Page 2 of After the Fade, Vol. 1 (Asheverse: B-Side)

The Porsche on the gravel drive was a bad sign. I could feel it. It was Emmett Bradley’s Porsche, so of course it was a bad sign.

Emmett Bradley. Molten sex. Runway good looks. Asshole (personality) the size of Uranus. Emmett hadn’t talked to me since the hospital. Emmett hadn’t talked to me, for all that it mattered, since he had put a knife into Makayla Price.

And now he was here, a hundred yards downhill, so close I could practically touch him.

“I thought this was the middle of nowhere.”

“I didn’t know he was going to be here, Vie.” Austin had slowed, and Jimpson nudged his shoulder with his nose.

“The way we got here, through the canyon, I thought we were on our own. Wilderness.” I chewed the thought for a minute, but all I could come up with was, “Middle of nowhere.”

“I never said it was the middle of nowhere. In fact, I specifically didn’t take us to the middle of nowhere. That’s Colton’s cabin. His parents’ cabin, I guess. And I figured it would be better to be near a road in case anything happened. We just came through the canyon because it’s scenic.”

“We could have driven here. That’s what you’re telling me. We could have driven here, and we could have brought suitcases, and we could have slept on cots—”

“No, they’ve got beds. Not cots.”

“That’s what you’re telling me?”

“I didn’t know. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come here.” A frown tightened Austin’s face. “Colton probably did it on purpose just to be an asshole.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, we should go—”

“It’s fine. The horse trying to throw me off a cliff and break my neck. The tent that’s going to fall down on us in the middle of the night. The sleeping bags. The insulating pads. It’s great. It’s going to be great.”

Austin stopped; Sugar and Jimpson stopped too. “This was supposed to be fun. Let’s go back. We’ll get a Redbox. Watch it on my laptop. Or just Netflix, maybe.”

I worked my fingers inside my gloves. I took a few deep breaths. At least I had enough brains to know when I was being an asshole. “No. Sorry. I just—I didn’t expect it. This is going to be great.”

“I really don’t think—”

“You brought lube, right?” I hooked my fingers in his belt and dragged him an inch toward me. “Right?”

“I mean, I packed—”

“So it’s going to be great. We’re here. I’m with you. It’s going to be great. One asshole isn’t going to ruin this.”

“Vie—”

“He’s an asshole. He just happens to be here. We won’t talk to him; we won’t even have to see him, right?”

Austin nodded slowly. His eyes mirrored the sky, drawing out the turquoise.

“Then let’s have a great time.”

So we got the horses settled in the stable, and then Austin led me deeper into the woods, away from the river and the cabin, following a well-worn trail between the lodgepoles. He held my hand. I liked how our gloves rustled, how I could still feel the bones of his hand through the padding.

“I thought we were going fishing.”

“We will.”

“I thought that was the whole point: you love fly fishing, and I’m wearing that vest Sara gave me, and some of the hooks keep poking me in the chest, and . . . what?”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Are the hooks poking you in your little chest?”

I spanked him. Once. Hard.

“Well don’t be such a pussy,” he said, laughing.

Then, breaking free of my grip, he darted forward. To my surprise, he began shedding clothing as he went: his coat first, and then his shirt. He was hopping as he took a curve ahead, already pulling off one boot.

“My boyfriend has gone insane,” I said.

Somewhere in the trees off to my right, a stick snapped. I shot a gaze in that direction. For a moment, nothing. Then leaves rustled, and a fat hare shot between a tangle of aspens.

Ok, I thought, but my heart was pounding, and the sweat on the back of my neck had nothing to do with seeing Austin hopping as he stripped off his clothes. Ok.

When I got around the bend, my boyfriend was swimming. Naked. Steam came up off the pool, curling over the rocky ledge where Austin had piled his clothes. The air held the faintest hint of sulfur and something else, a mineral smell that was strangely pleasant.

“Come on in.”

“This is the surprise?”

“The water’s warm.”

“Yeah.”

His arms wove back and forth across the water. His legs churned slowly, easily. “You’ve got to take off your coat first. Then your shirt. That’s how it works.”

He was right. That’s how it works.

The water was warm. Austin was warm. And slippery. His legs between my legs. His hands on my chest. His mouth on my neck, on my jaw, on my lips.

“This way,” he said, tugging on a part of me that was pointing like an arrow. He grinned, and the grin got boyish, teeth pinching his lower lip.

One more tug, and he paddled around a rocky outcropping. I paddled after him. The cliff walls were sheer here. A lacework of water dripped down one, filtered through moss the color of rust. Nobody could see us here. Nobody could watch us.

“I wanted to show you something,” he said with that kiddo grin again, the one with his lip tucked up.

His hand plunged under the water.

He showed me something.

When I finished, my single, explosive grunt ricocheted up the chimney of rock, and I flopped forward, head on his shoulder as his legs continued to tread softly under us, his fingers counting knobs on my spine. I ran my hand down his belly to return the favor, and he laughed and caught my wrist.

“Just relax.”

So we drifted like that, the steam plastering Austin’s short, preppy boy hair to his forehead, the water spreading mine into fanblades across the mineral-blue surface.

“Good surprise?”

I mumbled into his shoulder.

He laughed again, and then he kicked, carrying us out of the little pocket of heat and sex and back toward the rock ledge. I let him be the motor. And then the motor puttered out.

“What the hell?” Austin’s legs faltered; we bobbed down before he remembered and kicked us up again.

I glanced over at the rocky shelf to see what had caught him by surprise. Emmett, a part of my mind warned me. And a glimmer of satisfaction ignited inside me. Good. Let him see us like this, draped together, sweat and water painting our naked bodies with light. I turned around, a smug grin on my face.

“What the fuck?”

Our clothes were gone.