“I’m sorry.” He shakes his head once. “That was crass. But it’s true. Youcantrust me, okay? I won’t hurt you. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want, but if you run you make it so much more difficult for me.”
“That’s… I’m not sure what to make of that.” My nipples feel hard again. My body wants me to turn and run but only so that he’ll make good on all of those promises. Thankfully my mind is shutting it all down.
No running.
“There’s an attraction here that I am going to acknowledge even if you won’t, but it can’t go anywhere.” He rubs his stubbled jaw, looking a little tortured. “You would regret it. We both would. It would be base, mindless fucking and nothing more. The raw kind that neither of us wants or needs. It wouldn’t go anywhere. We both know that.” His massive shoulders drop a fraction. “Let me get you home to Flint, where you belong.”
I nod. “You’re right. I agree fully.”
Base, mindless fucking. The raw kind.
Holy shit!
I can barely breathe just thinking about it. I should hate the idea.
Why don’t I?
The thing is, the thought of Magma putting me up against a tree and fucking me senseless has my legs feeling weak and my pulse kicking up.
I don’t feel nearly as relieved by the mention of Flint as I expected to.
Which is insane. I like Flint. I want a relationship with him. I do!
Magma is right! We would regret it. I would regret it.
I glance at Magma and have to look away because holy shit! I’m still giving it some thought. I’m considering going there.
No!
“What’s going on in your head?” Magma asks, still watching me.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “I’m fine. I’ll be more careful. I won’t run from you again.” I meet his eyes this time and hold them. “I trust you. I think you’re right about an attraction between us, but you’re also right about this place driving it. We’re so pumped full of adrenaline we can’t think straight.”
Something moves in his expression. Just for a second.
“Good,” he says. “I’m glad we got that out of the way. We need to get you muddied up again, and then we should get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
I nod.
He turns, and we walk toward the part of the jungle where the ferns grow thick, and the moss comes up in dense green patches between the roots, and the mud is dark and cold and waiting.
My mind is a jumble.
It’s all good. Magma and I are friends. We’re going to keep it that way.
18
Carla
My feet are killing me, but I keep moving anyway.
Magma is several feet ahead of me, and he moves like he is one with the jungle. There’s no stumbling or staggering, or limping. He just flows through it all. Quiet as anything. Every few seconds, his head turns, a slow, scanning sweep from left to right and back again, checking the canopy, the tree line, and between the trunks. He doesn’t miss a thing.
I’m trying hard to match his pace, but I’m struggling. I wasn’t built for this. I find myself wishing I’d gone to the gym after getting that membership early last year. Maybe I’d be stronger and fitter than I am.
The truth is that the break we took an hour ago didn’t do my feet any favors. We found a patch of shade near a thick stand of ferns, and Magma had gone a little way off and come back with more coconuts. He’d also found dragon fruit, which I knew existed but had never tried before today. The flesh was white and sweet, and I ate too fast, leaving me with a bit of a sore tummy when we set out.
Once we got moving again, I forgot all about my stomachache because my feet felt like they seized up. The muscles had gone stiff, the cuts that I’d been walking on long enough to go a little numb had apparently taken the break as an invitation to remind me they existed, and now every step I take on the hard-packed earth and knotted roots hurts like mad.
