18. Maksen
18
MAKSEN
A s soon as the car stopped in front of the cabin, I opened the door and waited for Annalise to come out. She looked at me first, then she jumped out of it and turned around to check the surroundings.
I closed the door, then I put my hand on hers and tilted my head so I could see the place we arrived at.
It was a beautiful cabin on the outside, surrounded by tall old trees. The fresh air of the forest was a true pleasure for my lungs. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the feeling of relaxation that hit me after it.
“Is it really abandoned? It looks way too good,” I said as we started walking towards the entrance door.
“Let’s see if it looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside,” she replied, and took out the key from her pocket.
With a quick movement, she unlocked the door and a spiderweb fell from the door’s frame. She tumbled over it and coughed, trying to remove it from her hair.
“Do I have any spiders on me?” she yelled, terrified of the entire situation.
I couldn’t do anything but laugh at the sight of her. She was so scared that I just couldn’t take her seriously.
“Maksen! Please!” she exclaimed again, and I tried to cover the smile on my face as I ran my fingers through her hair strands to check if she had anything between them.
“You’re safe, but you just lost the chance to become the first Spider Woman,” I replied with a grin on my face.
She glanced at me confused, but her lips stretched into a soft smile.
“It must be something in the air here,” she said without breaking our eye contact.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you say that you’re not a man who makes jokes? Well, look who’s joking now,” she explained and let out a soft laugh.
I rolled my eyes and pinched her arm, making her laugh even harder. I loved seeing her laughing, smiling, and being the Annalise I was used to. My heart couldn’t bear another second of seeing her cry.
We looked at each other once again, then moved along the hallway. The smell inside the cabin wasn’t as awful as I expected it to be, but it was a combination between dry old wood and a light perfume of pine which probably came from the fir trees outside.
The old furniture was covered by layers of old dust, and it almost made me sneeze when I ran my fingers over the surface of a cupboard.
Annalise was analyzing every detail of the cabin, and she stopped when we turned right and reached the living room. It had a big copper-colored sofa, in front of which was a round wood table with an oil lamp on it, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.
The cobbled fireplace in front of it stretched almost along the entire wall, and the stuffed head of a deer watched us intently like it was waiting for some visitors.
“This place is old, but gold,” she said as she approached the fireplace and ran her fingers over the metallic fence that separated the place where the fire was made from the lacquered floor.
“It really is. It’s not what I was expecting but it’s going to be perfect for how long we’ll be staying here,” I replied, leading my feet towards her.
She turned around and looked up at me, and I felt tingles around my entire body.
I didn’t know why the fuck I was reacting like that to everything that she did, but I couldn’t stop it. I was just waiting for any other new reaction my body had for her.
“Is it Lydia’s cabin? What do you think?”
“It might be,” I replied and put my hands on each side of my hips, analyzing the entire room attentively. “It seems like it was arranged by a woman, and it resembles way too much with how her own house looks like.”
“We should tidy up the place a bit. I can’t stay somewhere with so much dust.”
The corner of my mouth lifted and I pinned her with my gaze. “What do you say about me making the fire in the fireplace, and you cleaning a little and maybe finding a blanket for us to cover ourselves at night?”
She smiled back at me, and I saw a glimpse of happiness mirroring me in her beautiful eyes. I knew she was still processing the last twenty four hours, but she seemed like she wanted to think about anything other than what happened. And I was eager to offer her that.
Before I turned on my heels and led my feet to the outside of the cabin, I subtly threw a look at her and smiled as I saw her brows furrowing because she couldn’t find any piece of material to wipe the dust.
Once I left the cabin I saw the driver already sleeping in his seat, then I turned right and reached a little wooden building with a metallic door. I analyzed the lock and smirked when I saw that it wasn’t locked. I opened it, and I couldn't be happier when I saw the chopped dry wood pieces.
I grabbed a load of them, then went back into the cabin and literally bumped into Annalise who was smiling at the piece of red material she found somewhere in the cabin.
“Finally! I was losing my hope and almost started to convince myself that we were going to sleep in a bath of dust,” she chirped as she came back with me to the living room.
I smiled at her, and the moment we got to the living room, I got down to my knees in front of the fireplace. I put the wood in it in a pyramid-like shape, then lit some matches and put them slowly under the wood. I blew gently towards the lit flame, and it turned into an even bigger one, encompassing every piece of wood in its strong heat.
“Didn’t know you knew how to light a fire,” Annalise said as she came closer to me.
