food.
It felt like we’d always lived this life—me and Rhys, alone in the car, hours on end. Days, and days. This was life. This was all there was.
Wanting him, not having him.
Watching him stretch in the passenger seat, arms straining the sleeves of his T-shirt, the hem lifting as he yawned, baring those abs. Seeing the bulge of his cock behind the zipper. Wanting him so much I ached. I wanted him so bad. It was more than a sexual need, more than the heavy, burning, turgid ache of needing an orgasm. This was more. This was…a need that rifled through my mere physicality and speared into my soul, into my heart, into my psyche.
I knew, after hours of driving and thinking, that I was going to sleep with Rhys.
I had to.
When he’d been telling me all the things he wanted to do to me, I’d nearly jumped him then and there. Even now, thinking about his words, the dirty promises of fucking me doggy style in the grass, the image of riding him, having him inside me as I fucked him? I needed that.
I needed to know. Him. Myself. Us, together. How it felt. I needed to know what it felt like to be filled, to be penetrated and taken…by him.
I finally saw the first sign for Prince Rupert. It had been in kilometers, though, and I wasn’t sure how that translated into miles and travel time. I mean, his Jeep had a speedometer that also showed kilometers per hour, so if I was going the posted limit of 100/kph, and the sign said 280 km to Prince Rupert, then it should take us…fuck, math was hard…two point eight hours? What was point-eight of an hour, though? Eighty minutes? Duh, no, moron. Forty minutes? Something like that. I figured it was a little under three hours to Prince Rupert.
Then we’d get a ferry, and that would end the driving for a while.
Which would be weird.
Prince Rupert was beautiful—moody, misty, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and the cleanest, freshest air I had ever smelled. The ferry was mind-bogglingly expensive, and Rhys paid the whole fare for both us and his Jeep, ignoring my offer to help pay.
We parked the Jeep on the ferry and took our cabin—a one-bed. We tossed our bags on the floor and sat on opposite sides of the bed, facing away from each other.
I lay down, first.
For a moment it was as stiff and awkward as the first moment I’d lain in a bed with him.
He finally snorted. “This is dumb.” He slid his arm under my neck, and I rolled into him, and snuggled against him. “Let’s just rest and enjoy not driving, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
We slept all the way to Ketchikan, and not a single thing happened between us but sleep.
Rhys took the wheel in Ketchikan which was, easily, the most breathtakingly beautiful place I’d ever seen. I plugged Mom’s address into his phone and we ended up at a condo complex outside the downtown area of Ketchikan.
Rhys pulled into a parking spot outside the building, put the Jeep into neutral and set the parking brake. He shut off the motor. It ticked as it cooled, and the sudden silence was, somehow, deafening and oddly final.
“Well.” Rhys rubbed the back of his head. “Here you are.”
“Here we are,” I said. “That was quite a taxi ride,” I joked. “I can’t believe you’ve driven me all the way to Alaska. Well, shall we go in and meet my family?”
“Okay.”
“I’m just going to introduce you as Rhys. No commentary on the status or non-status of whatever we are or aren’t. But be prepared, Lexie will corner you, or me, or both of us, for sure, and ask prying, personal, inappropriate questions.”
He nodded. “I’d expect nothing less, after our talk on the phone.”
I let out a breath. “Okay, let’s go in.”
I grabbed my backpack and stepped out of the Jeep, and felt oddly sad that the road trip was actually, finally over.
I went to the door, pressed the button marked O. Goode. It buzzed.
A silence.
“Yes?” came Mom’s voice.
“Uh, hi, Mom. It’s Torie.”
A stunned silence. “Torie? Torie! You’re here, oh my gosh! Okay, okay, I’m coming down.”
I laughed. “Or just, you know, buzz us in and we’ll come up?”
“Us?” Another pause. “Well, I guess I’ll find out. Yes, yes, come up, Torie and unknown person.”
The door buzzed and I pulled it open. We went up and found Mom’s door, which was already open and she was standing right there.
And