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The quiet hum of tires on asphalt hung beneath the melody of the music, while tree after tree after tree sped past them along the side of the road. The deputy leaned back in the seat and stole a moment to take it all in. Tayen’s gaze shifted to her left. Her dark eyes moving from his calloused hands on the steering wheel to the fiery tattoo on his forearm. On his neck, she could see a little peek of a purplish blemish, for which she was to blame. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed and glanced her direction, noticing her attention.
“What?” he asked, shooting her that rather boyish grin.
“Nothing.” Her voice came on a quiet exhale as she smiled back.
“You look pretty serious for nothin’.”
Tayen let her soft grin curl into a devious smirk as she shifted closer. “Just thinking about you,” she purred, letting her fingertips trace the licking flames inked into his skin.
“Really, now, Dep?” he replied, resting his elbow on the center console between them. His eyes shifted quickly between her and the road.
She nodded at him, waiting for him to see it before she stopped.
His curiosity won out. “Anything in particular.” The curve of the road here was gentle.
“You know.” She shrugged up one shoulder, the one most likely for him to notice even with his eyes mainly on the road. “The usual.”
Sharky’s grin seemed unshakable, his bright eyes flickering from the road to her and back repeatedly. “Like?” he asked the next time his gaze met hers
She licked her lips, slowly. Then she leaned onto the center console and she inched closer to him. Her lips brushed against the shell of his ear. “Sharky, my thoughts about you are always inappropriate.”
Something about that admission totally gob smacked him. He turned his head and kissed her full on the lips. Her hand went to his neck. His pulse pounded under her fingers. She, too, was all in, momentarily letting thoughts about the road and the drive fade away. When the smooth hum of asphalt gave way to the rumble of gravel, her hand fisted in his sweatshirt. Both of them gasped for breath and in shock as the small SUV slid completely off the pavement. Needless to say, their kiss had broken. Sharky stood on the break, fighting the rear end of the vehicle that started to fishtail in the small rocks. Tayen couldn’t do anything but hold on—one hand clung to the back of his seat as the other went to the roof as she tried to lock her body into a solid position Then she tensed just about every muscle in her body, or at least that’s what it felt like in the moment.
Once they slid to a halt, the deputy shot a breathless look over at her lover. Sharky’s white knuckles kept their death grip on the steering wheel; slowly, he met her gaze, wearing a somewhat sheepish grin. It widened quickly with the realization that they were both alive and well.
“So.” His hands loosened and moved along the steering wheel as he raised his eyebrows at her, wearing a more cocksure grin. “You were saying?”
Tayen’s laughter broke loose wildly. In seconds, Sharky joined her. If anyone might have driven by at that moment, seeing the two fools laughing like maniacs on the side of the road, who’s to say what they might think.
The deputy leaned over the console again, stealing herself a kiss. Her hand popped her seatbelt loose. Sharky seemed to thumb to the same page quickly as well and he knocked the vehicle out of gear and turned the engine off. When she tried to invade his seat, he grabbed the latch and dropped the seat back rather roughly.
“Fuck,” Tayen yelled in surprise as the two of them careened toward the floor. “Damn, Sharky.” She poked him in the ribs.
“Oof.”
“Warn me next time.”
“I could say the same,” he countered.
“It’s not my fault that you were sitting there are adorable and shit.”
Sharky smirked at her, letting his hands tease beneath the fabric of her shirt and up the curve of her back. “What can I say? I’m just irresistible.”
The deputy giggled at him. “It must be so hard to be you.”
“You have no idea,” he sighed. His smile, relaxed and tender, sparked her own.
“I love you,” she said. Her thumbs brushed gently at his temples.
He just stared at her for a moment, then it hit her exactly what she said. “Love you, too.” There wasn’t a shred of hesitance in his voice and she knew it was honest. His eyes stayed on hers, flitting slightly. “Incoming,” he teased, taking her face in his hands and pulling her lips back to his.
She relaxed against him, draping her arms around his shoulders and kissing him languidly. It was true, had been for longer than she wanted to think about. She just hadn’t told him about it before. Honestly, a part of her worried about revealing it. Would it be too much? The Collapse didn’t seem the best time for this kind of thing, for feelings to suddenly go from fun to real, but here they were.
Tayen shifted against him, trying to gain a shred of leverage on the kiss, to deepen it. As if she could somehow tell him all the things running through her brain in that moment if only she could kiss him hard enough. Sharky grasped onto her with just as much force. His hand on her ass pulled her against him, while the one on her cheek shifted into her hair.
This, she thought. I need more of this.