Page 13 of By Candlelight

“It’s Christmas! The payoff would be huge.”

I rolled my eyes, and she just pouted. But not for long.

“Well dinner is in the oven. I’m going to go raid the closets. Maybe there’s an old fake tree around.”

“You do that.”

I went back to reading football stats on my phone, but even that was boring me. The truth was, I couldn’t get my mind off Mia. And being in such close quarters was starting to drive me up the wall. So I’d let her snoop around for a Christmas tree all she wanted if it kept her busy and out of my line of sight. My cock could only handle so much.

I got up, needing to shake off this energy I’d built up and walked over to the window. It was dark out, but I could see the snow was still coming down. The wind shook the little cottage. I hadn’t been through a blizzard like this since I was a kid. A memory of playing in the snow with my brother and the neighborhood kids hit me without warning. The image of it nearly brought me to my knees.

But then a crash from upstairs and Mia’s voice screaming out brought me back to the present in quick form. I ran upstairs, my heart beating out of my chest. I found her on the floor in the guest room, a pile of sheets and boxes on the floor next to her.

“Are you okay?” I dropped to my knees, desperate to make sure she wasn’t hurt. But then she burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. I just knocked the all down from the top shelf and it took me out with it.” She gestured the the items surrounding her on the floor. I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath. She was okay. At least she was okay.

“See, this is why it was stupid to go looking for a damn Christmas tree.”

“Oh you’re such a spoil-sport. It was an accident!”

I grabbed her hand and lifted her to her feet, but shook my head at her as I did so.

“Whatever.”

As I was walking out of the room, everything went dark and Mia gasped behind me.

“Shit.”

“Oh my gosh. Did we just lose power?”

“Obviously.”

I groaned and felt my way to the door.

“I can’t see anything,” Mia said.

“I can’t either. Here, follow the sound of my voice.”

A moment later she bumped into me, and I tried to ignore the fact that her tits touched my arm.

“Here, hold on to me and I’ll get us downstairs. There are some flashlights in the kitchen.”

I felt her grab my hand and ignored the happy flip my stomach did at the idea of holding hands with a pretty girl. Fucking pathetic.

We made it downstairs without injury and found the flashlights and a whole package of candles. I checked my phone while Mia placed the candles around the kitchen, downstairs bathroom. The living room was still lit enough from the fireplace, but I’d need to throw some more wood on.

“Fuck, the whole county grid is out.”

“That sounds bad.”

“Yeah, itisbad.”

“Well, what do we do?”

“We hunker down. The oven is an old model, it should still be on, right?” She backed down the hall and confirmed. “Alright, we have food. And fire.” I took my flashlight and headed for the stairs.

“Wait, where are you going?”

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