Titans of Chaos

I put my arms around his waist (an odd sensation, since his belt was upside down to me), andVanity did the same. The bare skin of our arms brushed up against each other. As well as wecould in that reversed position, she and I huddled.

I turned my head so that my other cheek was pressed against Colin's back. Vanity was nowhanging head-down only inches from me, her longer hair, also wetted and limp in the rain,slapping around Colin's knees. She was breathless. Her emerald eyes were so wide, so close tomine, and so alarmed, that for a moment, whatever the real purpose of letting Colin pick us upthis way had been was lost to me.

For a moment, a moment with no context of before or after, I actually felt like a cavegirl who hadbeen captured. I could feel the tense, strong muscles in Colin's body where I was pressed upagainst him, I could smell the clean, masculine scent of him, a young, strong animal, innocent andruthless.

I am sure Vanity was only afraid of the prospect of being carried through the air by Colin, whohad not flown before. But that is not what I saw. I saw a girl, like me, my friend, being carried offby a strong young man, frightened at her own helplessness in the face of his savage will andlawless lusts. Seeing it in her communicated it to me. In that one mad moment, I was certain withterror that Colin was going to carry us off to some place of his own choosing and ravish us, firstone, then the other, then both.

A silly fear, and it was gone the next moment. But even after it faded, the echo left behind mademe feel small and delicate.

Colin spoke, and sounded so pleased with himself that I somehow knew Colin knew my fears andinner feelings, and he smiled in his masculine pride, relishing the sensation of my vulnerability: asif, by carrying me, he had gained the power to know what quaked in my fast-beating heart.

Colin said, "Okay, ladies! We'll do the games later. Please! More kicking and squirming! Now,concentrate! Remember, girls, your job here is to inspire me, right? You are both Roxanne to myCyrano, got it?" And I felt him rub his cheek first against my hip, then against Vanity's.

"Hey!" exclaimed Vanity, who began kicking and squirming in earnest, and pounding her fistsinto his back. I do not think of Vanity as being all that weak, and there are places on a man's backwhere one can do serious damage. I was sure he was going to drop us.