I didn’t ever want to stop. I wanted this to go on and on and on. But my body had other ideas, blood pumping furiously, muscles tightening. Emily’s sweet little gasps of pleasure were only driving me higher, her head moving back and forth on the pillow. “I…oh—” The pads of her fingers ran up my ass and then she bucked once, letting out a small scream as she came. Her display of pleasure sent me over the edge, and I groaned out my orgasm, gasping her name, the bliss sparkling through me and leaving me feeling loose-limbed and woozy.

The surroundings materialized slowly, the unfamiliar room wavering in the candlelight. Outside the wind blew and somewhere far away an owl hooted. The past was gone, the future was burning, but we had this, the here and the now, nestled in a desert hideaway.

“I can’t feel my feet,” I muttered after a moment into the side of her neck.

She laughed, and it caused me to slip out of her on a small flood of moisture. “That’s okay. As long as other parts of you are in working order. We can do without your feet for now.”

I chuckled and rolled to the side so I wasn’t crushing her. She pushed me slightly and I turned onto my back, and then she snuggled into my side, propping her chin on my chest.

She was quiet for a few minutes as she nuzzled my skin. “I’ve been thinking about my IUD. Who will remove it for me when the time comes?”

“Hmm. I don’t know that whole process, but there will be doctors who’ll start seeing patients as soon as possible. I’m sure some already are.” Their treatment options would be limited, and surgery would be out of the question once all remaining fuel sources had dried up. But I had no doubt that medical professionals who were at all able would help those who needed it.

She’d watched me as those fleeting thoughts moved through my mind, and she reached up and used her thumb to smooth what must be a crease between my brows. “It will work out. Let’s leave all that behind for now,” she said. “I know it will have to be dealt with…that and a lot more. But for now, Tuck, I just want this.” She tipped her face toward my skin and kissed the spot below my shoulder, feathering her lips there for a moment. “You and me.”

I wanted the same thing. I wanted that so much. Just her and me, escaping from the chaos of the world. For as long as we could. “Me too,” I said, kissing the side of her forehead and remembering what I’d found before I’d come upstairs. “I have something I’d like to show you. Or…well, give me a few minutes and then meet me downstairs?”