Fighting with Fire #2 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟔 - 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

"Are you alright?" Theo asked me.

"Theo." I looked over at him; I was attempting to build a fire, and he was trying to sort the beds out — yes, we're inverting gender stereotypes and failing miserably, but we're still trying. "It's been about five minutes since you asked me if I was okay. I'm fine."

"Screw this." He chucked the sleeping bags down and strode over to me.

Expectantly, I stood, brushing dirt off my knees.

"I read a book recently," he told me bluntly, "Well, I've been reading a lot of books recently. But there was one that stood out particularly."

I raised an eyebrow. "And?"

He folded his arms, then unfolded them, then frowned at something in the distance.

"Theo, why are you acting so strange?" I took a step closer to him, raising my hand and placing it lightly against the side of his face.

"'I cannot let you let you burn me up, nor can I resist you.'" He pressed his forehead against mine, pushing closer to me and tearing down the walls that both of us had been building. "'No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.'"

Hardly daring to speak loudly and threaten dismantling whatever was building between us, I whispered, "What are you trying to tell me?"

"That's a quote, from A. S. Byatt's novel Possession," he muttered back, his fingers ghosting across my lips. "And it's how I feel about you."

All at once, my heart stopped beating, but it also started beating again — blood pounded around my body, and all my senses were set on edge.

"Well, then." A faint smirk reached my lips. "It's a good thing you're no mere human."

Theo frowned, a smirk pulling at his lips as well. "I thought only I was allowed to speak in riddles."

"I mean, it's a good thing you're no mere human, so you can be consumed by my fire." I bit my lip and whispered in my ear, "My fire of passion can consume both of us... And so we don't have to resist it anymore."

Theo's hands found my waist, and he looked into my eyes. "Things have just been so complicated recently."

"Then let's uncomplicate things." I linked his hand with mine and pulled him to lean against the hut's exterior wall beside me. "Do you want me?"

"I want you, more than you could know." Shuffling closer, he admitted, "And I know you want me too."

"How?" I frowned at him.

"I want you, Ember..." His eyes swept over my body. "And by the clenching of your thighs, the darkening of your eyes and the racing of your heart... You want me as much as I want you."

Mouth dry, I swallowed; it was true, all of it. Suddenly hyperaware of the heat between my legs, I crossed my left leg over my right, thighs clenching together tightly.

"Ember..." Theo breathed. "I just want things to be simple between us again."

"Me too." My words came out hushed.

"Why did you shut me out when you came here?" He asked, eyes searching everything about me, my own eyes, my face, my body, his fingers inches away from doing the exact same... "Apart from the whole airport thing, of course."

"People can't let you down if you don't let them in," I admitted.

"Did I let you down?" A crease formed in between his eyebrows.

"No, not at all." I sighed, worried that we were building up those walls again, "I just... I didn't want to get hurt again.

"Did I hurt you?" He rushed and placed his hand on my shoulder.