Page 39 of A Wilderness Within

Lincoln emerged from the bathroom. A towel hung low over his lean hips, and that taunting group of muscles forming a V on his pelvis made her thighs clench together. His chest was smooth except for that trailing patch of dark hair leading to… She jerked her focus up to his face. Her heart stuttered.

Caroline went slack-jawed as she realized she was staring at a stranger. The man who stood there, water drops clinging to his skin and looking like he’d stepped out of her darkest and most delicious fantasies, was not a man she knew.

“L–Lincoln?” She tested his name as the man stroked a hand over his clean-shaven face.

“What? You don’t like it? Did I cut myself?” He stepped back into the bathroom, checking his face in the mirror.

“You shaved. It’s just…I guess I didn’t recognize you. I’m so used to you being a mountain man.” She had started to grow fond of her sexy, intimidating mountain man.

“Given the recent news, I thought cleaning up was in order. You don’t like it?”

“No, I do, I do. I was just…surprised, is all.” Truth was, Lincoln Atwood was even sexier than she’d guessed. Beneath all that facial hair was a chiseled jaw, a strong chin, and the most sensual lips a man could have. He was perfect. Fitness-magazine-model perfect. And he had just fucked the life out of her last night.She stifled a giggle.

“Caroline?” He spoke her name cautiously, and she knew how unsettling it must be because Lincoln was normally so self-assured about everything. His confidence had always made her feel safe. Now she saw a suddenly awkward and shy side to him. That shouldn’t have turned her on, but it did.

“You’re beautiful,” she blurted out without thinking.

He chuckled. “Okay…not exactly the word I was looking for.”

“I mean I like it, the beardless look. It’s hot, but the beard was hot too. But maybe I miss my mountain man a little.” She then bit her lip, trailing her gaze down his body once more. He noticed, and his own sweeping appraisal of her set her body on fire.

“Keep looking at me like that and I’ll show you your mountain man, honey,” he growled. Self-assured Lincoln was back, and she wanted him so much. He took a step toward her, and she had only a moment to remember their mistake from last night.

“Condoms!” Caroline held up her hand, catching his attention. He snatched his backpack and pulled out a fistful of condoms, tossing them on the bed so they rained down around her. Then he ripped the towel off his hips and stalked toward her. He pulled back the blankets on the bed, exposing her naked body. She squealed as he crawled up the bed, caging her beneath him, pinning her arms on either side of her head as he stole her lips in a possessive kiss that made her blood sing.

His body commanded her sensual surrender, and she was happy to give in to his every demand. He moved down her body, his lips exploring the valley between her breasts, her hard nipples. As he laved at the sensitive peaks with his tongue, she groaned with pleasure. She felt both desperate and at peace as he made love to her.

The raw, aggressive passion from last night was gone, replaced by a slow, deliberate sweetness. He had said he was rough, but this certainly wasn’t. He was gentle as he parted her thighs, gentle as he explored her folds with his mouth, licking her until she came apart with exhausted screams. Then he moved back up her body and sheathed himself in a condom before sliding into her welcoming body.

It felt so good to feel him inside her, the connection between them burning so deep. He rode her slowly but with hard thrusts, pinning her beneath him on the bed. She dug her heels into his ass, and their gazes locked as their breath mingled.

For the first time she saw a glimpse of Lincoln without shadows, without pain. There was only hunger and something deeper, something akin to wonder. That sense of awe was growing inside her too. This thing between them had become much more than she’d imagined—it was more than just sex. Right now, they were one body, one heart, one mind, one soul. The past ceased to exist and the future was a bright star in the distance. This moment became their entire universe.

They didn’t kiss now; they simply moved together, faces fixed upon one another as they became slaves to that biological need to connect. Softer, sweeter emotions ran like quicksilver beneath her skin as a second climax, not as sharp, but richer, rolled through her. Her body quaked from the force of it. Every nerve ending seemed to come alive, and her legs fell open on the bed as a delicious fatigue overcame her. Every tensed muscle, every flash of anxiety shooting through in the last few months suddenly eased. At least for now. She felt only a quiet, soft joy, like waking to bright sunlight and hearing the chatter of birds outside one’s window after a violent thunderstorm.

Lincoln kissed her ear as he left to use the bathroom. Then he dressed and set his bag on the other bed, sorting through the weapons and supplies. Caroline wanted to stay in bed forever, but she knew they had to get moving. They needed to make it to Joplin by nightfall, find her family, and then head to the CDC in Atlanta.

The thought of a cure or a vaccine lifted her weary spirit. The population may be decimated, but a cure was still important. Fear of Hydra-1 was almost as devastating as the disease itself, and until the survivors were sure it wouldn’t return, rebuilding on any large scale would be impossible.

She slid out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, still a little shy in front of Lincoln. She was relieved to find the water was fairly warm, almost hot. She lingered in the stall, letting the droplets grow cold on her skin before she got out. Then she wrapped a towel around herself and wiped a hand across the mirror, clearing a path in the slightly fogged-up glass so she could see her reflection. She had avoided mirrors for months, almost afraid to see her face after everything that had happened. But now, now she had to see. Hope burned inside her like a raging fire that she never wanted to go out. She looked like her old self again, the woman who refused to give up.

Caroline was still smiling an hour later as she and Lincoln finished their breakfast in the empty dining hall of the hotel. Then they packed up the car with their supplies and got back on the road. She kept the radio close by so they could hear if the CDC made any more announcements. Even the sight of burned-out buildings, looted stores, and abandoned homes couldn’t penetrate the small bubble of hope that now blossomed in her chest.

Four hours later, they were almost at her home, and she fought to control her excitement.

“You’re going to love my parents. My father is a sweetheart, and my mom is fierce.” She grinned like a fool at Lincoln, but he wasn’t smiling. “What’s the matter?” she asked. He continued to drive, but he reached out and placed a hand over hers on her left knee and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I’m worried, that’s all,” he replied.

“Worried? We haven’t seen anyone on the road, and—”

“About your family. Caroline, you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that they didn’t survive.”

His words filled her mouth with an acidic taste, and she shook her head stubbornly.

“They’ll be fine. I’m immune, so they have to be too.” She’d secretly been preparing herself for the worst, but she didn’t want to act like her family was already dead. She’d cling to her hope until the last possible minute.

“We don’t know that,” Lincoln said with a sigh. “Back in December, the CDC said they weren’t sure how the antibodies form, if any do. It could be genetic, but it also could be environmental. We don’t know if something occurred within you, me and the other survivors that creates an immunity. The couple from the sporting goods store were both immune, and they had no shared blood. What does that tell you? A coincidence that two immune people got married? Possibly, but it could be something they ate, took as a medicine or had a vaccine to another virus that happened to work against Hydra-1. We don’t know. I just want to make sure you have accepted the possibility that we might find them gone.”

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