Folk.
Viktor, maybe, if I’d read him right and he wasn’t out terrorising Doherty.
A grin broke free.
Cam grinned back. “What are you laughing at?”
“Doherty.”
“Right? Couldn’t make it up. But you didn’t answer my question. You wanna go or stay here?”
Getting on my hog was the last thing I wanted to do. But I craved alone time with Cam like a smack fiend jonesing for a fix, and I’d have ridden to the ends of the earth to get it.
I nodded, pointing at the bikes lined up in the yard.
Let’s go.
* * *
The campsite where I kept my van was closed for the winter. Eerily deserted, it was perfect for my mood, and I’d stopped wondering a long time ago how Cam and Alexei had learned to read me so well.
After swinging by Juana’s place to check on my favourite feline vandal, I rolled off my hog and stood in the dark, listening, reaching out for anything that shouldn’t be here.
I heard nothing but foxes and the wind.
Cam’s boots as he came up behind me and kissed my neck. “I missed you.”
I’d missed him too. More than I’d expected. Which was a hell of a lot. Being apart had grown harder over the past few years. Since Alexei. It was hard to fucking fathom that I’d once lived this life without knowing how it felt when Cam touched me like this.
Like he’d die if he didn’t.
I turned and kissed him, letting his energy seep into me. Cam was intensely sexual. I wasn’t, not always. But recently, it hadn’t seemed to matter how often I connected with him and Alexei that way, it didn’t feel enough. I wantedmore.
Though I wasn’t above making Cam work for it. I liked stumbling to the van, his big hands roaming everywhere he could reach. His dark gaze finding mine every few seconds, checking in with my mood. As if I’d ever let something happen I didn’t want with every fibre of my fucking being.
My back hit the van door. Cam braced his hands either side of my head. “I get crazy with how much I want you, but lighting a fire and going to sleep is just as goddamn perfect.”
For me too. But despite exhaustion weighing me down, part of me wasn’t tired at all... and there was more than one way to light a fucking fire.
I unlocked the van and slid the door open. The inside smelled of cut wood and the same smoke that clung to Cam’s skin. We hadn’t been here in a while—not inside, anyway. And not since I’d junked the old wooden sideboard and not got round to building another one.
The empty space left more room for two fully grown men to manoeuvre. I kicked off my boots and dumped my jacket on top of them. Cam swiped Alexei’s vodka bottle and took a healthy swig.
He knew I didn’t want it, even if the taste reminded me of what we were missing. He found a bottle of water in cupboards that had once held bags of weed. Held it out to me. Tracked me as I tipped some down my throat.
I set the bottle down and moved to the log burner, grateful past me had thought to sweep it out and stack logs inside.
With the fire set, the van began to heat up. Still drinking vodka, Cam leaned against the built-in bed in jeans and a plain tee so old it was obvious Alexei had been gone as long as I had. Alexei didn’t like old clothes. Something about them triggered him. He liked sex, though. And he liked me telling him what I did to Cam when he wasn’t around.
Somewhere in the pile of jackets and boots on the floor, my phone buzzed with a tone that wasn’t Alexei, but with brothers on the road and Orla so pregnant, I couldn’t ignore it.
I crouched, digging it out. A message from Rubi lit up the screen.
Rubi:That diabolical herbert just yeeted my Steely Dan album. How dare you leave me
I sighed. I’d paired Rubi with Ranger for a reason, but I’d regretted it about six minutes into the run when I’d discovered the ancient CB radio speakers Rubi had installed in the cab of each rig. To sing me to death, probably, but he’d mainly used it to complain about bullshit I was apparently still not free of.
Saint:i’ll buy u a new one