Page 197 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

She was going to try to call on the supplies that they had in those boxes, and her years in Girl Scouts to get a fire going.

She started to gather sticks, and bring them back toward the plane.

“Stevie.”

She heard her name coming through the curtain of blankets that she had draped over the opening of the plane.

She scurried inside. “I need to be able to stand up,” he said.

“No you don’t,” she said. “You need to stay right there.”

“I can’t stay right here.”

“Clem, you gotta take care of yourself,” she said, forgetting for a second that his name was a game she was playing with herself.

“Stevie, I have very little modesty to my name, and the call of nature and the answering of it is not something that concerns me any, but this is a shared space.”

“Oh.” It took her a second, but then she realized he was… Well. Practicalities, of course. “I just collected some… Some sticks. I can see if one of them will work as a crutch. I’ll help you up, though.”

She was worried his leg might be more than just cut. If it was broken, then it was going to be very difficult for him to stand up. Though she knew that sometimes shock could provide a little bit of insulation against pain. She didn’t wish that for them.

“I’ll help you up, just a second.”

She went outside, and examined the sticks that she had gotten. One of them seemed like it was a very competent walking stick. She went back to the edge of the woods, and searched around until she found another. He could use them as trekking poles in the snow. And hopefully that would keep him upright. Because if not, and he fell, then they were going to be in a hell of a situation trying to get him back up.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to help you. But you also have to help, or you’re not getting very far.”

“All right,” he said, seeming irritated now.

He was clearly not a man used to needing help. And why would he be? He was so tall and strong. He was probably used to being able to do whatever he wanted. Whatever he needed.

Forget all the rest.

She bent down next to him, and urged him to drape his arm over her shoulder. He still smelled good, somehow. Like whatever expensive cologne he was wearing, and the night air of the forest sank down into his skin. She didn’t know how he managed that.

He shouldn’t be so devastating still. And yet.

She handed him one of the makeshift poles. “Okay, lean on me with part of your body, and that with the other half. And let’s try to get you up. If you start bleeding again, you’re going right back down. Practicalities be damned.”

She looked at him, and her heart rate sped up. There was sweat beading on his forehead, and his teeth were clenched. “Let’s go,” he said.

She began to help lift, as he pushed his own self up, his incredibly impressive upper-body strength making the feat much easier than she had imagined it might be. “Hand me the other pole,” he said, leaning heavily over her.

“I don’t want to drop you,” she said.

“I’m fine,” he said.

He released his hold on her and grabbed hold of the first stick with both hands, supporting himself on that, and his good leg.

Then she grabbed the other pole. “Okay,” she said, “use those to help support you. I can stand on the outside of the plane and try to help you get down. The snow is deep in places, it’s going to make it tricky.”

“Stevie, I have traveled the world. Traversed it over so many times there are few places left unexplored. This is one of them. I consider it an opportunity, not a detriment to have this moment, and I will seize it as I have every other adventure. Firmly about the throat with both hands.”

She had no idea why his words should create an erotic shiver inside of her.

She had no idea how she so readily identified it as an erotic shiver, given that her life had been void of those.

But the minute that she had met him, it had been like colliding with the inevitability of all that she had been missing out on.

---