Page 151 of A Simple Truth

“My eyes are up here, Finnleah,” Gideon gave a disapproving 'tsk' sound in my direction.

“Are they now?” I purred. My teeth bit my bottom lip as he sauntered into the water, making his way towards me until he was just a breath away.

“Don’t you think this is rather inappropriate?” he murmured, his eyes reflecting the silver stars above us, making me forget my own name.

“What’s inappropriate, General?Bathing?” I whispered at him, taking a step closer, until my bare chest brushed against the side of his muscled arm. I stretched to my tippy toes, adding with a hushed voice. “Believe me, there are much more inappropriate things I would rather do with you than simplybathe.” With that, I scurried out of the lake, unsure if my heart was still beating.

He quietly spewed profanities that I hadn’t heard before, dunking himself fully under water for an alarmingly long time. I grabbed his shirt, pulling it over my wet body, unable to hide my wide smile. The ends of his top reached to the lower half of my thighs like a short dress. Gideon motioned me to look away as he walked out of the lake, and I dramatically turned, chucking his pants over my head to him. Though I didn’t peek, my cheeks still flushed with color each time I blinked, the image of his divine bare body seared into my mind like a tattoo.

We were both, much to my dismay, now dressed. Though Gideon didn’t say a word, his eyes returned to me no matter how hard he tried to look away. I purposefully flung my wet hair onto my back, exposing the front of his soaked white shirt on me, clinging tightly to my perked-up breasts. Then I bent over, grabbing my dirtied clothes from the ground, aware just how short the seams of his shirt were and of the clear absence of my undergarments.

“Fuck, Finnleah.” He grumbled, his breath shallow and uneven. He turned and took a few steps away, his hands rubbing his face.

“What? It’s a good dancing outfit.” I reasoned with absolute innocence in my voice, folding the useless skirts and embroidered bra. “Maybe I’ll want to dance some more later,who knows.” The muscle in his temple twitched, but he didn’t take the bait, impatiently picking up the few weapons he’d previously laid on the small rock. “Not very chatty today, I see.” A corner of my mouth tugged upward. “So, what do we do now?” I asked as we started walking.

“Now we are going to find shelter,” he replied, keeping his distance away from me.

“Shelter?” My forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“Look behind you,” he instructed, and I turned.

I was unsure what to look for, as a surprisingly cold wind ran through my wet hair, giving me goosebumps. “What is it?” I squinted at the horizon; it was somehow so dark and no longer clear.

“That is a desert sandstorm coming for us.”

Of course, it is. I clicked my tongue.

“And unless you’d like to be buried alive in the red sand, I suggest we walk faster,” he said, and I sped up.

91

GIDEON

The desert storm was catching up with us faster than I had expected. Strong gusts of wind frayed the sand ahead of our steps. The small village we had scurried towards was already asleep, not a soul walking the streets, not even a flicker of light behind the tightly shut windows and doors.

“There. That one is abandoned.” I pointed to the tiny, red clayed house on the outskirts of the settlement.

“Do you think they have scorpions here?” Finn asked as she stood by the door, afraid to take another step into the dark space.

“Probably,” I replied, breaking the sand-jammed lock and entering first.

“That’sver-y-y-yhelpful.” Her voice grumbled behind my back, making me hide my boyish smile. She took a few careful steps inside. The place was just as simple as it looked from the outside; buried half into the ground, with clay walls and floors, with only a couple of windows in one giant room. I worked fast to barricade the broken window shutters with the scattered rubble on the floor.

Finn wandered in the darkness around the room, clearing the spiderwebs and dirt, while simultaneously threatening whateverscorpions that resided here to go away and not sting her bare feet, lest she burn them all into ash.

A wooden barrel cracked loudly as I broke it into pieces. Finn sharply turned at the abrasive sound to glare at me.

“What was that for?” she snarled.

“You’ve never been in a desert storm before, have you?” I broke off a few more pieces of wood. “We will need heat. It’s about to drop to freezing temperatures when the storm gets here. I might not be able to summon fire, but that doesn’t mean you have to freeze,” I huffed, throwing a few more pieces into the corner near the small, brick chimney. She narrowed her eyes on me but didn’t say anything, soon returning to scavenging the place.

“Look at that!” Finn grabbed a few large, moth-eaten blankets from an old, corroded chest in the corner. She frivolously shook them a few times, clearing any critters before laying them flat on the ground by the brick inglenook.

The dry lint and tiny wood chips ignited with flames from the small sparks caused by my blade and a stone. I chucked small logs into the growing fire. Finnleah took a seat by the heat on the thickly layered blankets, welcoming a bit of warmth as the storm brashly crackled through the sky outside, announcing its arrival.

The sandstorm was loud, but not as loud as my beating heart. I broke a few more pieces off the other old, scattered barrels, prepping a bit more wood for us to burn. My eyes secretly gawked at her as she leaned back on her arms, staring into the blaze, little flames reflecting in her eyes. Her hair was still a bit wet, clinging to her neck, the small drops of water lazily soaking into her shirt—intomyshirt. The shirt bunched up a bit at her muscled thighs, exposing those irresistible, alluring legs.

I ran my hand across my chin, scratching a bit of stubble, as my perfidious thoughts pointed out precisely how much ofnothingshe wore underneath. My cock immediately returned toits previously hardened position; a motion now almost painful after staying this way for half the damn night with no relief.

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