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No. Good. No dog yet.

“Looks like he didn’t eat the body,” Wade says. “That’s a good thing.”

“Wonder how long he’s been there. A few months at least, right?”

“Looks like it. Guessing he goes out and hunts and then comes back and curls up by whoever that was.”

The dog’s owner thought he’d leave after she shot herself in the head. Left the door wide open so her pet could escape and have a chance, but a dog’s loyalty is unbreakable, even in the face of death. That one seems to have taken it to a whole new level.

“Kinda sad,” Kara admits, rolling her eyes at herself. “But we can’t keep it. Please, Wade.”

“I’m not trying to push you to do that.”

“It’s not practical. There’s a good reason we didn’t bring Gator. Traveling is dangerous in this world, not only for us, but for anything with us.”

“You’re right.”

“Damn it,” she whispers, catching sight of a furry little head peeking around the edge of the trailer to spy on them.

“He smells the meat.”

Kara’s eyes go wide as Wade grabs a handful of food to toss. “Have you lost your mind!”

“We’ve got enough. Don’t mean we’re taking him with us. The dog deserves a break,” he tries, gently.

Fluffy eyebrows dance above a curious little face as their voyeur calculates his chances, and she sighs in defeat. “Okay.”

She’s not completely cold-hearted. In fact, one of her worst character flaws is perhaps the fact that despite all the heartbreak that’s tried to pound some sense into her, she still wants to care for and nurture someone or something.

It’s a quality as much a part of her as all her traumas have become, and the reason she’s so persistent about not helping this dog.

The first one had been a part of Wade’s recovery, showing up at the right time to give him something innocent to find comfort with.

This one is different. Kara can’t handle another loss at all . Of any sort. She has reached her trauma limit.

Can’t lose Wade.

Can’t make friends with other survivors and risk losing them, too.

Can’t adopt this dog and lose it later.

Her heart is so much more fragile than she’d ever let on. Thought she was healing and maybe she is, but all it takes is the vague possibility of more tragedy and her pulse flutters in warning of an oncoming panic attack.

This dog hates them anyway. Odds are that won’t change overnight. She’s upset over nothing.

“Hey, hey. We can forget the dog. He’s fine, he survived this long.”

Wade’s already tossed a piece of meat toward the animal who’s laser-focused on it, trying to figure out how to grab the food without getting too close. He scoots in beside her to wrap an arm around her shoulders, rubbing carefully as if she might shatter.

“I’m okay. I’m being silly.” It’s just a dog they can’t even get close to. What kind of crazy person is she that she’s jumped so far ahead to an outcome that may never happen? “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing’s wrong with you.”

“I think we both know that’s not true,” she admits. “You must think I’m an awful dog hater now.”

“No. I think you’re afraid of getting hurt, and you’ve got every right to feel that way. I get it.”

Of course, he knows. She doesn’t have to tell him that’s she’s too emotionally fucked to handle becoming attached to an animal again because he’s seen all her ups and downs and knows the whole of her story better than anyone.

“I’m afraid of the same thing you are,” he continues, resting his cheek against the top of her head. “Losing anything else. Losing you. I thought that if we ever found each other again, that fear would disappear, but in some ways it’s gotten worse. ”

“How do we keep going with that hanging over us?”

“We just do,” he says, simply.

“Ask me a sex question?” she sniffles, feeling his chuckle of amusement. “We still haven’t reached twenty yet.”

She needs something else to think about, but also knows what else she needs. A little warming up is never a bad idea. She can’t jump him now while they’re both stuck in a sad haze, so she tries to shift the tone even if it has to be done abruptly.

“Have you ever thought of me when you were…you know?”

She trails one hand down between her legs, giving herself a firm stroke over her pants. “When I was doing this?”

“Fuck. Yeah.”

“Yes. Often.”

He goes quiet for a moment, his admission soft and slightly embarrassed.

“I used to think about you in the cell on the worst nights. I’d imagine you there with me, over me, under me, around me.

You’d take all the pain away until all I could feel was you.

Then after, I’d feel some kinda way about it.

