Cabin Fever

by Shani Greene-Dowdell et al.

~Brocklyn~

  I struggled to master my expression, my erection, and the damn glee triggering both. Walking away from Deidre, I felt her eyes set down on my spine instantly. The thrill that gave me was everything. Already, I was addicted to the rush of feelings, and it was no accident that I took ten minutes to clean two plates and two utensils. For fuck’s sake, I couldn’t get un-hard no matter what I thought about and relished her peeking at me from beneath her eyelashes when she thought I was paying her no mind. Ignoring her wasn’t possible.

  Unable to drag the chore out any longer, I finished up and approached the table with my hands linked at my bulging crotch. Stupid dick.

  “Time for that tour, my lady.”

  “I’m ready.” Deidre leapt to her feet, shoving some of the things she had taken out back into the pack.

  Canned goods and ziplocked bagged perishables littered the table. Reaching over the groceries, I formed grabby fingers for the outdoor gear stuffed with her other necessities. Looking anywhere but at me, she heaved the pack, about a good fifteen pounds when empty, across the tabletop with one hand. Watching her easily do things with her often underestimated size was astonishing, pleasing.

  Her jitteriness and the tension thickening the air between us were almost palpable. I’d work on alleviating both after I got her settled in. Only she made me want to see to someone else’s comfort—which I’d been doing for her before she got here—and maybe put down roots like I was domesticated. In my old life, I chose not to be. I didn’t get to pick with her. Taking care of her came as easily as breathing.

  Do something else besides stare, Brock.

  I hooked the pack over one shoulder. Together, we piloted for the living area, navigating the length of the table on individual sides. Closer to the kitchen’s exit, I went out first, taking an immediate right for the staircase. Quiet as a church mouse, Deidre kept two steps between us at all times. At the top, I pushed the closed door to my bedroom open.

  “This one is mine,” I announced.

  She peeked around me at the flamboyant but faded Navajo-Indian decor. “Cute.”

  I wished she was in a palace more befitting her loveliness. “It’s plain. All the rooms are but clean with log queen bed, dresser and mirror, lamp, and nightstand. Cold if you sleep with your door shut. Let in a hell out of a lot of sun when you wake if you don’t close your curtains.”

  She snickered quietly, her amusement easing the tension just a tad. “This room has more than I’ve seen in some. I’ve been in worse. A snake ran me out of there too.”

  Taken aback by the undeserved disclosure into her life, I glimpsed down at her. “Somewhere you went with your…” I wrinkled my nose in distaste. “…exe?” Was it lowdown that I wanted to know what he did wrong so I’d do it right? Who cared? I wanted her to enjoy her time with me. Achieving that by hook or by crook didn’t matter one bit.

  She sneered, “Yep. I broke the sound barrier and outran him at the speed of light then too.”

  “Hmmph. You’ll have to tell me more sometime.”

  “Why not? I don’t mind being laughed at.”

  Tipping her chin up, she snared my senses. Or, her grin did. I couldn’t tell which, but contemplated it hard as we progressed to the next room, the bathroom. Too small to swing a long-tailed cat in, the space fit her proportions just so and evidently, Deidre felt the same way.

  She’d roamed inside, ran her fingers along the rim of the antique clawfoot tub with circular shower curtain. “I always wanted one of these. We’re going to get intimately acquainted,” she vowed, stirring my envy for cold ceramic.

  Complaining under my breath about the tub being a lucky bastard from the doorway had her head snapping up. “What did you say, Brocklyn?”

  I couldn’t answer her, struck speechless by her being bathed in the soft glow of daylight filtering in through the valance-only dressed window as if drawn to her. I got a little breathless in the area of a beauty so profound a celestial being sitting high in the sky wanted to get closer to her. At least, I didn’t have to sneak in a window to be in her presence, and I couldn’t conceive being gifted her nearness while on the lamb either.

  I presumed good things other than vindication weren’t going to happen to people in my predicament. All the more reason to be grateful for her who was a breath of fresh air whilst among the untainted wild. I was driven to make her mine even if it killed us both. Meanwhile, I’d serve her like she was a queen. Ebony-skinned royalty that had my absolute concentration and more influence than me over my man parts in the palm of her hand simply by existing. Whether I wanted her to have that influence or not.

