Page 37 of The Artist
“Don’t let me go, Mason. Pro… promise.”
“I won’t!” The promise felt profound and made me plant another kiss on her cold temple.
It felt like it was at least an hour since I’d first crawled into this hellish tunnel to get to Belle. Snaking my way to her at a slow pace had been one of the hardest workouts of my life because of the overwhelming fear and worry that had been with me the entire way. Now that Indiana and Thor were pulling us out, we moved ten times faster. I kept whispering calming words into Belle’s ears.
“Just think about the warm fireplace back at the cabin and the hot cup of cocoa that Freya has ready for us.”
The sound of the wind slowly picked up the closer we got to the outside. Relief filled me when I felt a hand on my leg. Crawling back, I lifted Belle into my arms before I rose to stand. She had a blue knitted hat on, her jacket, and thin snow pants. Her gloves and boots however were still stuck in the snow where I’d found her.
“Let’s get her inside the drone,” Thor shouted and ran ahead, while I squinted my eyes to see anything with the snow whipping into my eyes.
Realizing that I had no free hands, Indiana pulled down my snow glasses from my forehead and stayed close to me as I ran with Belle in my arms. Any crying from her was drowned out by the wind, but I felt her press her face against my chest.
When I got to the drone, Thor held the door open so I could hurry inside with Belle.
“Crank the heat up,” I ordered as Indiana and Thor got in and the door closed.
While Thor gave commands for the drone to take us back to the cabin and to heat up the seats, Indiana plunked himself down in a seat next to mine and pulled off his boots. “Here, Belle, put these on.”
She was shaking and still pressed her head against my chest, but he removed her wet socks and pushed his warm boots onto her feet.
“She needs body heat.” Thor turned to us. “Let’s convert the seats and we’ll sandwich her between two of us.”
“Convert seats A, B, C, and D to beds,” I ordered the drone and instantly the seats lowered and created an area large enough for us to stretch.
“Do you want me to do it?” Thor asked.
“No, we’ve got it.” Indiana removed his jacket and pulled off layers of clothing until his torso was naked. Laying down he opened his arms. Gently I placed Belle close to him. It almost broke my heart when she protested, “No, Mason, you pro…promised not to let go of me.”
“I’m not. I’m just taking off my sweater to give you my body heat.”
Indiana and I exchanged a concerned look as he stretched down to place his thick sweater over her legs like a makeshift blanket.
“Fuck, you’re like an ice-tap, woman.” He rubbed one of her hands between his.
Thor kneeled down behind Indiana. “Belle, Mason is going to take off some of your clothes so you can get body to body contact. Do you understand?”
She made a sound that we interpreted as a yes, so I removed her jacket and proceeded to lift her thick sweater off her body. Under that was a long-sleeved t-shirt that I pulled over her head.
“Shit, she’s not wearing a bra,” Indiana muttered.
“Who the fuck cares? The woman has hypothermia and we can’t let her die,” Thor said harshly.
Belle was on the floor shaking, so I scooted down and positioned myself against her chest to chest.
“Her butt is freezing, help me open her pants.” Indiana and I worked together and managed to push down both her wet snow pants and the tight pants she had under.
“Just leave them,” I said when we had them down to her knees.
“You want to swap sides?” Indiana asked. “My dick is going to get frostbite from the temperature of her ass.”
“Just keep your dick to yourself,” I groaned and caressed Belle’s hair.
Thor moved to sit at our feet. “I messaged Freya and Aubri that we retrieved Belle and we’re on our way back.”
“Good.” I arranged some of the jackets and sweaters that we had over us like blankets and kissed Belle’s forehead. “Are you hurting sweetheart? How do you feel?”
“Ti… tired.”
