Page 34 - In Five Years

He threads his hands under my sweatshirt and then it’s off before I even
realize, the cool air hitting my bare skin. Am I not wearing a bra? I am not
wearing a bra. He bends and takes one of my nipples into his mouth.
This is insane. I’m insane. I’ve lost my mind.

It feels so good.
The rest of the clothes come off. From somewhere—a different stratosphere

—I hear a car horn honk, a train rumble, the city carry on.
He kisses me harder. We get horizontal quickly. Everything feels incredible.
His hands tracing the curves of my stomach, his mouth on my neck. I’ve never
had a one-night stand up until this point—but this has to count, right? We met

barely an hour ago and now we’re about to have sex.
I can’t wait to tell Bella about this. She’ll love it. She’ll . . . but what if I never

make it back? What if this guy is just my fiancé now and not a stranger and I
can’t even share the details of this wild and . . .
He presses his thumb down into the crease of my hip, and all thoughts of time

and space escape through the slightly cracked window.
“Aaron,” I say.
“Yes.”

He rolls on top of me, and then my hands are finding the muscles in his back,
the crevices of his bones, like terrain—knotted and wooden and peaceful. I arch
against him, this man who is a stranger but somehow something else entirely.

His hands cup my face, they run down my neck, they wrap around my rib cage.
His mouth is urgent and seeking against mine. My fingers grip his shoulders.
Slowly, and then all at once, I forget where I am. All I’m aware of are Aaron’s

arms wrapped tightly around me.