The night goes late.

The group stops being loud around eleven, in accordance with the campground rules, but their fire burns until after one in the morning. But even then, after the full day of sun and water and that evening’s impromptu beer darts tournament, Sarah can’t sleep. Maybe the fresh air thing is a lie after all, she thinks.

She stares at the roof of the tent she’s sharing with Jordan and Marcia, thinking about Lucas. How is any of this supposed to work? It’s too new of a relationship - if it even is that - for them to actually live together, like same-bedroom-same-closet live together. At the same time, it seems odd for them to keep living like nothing’s changed. And yet still, she doesn’t want him to move out.

She’d accounted for none of this in her five-year plan.

“Sarah, I can hear you thinking,” Marcia mumbles sleepily. “Everything okay?”

Sarah turns over in her sleeping bag. “Yes. Just trying to work something out.”

Marcia lifts herself up on her elbow. “Why don’t you go over to Lucas’s tent and let him work it out?” she teases in a light whisper. Even in the darkness, Sarah can see her devilish grin.

“Oh.” Sarah flops onto her pillow. “It’s not that.”

“Well, whatever it is, maybe you just need to talk to him.”

Sarah closes her eyes for a moment, listening to the dying crackle of their campfire. It’s mostly out now; she can smell the smoke. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Go on, Sarah,” Jordan pipes in softly. “He’s got his own tent. Go for a walk or something.”

“No, I …” she trails off, confused again. It feels rude to go wake Lucas up, but on the other hand, they really need to think though the logistics of this whole thing. She does some of her best work late at night; why would this be any different?

So she unzips her sleeping bag and quietly puts her flip-flops on.

“Go to sleep,” Sarah tells her friends, then silently slips out of the tent.

She makes her way as quietly as possible over to the small one-man tent that she knows belongs to Lucas. It’s dark inside, but she doesn’t hear the faint snoring that she occasionally hears from his bedroom, so he must be at least mostly awake. She slowly undoes the zipper of the tent and kneels just inside.

Gently, she shakes his leg. “Lucas,” she whispers.

He stirs, slightly at first, then sits up in a panic when he realizes who it is. “Sarah?” he says. “Everything okay?”

“Shh,” Sarah hushes, putting a finger in front of her lips. “I wanted … do you want to go for a walk?”

It’s dark, but the moonlight streaming in behind her has illuminated his face enough for her to see the soft look on his face. “Yes,” he whispers. “Okay, yeah.”

She waits for him on the road between campsites while he gets dressed. It doesn’t take long. As soon as he reaches her, he takes her hand. They don’t talk for nearly five minutes as they walk among silent tents and campers; it’s only when they’re far enough away from people and have reached the concrete slip of the boat launch and accompanying docks that he speaks.

“I hope this isn’t you dragging me out of bed to break up with me before we’re even dating, Sarah,” Lucas says, honest like always.

Sarah is alarmed by that. “What? No, of course not,” she assures him, giving him a quick peck on the lips before they walk down to sit at the end of the dock.

Lucas folds himself down onto the wood. “Okay, so what are you messing up my beauty sleep for?”

She sits down next to him, cross legged, and shrugs somewhat miserably. “I couldn’t sleep,” she confesses. “I just kept thinking about how it’ll work at home, and that it’s too soon to move into one bedroom, but is it weird to have a first date with someone you share a bathroom with? How do I get dressed up if you’re there watching me?”

To her surprise, Lucas just gives her a soft smile. “Sarah.”

“What?”

He chuckles. “That brain of yours is really working overtime all the time, isn’t it?” He moves his legs around to bracket her, pulling her to sit facing him, between his legs, so she can see his face. Her knees fall in line with his hips. “Sarah, I’ll do whatever it takes to work. I’ll leave while you’re getting dolled up. You aren’t even have to get dolled up, but if you want to, I’ll leave. I’ll go get cheap flowers and knock on the door and the whole nine yards, if it helps.” He strokes her waist. “It’s a little unconventional, but I like that, baby. And I like you. And that’s all that matters. The rest of that is all just noise. Okay?”

Sarah smiles at him, already feeling less stressed out. He always seems to know what to say to her and how to say it. He’s definitely on the sensitive side, as far as emotional intelligence goes. She wonders if he’s this in tune with everybody, or if it’s just her.

“Okay,” she agrees, leaning in for a kiss.

Lucas returns it, slow and languid, like they should be waking up instead of going to sleep. He sweeps her hair off her shoulders, then slides his hands under her ass and lifts her into his lap. She giggles softly into his mouth and curls her legs around his waist, tugging herself closer.

Sarah loves making out with Lucas, she’s officially decided. He’s good at it, first of all - how could he not be a great kisser, a man who loves running his mouth as much as he does? - and he always knows just where to skim his fingertips, just how to hold her. She can’t wait to discover all of the other things that he’s probably good at. Not here, of course - she wants him, but she’s not that much a slave to her basic desires that she’s going to have sex with him on a cold wooden dock in the middle of the Adirondacks.

Not for the first time, anyway.

She isn’t opposed to a little more, though, so she grips his wrist and intentionally moves his hand from her hips to beneath her shirt. She’d been trying to sleep, so she isn’t wearing a bra; Lucas kisses her harder as the realization of it dawns on him, swallowing the moan she lets out as he palms her breasts.

“So goddamn beautiful, Sarah,” he tells her between messy kisses, as he slips his other hand beneath her shirt as well. “Every part of you, Sarah.” He cups both of her breasts, squeezing firmly.

Lucas’s touch is tender and impolite at the same time. His big hands move both gently and roughly; he tugs at her nipples and then pinches them lightly in unison. That move elicits a delighted gasp from Sarah, who rolls her hips against him and bites his earlobe.

“I need you,” she exhales, leaning back a little. He moves one hand to her back to support her and intuitively moves the other near her stomach. “Please Lucas,” she whines. “I need you.”

Lucas slides his hand beneath the waistband of her pyjama pants and cups her between her legs, over her underwear. “Jesus, baby,” he mutters, fingertips pressing over her entrance. “You’re so wet. You’re going to ruin your pajamas.”

Sarah swallows and leans her head back to look at the stars, not caring anymore, she doesn’t care, he should tear her underwear off, she just wants - “Want you to ruin me,” she breathes, before realizing that she’d said it out loud.

Lucas goes still. “Sarah,” he finally says, ragged. “You can’t - if you want slow, baby, you can’t say stuff like that.”

Slow.

Right.

She breathes deeply, in and out, practising her pranayama. “This probably isn’t slow, huh?” she asks once she thinks she can speak again. The tight coil in her abdomen is beginning to unwind.

Lucas’s hand slides out of her bottoms and returns to her waist. He tugs her into him, hugging her tightly.

“I wasn’t lying today, Sarah,” he mutters quietly. “I’m going to be honest: there’s a lot I want to do with you, a lot I’ve thought about. Some of it's not even dirty stuff! And so far, everything’s been a lot better than I imagined. But I’m going to take you apart, Sarah. Piece by piece. That’s a promise.” His grip tightens on her waist. “But not here. You deserve better than that.”

Sarah nods into his neck. She presses a soft kiss to his pulse point. “I look forward to it,” she whispers.

They sit for awhile longer and then head back to the campsite, hand in hand again. Sarah follows Lucas into his tent. He tucks her into his arms, drags the unzipped sleeping bag over them on his single air mattress like a blanket, and kisses her softly.

“Night, babe,” he whispers.

Sarah burrows into his chest and shuts her eyes. “Night,” she echoes, then she sleeps.