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"Are we playing?" she whispered

"What did I tell you about playing?"

She wracked her brain Hard to do with his big, hard body up against hers And he was hard

Everywhere

And suddenly he wasn’t the only one…wet She opened her , she had no idea what, but he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and trailed a fingertip down her cheek Before she could finish processing that, he leaned down and kissed her And not a war, wet, heated kiss that involved a lot of tongue and involuntary hard breathing on both their parts When he broke the kiss and stepped back, she nearly slid to the ground "What was that?"

"Not a da her face "You er, Holly"

She nodded, locked her knees, walked around to the passenger’s side, and got into the Ranger

He slid behind the wheel He waited for her to get her seat belt on, and then drove in silence at a higher speed than she’dtheood at control Real good

And yet, she seeht made her feel better, but it did

At the base of Kaniksu, they got out of the Ranger

"We’re walking fro down at the trail There was a fine dusting of snow across it but nothing obvious that she could see But his attention was definitely caught by so

Adah here, but that doesn’t ot back into the ATV The road was covered in a few inches of light, dusty snoith thick ice beneath fro treacherously slippery A quarter of a mile before the caves, they had to park and walk in Halfway there, Holly felt daht boot "Crap"

Ada"

"Your feet are wet?"

"Just one But I’"

With a shake of his head, he dropped his pack, pushed her down on a snow-covered rock, and squatted before her "Take it off"

At those three words, uttered low and de directly to them She pulled off her boot and he handed her a dry sock While she wrestled that on, he pulled out a roll of soic fix-all"

And indeed, he wrapped it around the loose seaood as new

In the otten on so, co the them was…She shook her head and rubbed her chest, where there was an odd ache Nerves, certainly But a sorrow, too She’d have never gotten this far without Ada with hiht

She didn’t want to fall for hiain, but how could she not?

He’d co to do this, simply because she’d asked He’d shared his food, his equipment…his body She s along at a pace that she kneas for her benefit, not his He had his pack on his shoulders, which was lasses on, every lory

And he had no idea that she alking behind hiuy who’d once destroyed her But…

He’d changed Grown up fro that had come up, he’d handled, fixed, or resolved with quick, easy efficiency

It was shockingly appealing Lost in her thoughts, she was startled when he stopped so suddenly she plowed into hi up, she realized they’d co her head back, she took in the towering, building-sized rocks that had drifted down in the last ice age, for still, staring at them as well Holly dropped her pack and searched it for her flashlight When she had it in hand, she turned to Adam with a hopeful sone from his face and his entire body radiated tension "Adan fro to ohen they found a dead body, and fear seized her "Oh God"

"No," he said "It’s not that"

She looked at him, startled by his distant tone It was very unlike him to not reach out and reassure her, but he was definitely not reaching out If anything, he was completely blank-faced, and as mentally withdrawn from her as was possible "What is it?" she whispered

He shook his head as if tossing off a bad ht Expressionless, he started inside "Stay close," was all he said

Fucking caves, Ada caves His gut clenched tight, and ooden feet he stepped to the ancient, three-story-tall rock formations and nearly suffocated--not from lack of air, there was plenty of air--but from the memories Memories of another set of caves, on another continent, in another ti booht

Screams…

Jesus He took a deep breath and forced his feet to take another step

"Ada the concern in Holly’s voice, as well as the hand she set on his arm, he moved forward Because that’s what he’d learned to do

Move forward