by Meg Maguire
“Why should there be something horrible?” She turned her head to meet his eyes.
“Because you talk about your family like they all died in a house fire or something. Like you’re an orphan.”
“I do not.”
“Just tell me something I don’t know. Then I’ll drop it.” He tightened his embrace. “Tell me about your family. I know you’ve got six brothers and two sisters and you’re the youngest. What about your folks?”
She sighed, too exhausted to bother fighting him. “My mom’s really tired and my father moved to Florida when I was six.”
“You paint a vivid picture.”
“What do you want, Ty, a scandal? When I was little my dad ran a shady bar and he took his work home with him. My mom’s an angry person and from what I can remember about my dad, they were a perfect match.” She paused. “That’s it. I’m not close to any of my siblings.”
“Are you, like, an emotional orphan or something?”
“Who are you, Dr. Phil, now? People have crappy childhoods all the time. Mine wasn’t any more special than anybody else’s crappy childhood. Why are you suddenly so desperate to unearth some dark secret?”
“I’m just trying to understand you, that’s all.”
“Because we’re lovers now?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Because it might be my last chance, maybe.”
“And whose fault is—”
“What did you think of my family?” Ty demanded, interrupting her.
She thought back to their trip to the Sydney suburbs when they’d filmed an episode in the Australian outback. Ty’s parents were still married and seemed to live a comfortable but unremarkable life. His father had a distinctly defeated quality to him, a zombieish, chronic depressive kind of aura. His mother oozed the cheerful, desperate optimism of a woman who was trying very hard to compensate for her despondent husband, but who probably felt equally lost.
“Your parents are very…different from you,” Kate concluded. “And each other. And your brother’s even weirder.” Ty’s older brother was in banking in some vague, titled capacity, and he had a wife who looked as if she’d been selected with the same strategic scrutiny as his BMW or Italian shoes. Even his haircut looked as though it had a stick shoved up its ass. He and Ty were similar enough physically that Kate had been left with an impression of two twins separated at birth—one raised in the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company and the other in a tree.
“Did meeting them shed any light on me?” he asked.
“I’m not interested in analyzing people, Ty. That’s why I moved to L.A. I’m quite happy judging books by their covers.” A half-truth. Kate had little patience for hidden agendas, but of course she was curious about the naked man currently wrapped around her. Still, she valued privacy over understanding. Intimacy was a two-way street, and she didn’t much care to be that open, even with Ty. Especially with Ty. He routinely made her feel raw and exposed, by virtue of their lingering flirtation. Whether he knew it or not, he had plenty of ammunition already. She had no idea why he seemed so eager for her to have the same arsenal.
Behind her, Ty grew restless. He slid a thigh between hers, making her breath catch. A warm, rough hand ran over her ribs and cupped her breast, and his voice was close behind her good ear.
“Have you ever been in love, Kate?”
Her body gave a little jolt, giving away her surprise at the question. “In retrospect, no.”
“So you thought you were, at some point.” He nuzzled her neck and shifted, and she felt him, hard against her bottom again.
“Have I told you you’re really lousy at pillow talk, Ty?”
“Tell me.” His hand left her breast to slip down across her belly, his thigh driving farther between her own to widen them.
“Fine. If you must know, I was engaged before I moved out to L.A.”
“Aha.”
“And I was ditched at the altar.”
“Really?” His hand paused, millimeters from her clit.
“Well, I was stood up at City Hall, yeah. Happy now?”
“Wow.” He was silent for a minute, contemplating this informational coup. “So let me guess—”
“Jesus, give it a rest.”
He plowed onward. “After you were left humiliated at the altar by your betrothed, you ran away to the West Coast, determined to prove yourself and get your revenge by being wildly successful, while also vowing never to trust another man with your heart again?”
“No, Ty.”
“Oh.”
She rolled her eyes. “No one’s that trite.”
“So what, then?”
