Secrets of Desire

8.

She has almost reached their safe house. Her crossbow as her companion over her shoulder, two rabbits in her right hand and the memory of Bass' mouth on the sensitive skin of her neck walk with her through the forest. The scent of his leather jacket so close.

Charlie can still taste him. She can still see his eyes, right there in front of her. Filled with need and something more gentle when he had brushed some hair out of her face. She can still feel that moment swirling inside of her, the both of them hidden under wet leaves and autumn hanging over and lingering through the forest, and everything unsaid between them finally finding the both of them there.

She can still hear his voice close to her left ear right before he had walked back to the house when he had turned towards her, telling her she'd better not forget to bring home some dinner. With a grin on her face she remembers the how she had poked him between his ribs and how he had yanked her closer to pull her mouth to his for one more kiss that already contained need for more.

She walks into the house after she took care of the two rabbits she caught in the forest. When she shuts the rain out by closing the kitchen door, Miles is just shoving his bag onto the kitchen table.

There is a letter on the tabletop. Their plan was to leave in two days, to join the Rangers and help them out with a couple of smaller battles that have been happening near the north west border, but one look at Miles and Charlie knows there has been a change of plans.

'What's wrong?' Charlie asks with a serious tone in her words.

She quickly shares a look with Bass who is leaning against the side of the couch in the living room. She reaches for a towel on the kitchen counter to move the forest rain out of her face and hair. She ignores his eyes that are following the movements of her hands.

Miles looks away from her, a serious and almost painful look appearing in his eyes. One look and Charlie knows.

'This is about mom,' It's not a question.

'One of Blanchard's men just delivered this.' Miles nods to the letter on the table, 'Gene wrote the damn thing.'

Bass feels the heavy pressure of Miles' words and sees them in the way Charlie's shoulders tense. His mouth is pressed together in a thin line and his heart aches for her.

Charlie lets a deep breath escape from her lunges. She knows her mother will never be who she was. Her part in causing a worldwide blackout started that change that no one and nothing could stop. She has good weeks, and she has dark weeks.

Even when she is not with her mother right now, she knows exactly what her mother is going through and she is not sure she can give another part of herself to her mother, although another part inside of her tells her she can't look away. She silences that first part.

'All right...I am going to grab my stuff.' There is a flat tone in her words when Charlie speaks that makes Bass swallow tension away.

'No, you are not.' Miles' words are spoken in a firm way.

'Excuse me?' Charlie turns towards Miles.

' You are staying here, the both of you are still needed at the border. I will go back to Willoughby and deal with everything there.' He takes a step towards her. He looks away from her as he wants to say so much more, but old guilt keeps him locked in one place. Slowly, he turns his head, searching for her eyes. He can see her struggle in her eyes. He can breathe again when she nods. Telling him to go, telling him she understands.

Charlie is torn, but there is a part of that can breathe more easily now Miles is going back to deal with something she can't deal right now. Before she can say something Miles pulls her close to his chest, his hand now wrapped around her head. She listens to his heartbeat as she takes in the familiar scent of his shirt.

Later that afternoon Miles walks of the steps of porch. His pack over his shoulder, his two swords close to his hips. He turns to Charlie and Bass. Charlie can feel Bass right behind her.

'You morons will be all right?' Miles asks, when he looks at Bass and Charlie.

Charlie nods. 'Take care of her Miles.' Charlie's voice is soft strength when she says goodbye to Miles. There is warmth in Miles eyes, telling her he will. Charlie feels how Bass steps a bit closer to her behind her on the small porch when Miles is about to walk to his horse.

She does not see the small nod Bass gives to Miles, and the promise in it, when Bass locks eyes with his brother.

It's three days later and she and Bass find a routine that feels familiar. Somehow it has always been like this from the moment she woke up from her drug haze a couple of miles outside Pottsboro. But somehow, the both of them in this house, alone, makes more room for the both of them.

She leans against the kitchen counter as she takes a sip of water. It's dark in the kitchen and the living room, the house is quiet. The bottle that kept Miles company a couple of nights ago, is still on the table near the couch in the living room. Her crossbow is leaning against a kitchen chair, the same chair he has thrown his leather jacket over. Still sipping from the water, she walks back to her room.

When she sees that one book on her nightstand, the one she found a couple of weeks ago on a gloomy grey afternoon, she grins. She grabs it and walks back to the hallway.

Bass knows he is in some fucking serious trouble when she walks into his bedroom like she owns the damn room. But with Charlie, it is always the good kind of trouble these days, so there is a slow lazy grin forming on his face when he watches her closing the door behind her.

Charlie turns from the door towards him. She finds Bass on his bed. He is reading a book, and he has moved one of his long legs so he can rest that book against his knee. There is small fire in the fireplace. It is getting colder and the days are getting shorter. Autumn is moving into cold days and is slowly changing into another season.