  Finding my voice, I reiterated, “I called the tub a lucky bastard.”

  Slanting her head, she took a step as if to cross the divide of wooden plank flooring. Then, she ceased movement and gulped as if afraid. “Why?”

  No one was more safe with me than her, and I’d risk everything to prove it, including our fledging relationship. “Come closer and I’ll tell you.”

  Without hesitation, Deidre covered half the distance then stopped again, lips working hard to suppress her smile.

  I shook my head. “Not good enough, darling. Come all the way closer.”

  “Fuck,” she hissed almost too low to hear while clearing most of the distance and balling her hands up at her sides like she needed to touch me desperately, but wouldn’t.

  The feeling was mutual and if I couldn’t smell the jasmine scent wafting off her in tiny spurts when her clothes were disturbed, she was too far away. I gave her a negative wobble of my head again.

  “Don’t leave any room between us for Jesus, Deidre.”

  With a single step, she came closer, leaving a strip of space sufficient for our chests to expand and contract without touching. Her chest was working overtime, erratic spurts of air caressing my chin. I loved it, possibly too much, that she wasn’t in full control of her faculties, didn’t procrastinate to come to me when asked, and how the top of her head barely reached the underside of my shoulders.

  “So tiny, so easy to protect, shield from harm,” I muttered to myself. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the only thing missing in my life was someone to protect.

  Barracudas masquerading as women don’t count.

  Deidre eyed me inquisitively. “I get any closer, Brocklyn, and I’ll be plastered against your chest.”

  “Don’t tempt me, Deidre.” Liking the fuck out of the image she inspired in my mind, I firmly believed that ‘against me’ was where she belonged. Dipping my head in the space separating us put my mouth meters from hers and she could see the naked longing worn plainly on my face. “It’s hard to admit that you’ve been tempting me since you got here when I don’t know where I stand with you. I’m going to make it clear where you stand with me. I want you more than I want tomorrow to come and my hard earned money back that the government stole for me. I want to lose myself in you when I don’t trust people enough to do that.”

  Her nostrils spread as unbridled want flared on her delicate doll-like features. “That’s a lot of trust, Brocklyn.”

  “You’re a lot of woman, rare, and if I don’t make you mine, I’m going to kill something… again.” Like my jeans.

  Her gaze fell away as her palm lifted, skimming lightly over my chest. “Lose yourself in me then. I’ve been wanting to do this all day,” her admission came in low.

  My chest swelled. Even through my clothes, her hand felt electrifying to my heart. It thumped wildly offbeat. I growled like the animal I was fast becoming, “Deidre.”

  She peered up. “I want a winter fling.”

  Straight away, I knew that I didn’t want that short of a time with her nor dumb enough to pressure her for more. “Okay… if that’s all you can give me.”

  Her attention drifted downward to my lips. “There’s a lot of things I’m going to give you, Brocklyn, but I need to clean up first and to get some programs running so you can get your life back. I’ll find the bastard who framed you even if it
kills me.” A winter fling or not, she cared about me, and that was enough. For now.

  “Tonight then?” I inquired.

  She dived her head twice as confirmation without ever looking up. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who got one track-minded, and that was okay by me who slipped a hand in the small of her back to satisfy my wants for physical contact of some kind with her as well. After informing her that there were two more bedrooms for her to see, Deidre recouped her hand then sauntered out.

  The sway of her hips was mind-destroying. Clueless as to what was going on around me, I nearly walked up her calves when she loitered without warning at the next closed door, opening it. I didn’t have to look away to describe the room. A coral-hued pintuck duvet with coral and white lattice-design pillowcases covered the bed, a trio of similarly painted vases of different heights on the dresser.

  “I’m good here,” she proclaimed, then went inside. Her disappearing out of my downward view brought reality crashing back. “Ah, you might like the black and white Aztec decorations better next door.”

