"Wait... what?" I asked, feeling like I had missed something.
"When we get back, Fee is going to talk to you about it," he said, shaking his head, moving into the hall, seemingly unwilling to give me anything else. "Pack. Get some sleep in my room. I am going to take the lamp when you're done, so I can finish straightening the place up for the owner so we can get out of here as fast as possible tomorrow."
With that, he was gone, closing my door as he went, like some silent sign not to follow him.
I didn't have a hell of a lot of pride left, but I had just enough to prevent me from running after a man who clearly did not want to be around me.
So I slowly, carefully, painstakingly packed; I straightened my room, hearing Rush doing the same across the hall, likely by the light of his phone.
He certainly didn't want to waste any time getting out of here. Getting away from this situation. And, even in an abstract way, me.
On that sobering thought, I took the lamp across the hall, placing it a foot out from his door, knocking.
"All yours," I said before rushing across the hall, closing, and locking my door, throwing myself in the bed, burrowing deep under the blankets, ignoring the cold that seemed to sink into my bones with each passing moment.
I wasn't going across that hall.
I wasn't getting in that bed.
Where the sheets smelled like him.
Where I had done something so stupid as to think it was possible to have something real with Rush Rivers.
I couldn't.
It was all fantasy.
Sure, he'd kissed me.
But I was there.
He was horny.
I was what he could reach out for.
It wasn't a happy thought, but it was a realistic one.
And it was one I repeated in my mind like a mantra for what felt like hours as Rush banged around a floor below me.
If I were a bigger person, I would go down there and help him.
But I wasn't.
So I stayed put, layering on a few sweaters, two pairs of socks, slipping all the way under all the blankets, head and all.
It was hours before I could hear his feet on the stairs, going into his room, pausing, likely taking in the empty bed, then coming across the hall.
My breath caught in my chest as I waited for his hand to raise, for his knuckles to knock, for his voice to demand I come back to his bed, get warm.
But I waited in vain.
Because all I heard was an exhalation of his breath, then his footsteps moving away, his door closing, locking, the bed groaning as he got down in it.
So, that was it.
Ridiculous, irrational tears sprang into my eyes, making me blink them back with a determination that didn't feel familiar.
I wasn't going to cry.
Over a freaking story I created in my own mind, some fairytale where the plain, boring, awkward girl finds out she was somehow beautiful, interesting, and elegant after all, that she caught the attention of the handsomest man in all the land, and she was going to live happily ever after.
God, how could I have been so naive?
My life wasn't a fairytale.
I damn sure wasn't a princess.
And Rush Rivers wasn't exactly acting very princely right now either.
It was time to go.
Back to the cold, hard reality.
At least I knew where I stood there.
Whether I liked it or not.SIXRushMy cock was still straining against my pants when I opened the cabinet to find the phone I wasn't sure how we'd missed when searching the house.
Of course a remote cabin with shitty reception that experienced end-of-the-world wind and rain storms would have a corded landline phone so they could call for help if they needed it.
Honestly, it had been so long since I'd seen an actual phone with a cord that I had all but forgotten they existed.
But there it was, and it was ringing, and we could finally tell somewhat what was going on.
"Hello?"
"Oh, good. You're still alive," Fiona's voice met my ear, making a mix of relief and irritation move through me.
"Where the hell are all of you?" I asked.
"Oh, see. This is the funny part..."
Only, it wasn't funny. Normally, I had a high tolerance for pranks. I liked to pull them; I was a good sport about them being pulled on me.
If Fee had done this to Atlas, I would have been laughing my ass off. It was clever. And aside from the unexpected power outage and inability to get help, it was all just in good fun.
Except it wasn't happening to Atlas; It was happening to me.
And maybe even more inexplicably, it was happening to Katie. A girl who had likely never pulled a prank on anyone in her life, someone who didn't deserve to be the butt of a joke by her boss.