Opening my eyelids in the morning, I was surprised to realize I had actually slept.
Some of the night, anyway. I’d awakened time and time again, my body unused to such close proximity with another and sweltering from Elias’ body heat.
Also, the guy was huge, and he clearly wasn’t used to sharing a bed either.
Several times when he shifted to get more comfortable, I thought I was going to get bumped off the mattress and spend the night on the floor after all. Not exactly restful, to put it mildly.
Each time he rolled over, he kept his arm around me and took me with him like he was a little kid and I was his favorite teddy bear. It was a testament to my state of sheer exhaustion that I managed to calm myself and drift off again.
Once I jolted awake from a nightmare where I was back in that cabin with Heath. The Retrievers had burst through the door, intent on taking me and Daniel back to Gideon Corp to be poked and prodded and studied.
I must have made some noise because Elias had patted my stomach and nuzzled into my hair, murmuring something along the lines of, “You’re okay. You’re safe,” in a low, sleep roughened voice.
I couldn’t say whether he’d slept well or not. When I woke in the morning he was gone.
On the small table beside the bed sat an apple, a wooden bowl, a canister of water, and a note. I rolled over and reached for it then realized he’d removed the cord from my wrists at some point during the night.
No wonder I’d finally managed to drop into a sound sleep. I opened the note.
-Make yourself at home.
E.
Hmmph. I definitely did not feel at home here and doubted I ever would. But I was hungry. Starved actually.
I bit into the apple, and its tart sweetness filled my mouth, spiking my saliva and making my stomach growl with eagerness.
The bowl contained shelled walnuts. I ate a handful of those and drank some water then got out of bed. I needed to use the bathroom, but there was no bathroom in sight-not even a handy bucket.
Great. It was going to be nature-potty again, squatting in the woods like we’d done yesterday. Only this time I’d have to make my way down an enor- mous tree to get to the ground first. Fun.
There was a loud boom followed by a less intense rumble that faded slowly. And apparently I’ll be doing my business in a raging thunderstorm. Beautiful. Now I could hear rain pelting the tent. Elias hadn’t been lying about the ap- proaching weather system.
Sighing, I went to my backpack and pulled on my rain jacket. As soon as I pushed open the tent flap, the wind and rain slapped me.
Angry dark clouds obscured the sun, and the leaves and smaller branches surrounding the platform waved furiously.
None of it seemed to bother the guy standing outside only a few steps away from the tent. I’d never seen him before. He was stocky and blond, and he stood there, impervious to the rain blowing sideways and hitting him in the face.
When he spotted me, he rushed to the front of the tent, blocking my exit with his body.
“You’re supposed to stay here today. The platforms are slippery when it rains, and you’re not used to it.”
Oh yeah, like he was worried about my safety.
I attempted to push past him. “I’ll be fine. I need to get to the ground. To use the… I have to…”
Stopping, I gave him a look that said you figure it out.
His eyes popped wide. “Oh right.”
He stepped to the side to allow me to exit the tent and pointed to a small structure on the other side of the platform.
“It’s uh… in there.”
I threw him a withering glance. “Thank you.”
The hut housed a composting toilet like those used on the base. The self- contained units didn’t need to be connected to a sewage system. They used natural processes to break down the waste. I wasn’t sure where they’d gotten one, but it was a very much appreciated piece of civilization out here in the wilderness.
Afterward, I washed my hands in the hut’s wash basin and stepped out to see the guard waiting right outside.
Instead of going back to Elias’ tent, I headed toward the rope ladder, ad- dressing him in a breezy tone.
“I’m going to go find my friends.”
The guy stepped into my path. He was nearly as thick as a tree trunk, and he didn’t budge an inch.
“Sorry. I can’t let you leave. Chief’s orders.”
Apparently his orders were always followed in this place.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“Derrick.”
“Well Derrick, you can tell your chief I think he’s a big fat bully.”
The guy licked his lips, darting his eyes from side to side as if we might be overheard way up here away from the rest of the Haven.
“Uh… I’d rather not. I’d don’t think he’d like that much.”
I sighed and spun around, ducking into the tent again. After securing the flap against the elements, I stood up and looked around.
Now what?
I wandered around the tent, exploring. Okay, snooping, but what else was I supposed to do trapped in here all day alone? If Elias wanted to preserve his privacy he should have locked me up in the jail tent instead of his own personal domain.
Poking through the baskets and boxes, I checked out his clothes and personal items. He also had a really nice archery bow, some tools, and a collection of unique looking rocks.
And then I spotted the most interesting thing I’d seen in a long time—maybe ever.
In one corner of the tent sat a box piled high with books. There were paper- backs and even some with hard covers.
I’d never owned any actual physical books, doing all my reading for school and pleasure on my tablet or streaming the audio versions on my holoconnect. The only paper books I’d ever seen had been kept behind glass at our school, displayed as art.
I went to the box and knelt beside it. Picking up book after book, I studied their front and back covers then fanned through the pages, amazed. They smelled wonderful.
It was hard to choose, but I selected the one that looked most interesting and settled back into the hammock to read.
That was how I passed my day. The entire day.
Several times I checked outside the tent, but the guard was always there. Twice he opened the flap and set plates of food inside, which I devoured quickly.
Was this my existence now? Stuck in a cage like the animals I’d seen in zoos in the old vids? Actually the animals had been on display – I was being hidden away.