  “Nope.” She sat on the bed, running her hands across the cotton of the duvet. “This is fine. I need to get started, and I want to work in the living room. I’m dying to get my big ass on that lounge chair and in the recliner by the fireplace. Nothing more romantic than sitting by a fire.”

  Now, I was thinking about that. Her ass sitting on the bed was inciting those thoughts to spiral onto dangerous levels where I’d kiss her senseless if she got too close.

  In the interim, I remained where I was, crutching a shoulder on the doorjamb. “Cool, but I wished you told me that about the kitchen before we hauled the electronics up.”

  “Sorry,” she conveyed sheepishly with a half-twist of her mouth.

  I humped my shoulders in a blasé manner. “No sweat. I’ll leave the pack with your personal things here, take the electronics downstairs. You’ll be set to do whatever.”

  “I’ll help.” She got up.

  I treaded into the room, depositing the pack on the bed. She stood next to me, flipping the pack upside down. Her closeness sent unbearable heat rolling over me. Totally unaware of my meltdown in progress, she shifted through her things, passing electronics and a variety of cords to me.

  “Too close, Deidre,” I snarled, at my wit’s end.

  She suspended all movements like that would help when trapped with a cornered animal. She kind of was. I was losing it, waiting until tonight to have her excruciating.

  “If you don’t want me to kiss your right now, you need to leave.”

  She eyeballed her possession for two seconds. “Five minutes, Brocklyn,” she croaked then reeled around and fucking jumped me.

  Electronics went everywhere. She wasn’t hitting the floor with me in the area, ever. Her limbs snaked around my body, lips crashed into mine. All hell broke loose. We didn’t kiss, no, we battled for supremacy. Too much pent up sexual energy didn’t make for nice and slow, savoring and seducing. She took. I demanded. Our tongues waged a war that would’ve left many dead on the battlefield. I basked in every single minute over it.

  Topping our first kiss, Deidre’s thighs cupped my cock like a glove. Nearly pushed me past redemption when she grinded on me. I snatched my mouth away, sucking air into my lungs and nuzzling her neck with my nose.

  “Dammit, woman, I’m not coming in my pants.”

  With her hands buried so far in my hair it was difficult to tell if her fingers hadn’t grown out of my scalp, she panted, “I don’t mind coming in my mine. If you don’t want us to start out at 1-0, you better put me down.”

  I did not want to. “You feel so good in my arms.”

  She nipped at my ear, unmanning me. “Same here, Brocklyn. I wanted this all day, but…” We had shit to do.

  Despising myself for loosening my arms, I stole a peck from her mouth. “Tonight better hurry the fuck up.”

  Releasing her legs, she hopped down. “I’ll get everything started as soon as I can and we’ll indulge my fantasies that began the second DeAngelo showed me your photograph.”

  My eyebrows hit the roof as my hands flushed her body to mine. “What fantasies?”

  She winked and stepped back to straighten her clothing. “Why tell you when you’re going to live them?”

  “Fuck me.” And she would, if my imagination running wild didn’t take me out first.

  “I plan to fuck you, big boy.” She bent over to collect electronics from the floor… without bending her knees.

  That view… Holy mother of God, this woman was sent from heaven and hell. I wasn’t going to survive her, but I’d die happy as a lark.

  In the meantime, I cleaned up behind myself, deliberately scooping the devices from the floor that were behind her. If I couldn’t have her, I was damn sure going to look at her. While I indulged, I mixed in some important matters. “If you want anything at all while working, I’ll be outside chopping wood, a holler and phone call away.”

  “Sounds good,” she approved once vertical again and the floor was tidy—a crying damn shame.

  Trailing her downstairs was a nice consolation prize. She parked the rounded globes of her rear-end in the same chair with its ladderback to the wall. I stood by as she placed the doohickey from the exe on the table, arranging it in the center. After plugging a cord into it and leaving it dangling over the edge, she grabbed a… something out of my hand.

  Once her setup was complete, plugged in and functioning properly, she rubbed her hands together manically and gave me a shit-eating grin. “Let’s go to war.”

