Chapter 9
Storm
Magnum went outside to handle some yard work while I figured out what to cook for dinner.
I found some chicken in the fridge and decided on a chicken-and-rice dish.
You just add rice, broth, and cream of chicken soup.
Super easy and really good. The liquids soak into the meat, and the rice cooks into it and soaks up the same flavors, and it’s one of my favorite fast-and-easy meals.
But I couldn’t find cream of chicken soup in his apocalypse pantry. In my mind, that should be a basic staple, so it seemed odd. I looked through the entire giant room twice, but there didn’t seem to be any canned soups.
However, he had whipping cream in his fridge, along with mason jars labeled as beef bone broth and chicken bone broth, so I mixed the cream into the chicken broth, added a lot of onion powder and a little garlic powder, and decided it wasn’t thick enough.
I made a quick slurry with cornstarch and cold water, and that solved the problem.
From there, I was back to my normal recipe, but I caught a glimpse of him working outside when I returned with the rice — shirtless, operating one of those old-timey gasless push mowers.
The guy was rich and could easily pay someone to mow his yard, or at the very least buy a fancy mower, but he was doing it the hardest way possible.
Sweat glistened on his back and shoulders.
The muscles moved under his skin like they had their own rhythm, and I watched longer than I meant to while imagining my fingers and tongue tracing all those muscles in bed — then made myself turn back to the mixing bowl.
I needed to focus here and stop lusting over my hot bodyguarding host.
Five minutes later, I opened the oven door to put the casserole dish in and smudged the pristine door around the handle and then near the top when I closed it. I stared at the marks and was way more irritated than was rational.
I blew out a breath and made a mental note to be damned sure I completely erased it later when I cleaned.
I’d already decided on salads and some kimchi to go with the main dish, but when I tried some of the kimchi, it was too spicy and would drown out the chicken.
There was cabbage in the fridge though, so I chopped the kimchi smaller and mixed it with cabbage I ran over the grater in a large rough cut.
I had fun finding lots of veggies to cut into our salads, and only stopped when the timer dinged to let me know the chicken should be ready in ten minutes.
I went out onto the deck to let Magnum know we’d be eating in about ten or fifteen minutes, and then went inside to finish everything.
Magnum came inside and took a quick shower before coming to the kitchen with his hair still damp, and I was both relieved and disappointed he’d put a T-shirt on.
He poured tea for both of us, and we sat down to eat in the little breakfast nook just off the kitchen, overlooking the lake.
He took a bite and told me, “Oh, wow. This is good.” He grinned. “You really can cook.”
I speared a piece of chicken. “I had to improvise. You don’t have any cream of chicken soup in your giant pantry.”
He shook his head. “I don’t do processed foods. Was raised without them, so I guess my taste buds never got used to the fake stuff. I keep my meals as close to farm-to-table as logistically possible.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I changed the subject. “I want to go for a run tonight — twilight, preferably. Do you have a three-to-five mile route you can recommend?”
He shook his head, and I assumed that meant he didn’t have a route, but he said, “No running on the roads. You stay on the property.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he kept talking in that same calm, reasonable tone.
“Can’t risk you getting caught on a ring camera or dash cam.
Too many idiots don’t understand basic network security, and most have no idea they’re streaming their lives to the internet for anyone who knows how to sniff out open cams.” He shrugged.
“Can’t risk them having bots looking for facial rec images of you. ”
It annoyed me that he was right, but since he was, I went straight to Plan B.
“Okay then, how about a late evening swim?”
He nodded. “That works.”
After dinner, he went back outside to his yardwork, and I cleaned the kitchen — and made damned sure to get the smudges on the oven door.
Hours later, I was wishing I’d brought a one-piece suit when I put my skimpy one on. It was made for being pretty, and I honestly wasn’t sure the top would stay put for actual swimming.
But we’d be in a lake, not a pool, and it was close to dark. I’d just have to make sure my nipples were covered before I got out after swimming. It’d be fine, I assured myself.
I had no idea where he was when I gathered up a towel and headed down to the water, but he was in a lounger with a beer, staring out at the water when I reached the dock.
“Is it okay to dive here?” I asked, standing at the edge, and he nodded. “Smart to ask. It’s about eight feet deep there, so you’re good as long as you don’t go straight down.”
I dove in and started swimming, and heard him dive in behind me. Soon, he was beside me, easily cutting through the dark water and matching my pace.
I headed for a small island I figured was about three hundred yards away, pushing hard with my arms to keep my speed up. I have to push hard with my arms, but my feet seem to kick themselves. Odd how that works.
I’d exhausted myself and was looking forward to sitting on the island and resting before driving myself hard on the way back, and was only maybe ten or twenty feet from the island when his arm came around my waist from behind and yanked me backward hard enough to knock the air out of me.
