Page 58 of His One True Wish

AXL

Cam and I walked outside to the barn. I needed some space between me and Billie. It was hard not to think about her bare skin under her clothes or remember the way her body moved when I touched her.

I knew that we were consenting adults. We played poker, drank, had fun in the dark. One thing led to another, and here we were. I was used to one-night-stands. The truth was, they were my go-to. They always were. In high school, I had a girlfriend my senior year, but we broke up in a firestorm of drama when I left for the Air Force. We weren’t fated, just two dumb kids in a small town looking for a way to feel something. Even Angel had started as something that just felt good, and there was nothing wrong with it.

I’d fucked women for years, and I loved them. I loved their bodies, their moans. I also loved it when they left. Angel’s fixation on me was a turn of events that I should have seen coming. I wasn’t proud of my choices, but I also didn’t need to apologize to anyone, especially not Billie. At least Angel was long gone. I didn’t have to worry about her showing up again.

There was something about Billie Prescott that made me want to be a better man. I didn’t want to let her down. I wanted to findthe way out. Help her find her way home. I wanted to save her? Was this some sort of a fucked-up Daddy complex kink I was playing out. She was young and lost and here I was, the grizzled cynic. Why did I want to keep her safe? She wasn’t mine, not really, even though my body felt as though I’d claimed her last night.

“You can’t claim someone that doesn’t want you,” I muttered to myself. I tugged open the barn door. Cam snuck in the gap ahead of me. I figured the wooden floor had to feel better on her paws. Made me wish I could make her boots or something.

On my tool bench, I had a ham radio. It was busted, but I’d been working on repairing it and figured if I brought it inside, maybe I could fiddle it alive and get a signal. It was too cold to work in the barn, so I picked up the radio and my toolbox, called Cam, and headed back to the house.

“You have a ham radio, and you just remembered?” Billie said, arms crossed.

“It’s busted,” I said, ignoring her tone.

She paced in the kitchen. “I mean, what other survival tools do you have out here?”

“Just me and my wits.”

“Lucky me,” she said.

I took out a screwdriver and removed the back of the radio. I figured that there were just some corroded wires and hadn’t taken the time to fix it yet.

She sat down and watched me.

I took out a set of pliers and untangled a corroded red wire from the white.

“You need to make sure you ground it,” she said, biting her lip.

“Is that so?” I said.

“Yes, it’s so.” She shrugged. “Growing up, it was just Gram, Mom, and me. Mom was terrible with tech, so Gran taught me a thing or two.”

“Louise, the super-landlord,” I said, sighing. “She is a mysterious woman.”

“Yes, she is,” Billie said. She scooted her chair closer to me. Her arm brushed mine, and I felt my body tingle from her touch.

“See that problem?” I said, pointing to the corrosion.

“Yes,” Billie said. “May I?” She reached for the pliers in my hand.

As I watched, she took the pliers and carefully untangled the wire. Her hands were smaller than mine, so she could get a better angle on the interior of the radio.

“Nice,” I said, my body flushed. She was so close to me, and watching her work on the radio was like the fulfillment of a fantasy I never knew I even had.

She quietly unwound the wire, biting her bottom lip and humming softly. I couldn’t help but remember how she’d moaned when she was beneath me. “There we go,” she whispered, pulling it out of the back.

She handed me back the pliers. “I think you are good now. Let’s turn her on.”

I nodded and stood up, plugging the radio into an orange extension cord that I kept in a kitchen drawer. Billie watched me, hands clasped beneath her chin. “Should we do a countdown?”she whispered.

“I don’t know,” I said, a grin escaping me.

“Oh, wait,” she said, standing up. She ran to the window. “A wish, let’s do a quick wish.”

“You are joking,” I deadpanned, still holding the plug in my hand.

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