She exhaled, resigning herself, eager to get this over with now that Ty’s strong, ready body was transforming her immediate priorities. “I got dumped on my wedding day and it was the best thing that could have happened to me. That guy…good God.”
“Loser?”
“No, he was fine, I guess.” She smiled, shaking her head. “Poor thing. Thank goodness he found the balls to stand up to me, because it would have been a disaster. I basically bullied him into proposing so I’d have an excuse to get the hell away from my hometown and my stupid waitressing job and my whole deadbeat family. When he didn’t turn up I hocked the ring and drove cross-country so I could find some celebrity who wanted to pay a control freak like me to run their lives. So you’re wrong on all counts.”
“So essentially, you left your fiancé for me?”
“Sure, Ty. If that makes you feel like a big man, sure. I’ve found our symbiosis very satisfying. Mystery solved.”
“So I’m just the sort of mess you were hoping for?”
“I didn’t want a mess. I just wanted…” She wasn’t sure how to end the statement.
“You need to be needed?”
“Sure, Peter Gabriel.”
Ty ignored her comment and rolled her onto her back, straddling her. “And now you feel like I don’t need you anymore so you hate me? Has my decision emasculated you?”
“No, but if I had a dick you’d be withering it with all this Freudian psychobabble bull,” Kate said.
“Fine, I’ll leave it then.”
“What a good idea—”
“But I do need you,” he said.
“Well, you better get your needs met while you still can.” She ran her eyes from his face down his long, powerful, firelit body, to his cock, hovering erect above her navel. Kate memorized him, knowing this was an image she’d be loath to let fade once they managed to get back to their day-to-day lives.
Above her, Ty looked thoughtful. He ran a hand absently over his skin, from his hip to his thigh. The gesture was a potent reminder of how he’d looked earlier, during their strange on-camera standoff. She crossed her arms behind her head to indicate she expected another good show.
“Tell me, Ty…”
“Mmm?”
“Now that you’ve finally had me, has your itch been scratched?”
He offered her a slow, lazy smile and shook his head. “No. It’ll be way worse now.”
“Oh?”
He nodded and the hand grazing his skin crossed over his hard stomach to stroke his erection. “Now that I know how good we are together, I’m ruined.”
It was Kate’s turn to smile. She was uneasy about continuing this flirtation, about relinquishing any power to him by letting him know how much it had meant to her. But their bond was impossible to resist at moments like this. Watching his fist running up and down his cock, his body a playground of bare flesh just waiting to be used and enjoyed and made to beg for mercy… Her own body wouldn’t allow her to pretend indifference. She stared at him with shameless fascination.
“There’s going to be some mighty lonely nights waiting for us back in L.A.,” Ty said, his voice quiet, low and taunting.
“I’ll have my memories.”
“So will I.”
“And my video.”
“And you know where I’ll be all those nights. Just a twelve-minute drive fro
m you, doing this.” He glanced down between his legs. “Thinking about what we’ve found here, together. What we’ve done. And I’m going to pray every bloody night that I’ll hear your key in my lock, telling me you’ve come over to join me.”
“Ty.” Even Kate didn’t know if she was trying to discourage him or just the opposite.
“Do you want to know what I think about the most, sweetheart?” he asked, his face taking on that glazed look of aroused distraction.
“What?”
“Your office, that corner of your living room with your desk and your files and that chair you paid like two hundred bucks for and I said it was mad.”
“Yeah.”
“I think about you, in a skirt, in that stupid overpriced chair, and me on my knees in front of it, and your legs wrapped around my ears while I taste you.”
Kate’s core spasmed. She swallowed. “And what am I doing, in this fantasy?”
“Oh, you’re just ignoring me. Or pretending to. Making your endless phone calls, updating the website…but you slowly come undone with every lap from my tongue until I feel your hand on the back of my head, taking control.”