“It isn’t such a big deal. You just put a match on a dry piece of wood and you’re done. You have a fire.”
I looked up at her and noticed she put her hair up in a ponytail. Maybe she was over the messy bun she kept all this time, and I was sure that she maybe wanted to take a shower too. I wanted to, and if I wasn’t able to take one, I was going to be very angry.
“Do you think we have a bathroom here?” I asked, curious.
She frowned and shrugged, putting her hands on each side of her hips. “We should have one,” she said, turning around to look towards the stairs. “Let’s check upstairs.”
I nodded, then I took a last look at the fire. I stood up and Annalise went in front of me, stepping with caution on each stair.
Under each step we took, the stairs creaked and the sound filled the entire cabin. We reached the floor and stood still as we analyzed the hallway that had three different locked doors.
“Which one should we check first?”
“Let’s check all of them together,” I replied, and she turned around, giving me that soft smile I fucking loved.
We turned to the left and headed towards one of the doors. When we reached it, I pressed the doorknob and was surprised that the door was not closed. I pushed it forward, and the moment we went over the threshold, the sound of a window swinging open and hitting the wall welcomed us.
A king size bed was disposed on the right wall and it was covered by a burgundy bed linen, which of course, was covered by dust and lots of spiderwebs.
“Well, looks like we also have a bedroom. Although, I’d rather use the floor downstairs than this room,” Anna said, scrunching her nose and walking towards the bed.
“At least we know now that the cabin was abandoned. There’s no chance that anyone lived here in the last couple of years,” I replied, moving my feet to the window.
I closed it so that it wouldn’t break because of the wind, then I turned on my heels and looked for Anna, but she wasn’t there anymore.
“Anna?” I exclaimed, but I didn’t get an answer. Where did she go?
I walked out of the room and exhaled with ease when I saw the other door opened. I walked to it and as soon as I entered the room, I noticed it was actually the bathroom we were both looking for.
“So we do have a bathroom,” I said as Anna tried to turn on the lights.
“This is not working!” she yelled as she hit the switch.
“Let me see.”
She moved away from it and looked at me as I was analyzing it. It was old and it wouldn’t have been a surprise if it didn’t work. I narrowed my eyes and pressed the switch, but when the light bulb tried to ignite, a deafening, short-circuiting sound filled the room, and bright sparks jumped out of it. Annalise let out a light scream and came closer to me.
“I guess we have to find some candles,” I said, letting out a giggle.
“Lucky us that I’ve found some when I was searching for something to clean the dust with,” she quickly replied.
I looked down at her and now that she was standing in front of me, with the vague light from outside caressing her body, I realized that I wanted to take advantage of the situation.
I wanted to kiss her so hard that she might forget everything that happened. The darkness was molding into our souls, and our hearts were beating together, being the only sound we could hear.
“But do you think we have water here?”
And with that she took me out of the trance I fell into.
I narrowed my eyes as I tried to distinguish what I was feeling in the bathroom, and the moment I walked towards what seemed like a bathtub, I saw beside it a copper boiler with a little metallic door opened under it.
I turned on the water and smiled as I saw that it was working, but it was as cold as a glacier. We had to make a fire in the boiler so we could have hot water to wash ourselves with.
“We have water, but I have to make a fire in this boiler so we don’t freeze to death in here,” I said, turning off the water.
“Great.”
She sounded upset, but didn’t say anything more than that. We left the bathroom and checked the other two rooms that were also bedrooms.
It was a cabin for a big family, or maybe for parties with lots of people considering it had three bedrooms and a big living room downstairs.
As we went back to the living room, I put a few more pieces of wood into the fire, and smiled satisfied as the entire room started to get warmer.
The temperature outside was colder now that we were in the middle of October. Considering the way Annalise was scratching her arms and trying to hide in the hoodie she wore, she was cold.
I watched the fire while she wiped the sofa and disappeared for a few moments somewhere in the hallway. When she came back, she was holding two big blankets and some pillows that looked like they might fall at any moment from her hands.
I rushed to take them for her, then we walked together to the sofa to make the bedding together. Once we finished, I threw myself on its surface and raised my gaze towards Anna.
“Come here,” I told her, patting the spot beside me.
She glanced at me, then at the spot I was patting, and she finally made the decision to sit there and snuggle into the comfy blanket.
The sound of wood under the power of the flames created a cozy atmosphere I actually loved. We kept the silence, but the moment I tried to let my eyelids fall, I opened my eyes quickly as I felt Annalise’s hands moving around my body and her head resting on my chest. She inhaled deeply and sighed, then she started playing with the material of my blouse.
