Hunter
I leave the lamp on in my room because I need to see Annie’s face when she climaxes beneath me. She’s so responsive that it’s testing my restraint. It started out as a distraction from tomorrow’s court hearing, but it’s turned into something else. She’s giving herself to me in a way that’s both utterly gratifying and completely terrifying.
‘More,’ she breathes into my mouth.
But I’m already giving her everything. She has my mind, heart, body. It’s clear she wants my soul too.
I can tell when she’s close by the way her fingers dig into my neck and her back lifts off the bed. When her eyes sink shut, I say, ‘Look at me.’
She opens her eyes and falls over the edge, and I’m right there with her. I don’t kiss her during this part—I watch. And she watches me right back. Afterwards, I stay inside her until she stops trembling, then settle her on top of me so her head is resting on my heart.
The silence that follows is necessary. We’re piecing our minds back together while allowing our bodies to recover.
When we can, Annie’s the first to speak.
‘They say baptism is a bit like being reborn. You’re fully submerged, cleansed of all your sins.’
I’m drawing circles on her back with my finger. ‘Should I be worried that you’re thinking about washing away your sins right now?’
She looks up at me. ‘That felt like a baptism of sorts.’
A lazy smile appears on my face. ‘I may have been fully submerged, but I’m fairly sure I gained a few sins just then.’
She studies my face. ‘Do you ever think about after? When this all ends?’
I think about her leaving and returning to Brisbane, but I never think about it ending. Is it even possible to sever a connection like this? ‘You’re baptised now, Wilson. There is no end.’
‘I’m serious.’
‘So am I.’
She exhales and falls silent for a while. ‘I could stay.’
‘You’re not staying. You’re going back to Brisbane where you belong.’
‘And where do you belong?’
‘In hell, probably.’
She blinks up at me. ‘Your dad’s being sentenced tomorrow.’
‘I know.’
‘And we don’t have a plan.’
Whatever she needs from me right now, I’m not sure I can give it. ‘We do have a plan. You’re going to Brisbane, and I’m staying here to run the farm until Dad’s released.’
She hesitates. ‘The lawyer said it can be up to twenty years.’
‘I know what the lawyer said, Annie. I was the one who told you, remember? And he also said a sentence that length was unlikely because he had no prior convictions.’
My tone has her withdrawing, but I hold her in place. I’m not angry at her. I’m angry at the inevitable separation. I fucking love this girl.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper. ‘This farm’s been in our family for five generations. Mum would be so heartbroken if we lost it this way.’
She relaxes against me. ‘How can a person feel so happy and so sad at the same time?’
‘Years of practise.’ I drop my forehead to hers. ‘You’re so much better than this place.’ I don’t want her to go, but I also can’t hide her away on this farm forever. She deserves to live in a place where people smile in her direction, where they stop her in the middle of the street to ask how she is.