Page 11 of One Merciful Moment

Boone

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The latch clicked and the darkness folded around him. Boone stood in the bathroom with one palm flat against the door and listened.

No hum of electricity, no water rushing through the pipes, and no heater cycling through the ducts.

Somewhere on the other side of the door, Ashley moved through the house. The creaking floorboard told him she was in the kitchen. The soft drag of the chair she always sat in at the table alerted him to her finding the food he'd set out for dinner after her bath.

He'd hauled the water before supper. Ten buckets from the spring, arms burning, and she'd watched him carry the last one up to the porch without a word. The watching was the worst part. When she looked at him, his hands forgot what they were doing.

He undid his belt.

His cock was already half-hard. He wanted to think about her. That was the point of coming here. He needed to take the edge off. Living with Ashley had sanded every nerve raw. He noticed every breath she took. The way her bare feet silently walked across the floor. The way her collarbone surfaced when she worked the soil, planting the seeds.

He wrapped his fingers around his cock and leaned his back against the cool wood of the door. He'd already removed his wet, sweaty shirt.

Already slick at the tip, he spread the drop slowly with his thumb. He gritted his teeth, knowing sound traveled in the house. The last half hour was torture as he heard every splash of water coat Ashley's body as she cleaned herself.

In his head, he could see her clearly. She sat in the tub, her hair hanging past her shoulders, and her teardrop breasts dipped into the water each time she reached down to wash herself with the soapy washcloth.

He stroked long, slow, adding a twist at the top, heat gathering low in his belly, his balls drawing up tight. The room filled with the smell of soap and his own skin.

Her mouth undid him. The way it moved when she talked. When she argued. When she bit her lower lip when she concentrated and had no idea he was looking. Her voice, low and dry when she spoke. The strip of her belly that showed when she worked in the garden, pale and soft, and how he'd thought about putting his lips on that skin every second of the day.

He worked himself harder, palm slick, knuckles scraping the edge of his jeans, precoma making the slide filthy. He held the thought of her. Her hip. The small of her back. And imagined the sound she'd make if he got his hands on her. If he finally put his mouth where he'd been putting it in his head for weeks.

He swallowed the sound as he came. It shook through him, wet and hot over his fingers and up his wrist, and for a few seconds nothing existed but the pulse in his cock and the ghost of Ashley.

The tub waited under the window, holding the water he'd hauled at dusk. He stepped into the water that had coated Ashley's skin, picked up a bucket, and slowly poured it over his head. The cold water slapped his chest. Goosebumps ran down his arms. He scrubbed his body from head to toe.

Then, he used the last bucket to rinse off.

The towel was rough from hanging outside to dry. He stood in the dark with his hands on the rim of the tub, breath still short, and the flat, useless clarity of after settled over him.

A bucket of cold water wouldn't fix this.

Chapter 8

Ashley

Ashley knelt beside the cardboard boxes and lifted off the scrap pieces of plastic covering the soil. Only when she spotted the tiny green shoots pushing through the dirt did she allow herself to smile.

She'd done it.

Sitting back on her heels, she gazed over the garden. Rows of new growth stretched across the acres, and the older plants were heavy with vegetables that hadn't been there a week ago.

"It looks like we have something to celebrate," a male voice said behind her.

She looked over her shoulder and stood at the sight of Copper. "Everything is growing well."

"Indeed." He glanced at her. "Thanks to you."

Copper waved Levi over. "Go get the pot from the restaurant and build a fire. Let's put the extra corn on to cook and celebrate."

Levi tilted his head. "Celebrate?"

"Yes, it's what one does when good things are happening." Copper pointed across the way. "Take Rex with you to get the wood. He can take the boards out of the old feed store. I'll tell the others to come to the back alley behind the restaurant."