Like I was betraying you by imagining that. ”

This isn’t the mood she was hoping for when she prompted these questions, but she can’t deny him the chance to unburden himself, even if his confession is full of misplaced guilt.

She cups his face with a gentle palm, feathering her thumb across the stubble on his cheek. “If I were with you back then for real, I would have given you that any time you needed me. Don’t ever feel like wanting me is wrong. I’ve wanted you for just as long and just as badly.”

She has him now. She’s pushed up against him so close there’s not an inch of space between them.

There’s nothing stopping her from getting even closer.

It’s not in her nature to cling or smother, yet that is all she wants to do when she’s with Wade.

Every moment they aren’t touching, she burns for the relief of his skin on hers.

The dog decides now is a good time to dart in fast and grab the meat while they’re distracted before running for the back door of the trailer again.

They watch silently, frozen in place with his cock starting to tent his pants, waiting to see if they’ll have another visitor, but the first sighting is the last.

They put out the fire and rush into the tiny camper so quickly she nearly trips, laughing when he catches her. He loses his balance too after knocking his head on the roof. Then they’re both tumbling onto the mattress in a cluster of limbs.

“You okay?” she smiles, rubbing the back of his head while he unbuttons his shirt.

He makes a pitiful noise that’s clearly a teasing ploy for sympathy even as his hands move to her pants, proving he’s just fine.

She plays along. “Can I do anything to help?”

“There is one thing that’ll make it better.”

Her answer is swallowed in a kiss that sweeps into her mouth with a slow tongue and leaves her on the verge of begging for more.

Kara doesn’t want foreplay this time when she’s hot to the touch already and the only fix is him.

They shed their clothes in record time and she swallows hard at the sight of him, her inner walls clenching already at knowing she’ll feel every inch soon.

She craves something new tonight. He follows her lead easily, stretching out beside her so she can pull his arm around her waist, push her back to his chest, and hike a leg over his hip, opening herself for what comes next.

He takes no coaxing before slipping inside her so completely that a whimper escapes her throat at the satisfaction of finally being full again.

His stamina has gotten better. They aren’t in any rush, so she relaxes into the rhythm of long, draining strokes.

Her eyes flutter closed as a shiver runs up her spine when he kisses the back of her neck.

She wants him like this every day, often more than once. Her desire scares her for how all-consuming it’s become.

The muffled gasp of her name he sears into her shoulder sounds like a promise and a revelation all in one. It helps her believe that he is nearly as consumed by their flame as she is.

The first time is blissfully slow. They linger together for what feels like forever before curling up to rest, sweat-slicked and drowsy.

His body wraps around her back, his softening cock tucked between her thighs to rest against the outside of her where she’s messy and wet from their efforts.

It’s the best way she’s ever fallen asleep.

The second time is fast, only lit by the barest thread of moonlight after they’ve woken with hours left before sunrise.

She rolls onto her back and he fits himself where he belongs again without a word, eliciting a hiss at the friction as they join because she’s already sore, but she’s never felt anything better than him pushing into her so quickly that she shunts a few inches up the bed.

They haven’t felt frantic like this since they began.

Everything until now has been slow and sensual, almost comforting in the way they move together.

Maybe he had a dream or a nightmare, she isn’t sure.

There is a glint of that feral fire in his eyes when he thrusts into her this time.

A desperation to prove that she’s real, which she hasn’t seen since they left the community back east.

“Take what you need,” she gasps into his neck. “Please, I need it, too.”

She didn’t realize just how badly she craved him in this way until his hips snap against hers hard enough, and with enough momentum, to rock the trailer.

One hand braces behind her to keep her head from shunting into the wall, the other scraping along his side with blunt nails, her eyes wide with shock at the pleasure ripping through her.

His teeth nip at her neck and she turns her head to bare her pulse for him, feeling his tongue lap at her skin before he moves down to bite at the juncture of her shoulder.

Not hard enough to break the skin, only hard enough that she feels it, just like she feels the way he lifts one leg to bend at the knee, pushing her open further so he can thrust deeper.

