Chapter 6: The Longest Night

The fire had crumbled to ash and embers by the time Brittney’s body finally gave out. She slumped forward against Matt’s chest mid-thrust, her small frame going slack, her breath evening into the deep rhythm of unconsciousness. Jeff pulled out first, then Matt, both of them easing her down onto the blanket with a care that bordered on tenderness.

“She’s done,” Jeff said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “She’s had enough.”

Matt gathered her up—she weighed almost nothing, a hundred pounds of limp warmth—and carried her toward the tent. The zipper rasped open, then closed. When he emerged a minute later, he’d pulled on his jeans and was rolling his shoulders like a fighter between rounds.

Becca sat cross-legged by the fire pit, entirely unbothered by her nakedness. She’d scooped a bottle of water from the cooler and was drinking it in long, deliberate swallows, her throat working, the firelight catching the sheen of sweat and other fluids still drying on her collarbone.

“She okay?” Becca asked.

“She’s out,” Matt said. “Cold.”

Jeff found his own water, cracked the cap, and drank half of it in one go. The night air had turned sharp and cold, the kind of cold that settles into the granite and radiates back at you. He wiped his mouth and looked at Becca.

She was watching him with those green eyes—steady, appraising, not the wild thing from earlier but something quieter and more patient. The firelight moved across her copper hair. Her nipples had drawn tight in the chill, and she made no move to cover them.

“So,” Becca said. “Just us.”

Jeff glanced at Matt. Matt was already looking at him, one eyebrow lifted, the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

“She’s got more in her,” Matt said. “I’ve seen it.”

“I’ve got all night,” Becca said. She rose to her feet in one fluid motion, stretched her arms overhead, and let her spine pop. “Brittney tapped out. That’s fine. She’s new.” She picked up the bottle of lube from where Jeff had left it in the dirt and tossed it from hand to hand. “But I’m not new. And I’ve been waiting years to find out what you can do, Jeff.”