Page 109 of Naughty & Nice

It takes a while, I dread to think just how much snow they need to trudge through and then move to stand a chance of getting at the logs, but eventually, Rix appears with an armful.

“Are they dry?” I ask the second he emerges from the mass of white.

It’s the one thing that could ruin this whole little log-retrieving mission. If they’re wet, then really, we’d be no better off than letting the fire go out.

Well, actually, we’d be worse off, because we’ve had the door open for fuck knows how long now, letting any warmth we did have out.

We’d be royally fucked and freezing fucking cold unless a miracle happened and the power came back on.

It could happen at any moment. Heating, hot water, the oven… they could come back at any time.

There’s a part of me that can’t wait. But weirdly, there’s another part of me that’s enjoying a step out of reality.

And after all, who knows, when the lights come back on, what the three of us experienced last night and this morning could be over.

“Amazingly, yes. They’re pretty cold though,” Hendrix says, ripping me from my thoughts.

“I’ll get them in front of the fire and hope for the best,” I say, taking them off him.

What was a roaring fire when we embarked on this little mission is now nothing more than glowing embers.

“Shit,” I hiss.

I have zero knowledge of fire making, but I do the best I can and pile up some logs on the embers, hoping they’ll catch. Then I return to the door to take another armful of logs from Wilder.

We continue until we have a wall full of stacked logs.

“You two should come in,” I say, my fingers brushing Hendrix’s frozen ones as he passes me more logs. “I think we have enough for a while.”

The snow is beginning to get heavier now, and the light is vanishing quickly. It’s time to call it a day.

“Yeah,” Rix replies, his response curt as his body begins to tremble.

“Shit, you’re freezing.”

“You’d better warm me up then,” he says, stepping into me after I’ve added his logs to our stack.

“Oh my god,” I squeal as he wraps me in ice-cold, his wet shirt soaking into mine, arms pinning me in place.

“Hmmm,” he moans. “Warm.” He tucks his frozen face into the crook of my neck, and I shiver.

“Oooh, I’m missing snuggles,” Wilder announces happily before the front door slams shut and his heavy footsteps thump over.

He abandons his logs before the length of his body presses against my back. I want to say his warm body, but it’s anything but.

“Ew, and you’re wet,” I complain as he wraps his arms around both of us, the two of them pinning me between them.

“And now I’m getting you wet,” Wilder mocks.

“You’re insufferable,” I mutter.

“You love it,” he counters.

“Take it off,” I demand.

“Your wish is my command,” Wilder says, moving back an inch so he can do as he’s told.

“Now you’re wet, you should do the same,” Rix points out, staring down at me with blazing eyes. “Then you can really warm us up.”

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