A Night by My Fire

Mud that was coming back into the room, grunting to see her in the sleeping place of honor.

Eyes still closed, speaking into the pillow, River grumbled, “If you think I am moving from this couch after you fixed my back, you’re stupider than you look.”

Stephen settled on the rug. “Your contrary behavior is predictable. Ascertaining the pattern was simple.”

Turning her head so she might grin down at the man, River cooed, ready to make him as uncomfortable as he made her, “Disappointed I didn’t swoon like the maiden in the book?”

Arm behind his head, he replied to the ceiling, “I heard you outside.”

He wasn’t supposed to have answered that way. “Yeah, well I heard you inside.”

Those odd, observant eyes darted right to hers. “You enjoyed it, knowing I imagined fucking you, just as I enjoyed knowing you were listening.”

River was not sure what shocked her more, the bluntness of his declaration or the fact the oversized cretin had used foul language. “You... you can’t say things like that.”

And now she found she could not look him in the eye. In fact, in his presence she’d actually demurred.

To make his point and seal his victory, the stranger affirmed, “I can.”

Chapter Seven

River woke cautious, the same way condemned men, those who had begun to comprehend the new darkness they lived in, woke. It was that in-between place of disbelief—that place where things could not possibly be as they seemed—where one thought memory was all some grand ruse.

Stephen almost imagined she could smell her fate in the air… or maybe she could hear it now that the wind had died down.

When River uncurled from the ball she’d slept in, back cracking as the female groaned, she too seemed to notice a palpable change. Wiping the back of her hand under her nose, she looked to Stephen… utterly confused.

“What are you looking at?”

He’d waited. He’d watched for hours, as the woman slept far too much. “I’m looking at you.”

Something buzzed far more than his general nearness, and River was determined to unsettle things back to their grating status quo. She purred at him, eager to earn his irritation, “Planning to finally thank me?”

“Yes.”

These new, uncustomary answers were setting her off-balance, altering what had been days’ long tension to replace it with uneasy familiarity. “Then get to it, you ungrateful dick.”

Something was going on in that mind of his. “You saved my life.”

“I did.”

“You dragged me up a mountain.”

“That too,” River confirmed.

“And treated my wounds, my illness. You fed me.”

“You brought in wood. You cooked. You’ve carried your reasonable share of the burden considering your injury.”

“You won’t last in this world, River.”

And suddenly it all seemed more amusing than supernatural. She glowed, her smile one-hundred percent genuine. “Between the two of us, Prince Charming, you are the one who is hopelessly doomed. But there is something about you, so I’m going to give you a hint.” The shine of obsidian eyes dimmed. Her smile wavered. “There’s a lot more to the world than what you know. Seek things that make you uncomfortable, that challenge you, and you’ll see I’m right.”

All through her lesson, Stephen’s eyes had grown fiercer as if to scream that she was the one who needed to learn. “You need to put a lock on your door. Men are dangerous.”

Something else was going on. River cocked her head, asking, “What of women?”

“There is no other woman I know more dangerous to me than you.”