“How perfectly apropos.” Kate had spent plenty of hours ignoring Ty while he lazed around her living room, reading her gossipy women’s magazines, amusing himself while she finished with business so they could go out for dinner or a drink. “Is that what you’ve been thinking about all those times I kept you waiting?”
He just smiled.
“You’re a very bad man.”
His hand quickened. “Tell me you thought about me, too.”
“I did,” she admitted. She freed one hand from behind her head, and slid it between their bodies. Crooking a finger, she ran it over the soft skin of Ty’s inner thigh. She dragged it slowly across his balls a few times before she cupped him, eliciting an involuntary thrust that made the powerful muscles of his hips and abdomen stand out in the flickering shadows of the firelight.
“Tell me, Katie. I want to know what you’ll be thinking about when we get back, all those lonely nights.”
Her heart beat hard against her ribs, but more than she feared giving up some power and admitting her feelings, she wanted to share them. Just a bit, a taste of how she really felt behind the stubborn facade. She held his eyes. “I always just fantasized about us finally giving in, after all that time. Just in my bed, or a motel bed, or a tent. Just you and me, discovering each other.”
He shifted now, moving his knees between hers and slipping inside her like they’d been doing this for years. His voice turned heavy and dark. “And now what will you think about? Now that we’ve given in?”
Kate toyed with being cruel and dismissive, but thought better of it. “Now I know what you look like, Ty. And how good you are. I’ll just relive what’s gone on, here in this place.” She glanced around the shack, their unexpected honeymoon suite—the place where they had both finally surrendered.
“Good.” He slid in and out of her, smooth and slow. “I’ll be so close. You could always come over, and let me give you more. Let me give you whatever you can dream of.”
“You know we—”
A terrifying blast shattered the peace, and Kate watched Ty’s face contort with horror, illuminated by a sudden orange flash.
9
KATE JERKED HER HEAD BACK to see what had caused the explosion of noise and light.
“Oh my God!”
White smoke billowed into the small cabin as flames licked through a burst seam in the woodstove’s chimney. A foot from the ceiling, the metal chute glowed bright, angry red.
They tumbled from the bed and Kate was racked by convulsive coughs as the smoke closed in on them. She doubled over and felt Ty grasp her by the upper arms. He rushed her to the door and yanked it open, shoving her out into the driving snow and the damp, permeating cold, the blessed clear air. Icy slush enveloped her bare feet to the ankles. Heavy wet flakes whipped her naked body and obscured her vision as the gusting wind stripped all the heat from her skin. An almighty cough forced the smoke from her lungs and she found her voice.
“Ty, get the camera!”
He’d gone back inside and she couldn’t tell if he’d heard her. She rubbed her sternum, chest tight from the freezing air and the smoke and the fear. Amid the sounds of the fire she heard glass break and smoke billowed from the little side window.
“Ty?”
Things flew from the cabin—the sleeping bag, their clothes. Ty’s boot soared through the door and struck her hard in the shin. She backed up a few paces, feet prickling from the icy soup underfoot. More items followed—the pack, more clothes, then finally Ty’s tall form, a firelit vision of bare muscle, obediently lugging the camera.
“Here!” he shouted, his voice hoarse as he dropped the equipment at her feet with a wet thump. “Here’s your bloody camera!”
He turned to root around in the strewn items, finding his jeans and pulling them on, then his shirt. Kate followed suit, finding all of her clothes save one sock. Flames burned bright from the chimney, illuminating the bizarre scene. She glanced over at Ty tugging his boots over bare feet that were surely as wet and aching as her own. His actions seemed jerky and agitated, made more frantic by the chaotic, dancing light. She stepped to him, picking up her hat as she approached.
“Holy crap,” she said, tugging it on. “That was messed up.”
“Messed up? That was messed up?” His eyes snapped back and forth between hers, making him look crazy. His head snapped to one side, as if an invisible hand had slapped the sense back into him. The manic energy left him, as quickly as it had come.
Kate shivered in her wet clothes. They still had at least three hours before sunrise.