We were moving backward fast, away from the sanctuary of the island, when I saw the snake — thick, glistening body with its head up ready to strike. The scary too-white mouth opened in a silent hiss. I’d somehow managed to piss it off and hadn’t even known it.
How had Magnum seen it before it’d opened its mouth? It’s a black snake in dark water, and we were past twilight.
It moved toward us, and Magnum shifted us so he was between me and the snake, his arm still around my ribs while he moved us away from the island.
I’m actually okay with some snakes, but never the poisonous ones, and the idea this one was in the water with us was like an extra fright-night thing. I wanted to help get us away from him, but with my arms trapped beside my body, all I could do was kick my legs to help.
He didn’t relax his grip around me until we were a good forty yards from the snake. Or from where it’d been the last time I’d seen it, anyway. I had to assume it’d stopped chasing us, but I didn’t know that for sure.
Somehow, I figured Magnum would know, though. If he stopped, it meant we were in the clear.
So when he loosened the strong grip he had around my ribcage, I turned in his arms to thank him for saving me, but our gazes met and words left me.
We were chest to chest, our faces inches apart with the dark water lapping between us, and all I could do was stare into his eyes while one of his hands stayed at my waist, fingers spread wide, holding me up without effort.
For a long moment, we just floated and kicked, bobbing in the water, staring at each other.
Then he let go and drifted back half a foot, just far enough that the contact broke.
“Thanks for the save,” I managed to get out.
“You were focused on the destination instead of your surroundings. If I had to guess, I’d say he was about to strike at his dinner, and we scared whatever it was off.”
“I was looking forward to chilling out on the island a little before pushing myself just as hard on the swim back,” I admitted.
“You good to swim back?” he asked. “We can rest if you aren’t.”
“We can go back slower. Nothing says it has to be a sprint.” I looked around again. “It’s a really nice night, but now I have the heebie-jeebies about snakes in the water.”
He chuckled. “Worse things than snakes in the water, but I’ll protect you. Lead the way so I can keep an eye on you again.”
I approached the dock slower when we arrived, my eyes scanning for snakes.
“There’s a turtle off to your right. Nothing else close that’s above water,” he said from behind me.
I forced myself to swim to the ladder and get out like nothing was bothering me, and then looked down to see one boob completely out of the suit. I kept my back to him and wrapped the towel around me, rolling it under my arms and over my boobs so it covered me from pits to thighs.
“How the hell did you see the snake before it opened its mouth?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Who knows? Movement, probably. It caught my eye, and the shape of the head was obvious, so I got us the fuck away from it.”
It seemed plausible, but I didn’t believe him. There was no reason not to, but my inner reporter told me there was more. I couldn’t imagine what it might be, though. Why wouldn’t he be honest? It didn’t make sense.
And asking follow-up questions would be awkward, so I dropped it and told him, “I feel better despite the adrenaline dump. I’m gonna take a long shower and then hit the sack. Thanks for swimming with me.”
He grunted, sat back in the lounger he’d been in when I came down, and I figured that was all I was getting from him.
- - - ? - - -
Magnum
There was no way I could explain how my vision at twilight is so much better than a human’s. No way to explain my brain is specifically programmed to watch out for natural predators in that fucking environment.
I’d seen the snake about to strike, saw the large bullfrog he’d been eyeing get startled by us and leap away, and then Storm had suddenly been all up in the snake’s business.
It was annoyed about losing its dinner and defensive because Storm’s arm sliced into the water less than a foot away from him.
I’d been on the other side of her and a few feet back, so I could keep an eye on her. My arm was around her and my body propelling us backward before I even considered what to do.
I’d worried she’d panic and be stupid once she saw the snake, and I’d worked to get us farther away when he’d opened his mouth so there was no way she could miss him, but she surprised me.
Sure, there’d been fear and adrenaline, but she’d used them to help me get us away, kicking her feet to beat the band. There’d been no girly-girl panic.
The more time I spent around her, the more she impressed me.
Not to mention the fact she’d made it to the island faster than most humans can manage. To say she was a strong swimmer would be an understatement, and my inner turtle especially liked that she was so at home in his favorite environment.
I still wasn’t sure what to do with her turning in my arms and staying put, though. Most women, when you grab them and tow them away, can’t get away from you fast enough when you let them go.
But this chick had balls of steel. It’d been all I could do to push her away and not kiss her, but that wasn’t why she was here, so I’d only held her long enough to make sure she was keeping herself afloat before I’d regretfully moved completely away from her.
I desperately wished we could rescue the fighters in two weeks instead of ten, and I made a little personal vow to do everything in my power to figure out how to get it done — because surviving another two and a half months with her living in my house while she was off limits was going to be hard enough without stretching it out even longer.
If we weren’t ready, we’d wait, of course, but I was going to push hard so we’d be ready.