Page 80 of Making the Save

“Did I mess up so badly?” she whispered. “That you can’t stand to be in the same bed as me?”

“No. No. God no, Syd. I’d…” I stopped, squeezed her legs. Wondered why in the world we were having this conversation with her on my back instead of face to face. Maybe it was best. Maybe this was the only way to have this conversation. “I’d really like to be in that bed with you.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“Because you didn’t want this to get complicated, and, I don’t know. It’s starting to feel complicated.”

“Not to me,” she said. “You said sex could make things simple. And,” I could feel her deep breath. My fairy was gathering up her courage and I squeezed her leg, encouraging her. “I want you.”

“I want you too, Syd,” I said.

I hitched her up higher on my waist and her inner thighs squeezed my hips. At this rate I was going to stay hard all night. Standing outside in the cool air with nothing on other than a pair of boxer briefs should have had a more calming effect on me than it did.

But Sydney Malloy wanted me. Rough. Brutish. Complicated. Me.

It was enough to keep me hard for days.

“So? We just wait here and see if it comes out?” she asked.

“It’s either this or see if it learns how to open a door,” I said.

“This,” she said and pressed her face against my shoulder.

Within seconds we saw its whiskers and wiggling snout on the windowsill. It’s bandit mask and weird hands. We watched in the light of the moon as it climbed up on the sill, scooped up the pretzels and started nibbling on them.

“Oh, look,” she sighed in my ear. “How cute!”

“Five minutes ago you were terrified to be in a cabin with this thing. Now you think it’s cute?”

“Outside nibbling on a pretzel, cute. Inside, rabies death animal, not cute. Simple.”

The raccoon hopped out of the window onto the ground in search of more pretzels.

“Quick, quick,” Syd said, and kicked my thigh. “Before he decides to come back in.”

“Did you just giddyup me?” I asked, slightly offended.

“Hurry!”

I ran back around the cabin, dropped her at the threshold of the door, and went into the bedroom and closed the window. To be safe, and because I knew she would ask, I did a thorough search of the bedroom for both additional critters and raccoon poop. Thankfully, there was none of either. I walked back to the main room only to find her plumping up my pillow and settling in under the blanket on the sofa bed.

“Really,” I sighed, pointing at the bedroom. “That’s an excellent bed with an excellent mattress just through that door.”

“You know I can’t go back into that room tonight.”

“I checked for more animals and poop. There’s nothing.”

“Come on,” she said simply. “I want to make sure it’s as comfortable as the lady promised.” She pulled back the blanket and patted the open space next to her.

There was no refusing that invitation. I slipped in bed and pulled her into my arms. She pressed her feet, cold from being outside, against my shins and I yelped.

“Geezus woman!”

She laughed and sighed, relaxing against me. My arms were full of warm, sweet Sydney and sleep was far from my mind.

“You sleepy?” I asked.

“Not even a little bit.” She reached up and stroked my beard, pulling me towards her.