'You could not stay away, huh?' Bass smirks. There is a combination of pride and strong ego in his voice that radiates from his eyes as well. His chest is swelling with the easy banter between the both of them that feels very intimate. It feels like something he has not felt in a fucking forever.

Charlie lets out an incredulous huff of air but the she can't stop the smile that is threatening to break free. She is slowly learning to look behind that smug mask of his. She crosses her arms before her chest as a last resort to try and keep him out. Then she changes her mind.

She feels Bass' eyes on her with every step she takes towards his bed. There is depth in his eyes, steel and power, control and ego. But also want, and everything he kept hidden from her. Until now.

They are not able to ignore the desire, the passion, the want and heavy pull between them that is with them in this room while the rain beats against the glass of the window and the wind howls around the house. Not anymore.

After the fucking, the surrender in her moans and his grunts when he showed her how much he wanted her when it was them in the forest, now out there in the dark, something shifted. Bass can sense it, as a slow burn in the room with them. He can sense it in her. In her eyes, in the way she looks at him, in the way she lets him in.

Her bare feet move over the wooden floor as she walks over to his bed. She feels a grin forming on her face as she sees the surprised amusing broodiness in his eyes when she moves into his bed without hesitation. The mattress is soft when it meets her legs. She can take in his scent, and hers, wrapped in his sheets. She curls up under his blankets.

'Who says you are invited?' Bass grunts, following her with his eyes when she is making herself comfortable in his damn bed.

'Who says it is up to you?' Charlie locks eyes with him. She has to bite back a smirk when she notices how bad he is in trying to keep the amusement out of that low grunt.

She ignores him and keeps on doing what she was doing. Which is starting to make herself comfortable. She looks up and meets his eyes in a challenging tone of blue.

Bass grins like she has never seen him grin before. She feels how he shifts his weight in the bed when he turns towards her. It is the first time she sees that full grin of him, that moves to his eyes as it plays with the blue hidden in there. An open inviting kind of blue, once he kept hidden as a secret between all the layers of the man he became to her over the past years.

But now she knows. Now she knows it is there. He has been trying to make sure she does not unravel this part of him, but she has found it. She has tried to keep him out, in every way she could think of, but he had still managed to find parts of her she kept away and hidden from him.

'So, what you're reading?' Bass nods to the familiar book with the deep red cover that is now resting in her lap. His voice sounds like a grunt but she can hear the warmth in his voice like the slow flames in the fireplace on the other side of the room. The sound of the fire joins the sound of the rain on the rooftop and the wind beating against the walls of the house outside.

She could snarl something back. She is Charlie Matheson. She can think of at least ten things she could throw in his face.

But instead she opens the book with a slow smile around her full lips, and shows her what made her heart beat a bit faster when her eyes had found the stimulating image a couple of days ago when the light of the candle on her bed stand had kept her company and the book and her mind had brought her to new sensual places.

Bass shifts again as he makes more room for her. His arm slowly moves behind her. He feels how his cock is responding, not only to the image in that damn book but also because of her warmth radiating towards his thighs.

He presses her against his side. He swallows when he feels she does not protest.

Charlie looks at Bass. She can see his eyes light up when his eyes roam over the page. His hand moves under her shirt as he strokes and claims her lower back. Her eyes fall over the lines of his jaw and stop at the hairs of his moustache. Then she meets his eyes, softly biting her bottom lip.

He slowly closes his book. His arm is still around her shoulder. His mouth is hot against her ear, his words are smug.

'We can do so much better than that...' His voice is low and gruff as he teases her.

'You think?' Charlie teases back, feeling the warmth and hard strength of his body towering over her as he yanks her closer and pushes her into the mattress.

He looks at her, as he feels the surge of control and needing her so fucking much that it makes his cock ache for her when she starts to softly moan in his arms. He makes sure he has her undivided attention before his low voice fills the room as her fingers lazily move through his moustache and scruff.

'You have no idea Charlie...'

He pulls her close as his mouth claims her. He yanks the book out of her hand before he throws it behind the both of them on the bed. He wants her to forget about that the book and feel and see him, and only him. Charlie pushes her belly against his hardness, out of breath with his mouth on hers and the promise in his words.

When she moans his name he feels a fast grin breaking through his kiss. He kisses her deeply and his tongue explores her warm inviting mouth as he gets lost in her deep moans that tell him she wants him and only him. Charlie feels the eagerness in his tall body wrapped around hers and finds burning need and more gentle blue in his eyes, for her, when she pulls him closer.

Slow drops of rain move over the glass of the window. It is raining outside and now autumn is slowly moving into winter, it is the both of them alone in a safe house in the woods as a book about secrets and desire lays quietly next to the both of them, wrapped between the blankets of Bass' bed.

The End

Author's Note I really hope you enjoyed the final chapter of this story. I started this chapter a couple of weeks ago and I am so happy to finally publish it as the conclusion for this story. Thank you for all your support and reviews and follows. They mean so much to me. With love and gratitude for all of you, Love from Love