“Are you disgusted with me?”
Fuck it, this girl was literally playing with my patience and my anger.
“Annalise, you should reconsider the question you just asked me, and then I will think about whether I’ll give you an answer or not.”
“No, Maksen, I’m serious,” she briefly replied. “Because I wouldn’t blame you if you were. I am too.”
Fuck it.
Twice.
I put my hands on her and made her sit up on her elbows to look at me. She pinned me with her eyes, yet this time I didn’t see any fear in them. She seemed worried.
“I am not, by any means, disgusted with you. I do feel a lot for you, things I can’t explain, things that are probably wrong to feel, but disgust is nowhere near that list. Nothing bad will ever be on that list, Anna,” I explained, keeping our eye contact as deep as possible just to make sure she completely understood what I told her.
She gulped, starting to chew her inner cheek.
“So what I told you didn’t make you see me differently?”
“It made me see you differently, but not in the way you’re thinking of,” I replied and took her hand in mine, starting to caress her soft, cold skin of her hands.
“What do you mean? How could you think something good about me after what happened?”
“Annalise.”
The next moment, all I knew was how quickly I put my hands on her face and pulled her closer to me. The tips of our noses almost touched, and our breaths were merging into one another.
“What happened to you not only made me want to protect you more, but made me realize that you’re a powerful woman, who can accomplish everything she wants, and who wants to embrace everything life has for her,” I said and paused as she exhaled deeply.
“I’m not sure if I’m that woman anymore, or if I’ve ever been, for that matter. I decided to block away my trauma and trap myself in the comfortable life my father planned for me,” she whispered, letting her gaze fall on my lips.
Fuck it. The third and the last fucking time, because I was so close to kissing her that I felt my body trembling with desire.
“Do you want to be sure of something, Annalise?”
She looked at me, confused, yet she found the courage to nod and wait for my answer.
I was doing it. I was finally saying it to her; after all this time I tried to hide it, and I didn’t care a second of how she might react to it.
“I want you to be sure that you’re mine, Anna. Now, more than ever, you’re mine,” I said, her big round eyes looking attentively at me and her mouth opening with shock. “You are the light to my darkness, the blood to my veins, the everything to my nothingness, and I’ll make sure to fucking destroy anyone who’d ever try to touch you.”
For the first time in our lives, she raised her hand to my face and put it on my cheek. The moment she ran her finger over my lower lip, I just fucking lost it.
I pulled her closer and pressed my lips to hers, finally feeling the velvety-like skin that I had dreamed of for so long. She let herself fall into my arms as I supported the weight of her body, while her little fingers caressed the skin of my neck.
She didn’t know how to kiss, yet it felt like I was kissing an angel. With caution, I slowly moved my lips against hers and the moment she opened her mouth and accepted my invitation, it felt like I was going to explode soon.
It felt as if I had received the essence of life, without which I felt empty until now, lacking that vitality I needed. Her lips were the most precious gift I could have ever received, and the way she accepted me was devastatingly perfect.
I pulled away from the kiss and pressed my forehead on hers. The sound of her harsh breathing was like a beautiful harpoon song to my ears because I knew I had caused it.
She looked at me and I knew she wanted it as much as I did. And the little tear rolling down her cheek proved it for me.
“H-How?”
I frowned, brushing her cheek with my thumb. “What?”
“How did you do it?” she asked carefully.
“Do what? Kissed you?”
“Yes, I mean, no,” she replied quickly and shook her head, letting out a happy giggle. “How did you kiss me without making me feel uncomfortable? I was shuddering at every touch anyone gave me, and you just kissed me, and nothing happened, well, nothing bad I mean,”
She sounded like a child who just found out how life actually worked. I eyed her attentively and noticed how her cheeks were covered by a red color.
“Did you want me to kiss you, Annalise?”
The moment she heard my question, she turned into a stone-like statue and her mouth opened in shock. She didn’t have the courage to look me in the eyes, but her cheeks turned even redder and that gave me the answer I was looking for.
“Should I feel ashamed that I wanted it?”
“There’s no shame in wanting to learn the language of love, Annalise, especially if you want to do it with someone who cares for you more than he cares for himself,” I explained to her, and I saw how her lips curved up into a beautiful smile.
Her answer was to rest her head on my chest and place a kiss on it. I put my arm around her tiny body, then inhaled her scent deeply into my lungs and felt, after so much time that had passed, that I was living.
She was my oxygen. My everything.