Inside, a cozy scene waited.
The tent was orange, which lent the space an idea of warmth, even if it wasn’t quite there yet. Oliver had unpacked everything from our bags and set the contents out in neat rows to dry. I hadn’t even felt him take mine off. He’d also unrolled our sleeping bags and set them next to a space heater. The small, portable machine made a soft whirring sound. Surprising that it still worked after our dip in the water.
Did you really have a space heater in your backpack all this time, Ollie? I meant to say these words out loud, but I was so tired that nothing came out.
Oliver must’ve still seen the question in my face. He turned to zip the door flaps shut, speaking as he moved. “When we were kids, during the time you were gone, I used to pretend I was a Boy Scout. Surviving the wilderness on my own, being prepared for anything. Old habits die hard, I guess.”
He shrugged with a faint, rueful grin. I gave him a look that said he wasn’t fooling me—I knew he was hurting. But Oliver was used to being the strong one. He’d made a habit of hiding his own pain. Without waiting for a response, he turned around and put his back to me. Over his shoulder he said, “We’ll have to take our clothes off. We’ll put them as close to the heat as possible, and hopefully they’ll be dry when we wake up.”
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve argued. Nudity made me feel vulnerable, and I refused to be vulnerable anymore. But it was Oliver. He was the one person I actually could trust. The one who could never be used against me… or use me.
Another face filled my thoughts. A beautiful face with hazel eyes, tousled brown hair, and a dusting of stubble over a lean jaw.
Oliver was still facing the other side of the tent and waiting for a response. My only answer was to step out of my frozen boots and reach for the button on my jeans. I heard Oliver let out a quiet sigh of relief. The straight line of his shoulders loosened.
Once I was completely undressed, the icy clothes resting next to the heater, I got into one of the sleeping bags. My skin hurt to touch. I was so cold that it felt like I was burning, somehow. How could I feel so numb and still be hurting at the same time?
There was nothing else to do but huddle and pray for sleep to come. The heater was already blowing most of its efforts onto me, and the rest was dedicated to our clothes. I burrowed deeper into the sleeping bag, pulling it over my head at the same time.
While I’d been wallowing in my misery, Oliver had gotten into his sleeping bag, as well. Behind me, I heard the undeniable sounds of him removing his pants. He shifted, putting them near my icy clothing, then did the same with his boxer briefs. Another zipper came down, this one belonging to his sleeping bag. I frowned. Was he going outside? He hadn’t put his clothes back on, though.
It wasn’t until he started unzipping my sleeping bag that I finally turned my head. Oliver hadn’t gotten up, after all, and had instead moved us closer to each other, our sleeping bags now overlapping.
“Wh-what are you d-doing?” I asked through chattering teeth.
He put his hands on my bare waist and pulled me against him. I was so startled that I jumped, which he ignored. “Lending you my body warmth. Nothing more than that,” Oliver said firmly.
My first instinct was to stiffen. To move away. Then Oliver’s scent surrounded me, more familiar than home. Slowly, I untwisted myself and sank back down. I was still shivering, even within the circle of his arms, but already I could feel Oliver’s warmth seeping into my body.
It thawed my mind first. After a few minutes, thoughts and theories moved like a river, rushing and churning. “The m-memory,” I said suddenly, opening my eyes. “It was a g-g-game Damon and I used to play. Except, f-for me, it turned r-real. That’s when I started having bad dreams. The s-same dreams I was having the night my parents were k-killed.”
Talking about that night brought some of the images back, and I was too weak, too cold to push them away. Maybe if I’d been awake, instead of in the grips of a nightmare, I would have realized what was happening before it was too late. There might have been time to call the police or run to Fred and Emma’s.
“There’s nothing you could have done, Fortuna. You were a child,” Oliver said. How did he know what I was thinking?
Because my guard was down, I thought, answering my own question. The way it always came down around him, and always would. Oliver had probably heard the guilt clinging to every word.
Another quake went through me. I was slightly warmer now, but my body still shook with cold and pain. When he felt the tremor, Oliver moved his legs and tangled them with mine. Now there wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t fused to me, including his cock. Even in its current state, it wasn’t small.
Awareness prickled through me.
“Why were the ceti here?” I blurted, staring into the burnt glow of the space heater. “Not just in the dreamscape, but right where a memory happened to be hidden?”
The subject change wasn’t subtle. I waited for Oliver to press me. He was silent for a moment, his body still curved around mine. Then he said, “We already knew the dreamscape was changing. It’s a more dangerous place now.”
The theory didn’t feel quite right. I felt like I was missing something, a piece of key information. But I couldn’t think clearly, not while I resembled a block of ice more than a person. Banishing incessant thoughts about the ceti, and the memory we’d just witnessed, I tucked my frozen fingers in the curve between my jaw and throat. I imagined a stone cottage perched on a golden hill. Gradually, my shivering subsided.
I was half-asleep when I nestled backward, wanting to get closer to Oliver’s warmth. My eyes shot open when I felt something poke at the most sensitive part of me.
Oliver’s erection was so hard that the length of it was firmly tucked between my legs, the tip brushing against my clitoris. A breath hitched in my throat. Oliver cursed, his voice low and irritated, and he quickly faced the other way. After a moment, he sat up, drawing his legs up against him. He rubbed the back of his head in obvious embarrassment.
Not too long ago, I might have reached around and wrapped my fingers around his length. But… I’d just slept with Laurie. Even now, in the real world, the Seelie Prince slept naked beside me, our bodies cooling from the vigor of our lovemaking. We weren’t exclusive or committed, by any means, but I’d just started enjoying sex. Taking on multiple partners at once, even if one wasn’t exactly rooted in reality, felt like too much right now.
“I’m sorry,” Oliver said, turning his head so I could hear him.
“I’m okay,” I told him. It was the truth. I patted the empty spot in the sleeping bag. “Come back. I’ll sleep better with you next to me.”
Still looking frustrated with himself, Oliver laid down. I tugged his arm back over my waist, careful not to bump against him with my backside. Just having him nearby helped warm my frozen skin. Oliver relented, and the stiffness left his muscles.
Quiet swelled in the darkness. Outside our small tent, the wind howled. It occurred to me that something else could be out there and spot the glow of the space heater. I stared at the wall of the tent as if I could see through it. If there were creatures in the water, it stood to reason there were probably some on land. Hunting. Hungry.
“Go to sleep,” Oliver murmured in my ear, probably feeling the tension in me. “I’ll keep watch.”