Page 25 of Desolation

What do I do?

Do I put my arm around her?

Would that be weird?

She interrupts my inner turmoil with a giggle. “Chill out, Zedd! You’re so tense.”

Taking a deep breath in and blowing it out, I give myself a pep talk.

You’ve got this, Zedd. Just reach up and put your arm around her. Nothing weird about that.

Not wanting to give myself time to back out of the decision, I jerk my arm up and put it around her. In quick succession, I try to pull her closer to me but use too much force and instead of resting on my chest, she falls face first in my lap.

Holy. Shit.

No one has ever been this close to my dick, besides me.

Her breath is warm and my dick twitches at the first hints of attention. She’s just lying there, likely in shock, frozen, because I’m such a fucking disaster.

Just as I make the decision to drown in shameafterI’ve saved her from my clumsiness, she starts to laugh and the vibrations make me shiver. When she puts her hands on my leg to push herself, I almost groan becausefuuuck,my dick likes all of this.

By the time she’s back in a sitting position, I’m beet red, looking forward to death and doing my best to keep my hands away from her. “I’m so sorry, Lana!”

She smiles softly at my horrified face. “It’s okay, sweetie. Let’s try this again. Put your arm up.”

Following her request, I lift my arm and she tucks herself up against my side, laying her head on my chest.

I still feel nervous about screwing this up somehow but a tense body can’t be a comfortable resting place so let out a deep breath and force myself to relax. I let my arm hang against Lana’s side and lean back against the tree.

This feels damn good.

I’ve waited a long time for this and wondered, more than once, if it would ever happen.Patience is indeed a virtue. Life can’t get much better than this.

I close my eyes and doze off, enjoying the warmth emanating from her and the cool breeze in the air.

Leo

A sharp, stinging sensation on my cheek jerks me from my nap. I come to, disoriented, and absentmindedly wipe the tingling skin.

When I pull my fingers away, they’re smeared with blood and I sit up, startled, looking for the cause. Searching the area around me, I find a large pellet of hail, the size of a dime, and my heart drops.

Oh, shit.

I glance up to a gray sky, filled with angry storm clouds, completely blocking out the sun.

“Wake the fuck up!” I shout at the guys near me. Without waiting for them, I rush over to the tree where Lana and Zedd are dozing, immediately dropping to my knees and shaking her awake as gently as I can in my panic. “Lana, baby, open those gorgeous eyes up. We have a problem.”

Her eyelids crack open and she looks at me, sleep lingering in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Hailstorm. We need to find coverimmediately.”

Lana and Zedd bolt upright, gathering supplies, rushing to get everything essential together with panicked movements.

“Think about where the closest shelter is!” Hale yells. “We don’t know if a tornado will follow. The sky could open up at any moment.”

We all share nervous glances, struggling to come up with an area that can provide the safety we need from this storm.

“There’s nowhere!” Zedd shouts back, struggling to hide the fear in his words. “Closest underground shelter is in town!”