“We’ve got to get dry,” she said, and Ty nodded. She grabbed the camera and followed him to the opposite side of the cabin, upwind from the smoke and flames. The blaze had spread to the roof, though the snow seemed to be dampening it. They stood as close to the fire as they dared, but with its heat whipped away by the winds, it was useless for drying their clothes. Kate’s panic grew as her violent shivers deepened. Her teeth chattered.
“Jesus, Ty, what do we do?” Recent sexual phenomena aside, she couldn’t remember ever putting him in charge off camera before now.
“We let the fire burn itself out.” He sounded remarkably calm. “Film it.” He nodded at the camera bag by their feet, his tone difficult to interpret. “I know that’s what you want.”
Kate obeyed, unsure of what else to do. She hoisted the camera and switched it to night vision, trained it on Ty’s face.
“Well,” he began. “I’m tempted to use a different word, but I’m sure they’ll just bleep it out in editing. This is massively effed up.” Ty turned away to stare at the burning cabin and Kate took it in with the lens. He faced forward again. “It’s about…I don’t know, three in the morning, maybe, and I think what we’re looking at is a creosote fire. I’ve never seen one in person before, but when I turned to look up at the metal chimney of the woodstove a few minutes ago, while the crew and I were camped out peacefully right inside there, it was glowing bright orange. Molten hot. It split open along a seam and the rest is history.” He shrugged, looking dumbfounded. “As you can probably tell, the storm’s still going great guns, and we’re pretty soaked. It’s so furious I can’t imagine making any kind of snow den now without risking our necks with hypothermia. If I can, I want to see if these flames die down and maybe try and make a lean-to with whatever’s left. Maybe knock the bad bit off the chimney and at least get a little fire going again. Fire’s key. We’re in serious trouble here if we can’t get warm and dry as soon as possible.…”
He trailed off, turning away, and Kate joined him in watching the shelter that had finally brought them together as lovers crumble down to smoking ash.
Ty caught Kate’s eye and shook his head. “Turn it off.” As soon as she cut the power he dropped to his knees, clutching his head in his hands. A sound like an animal being choke
d issued from deep inside him.
“Ty.” Kate crouched and put a hand on his back. He was either retching or sobbing, she couldn’t tell which. She ignored her stinging feet and rubbed his back for a few minutes. Eventually his breathing slowed and he stood, looking slightly more like his usual confident self. He offered no explanation for the breakdown.
For a long while they stared at the cabin in silence. The roof was still burning but the smoke had thinned and the fire seemed to be losing its fight with the snow. Kate felt thankful for the moldy wood. If this thing had been new it probably would have gone up in a heartbeat. As the flames died, so did their light.
Ty trudged a few paces to rummage through Kate’s frame pack. “Is there a torch in here?”
“Yeah, there should be. Front pocket.”
He found the flashlight and switched it on, training the beam around them.
“It’s looking pretty solid,” Kate offered, and as she said it there was a great creaking sound. In a rush of snow and ash, the roof caved in on the cabin. “Oh.”
“Jinx,” he murmured, and she knew the old Ty had returned to her.
A few minutes later he ventured inside the shell of the softly smoking former shelter and returned with the folding chair. He set it beside Kate in the snow. When she sat down it sank four inches into the slushy mess.
“How are your feet?” he asked.
“They’re tingly. And not in a good way.”
“You find socks?”
“One.”
“That’s one more than I found. Let this be a lesson to the viewers at home.”
“What? Don’t fling your clothes around willy-nilly when you’re having a tryst in an emergency cabin with an old chimney?”
He nodded, looking hesitant but amused.
“This trip is not going as smoothly as I’d envisioned,” Kate sighed, staring into the dark woods. “There was nothing about a blizzard or a sled wreck or a creosote fire in my itinerary.”
She felt Ty’s hand alight on her hat. “Anything else you’d like to add to that list?”
“You’re speaking of my being savaged by a wild animal, I assume?”
