6
Maya
I’m soo comfortable. I swear my entire body is resting on a cloud. I let off a luxurious yawn and stretch. But this doesn’t feel like anywhere I’ve slept before.
Where am I?
My eyes snap open. I take in a sloping wooden ceiling, a wooden wall. A rustic window revealing a dark sky.
I jerk upright.
I’m in Forge’s bed.
It all rushes back to me. His tongue. Down there. Licking me like he couldn’t get enough of me. Then something amazing happened. Like fireworks, and rainbows and volcanic eruptions. All rolled into one.
And then… I fell asleep on him?
That bit I don’t remember, at all. Sure hope I didn’t do something embarrassing.
Half the comforter is underneath me, while the other half is on top of me, all tucked around me. Did he do that?
I slip out of the bed and pad across the cabin, looking for him.
He’s not there, but there’s a huge laptop on the table, glowing with a screensaver of a motorcycle. I tiptoe over. It’s his motorcycle, and he’s astride it, looking all sexy and forbidding. I’m real glad he’s alone in the photo, and there’s no ex-girlfriend or whatever riding on the passenger seat.
The oven is switched on, too, but it’s empty. Strange. The bathroom isn’t occupied, either.
Panic ignites in my chest.
Has something happened to him? Did someone follow us all the way out here, somehow?
I run to the door of the cabin, yank it open and burst out onto the deck. It’s real dark. I can’t see Forge anywhere. Can’t see much of anything.
I rush to the grass at the end of the deck. “Forge!” I yell, my heart pounding.
Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet disappears. Something’s wrong. I’m walking on air.
Shit. I try to turn, dive back onto land, but it’s too late.
I’m falling, falling.
Splash!
I’m in ice-cold water. Aghh! The shock drags a scream from my lungs. I can swim, but long grasses tangle around my legs and I can’t see anything. “Help!” I yell out. My limbs are thrashing and I’m breathing way too fast. The darkness intensifies. I get light-headed. I’m going to pass out—
A strong pair of arms wraps around me from behind. Holds me tight.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Maya. I’ve got you.” Forge’s voice is low and soft in my ear. “I’ve got you.” He turns me around in his arms, so I’m facing him, and I wrap my arms around his neck, clinging tight. Then a sob breaks out of me.
“Hush, you’re safe now,” he croons in that gravelly voice of his.
Safe. In his arms. I feel his big chest rising and falling in time with his breaths, the strong, slow beat of his heart.
At last, I quit hyperventilating. “I’m sorry,” I whimper.
“It’s fine. I caught you. That’s what matters. But what happened?”
“I woke up. You weren’t there, and I was scared something had happened. I ran outside, and I slipped—” I sniffle, mortified by what a giant idiot I was.