Authors: Heather West
Matt offered her a hand and helped her to her feet. She teetered on one foot and he let her lean into him. She was warm and inviting, and his heart thudded hard in his chest. “We need to get you back to your camp,” he said flatly, trying to calm himself. He helped her hobble back along the ravine, her arm over his shoulder, and his arm wrapping bashfully around her slender waist.
“But I don’t know where that is,” Tawny said. “That’s actually part of the whole thing where I’m lost.”
Matt looked over to her and she looked back with warm, trusting eyes. She studied his expression, a confused mixture of caring and misgiving.
“Well, we can’t leave you out here,” Matt surmised. “And we can’t wander around looking for your camp. The town is miles from here, but my cabin is close by, if you wouldn’t mind going there for a while. We should look at that ankle.”
Tawny smiled in spite of herself and nodded. “That should be alright. Is your family there?”
Matt grimaced. “I don’t have a family,” he explained. “Except my mother, but she’s not at the cabin. I’m there alone.” He gave her a concerned look. “Is that still okay? I promise I’m perfectly safe.”
Tawny leaned further into him, a flirtatious gleam in her eyes. “You don’t look like the perfectly safe type to me, but I think it will be alright, yes. At least it would give me a chance to get off this ankle for a while.”
“What happened to your leg?” Matt pried.
Tawny laughed softly. “I banged it against a rock or something, running through the woods at night. Which reminds me — we should be careful. A wild bear attacked our camp last night, which is the entire reason I was running around at night in the first place.”
Matt squirmed. “It attacked your camp? Are you sure it wasn’t just frightened or something? Maybe you startled it?”
Tawny’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head adamantly. “Oh no, that was a full-on crazy-ass bear. It was a killer. For all I know the rest of my camp is dead. I barely escaped with my life.”
“I guess that…
could
be, but as a rule, bears tend to be gentle creatures — ” Matt started to explain.
“The thing was rabid or something, then,” Tawny insisted. “Trust me, this was no gentle bear. It was huge, with giant fangs and enormous claws. It shredded the entire camp in seconds. It was furious, and out for blood.”
“Okay,” Matt said with a pained wince, “then we’d best get back to the cabin where it’s safe. We can hole up there until the bear has had time to wander off somewhere else.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” Tawny begged. “I’m still shaking, I was so terrified.” She nuzzled into him a bit more, and Matt felt a hardness he never realized was inside of him begin to melt.
Once they were at the top of the ravine, Matt let her support her weight on him as he helped her toward the cabin. She lovingly rubbed her hand over his muscular shoulder.
“Are you camping up here?” Tawny asked casually, watching the ground as they walked.
Matt swallowed. “Actually, I live up in these mountains. There’s a group of us up further into the hills, but I’m staying in a cabin close to here on a hunting trip.”
Tawny grinned coyly. “Have you caught anything interesting lately?”
He glanced over at her, their eyes meeting, and she could see he understood. He couldn’t contain his amusement, and he nodded.
“What’s it like, living up here like this?”
Matt took a deep breath and let it slowly out. “It’s peaceful, mostly. It gets hard sometimes, but when I wake up in the morning and see the sun rising over the distant peaks, and look out to see deer grazing calmly nearby, the hard times don’t matter so much.” He looked down for a moment, bashful. “So where are you from?”
“Seattle,” Tawny grinned. “I go to college there — all of us in the camp do. Sometimes we get together and have adventures like this.”
“And what’s it like living in Seattle?”
Tawny laid her head gently on his shoulder, breathing in the crisp air gratuitously. “It’s noisy and crowded,” she confessed. “I can never really be alone, no matter where I go. And the air is heavy. But, when I wake up in the morning I can go downstairs and get a coffee no matter what time it is. And there’s always a store close by, and never any killer bears.”
Matt grimaced once again. “Killer? Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a bit? I mean, you
are
still alive.”
Tawny scrunched her face. “That may only be because I ran faster than the others. I have no idea what’s happened to them.”
Back at the cabin, Tawny hobbled weakly up the porch stairs, Matt carrying her more than just helping, and they made their way inside. Tawny flopped down in a chair by the table while Matt lit a kerosene lamp. She quivered inside as he slipped off her sock and shoe and gently took her leg.
Matt held her calf up and ran a strong but careful hand over her ankle. He turned her foot slightly back and forth, looking up to see her reaction. The feel of his hand on her calf made Tawny swoon slightly, and she smiled down at him as he knelt there.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” Matt declared. “Of course, I can’t be certain; it could always be a hairline fracture. But I pretty sure it’s only a bad sprain. You’ll need to stay off of it as much as you can for a few days, though.”
Tawny fidgeted excitedly in spite of herself. “So I have to stay here, then?”
Matt nodded, then shrugged. “It’s what I would recommend, personally. Between your ankle and the crazy killer bear, I don’t think hiking around the woods is a good idea. If you’re okay with it, you can stay here for a couple of days and then I’ll walk you into town from here. I imagine they’ll be looking for you.”
Tawny huffed. “I’d hope so, but you never know. So… you wouldn’t mind having me here?”
She stopped and looked around the little cabin. Her eyes stopped at the bed.