There’s a rumble in his throat that sounds like he’s claiming her when it growls against her skin, and her lashes flutter shut, her body surrendering to him.

Her orgasm hits her hard enough that she comes off the bed in an arc, her chest pushing up against his, her muscles fluttering and squeezing in rippling spasms. He never stops moving, only holds her in place as she trembles, prolonging her pleasure while she clenches around him.

She’s never been as vulnerable with anyone as she is with Wade, and there is something about having her heart on display in such an obvious way, knowing he’ll take care of it, that has tears prickling her eyes as she begins to relax again.

When he comes, he pushes in so deeply that she tenses, a whimper escaping her as their hips press firmly together, his cock jerking again and again while he fills her.

Her name is seared into the space between her neck and the pillow, his voice ragged and breathless, even as his orgasm refuses to let him go.

“I love you so much,” he breathes. “Tell me you’re real. Please, I need to hear it.”

Her heart breaks a little all over again for what he’s had to endure before they found each other. It has been easier lately to assume he’s so much further along in his recovery than he actually is. It’ll take time, she tells herself. Hopefully, they’ll have plenty of that now.

“I’m real.” She wraps her legs around his hips. “Look at me.”

Carefully, he lifts his head, meeting her eyes.

“We are real. I’ll tell you every day. Every night. Every time we’re together like this.”

Wade rests his forehead against hers, their breaths mingling for a long moment before his body uncoils and relaxes, and he gently pulls out of her.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He lifts an arm for her to curl under, and she takes the invitation to lay her head over his heart.

“No. I was coming way too hard to feel anything else.”

His soft touch rubs up her spine and back down again, and Kara falls asleep to the steady thud of his heartbeat below her ear while endorphins tingle muted across her nerves.

* * *

It’s well into the morning when they emerge bleary-eyed, wishing for coffee and a shower but having neither.

What they do have, however, is a small brown dog just below the steps of their camper.

It’s not angry anymore, even wags a matted tail and does a happy little spin as if they’re all friends now. Kara frowns, cursing under her breath as they make their way to the fire pit to cook breakfast.

She can’t pet this dog. Isn’t going to try and stop Wade, though, who’s already kneeling down to rub an offered belly.

“Betcha haven’t seen real people in a long time, have you, buddy?” Wade coos. “Hey, it’s a girl, and look at her collar.”

Reluctantly, Kara moves closer to inspect the pink collar they hadn’t noticed before, buried in fluffy fur and covered in little white flowers and red cherries.

She swallows hard, pushing the lump in her throat down. “There’s no tag. We don’t know her name.”

“Well, we ain’t naming her.”

He gets up, heading for the fire with a dog hot on his heels, trying to respect her desire not to keep this animal, but she only feels worse now that it’s taken a shine to them.

They make a quick breakfast and share some with their guest before watching her play with a stick a few feet away, entertaining herself as she’s probably grown accustomed to without any company.

Once they leave, she’ll be alone again for who knows how long, relegated to a life of solitude with nothing but a dead body for companionship. The longer Kara watches this dog, the more she begins to hate the idea of that.

Any soul this loyal deserves a softer place to land.

“I don’t know how we’ll travel with her on the bike,” Kara finally says, watching Wade’s face light up.

“We could fashion a sling or something. Maybe put her in a backpack and see if she’ll stay still. She’s small enough. No bigger than a little watermelon.”

“Just…promise me we aren’t saying this is forever. Only until we find someone else who wants a dog. Life on the road like this isn’t good for pets.”

It’s all false objections, but he lets her get away with it. “Deal. What are we gonna call her?”

“Cherry?”

“Cherry! Come here, girl. Come on,” Wade pats his leg and the damn dog runs right over like it’s been her name her whole life, dropping a stick at Kara’s feet and nudging it with her nose.

“This is only temporary. Don’t get used to this,” she says to Cherry, before throwing a stick for the dog they are most definitely not keeping.

She doesn’t agree only because it’s obviously the right thing to do, but because of how happy it makes Wade. He is always making her smile, and she has every intention of trying to do the same for him.