Chapter 5
Lena
Lena!”
I hear Cami’s scream, but can’t see a thing as my eyes are struggling to adjust to the light, and apparently the change in pressure, because I instantly feel woozy. I stumble a step or two before falling to my knees, feeling the forest floor under me.
Hands grab my shoulders, arms wrap around me. I smell her perfume and listen to Cami’s panicked instructions to Theo.
“We need to get you to a hospital!” I feel Cami and Theo on either side of me, lifting me from the ground.
“No, just take me back to the hotel. I’m fine, really.” I protest.
“Lena, how can you possibly be fine? You fell down a fucking hole!” Cami never uses my first name, so I know she is upset. But how can I possibly explain to her that a seven-foot cave giant saved my life? My heart beats a little faster at the thought of him and what I let him do.
“I didn’t fall, I mostly slid. I bumped my head a lot, but I had my helmet on. I’m fine, really. I just need to lie down. If I feel bad later, then I will definitely go to the hospital, okay?”
Cami and Theo are starting to come into focus as my eyes adjust to the light. Their faces are identical sets of scrunched-up eyebrows and downturned mouths. I start to look around for Martin and don’t see him.
“Where is Dr. Kessler?”
Theo opens his mouth and then shuts it, shooting a look at Cami.
“He left…to get help.” Her words are clipped.
“Oh. How long ago was that? Also, how long was I down there for? It was hard to tell.” I smile at them both, trying to keep their spirits up.
“Three…maybe four hours?” Theo says.
Definitely felt way longer. “Ah, okay. Well, it’s still light out, so let’s head back.” I take a step and stumble a bit.
“You can barely walk!” Cami is near tears.
A thought comes to mind. There are only two people I know in this town, and I bet both of them would help me if needed. “Theo, I need your phone.”
He digs it out of his pack, placing it carefully in my hand.
I tap on the screen, pull up the number, and set it to speakerphone in case I do end up passing out. On the third ring, she picks up, “Owl and Lantern, this is Kate, how can I help you?”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Hey Kate, this is Dr. Vance. We met the other day when I came in asking about books for the caves around here.”
“Oh yeah, hey, how’s it going?”
“Well, it’s a long story, but I need your help.”
???
KATE AND CAMI SIT on either side of me on the bed, each wearing a look of abject worry.
“You both need to stop it. I’m fine, I swear.”
“You fell down a hole!” Cami protests.
“Your shirt literally was torn from your body.” Kate points out.
I hold up both of my hands, warding off their comments. “I get it, I do. I don’t quite understand what happened either, but you both checked me out, and I don’t even have a scratch. I must have slid down or something.”
Kate and Cami throw each other a look. Cami opens her mouth as though to keep hammering the point home that all of this is too fucking weird, but I cut her off before she has a chance.
“Cami, can you give Kate and me a moment alone, please? Just want to ask her something.” I smile sweetly at her, hoping she takes a hint.
Cami snaps her mouth shut and gives me a curt nod before heading out.
Kate smooths the comforter over me, tucking it in unnecessarily. “What’s up? You gonna tell me what really happened?”
My eyes flood unexpectedly, and I have to swipe away those emotions before my throat closes up too much to form words.
“Kate.” I stop. I don’t even know how to say what I’m about to say, or why I’m choosing to say it to the bookstore lady I just met a few days ago.
“So. I fell down a really deep hole and I broke my ankle, and my wrist, and probably fucked up some internal organs and my neck, and this-” I pause, sliding a hand over my face.
Oddly, Kate seems riveted by what I’m saying, a slow blush rising on her cheeks. She nudges my hand to keep going.
“You’re going to want to send the men in white coats to take me away.”
“I’m not.” She says so seriously that it makes me wonder what the hell goes on in this town.
“This giant, and I mean at least seven-foot tall man? I can’t even describe him as a man. I mean, he was silvery blue, with long wavy black hair, and had these huge arms and like, a sexy dad bod? And…Kate.” I swallow.
“What happened?” She whispers.
This stops me. “You’re asking me ‘what happened’ and not ‘You’re crazy and have a concussion.’”
Kate sighs. “It’s a long story, but suffice it to say this is not the weirdest thing I have heard this year. Keep going. What happened?”
“Damn, okay. We definitely need to get a drink sometime. But he healed me in this warm magical water, I think? Which makes no sense, it should have been freezing. There is a larger chamber where I fell. He asked me if I was there to worship him. That’s weird, right?”
Kate’s forehead scrunches up in thought. “Like…a god?”
“He was definitely godlike.” My face is red now, because the memory that I can’t stop thinking about, the one that has had my pussy wet and throbbing since I left the cave, is front and center as I remember the look of desperate need in his eyes when he looked at my naked body.
A smirk is plastered on Kate’s face. “Is that all?”
“No.”
“You wanna tell me, or am I just going to have to infer based on how red your face is and that a vein in your neck is about to pop open?”
“I don’t know what came over me. I definitely could have stopped it. Hell, he even said ‘Tell me to stop.’”
“That’s hot.”
“I know. And I didn’t. I just let him go down on me. I haven’t had sex in over a year, Kate, and now I’m letting some hot giant silver dad bod go down on me in a cave?” I flump back down in my pillows, unaware that I had even sat up in the first place.
“Well…you shouldn’t have been able to see him, but maybe the magical water changed things…
” She looks off into the distance, almost talking to herself, then to me.
She gives a little shake of her head, sending her black curls bouncing.
“I’ll do some research and see what I can dig up. Or…” She trails off.
“What do you mean I shouldn’t have been able to see him? And what do you mean ‘or…’”
“Ah, that’s a topic for another day, you’ll definitely need a drink for that. As for the other thing, you could just go back and ask him what his deal is. You’d be surprised.” She winks at me.
???
THE GREEN NEON numbers on the alarm clock tell me it’s 1:06 in the morning, and I haven’t slept at all since Kate and Cami left.
I flop over, punching my pillow into a more comfortable shape.
With each punch, I think, why, why, why!
Closing my eyes, the same images flash into view, those massive hands skidding across my skin, flexing each joint and muscle of my leg.
His silver eyes zeroed in on my wet pussy, so ready for him.
My face burns with shame in the darkness.
It took a giant touching me for all of two minutes for me to be ready.
I roll over, pulling the pillow over my face. Why didn’t I tell him to stop? Because it felt good to be looked at in that way. Because I needed that release, to feel free and liquid in a man’s hands once more. Because, because, because…he saved me.
I glance at the clock again. 1:12. Ugh.
Swinging my legs over the bed, I flex my toes, still testing out my ankle. It had snapped completely. I had felt it, but here I was with an ankle that felt strong under me as I stood. This will never do, tossing and turning until it's time to get up and face the day with Martin.
I stare at the chest of drawers holding all my clothes, thinking, deciding. Fuck it. I have to see him again, alone.