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He carried me out of the water and followed up on his promise to pitch our tent. His jeans were slung low on his hips, and he didn’t bother to put his shirt back on. Sitting on the shore watching him, I wasn’t complaining at all. It was a luxury to have the space to breathe and watch him do this without fear.

Our tent. Just one for the two of us. I was equally aware that he had said our bedroom. He considered us a unit. Together. I could never have imagined how much I’d needed that.

“It’s smaller than I imagined,” I said, looking at the tent.

Lucas grinned over his shoulder. “All part of the plan.”

“What plan?”

“The one where we have to use body heat to keep warm.”

I laughed, and Aspen came running back from where he was digging in the shallows, panting, tail wagging, equally happy. This was what I wanted from my life—effortless happiness.

Lucas spent the rest of the day distracting me, and I let him. He cooked us dinner over the fire while I played with Aspen, throwing a stick into the water and down the shore for him to run and fetch until he fell asleep, exhausted.

“Oh to be a dog,” I said, looking at him passed out near us as we finished dinner.

Lucas chuckled. “It does seem like a pretty good life.”

The fire was dying low now, and I licked the remnants of marshmallow from my fingers. Lucas had thought of everything—including bringing supplies for s’mores. “I honestly don’t think I’ve had a s’more since I was in the Girl Scouts.”

“That’s a tragedy.”

“I imagine they’re probably a big thing here in Montana.”

Lucas shrugged. “No more than anywhere else I don’t think, but since we go camping more often and have more campfires, we have more opportunities.”

“That’s fair.”

He set aside the stick he’d been using to roast his marshmallows, and the way his gaze shifted, my stomach dropped. “Come here.”

The words were gentle, less of a command than a request, and I went. He was sitting on a blanket, and I’d barely reached him when he caught me around the waist and spread us both out on it. “Remember when I said that the mountains were the best place for the stars?”

I nodded.

“We’re still not as high as we could be, but this is a pretty good place.”

With the fire so low, it was easy to see what he meant. The sky was filled with more stars than I’d ever imagined existed. It was hard to think that anyone could come here and see this and ever be content going back to a world without stars.

“What are you thinking?” Lucas leaned toward me, his lips teasing my neck.

I tilted my head so he had more skin to play with and smiled. “I’m thinking that it’s impossible to see something this beautiful and live anywhere else after.”

Lucas raised his head and looked at me. The low, flickering firelight showed me the intensity and hope in his gaze. He wanted this to be my place. I knew that.

He undressed me, but this time it wasn’t like before when he’d wanted to get me into the water. This time it was with reverence, his attention focused on every piece of me he revealed.

Lucas overwhelmed me with attention, and by the time I was naked underneath him, I was already writhing with need for him. He’d thought about this too, and he had condoms. I smirked at the box that spilled out of his bag. “A whole box? That’s a little ambitious.”

“When it comes to you, it’s not.” He didn’t look like he was remotely kidding.

I reached between us, stroking along his length. In the nights we’d shared, I’d explored him more, but I still wasn’t over the wonder of his body. It never failed to amaze me. Every time I laid eyes on him, I thought him handsome, and in the firelight was no exception.

Sharp, dark shadows played across his features, drawing them out and making the pure emotion in his gaze stand out. I started to wiggle down beneath him, so I could taste him, and he stopped me.

“I need to see you.”

“You’ll be able to see me perfectly fine,” I said with a grin.