That fun flutter I always feel when he comes into the room blossoms into a more dangerous ache that feels something closer to love. I push the ridiculous idea aside. We’re on the run for our lives.
“Aw, that's so sweet. The beast picks flowers.” I tease him, trying to keep things light as I take them to put in a cup of water. It’s not lost on me that I’ve had fresh-cut flowers delivered more times than I can count, but none of those expensive bouquets were even close to feeling as personal as the small spray of mismatched flowers in my hand.
“The beast can do many things,” Z continues on, trying to pull me back into his embrace.
I can’t help but laugh and ask, “Can the beast conjure up a hot shower by chance?” Showering is, without a doubt, the thing I miss the most from civilization—even more than my phone—and that’s saying something.
Finally releasing me to go rummage through our dwindling food supplies for something to fix us for breakfast, Z surprises me. “I’m not making any promises, but I know we can’t stay here much longer. We need to keep moving and I have a few options that will be a definite step up from the Shangri-la here.”
A tiny part of me is sad at his news. As remote and rundown as the cabin is, it will always be a special place for me. My carefree time here with Z has been a salve for my busy life I wasn’t even aware I needed. He’s done the impossible—made me forget for long stretches at a time that I killed a man and that an entire mafia family is looking for me to make me pay.
“We should eat soon. I don’t want to be late checking in with Dex,” Z says, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Would you kill me if I don’t hike up to the peak with you today?” I ask, rationing out some of the last of our sugar for my coffee.
Z pulls me into his arms again, this time hugging me so I have a front-row view of that sexy grin of his. “Baby, I’m the one trying to keep you alive, so no, I won’t kill you if you stay here. But,” his smile grows impossibly bigger. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. Last night when you were torturing me with that tongue of yours, I promised to cut a switch and introduce that ass of yours to a little corporal punishment. Staying at the cabin isn’t going to get you out of your earned punishment. I’ll just cut a switch and bring it back with me.”
My legs wobble under me at his threat, which let’s face it, is more like a promise. Short of a swat here or there in the throes of passion, I’ve never been with anyone into the kinkier side of sex. In these few days with Z, I’ve gotten an inkling of just how much I might be missing.
“Promises, promises,” I flirt back.
“I just wish we didn’t have to hike to Timbuktu to get a damn phone signal, but like Dex says, that’s helping to keep us off the radar for now. I may take off a bit earlier today. I’m anxious to get his update after his meeting with a few more of our allies.”
True to his word, Z leaves right after we finish eating our morning oatmeal, promising to return as soon as he can with a switch in hand. I’ve never had the skin of my ass tingle without being touched before, but just the thought of being bared and whipped by Z has me almost regretting not going with him on our daily hike. But it takes close to an hour each way to get to the highest spot in the forest—the only place we could get a few bars of cell service—and I don’t have any shoes with me that make that a fun trip. The flip-flops I wore yesterday are starting to come apart and I have a blister.
I busy myself cleaning around the cabin, hauling trips of ruined furnishings from the unusable bedroom out to our burn pile. I’ve really come to enjoy our nightly bonfire, just the two of us sitting on a blanket under the stars, enjoying nature while we talk for hours. I keep waiting to hit a subject that we’ll disagree on, but it hasn’t happened yet. Instead, our long talks about nothing and everything somehow always end up with Z’s dick inside at least one of my body parts.
I smile to myself, fondly remembering all of the deliciously dark things he’s done to my body while anxiously looking forward to another round later after he returns from his call to Dex.
What feels like a few hours later, my aching back tells me it’s time to be done with my cleaning duties for the day. And since Z will be back to the cabin any time, I decide to head down to the river to take a quick dip and clean up. The water is almost unbearably cold now, but the midday sun is the warmest time of the day.