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“Wake me up like that anytime you want, love,” I said as I released her so she could climb away from me, searching for her panties, then dropping down on her ass as I got off the bed, heading toward the stairs.
“That’s not going to happen again,” she told me, making me turn back.
“It is,” I said, shaking my head at her. “What’s the point of claiming it won’t when we both know we want to do that over and over again?”
Her mouth opened to answer, but I jogged down the stairs to avoid whatever retort she would have at the tip of her tongue, more self-preservation than truth.
I fiddled around after, making her some coffee, then grabbing a box of animal crackers, before heading back up to find her dressed in pajama pants and a hoodie, kneeling in front of the fireplace.
“Cold?” I asked, handing her the coffee.
“It’s chilly,” she said, avoiding looking at me. “But I highly doubt either of us know how to start a fire.”
“I hardly think we are going to freeze to death, love. How hard can it be? Neanderthals managed to do it.” And so had I in the service, but I found I was a bit of a masochist when it came to Shawn. I liked when she doubted me. And then seeing the shock she tried to bank down when I proved her wrong.
“I don’t even know how to open the… hole thing,” Shawn said, waving at the fireplace.
“Damper,” I supplied. “That, at least, I know,” I said, reaching inside the fireplace to pull the metal bar.
“How did you know that?” she asked, suspicious.
“I’ve seen people do it before.”
“And by people, you mean servants?” she asked, brow arching.
“Domestic workers, I think they prefer these days. Or house staff,” I told her. “But no. It was hotel staff.”
With that, I started to stack the wood, getting critiques from Shawn as I went along until, finally, we had a flicker of a flame before it finally burst to life.
“Yay for not freezing to death,” Shawn said, putting her hands up to the front of the fireplace.
“Go ahead. You can say it,” I invited.
“Say what?” she asked, shooting me suspicious eyes.
“That I’m your hero,” I told her, getting a choked laugh out of her.
“You’re moderately capable of keeping us alive for a day. I hardly think that constitutes heroic behavior,” she said.
“What would? Wrestling one of your beloved wolverines?” I teased, getting one of her discarded shoes thrown at me. “So what do you want to do when the sun is up? Go explore?”
“Won’t that ruin your fancy shoes?” she asked. “And we don’t have a gun.”
“I’m not suggesting we go on a twenty-mile hike, love. Just get out and see nature. We won’t get anything like this near us again.”
“Fine. But we stay close enough that we can make it back to the cabin before we are horribly mauled by wild animals.”
“Don’t worry, love. I’ll keep you safe,” I said as she got up to move back toward the bed.
“Damn right you will. I’ll toss you at the bears and make a run for it,” she said.
Bluster aside, I had a feeling she was softening toward me.
And I was curious to see what that might mean for us as we stayed trapped in the woods together without any outside influences to interfere.
As it would turn out, there would be interference.
But we had no idea as the next few days played out that our perfect little wooded paradise would be the scene of one of the worst moments in both our lives.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Shawn
It was getting hard not to like him.
Well, no. That wasn’t entirely accurate. I’d liked him for a lot longer than I cared to admit. What was getting harder was pretending that I didn’t like him.
When I first let my mind wander to what it was going to be like to be trapped in a cabin alone with Bellamy and only the basic of bare necessities, I figured it would be a lot of sniping at each other followed by prolonged periods of intolerable boredom.
But the thing was, I was having a good time.
It seemed ridiculous on a rational level.
But we sort of just fell into a rhythm.
We usually woke up already turned on and desperate for release. And, thankfully, Bellamy had the foresight to pack an absolutely absurdly large box of condoms to hold us over. Then we would get up, get coffee and breakfast, shower, then eventually venture out and start to explore the area around the cabin.
We took baby steps at first.
What can I say? I was raised in a city that didn’t have a whole lot of greenery, let alone predators that might rip my throat out with either claws or teeth. But as the days stretched on and we’d only seen friendly visitors—deer, bunnies, squirrels, birds, and even a river otter—I’d gotten more and more comfortable taking little walks around.