  She was bloodthirsty. I was enraptured.

  “Woman, you scare the ever-loving hell out of me.”

  She snorted. “There’s still time to back out of our winter fling.”

  I bent over her, planting a hand on her chair and whispering because shouting guaranteed I wouldn’t be heard, “You’ve lost your ever-loving mind if you think I’m giving you up. This little package with explosive rewards is mine.” I was hers for however long she’d have me.

  Flashes of different emotions roiled in her eyes, concluding with raw hunger. For me. Hell yes. Her little fingers wandered up my neck, pulling me closer. Her lips set down softly on mine. I opened to her, letting her tongue glide inside where she sampled me, tasted me, left me wanting to give more when she pulled back. I knew without a doubt that whatever she was feeling, all that she was feeling were broadcasting live on my face.

  I wanted her to see, I wanted her to get us out of here so I could wine and dine her properly. “I should go because if I stay, we’ll never get back to the real world. And I won’t want to or let you.”

  She smiled the sweetest smile and pulled on my heartstrings. I couldn’t just walk away anymore. Without thinking about it, I snagged a lustrous curl cascading down her back in waves, curling around her spine. Though I was jealous of her tresses too, I thirsted for more contact with her. Until I got her underneath me, anything allowed to be near her would become a lifeline to her.

  Deidre dunked her head, cradled her hairdo as if protecting it from me and yelped, “Whoa!”

  What did I do?

  I snatched my hand back, a little afraid of the glare on her face. It could strip paint from the walls. “Shit, Deidre. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

  “You don’t ever touch a black woman’s hair fake or real, man,” she blasted me. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Fuck! I had truly messed up big time.

  “I didn’t know, I thought that was just an overdone joke used by comedians.” I’d slap the shit out of Kevin Hart right now if I could: I think he almost just got me killed.

  Deidre jolted as if she had been stuck by lightning. “Hell no, it’s not a joke, it’s the divine truth. I’m supposed to cut you when you do that. It’s the rule. Didn’t you hear the punchline to that overdone joke on T.V. too?”

  “Well, yeah, I did.” If touching a woman’s hair was a real live no-no, cutting me was likely a genuine retaliation
method for the offense. At least in standup comedy, it was.

  Oh hell. I resolved to make amends, including groveling if I had to. She rolled her head away, sniffing irately. The corner of her lips twitched as if she... It hit me; she was fucking with me.

  I bust out laughing albeit intending to stay far away from her hair. “You play a mean joke, Deidre.”

  She canted her head sideways, “Oh no, I’m serious as a heart attack about my hair. It’s expensive as hell, but the face you made was just too funny to not laugh at. You looked like someone told you that they were about to castrate you.”

  I recoiled at just the thought of it. “For a sec, I thought you might.”

  She emulated the joker, cheesing ear to ear. “I would cut not castrate… unless you gave me a reason.”

  So help me God, if I thought she was for real, for real and I couldn’t protect myself, I’d run.

  Still, I was horrified. Even joking about castrating a man made his balls draw up inside him.

  Chapter Seven

  ~Brock~

  I threw my hands up, signaling peace. “Fine, Deidre, no touching your hair, no need for cutting and castrating me. Those words should never be put together. I have an honest to God real attachment to my skin and my penis. They don’t do much, but I’d like to keep them if you don’t mind.”

  “Deal.” She leaned backwards in her chair, cackling her exquisite ass off.

  Okay then.

  Heart beating a staccato that would worry a cardiologist, I grabbed my coat from the chair I’d used then thumbed over my shoulder at the front door. “Since that bomb’s been defused I think…” I looked heavenward for a sign that was true, but didn’t get one, and she laughed harder. “…I’m going that way anyway. You know to call or holler if you need anything, right?”

  I slung my coat on. Deidre gave me a thumbs up between snorting and wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. Chuckling because she was tickled, I exited the cabin.

  On the other side of the shut door, the beltloop on my left side rung. Actually, the sat phone attached to did. My knife was on the opposing side. I unclipped the phone, checking the caller ID and unearthing my bluetooth earpiece from my pocket.