Chapter 10

“There is this running joke that its bigfoot, but it’s not.”

“Go on.”

“People are basically mauled to death.”

“And you took me here because …”

“It won’t happen to us,” she said with energy. “As long as we don’t go outside.”

“I don’t understand you! Why would you bring me here?”

“Because it’s Halloween, Sara!” She used her hand to lightly push me away from her. “What is better than that?”

“So, my life is in danger?”

“We are safe here.”

“Yeah, but …” I heard a howl coming from outside our cabin, a distant one that was eerie as well as thrilling to behold. “Wolves.”

“Wolf,” she corrected me. “That was one howl.”

“Damian said there were wolves.”

“Oh,” she mouthed with a guilty look.

The two of us became rather nervous, neither of us holding eye contact for very long. “You took me to a place where people get mauled to death,” I reminded her. “I’ll never forgive you for this.”

She offered me a sheepish grin, all too happy to see me in an irritated mood.

“So, you want to go outside and check it out?”

“I’ll let you go out, and then lock the door behind you,” I warned.

“It could be fun.”

“You’re an idiot,” I realized. “Taking me all the way out here and—”

“You said you wanted to go camping!” she quickly interrupted.

“Yeah, and not get attacked by some wild animals.” Another howl sounded through the forest, but luckily it was far enough to not have me worried. “I like being in nature, it’s all I’ve ever known growing up. You know how sad I am to be so far from home, so you know how much this means to me.” Ashley sighed, realizing how truly angry I was at her. “Is this why you were so determined to stay here when Damian told us to leave? There was more to this story than you led on! Is your brother in the loop too?”

“A little.”

I shook my head at her and then raised up my glass of wine. “I can’t believe you.”

“It doesn’t happen that often,” she complained. “Only in the woods, and we aren’t in the woods, are we?”

“No.”

“We are safely tucked away in our cabin, so there is nothing to worry about.” Another howl sounded after her statement, a different kind that we weren’t used too. “I think there are two of them.”

“Eat your food,” I ordered. “Leave no trace of the food and then bed. You remember those claw marks on Damian’s door? I’m not letting that happen to us.”

“We can stay at his place if you’d like,” she teased, and I never felt more of an urge to slap her as I did now. “Okay, I will stop talking. Geez, you should see the look in your eyes.”

“You know I don’t like scary things.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“You know this,” I emphasized with a shrill to my voice.

“You and your fairy tales,” she deeply sighed out, and then excused herself to go to the washroom.

I like my fairy tales, I thought, although she does have a point.

***

Damian was at his back porch with a hot mug resting in the palm of his hands. He had spotted me long before I had the chance to observe him standing on his back porch I was strolling down the steep gravel road, and now that I was near the back of his house, Damian called out my name.

“Morning, Sara!” he yelled out in an agreeable voice.

“Morning!”

I skipped over a few large rocks and trailed over the high grass that was just outside of his property. I smiled up at him, liking the tight-fitting grey Henley shirt that stretched out over his lean, muscular frame. He took his time watching me, wearing a lazy smile until I was standing underneath his porch.

“Hello,” Damian piped up in a soothing voice.

“You are looking better,” I observed with a quick point of a finger in his direction.

His lips twitched upwards for a moment. “I feel better,” he assured me, with something strange and mysterious lying behind the darkest regions of his fern green eyes.

There was an exchange of looks between us, and I felt a strange sensation traveling down the center of my spine. Damian slunk off the wooden porch and laid his mug down on the ground. A strong hand pushed himself upwards and soon he was standing on the wooden banister only to drop down onto the ground. I gasped when he landed, surprised at his agility to land on his own two feet. I ran over to him to make sure he was okay, but he hardly seemed bothered by the staggering drop.

“That wasn’t safe,” I chided the second I laid a hand over the front of his chest.

“I’m fine.”

“You could have killed yourself.”

“I told you I’m fine,” he laughed, clearly enamored by my display of concern. “I’ve done this kind of thing before.”

“Hop off your back porch?”

“No, but I did a lot of mountain climbing when I was younger.” He smiled at me beautifully and then took a hold of my chin to prop it upwards. Lips were heavily crushed against mine, tasting me this morning with all his delight. I slipped my arms around him, enthralled by the way he was kissing me so deeply as if he couldn’t get enough. “Wow,” he uttered after a moment, once he broke our lips apart.

“What?”

“The feeling I get with you,” he simply replied, before he leaned forward to seal our lips together again. His kisses were not hurried like most of the men I had kissed before, it was slow and steady, as if Damian intended to treasure every kiss he gave to me. Perhaps it was because of his age, for he was in fact older than most of the men I had previously dated. Damian drew his mouth away after a few moments, and then let out a long exhale. “When is your walk with your friends?”

“I was hoping you could take me on some of your favourite trails instead?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” I exclaimed with a twinge of a smirk. “If you are free.”

He nodded his head eagerly. “I’ll be free.”