he wanted to hear and did whatever he wanted to do. But Juck caught us together one night." My voice trembled, remembering the panic and terror of that moment. "He dragged us out of Vulture's tent. He was so fuckin' angry, I thought he was gonna kill both of us. Instead, he had his men hold me down while he got some metal fencing and bent it into a 'J.' He put it in the fire until it was red-hot and then he made Vulture watch while he burned it into my chest so no one would ever forget that I belonged to only him."
“Gods, Bones.” Trey sounded stricken and his arms tightened around me again.
“I passed out from the pain.” I felt numb as I recounted the story. “While I was out, he beat Vulture nearly to death. I don’t know why he didn’t kill him. Maybe he thought I loved Vulture so he could use him to control me or maybe it was the other way around, I dunno. I woke up in so much pain, and he drugged me even though I was beggin’ him not to. And, well, you know what happened next.”
“How much time passed between that night and when the revolt happened?” Trey asked, his voice dark and quiet.
“Four days.”
“So then Vulture told everyone about your powers and they all started fighting each other?” When I nodded, he continued. “And then Juck shot Vulture and tried to get away and that’s when you stabbed him?” I nodded again, trying not to remember the blood coating my hands. “Was Vulture conscious when you left?”
“Yeah. He watched me kill Juck. He thought I did it to help him win. When he realized I was leaving him to die—" I could see the rage and the betrayal on his face as if it'd happened yesterday. "If he's alive, he's someone we don't want to run into."
"He's someone who doesn't want to run into me,” Trey growled.
“I’d prefer to never see him again,” I said, my voice faint.
“Well the good news is, last we heard, the few Reapers left were heading south. Hopefully for good. If he’s still alive, he probably went with ’em.” He pressed a kiss to my temple, then lingered there, speaking low and soft in my ear. “Thank you for tellin’ me.”
We sat in silence for a while, just soaking in the warm water. The sick feeling in my stomach from talking about that awful day began to fade. My head rested back against Trey’s shoulder, and his arms held me against his chest. I could feel his heart beating.
“We should try to get some sleep,” he eventually said, and I agreed.
Entwined together in the bed, his hand carded through my damp hair. I'd never experienced the intimacy of laying skin-to-skin with someone after being vulnerable in a different way than just sex. It still scared me, but it felt…it felt like healing, as though Trey had his own kind of healing power that flowed through me, piecing together all the broken parts of my soul.