“I can sleep on the floor,” Matt offered graciously. “You can have the bed.”
“But I can’t put you out like that,” Tawny objected.
“You have the hurt leg, and I have no problem with the floor. I’ll throw a couple of blankets down and I’ll be fine. Don’t give it a second thought.”
Tawny sighed in protest. “We’ll have to talk about that later. Right now, I am starving.”
“Oh,” Matt’s eyes widened as he looked around. “Damn, I need to go get us something to eat. I’m sorry, I don’t usually keep a stock of food in the cabin. Can you make yourself at home here, and I’ll be right back?”
Tawny gave him a puzzled stare. “Are you driving down to the local mini-mart or something?”
Matt laughed. “Sort of, except I’m not driving and there’s no local mini-mart. But I’ll see if I can get us a couple of fish, okay?”
Tawny scrunched her face as she watched him grab a woven basket and slip out the front door. “We’re going to starve,” she muttered. “Who in God’s name doesn’t stock food in their cabin?”
She looked around, noticing the lack of photos on the walls, or decoration of any kind. She stood up and hobbled to the kitchen, looking through the cupboards to see what he did have. There was a small assortment of plates and pans, and precious little silverware. She noticed there was no fridge at all, no drawers, and no sink. A large clay pitcher of water sat on the counter; she poured herself a glass.
Feeling exhaustion setting in, she stumbled to the bed and lay down. She ran a hand over the leather blankets and buried her face into his pillow. His musky smell permeated the covers, and she breathed it in eagerly as she curled up. She was still lost somewhere in a remote wilderness, far from the city, far from her friends and family, in a small cabin with only a flickering warm light. She could sense the beasts lurking just outside of the door, as though they were waiting to rip her to pieces. And yet, somewhere inside, she felt an odd sense that she was safe and at home — possibly for the first time in her life.
She roused as she heard Matt bustling back inside. She rubbed at her eyes and sat up, staring in surprise at the two large fish he held in one hand and the basket of berries and leaves he carried in the other. She pushed herself from the bed and sat at the table, watching him light a fire in the stone hearth and set the fish in a wire grill just over the embers.
“We can have some salad as the fish cooks,” Matt suggested.
Tawny watched as he plucked some dark berries from the basket and tossed them into his mouth.
“Are you sure none of this is poisonous?” she asked, her brow furrowing in concern.
Matt laughed. “It’s all perfectly safe. And, better yet, it’s delicious.” He reached in and pulled out a small dark berry. “This is a blueberry,” he said, putting it gently in her hand. “Try it.”
Tawny hesitated, then slipped it reluctantly into her mouth. She bit down and it squirted sweet, tart juices over her tongue.
“Oh God, that’s good,” she exclaimed. “Hell, if these kill us it’s a great way to die. But, what are those weeds? Are those edible?”
“These — ” Matt plucked a few leaves from the basket and held them up to show her. “These are wild lettuce leaves. They’re small, but they taste better than the store-bought stuff.”
Tawny watched as he ate them before she reached into the basket and pulled a few out. Timidly she chewed them, trying a few different kinds.
“Okay,” she confessed as she picked up a leaf that was almost in a circle, “these are really sweet. The others are just a bit bitter, though.”
“And blended together they’re fabulous,” Matt grinned. “Go ahead and eat; you’ve got to be starving right to death.”
Tawny ate as Matt introduced the different berries and leaves. Every bite was a fresh new experience, and she relished hearing the explanations of each one in his strong, low voice. As the basket was emptied, Matt stood and pulled the fish from the fire. He slid them onto plates and set them on the table.
“I don’t usually eat at the table,” he squirmed a bit as he excused his awkwardness. “I never have guests.”
“Well, I’m honored to be your first,” Tawny said with a dramatic flourish of her hand. “This must be a very exclusive club.”
Matt sighed and looked sadly around. “It’s pretty much just been me, actually.”
“Then its membership just doubled in a single day,” Tawny teased. She looked down at the grime caked on her shirt and her face fell. She looked bashfully up to Matt. “Do you have a shower I could clean up in?”
Matt leaned back and looked down at the table. “It’s just the one room, I’m sorry. I can warm up a pan of water though, and you can take a sponge bath - if that’s okay.”
Tawny looked around the little room. “Where?”
Matt grimaced. He pointed at the table. “Pretty much here, I’m afraid. I can wait outside while you wash, though.”
“It’s getting dark,” Tawny noted. “And with my luck, you’d get eaten by the bear.”
Matt covered a laugh with his hand. Tawny studied his strange reaction curiously, then took a deep breath. “You can just stay in here; it would be okay by me, especially if you don’t mind letting me wash up.”
Matt nodded. “No problem at all.” He felt his interests rising sharply. After eating, he hurried to get a bucket of water and hung it on a hook over the fire, trying to calm his visible arousal.
A few minutes later Matt stuck his finger into the water. The temperature was perfect. He lugged it over to the table and gave Tawny some soap, a soft cloth, and a towel.
“I won’t look, I promise,” he assured her as he turned a chair away to face the door.
“Thank you,” Tawny smiled warmly. “I’m glad you’re a gentleman. Most guys would probably give their left nut to watch a girl take a sponge bath.”