The first night in myhomecould not be cold and wet.
Theo had made the most of our limited resources, his long hours of planning having paid off. The house was longer than itwas wide, a partition wall sectioning off the first third from the rest.
The smaller front room would eventually host a water pump, cabinets, a counter, a woodstove, and a “bathroomcloset”. It would’ve been nice to have a tub and toilet, but at least there was privacy and a waste disposal system in place; it was more than I had before.
The larger back room was a decently sized bedroom with a storage hatch centered into the floorboards on the left side. A ladder that led to an attic was situated in the threshold of the two spaces, parallel to the edge of the partition separating them.
Placing the second window on the back wall was a no go; Theo and I agreed it’d be creepy to wake up at night and see a forest creature staring inside from beyond the charms. So instead of matching its location to the front, he’d built the glass into the left wall, within the protective perimeter of my field.
That border of magical energy dissected the bedroom as I’d asked for. I drifted my hand back and forth through the invisible tingly waves. Even with the wheat gone, I could still feel where the magic started and ended. It was as much confidence as I could ask for from the strange form of birth control.
No longer needing to pad a hard floor to sleep on, we had more bedding than we needed. I scanned the room, and my eyes caught on the floor hatch. I grabbed the smallest fur and lay it over the edges.There. My first decoration. A rug. The thought filled my chest with joy.
I heard the creak of Theo on the roof and assumed he was getting ready to start sealing. He was trying to beat the rain, too.
Not wanting to slack on my part of the work, I carefully hopped over the interior construction to join him.
“You remember how to make the stuff?” he called down, using a metal tool in each of three hands to scoop the dark mixture from a bucket, slap it on the roof, and smooth it out.
“Yep!” I’d helped him seal the walls. I was a pro at goop prep.
We had a system. Two buckets passed between us and a rope looped around the ladder as a pulley. It worked well. He always had the muck he needed and neither of us had to traverse the ladder. Teamwork!
Theo was good at tasks like this. Planning. Building. He had an idea of what to do, and he executed it. I couldn’t imagine the confidence it must take to wake up one day and think, “I’m going to build a house”. But that was Theo: self-assured, productive, robotic. The little cuts and bruises he collected constantly were the only signs he was human. Or—at least—a person.
That was part of the reason I was so set on addressing his injuries every day. A reminder to him that he was flesh and blood, and the needs that went along with that were worth tending to. Were his scars so gnarled because he only acknowledged his wounds when they were life threatening?
I made it my mission to address his self-neglect. Clearly he didn’t see it as a problem.
Although the sky was dark in the distance, it wasreallyfucking hot in the open field today. Without any clouds above us, the two daytime stars of Trebianna were beating down with vengeance. I looked up at Theo, who had one foot on theladder, one foot on the roof, and all four arms doing something productive. Had to be harder than mixing muck in a bucket. Really, I shouldn’t complain, but comparisons didn’t stop the fact that I was quickly becoming dehydrated.
“I’m going to get some water!Pleasebe careful.”
“I’ll watch my step while you aren’t here to catch me,” he laughed.
“Sarcastic jerk,” I huffed under my breath, fighting the chuckle that would no doubt encourage him to make more jokes at my expense. Who’s to say I couldn’t catch his five-hundred-pound ass if he fell!
Making my way across the field, I smiled at all the little garden beds starting to sprout. This was really happening. I was finally going to have peace. Stability. Comfort. I held our waterskins under the stream and couldn’t help but reflect onjusthow blessed I was to have this man come into my life. I would have been fine without Theo, sure. But… it was much better with him here. Honestly, the cabin was just a perk. My warm fuzzy feelings ran deeper than housing security.
“That won’t help me pave your roof,” he remarked when I tied his waterskin to the end of the rope.
“You need to drink. I’ll send another batch of goop up once you’re hydrated.”
Theo didn’t seem to believe water was actually important, but he didn’t object. He pulled up the rope and chugged, a shimmering trickle running down the muscles of his thick neck and glistening in the daytime starlight. He used the last bit to rinse errant flecks of muck off his forearms, although he’d been careful to stay mostly clean of the cement-like mix.
“Was that so hard?” I asked.
“Thank you. I promise I’ll tell you if I need anything else.” The unspoken implication was that I didn’tneedto assume hisneeds.
“I don’t believe you,” I said flatly, taking a big glug myself.
“Sounds like a you-problem,” he sang, grinning mischievously.
I felt that familiar throbbing between my thighs. Why was his teasing so damn sexy? Was it because he was actively building me a house? Or because he was the ultimate depiction of functional strength and masculinity? The man was more of a god than I was. His massive torso towered above me, larger than life, four muscular arms flexed. A soft core was visible where his top rode up above his waistband. His strong thighs flexed to support his strained stance. And, oh my god,that ass. There was a lot of Theo to sink my teeth into. He’d described himself as “hungry” in the heat of the moment before, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how appealing it sounded to bite since.
“Viv, you okay?”
Fuck. “Yeah, sorry!” I called up, hurrying to prep the next batch of muck.
