Page 13 of Red Fire

“Like what?”

“Likethat!You aren’t saying anything. You’re making me worried.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Octavia; you should be very worried. Understand that leaving under the cover of darkness won’t help us all that much.” I shake my head slowly.

She frowns. “Why not?” Then, realization dawns. “Let me guess; mountain men can see in the dark?”

“We can see better in the dark than your average human…yes.” I nod.

“I’m not sure how, but okay…” She shrugs. “I’ll have to take your word for it.” She sighs.

Again, I’m glad she’s catching on. It means we have more of a shot at surviving.

“There’s something else I need to mention. Something very important.”

“I know, I know…I have to obey you. Do everything you ask of me without question. I already agreed. I will do it, I swear.”

I picture her wrapping her mouth around my cock like she did the waterskin. Of her obeying my every request. I picture her on her knees. All highly inappropriate, so I give a shake of my head and work hard at pulling my mind out of the gutter. I’m a dirty fuck. This is no time to be thinking with my dick.

I clear my throat. “Yes, but that’s not what I wanted to say. If we are ambushed or confronted.”Chances are good that we will be at some point.“I need you to get away. Don’t try to help me.” I shake my head. “You wouldn’t be able to, anyway. You’ll end up hurt if you do.”Or worse.“We’re… It’s just that we’re…”

I’m trying to come up with the right word when she says, “Wild. Those guys sounded wild out there.” She points at my door. “They sounded like animals.”

We sure did.

I nod. “Yep, that would just about sum it up. Some of these men are wilder than others. Some are more animal than man.”

She sniggers softly, sounding scared shitless. I look her way, noting how her face has paled under all the soot. Yep, she’s frightened, alright. Then I add another log to the fire, which is blazing nicely.

“What?”

“It’s just that I recently read a romance novel about a woman who gets lost in the woods hiking and is found by a mountainman just as a snowstorm hits. She’s terrified of him. He’s big and totally wild. The mountain man takes her back to his cabin, where they have to hole up for days while the weather rages outside.” She licks her lips. “I’m sure you can guess what happens while they’re stuck together.” She giggles softly, her cheeks turning a touch red. “The snowstorm ends, and it is soon safe for her to leave, but of course, by then, she doesn’t want to. I won’t bore you with the ending. It was a good book. I’m strangely reminded of it now.” Her eyes widen, and she draws in a breath. “Not because of you and I being holed up. Not that we’re going to…you know, but because of the whole mountain man situation.”

“The mountain men out here are not nice like the one in your book. I’m not nice, either. If there is trouble, you run and you hide. You get to safety. You stay out of the way of danger. Forget your romance novels, Octavia.”

“I know that…I know…okay,” she says, her voice soft. “It’s just that it’s weird that I read the book not that long ago, and now I’m out here surrounded by mountain men.” She shrugs. “And I have to disagree; you are nice.”

“I’m not!”

“You’re helping me, aren’t you? I’m a stranger. You don’t know me from Adam, and yet you’re helping me without asking for anything in return.”

I grunt. She’s more than likely going to change her opinion of me before long, and I won’t blame her.

Thing is, she’s likening our situation to a fairy tale with a happy ending and a handsome fucking prince where they live happily ever after.Shit!Perhaps I got it wrong; perhaps she isn’t catching on at all. She’d better catch on soon, or she’ll be in for a rude awakening.

7

Octavia

Someone shakes me awake.

I open my eyes, and it’s pitch-black. It takes me a few disoriented moments to remember where I am. To remember my situation.

My eyes start to adjust. There are still a few embers in the fireplace, and a great shadow looms over me. It’s Creed.

“We need to go,” he whispers.

“Okay.” I reply quietly. My eyes feel scratchy. It took me a while to finally fall asleep. I’m tired, so I suspect that I didn’t get too many hours. A thought hits me. “Did you get a chance to sleep at all, or did you stand watch this whole time?” I yawn.

---