Page 4 of Break My Fall
Tyler
The moment I hear that crack, instincts make me wrap my arms around her and pull her against me. Within the space of a heartbeat, I manage to rotate us so that when we hit the ground, it’s my body that breaks her fall. A sharp pain spikes through my spine as I make contact with the hard, concrete ground. Spots fill my vision, and it takes me a moment to realize that I still have Avery in my arms, gripped so tight she can barely move.
“Tyler?” She pushes herself away from me, scrambling to her feet while I try to reach for her and pull her back to me.I don’t want to let her go.
Still in shock from the pain, my reactions are too slow - I can't take her back into my arms. But I will. Soon. “Are you OK?” I force out as the air clears and we both cough our lungs free from the dust and debris.
She nods. “I’m OK. You?”
“I’ll live,” I say, struggling to make it into a sitting position. I pull my cell out and turn on the flashlight feature. Dust fills the beam of light as I scan the room, trying to find out where, or what, we just fell into.
"What the hell is this place?” I muse. “Where are we?"
“I don’t know. The floor collapsed…” Avery chokes on her words, still coughing in an effort to breathe through this thick, damp air. Every inch of my body wants to go to her and wrap my arms around her, my instincts to soothe and protect her from danger are strong. But I know I can't do that...not yet. She was barely speaking to me up there, so the last thing she’ll be looking to me for is comfort. I knew it wouldn’t be as easy as picking up where we left off when I came back after so long, but I at least thought we’d start off with a conversation. Seems our reunion will need a little more work—but first, we have to find a way out of this filthy hole.
“Is there a way back up?” I ask, making out the shapes of shelving and boxes as the dust settles from our abrupt entrance. Seems we've fallen into some sort of storm cellar.
Avery paces back and forth while looking up to the hole we just fell through. "I don’t know. This wasn't in the floor plan. What the hell!"
Getting to my feet, I move closer to the shelving, shining my phone's flashlight over their contents and finding them stacked with supplies—boxes of army rations, bottles of water, canned goods and first aid kits. "Maybe it's a bomb shelter?" I wonder out loud, semi-jokingly. It definitelylooksmore like a bomb shelter than a storm cellar, anyway. Like the people who once lived here were preppers of some sort.
As I move around, the flashlight wanders over rickety furniture, stacks of old books and magazines dated back to the fifties. "Whoa, it's like a time capsule down here," I say, flicking through them. “Come and look at this.” I turn toward her, the open magazine in my hand. "Avery?"
She’s still ignoring me.Great.Choosing to focus on finding a way out instead.She probably can’t wait to get away from me.
With a sigh, I put the throwback magazine back to its original place and help her look. I'm not sure whether we caused the cellar to look like a war zone in the center of it, or if the years of neglect did that before us. But there’s a pile of dirt, rocks, rusted metal and what looks like the twisted remains of a ladder right where we fell.I guess that explains where the exit is supposed to be.I stand beside her, my hands on my hips as I look at the jagged hole above our heads.
“Do you think you can give me a boost so I can climb out?” she asks, turning her gaze to me.
I meet her eyes, feeling a jolt of longing when I find a closed-off stare looking back at me.I wish she’d look at me the way she did that night…
Avery is a year younger than me and Ollie. She was the level below us at school, and for most of my life, the only girl I ever cared to look at. She was my friend first, my shoulder to lean on second, and somewhere in amongst all the growing up, I fell in love with her. That much is never changed.
Ollie would have beat me senseless if he had any idea of the things I thought about doing with his sister--he still might when he realizes I came back to claim her—so for years I did nothing. I loved her quietly, cautiously, until I couldn't keep it in anymore. We had one night together. One chaste, but magical night. And then I suffered without her during all the years in between then and now.
Leaving was both selfish and necessary. But I never stopped wishing I was right back here with this gorgeous girl sneaking into my bed and whispering that she loves me.
“I can lift you,” I say finally, my palms itching to grip her about the waist. “But I don’t think it’ll be high enough to get you out of here.”
She presses her lips into a line, thinking. “Then we’ll use the furniture. I’ll climb and you keep me steady.”
“Of course,” I say, giving her a meaningful look that causes her cheeks to flush before she turns away abruptly.
“This shit is rusting apart,” Avery says, tossing a metal chair aside when it bends the moment she puts her foot on it. “Maybe we can use the shelves? They can act as a ladder?”
“Worth a try,” I say, just happy that we’re speaking again and working together. I help her pick up one of the more stable-looking shelves and drag it beneath the hole.
“Don’t let me fall,” she says as she positions her foot on a metal shelf, preparing to climb.
“I’d catch you if you did,” I say, my lips quirking in a smirk. “I think I’ve already proven that much today.”
“We wouldn’t have fallen at all if you’d just stayed the hell away,” she mutters, pulling herself up to the next foothold.
Furrowing my brows, I make sure to keep the shelving stable while she and her curvaceous self climbs. Unable to pass up the opportunity, my eyes wander down her delicious body. Her ass is right in front of my face, and my dick reacts of its own accord. I have to stifle a groan so I don’t give myself away, but damn, I can’t stop thinking about sinking my teeth into that round globe..
"Looks like the earth between the cabin and the shelter has shifted and a leaking pipe has rusted the ceiling away," I say, trying to force my thoughts elsewhere so I don’t end up rutting against the shelf and making a fool of myself.. She grumbles in response but doesn't look down at me. Instead, she positions herself as high as she’s able on the shelves and reaches above her head. “It’s not high enough,” she says, her arm swinging about in the air like she’s somehow going to grow another two feet to reach the surface. Her movement causes the shelving to sway, and she shrieks as I dig my toes into the floor to steady it out. “Be careful!”
“I’m doin’ my best here, sweetheart. Wanna trade places?”
