Chapter 17 #2
He pushes out a heavy breath and walks away.
Then he turns back. “I think we might be attracted to one another,” he says.
“In fact, there’s no doubt in my mind that we are.
We’ve been thrown together in trying circumstances, so perhaps it isn’t all that surprising.
We’re not in the real world right now. We’re operating differently.
I didn’t mean for you to walk in on me…for you to see me.
I didn’t want to go too far away, just in case, and I needed to… take care of…” He shrugs.
“Your morning erection.”
He nods. “Yep. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me.”
“I don’t. It’s fine. Guys do that.”
“Guys?” He lifts his brows. “It’s a guy thing?”
“Women do it too…but…do we really need to talk about this?” I groan. “It’s really embarrassing.”
“We do, Carla. You watched me jerk off. You liked it.”
I cover my face with my hand. “You make it sound like I’m a pervert or something.”
“You’re not, and neither am I. We’ve noticed one another out here.”
“Hard not to. You’re naked,” I tell him.
“And you may as well be.” He rubs a hand over his face. “We’re not thinking straight. We probably wouldn’t even look twice at each other back on the Mainland.”
“Exactly.” I giggle. It sounds shrill because I was kind of checking out his ass on the Mainland, so that isn’t true.
“Here’s the thing though. And this is important.” He turns to face me fully. “You can’t run like that, Carla.”
“I was embarrassed,” I say. “I needed to get away from—”
“Do not run from me. Not ever!”
I open my mouth.
“Firstly, running blindly in the jungle can get you into all kinds of trouble.”
“I never thought of that.” I swallow thickly.
“And secondly, you almost sent my beast into hunt mode,” he says.
I stare at him. “Hunt mode?” I repeat it back because I need a second. “You weren’t going to hurt me, were you? You didn’t look like you wanted to hurt me. Did you want to hurt me?” I sound a little panicked.
The smile that crosses his face is the most unexpectedly devastating thing I have seen in a long time.
It knocks the air from me. He gets this dimple in his right cheek. His eyes dance.
He shakes his head. “I would never hurt you.” He turns deadly serious.
I get this weird feeling in my lower belly, and the throbbing starts back up between my legs.
“Okay,” I say slowly. “You didn’t want to hurt me. So what did you want to…um do?”
“I wanted to fuck you.” A pause. “My beast wanted me to take you. To push you to the ground and—” He stops.
“He could smell that you were wet and ready for me. I had a hold on him, but only just. And then you went and ran, and my control slipped. You wanted me, and I was a few seconds from taking everything you were offering.”
My mouth has fallen open. I make this weird noise that doesn’t pass as a word.
“I’m sorry.” He shakes his head once. “That was crass. But it’s true. You can trust me, okay? I won’t hurt you. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want, but if you run you make it so much more difficult for me.”
“That’s… I’m not sure what to make of that.” My nipples feel hard again. My body wants me to turn and run but only so that he’ll make good on all of those promises. Thankfully my mind is shutting it all down.
No running.
“There’s an attraction here that I am going to acknowledge even if you won’t, but it can’t go anywhere.
” He rubs his stubbled jaw, looking a little tortured.
“You would regret it. We both would. It would be base, mindless fucking and nothing more. The raw kind that neither of us wants or needs. It wouldn’t go anywhere.
We both know that.” His massive shoulders drop a fraction.
“Let me get you home to Flint, where you belong.”
I nod. “You’re right. I agree fully.”
Base, mindless fucking. The raw kind.
Holy shit!
I can barely breathe just thinking about it. I should hate the idea.
Why don’t I?
The thing is, the thought of Magma putting me up against a tree and fucking me senseless has my legs feeling weak and my pulse kicking up.
I don’t feel nearly as relieved by the mention of Flint as I expected to.
Which is insane. I like Flint. I want a relationship with him. I do!
Magma is right! We would regret it. I would regret it.
I glance at Magma and have to look away because holy shit! I’m still giving it some thought. I’m considering going there.
No!
“What’s going on in your head?” Magma asks, still watching me.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “I’m fine. I’ll be more careful.
I won’t run from you again.” I meet his eyes this time and hold them.
“I trust you. I think you’re right about an attraction between us, but you’re also right about this place driving it.
We’re so pumped full of adrenaline we can’t think straight. ”
Something moves in his expression. Just for a second.
“Good,” he says. “I’m glad we got that out of the way. We need to get you muddied up again, and then we should get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
I nod.
He turns, and we walk toward the part of the jungle where the ferns grow thick, and the moss comes up in dense green patches between the roots, and the mud is dark and cold and waiting.
My mind is a jumble.
It’s all good. Magma and I are friends. We’re going to keep it that way.