But why?
Maybe Elias was questioning my friends before he got to me. Or maybe he was letting time pass, waiting to see if the Retrievers had followed us after all. The rain continued all day, but everything inside the tent stayed dry. It must have been made of waterproof material-hydrosilk or maybe aquaprene.
It was probably hydrosilk since it was comfortably warm in here. The mate- rial not only repelled water but used it plus the sun’s energy to create and store heat. We’d been taught that troops also used it to collect and boil water if they were stationed in a remote area far from utilities.
I read until after dark, switching on the small bedside e-torch when I could no longer see the pages. At least the book was good. Amazing actually.
It was called The Stand and was about a civilization-ending virus. The author had been quite prophetic as it turned out.
Eventually I fell asleep, enjoying the ability to stretch out in the bed instead of being crowded by the enormous Blanket Bandit.
The sound of rustling noises awakened me sometime later. Elias was there, moving carefully around the room, presumably to avoid disturbing me.
The e-torch was still on though it was much dimmer than it had been before I’d fallen asleep the solar charge must have been nearly drained.
In the low light, I watched him as he washed his hands and face in the basin and sanitized his teeth.
He pulled his shirt over his head and sniffed his underarms. Then he washed those too. Hooking his thumbs into the waistband of his pants, he started to tug them down but stopped abruptly and glanced back over his shoulder at me.
I slammed my eyelids shut, my heart hammering in my chest. After a second, I opened them again slowly, keeping my lids slitted. Elias had turned back around.
He continued to undress until he was just in his underwear.
As he moved, the muscles in his back rippled and flexed in a fascinating dis- play. His legs, too, were thickly muscled and powerful looking.
I’d seen my male classmates at the base pool in just their swim briefs. Yes, they’d looked different from the girls, but not remarkably so in my opinion. And Heath-I knew we’d gone to the beach together, so I must have seen him shirtless, but my memories of him were still fuzzy.
Elias though… something warm and sweet curled inside my abdomen as I watched him in secret. It gave me a distinct sense of pleasure to look at him. Which made me feel kind of guilty. Was it wrong to study him like this when he thought I was sleeping and he was sort of alone?
How would I feel if the situation was reversed and I was the one undressing while he was surreptitiously watching me?
The warm, sweet thing grew stronger, becoming a sweltering heat that enveloped me from head to toe. I was filled with an overpowering sense of dread for the inevitable moment Elias would join me in the bed-along with a baffling feeling of anticipation.
When he turned around to face me, I closed my eyes completely but gradually eased them open again, taking in the sight of his wide chest and his tight abs moving under his skin as he approached the bed.
My heart was rocketing now, shooting around the tent like a pyrotechnic display gone haywire.
Meanwhile, I disciplined my body to be still, fighting with my own lungs, which wanted to wheeze like I’d just run the mile in ESBF class instead of breathe gently like a girl who’d been asleep for the past few hours.
The hammock bed rocked gently as Elias eased himself into it, and then there was a shift in the mattress as his weight depressed it.
Through it all I stayed still and silent, not moving when he lifted the blanket and got under it then pulled it back up over my shoulder again.
There was an excruciating moment when he swept his fingers lightly down the blanket over my back, but he removed his hand immediately and went still in the bed beside me.
Had he fallen asleep that quickly? Well, thank God for that.
I had so many questions for him. They’d been building up all day long, fueled by the things I’d seen so far at the Haven and by sheer boredom.
But I wouldn’t ask them now.
No way could I have a conversation with Elias after watching him undress. And I didn’t want him to know I was awake and had been spying on him. After a few minutes, he rolled over, moving closer to me and draping an arm across my waist. Was it still about security? About preventing my escape?
It occurred to me he hadn’t tied me up tonight. Either he believed my story now and trusted I wasn’t here to assassinate him.
Or he didn’t think I was capable of doing it.
He was right about that. I didn’t want to hurt him-or anyone here. I wasn’t happy about how we’d been treated so far, but I didn’t wish the Haven’s resi- dents any harm.
Hopefully in the morning we’d talk, all the misunderstandings would be cleared up, and I could go about the task of evaluating this place as a potential permanent home. And getting myself out of his tent and into one of my own.
I slept better. Not great, but better than the night before. And there were no nightmares for the first night in a long time. None that I remembered anyway.
Maybe that big arm holding me securely had an unexpected side effect be- yond keeping me from escaping.
It felt like safety.
Odd.
Once I did awaken briefly. Though Elias hadn’t made any noise and I didn’t think I had, he nuzzled his face into my hair as he’d done the night before when he’d been comforting me.
It was such an intimate gesture. Though I was uncomfortable, it also melted my heart like a stick of butter left in the sun. He must have been dreaming. When I tried to gingerly scoot away and put some distance between our bod- ies, his arm muscles tightened, and he dragged me closer.
Wait… was he awake?
I went very still, struggling to control my breathing. I could hear Elias’ breaths as well, and they seemed to be coming more rapidly than before, strik- ing my cheekbone in warm gusts.
If he was awake and aware of what he was doing, then I should tell him to back off. Shouldn’t I?
Or maybe he was the one having a nightmare this time and the snuggling was meant to comfort himself instead of me.
Once again I wondered what had happened to Elias to inspire his escape from the base where he’d grown up. I had so many questions.
Maybe tomorrow would hold the answers.
