“Not pain,” he said, curling his hand around the back of my neck and pulling me closer. I leaned down and ran my tongue over the puckered ridges of the scar. His head dropped back and a dry, choked sound escaped from the back of his throat. I kissed the same spot. I kissed it over and over and at last, I parted my lips and sucked his flesh into my mouth. Jules’s knees buckled. He went limp in my arms.

“Holy fuck,” he gasped.

“What does it feel like?”

“I feel it in my dick and my balls and my lips and my nipples.” He took a breath and steadied himself, smiling deviously. “I feel it deep in my ass. I feel it all the way up my spine. I feel it everywhere all at once.”

“Oh, man.” I chuckled. “You have no idea how much fun I’m going to have with that.”

He was about to start laughing, the sound had already taken hold, when we both cocked our heads and scented the air.

“Oh, shit! The mushrooms!” he cried. He moved the skillet away from the heat and assessed the damage. “They should be okay. Maybe a little crispier then I was planning, but still good enough to eat.”

“Where did you get mushrooms?” I was almost certain there were none in the fridge.

“I foraged for them. I got some blackberries too. Help yourself.” He indicated to a small bowl of berries on one of the seating logs.

A terrible pit formed in my stomach. Jules had left the cabin without me. He’d been in the woods on his own. My hands started to shake from the thought of it. “How far did you go?”

“I found them in that little valley just past the river.”

I gasped and clutched my chest. It was at least a mile away. He’d been over a mile away and I’d been asleep. “Jules! Why did you do that?” My voice went up an octave or two. “Why did you go on your own? Something could have happened to you.”

He looked at me in puzzled amazement. “Like what?”

I looked around. I raw rough bark, tree roots, rocks. I felt a terrible pressure at the base of my skull. “Anything could have happened to you. Anything! You could have tripped over a tree root. You could have hit your head on a rock.”

His eyes and mouth both opened wide as he blinked at me.

I doubled down on my efforts to convince him. “You, you could have…” My eyes fell to the ground. Pine needles were strewn all around. “You could have stood on a pine needle. It could have scratched you or pierced your skin.”