House of Forbidden Desires (Steamy Short Collections)

For two days, Emma did her runs, resting in between, hiking up and down the trails around her campsite, but always staying in close proximity to it. The weather was unusually warm and she dressed only in shorts and a loose top. On the second day, she had noticed some red spots on her legs which began to itch after running, but she dismissed them as a heat rash. When they itched, she scratched them with her hands. By the third day, they were spreading to cover more of her legs, and they itched terribly, even when she wasn't running. Some of them had become blistery and at times throughout the day wept, making her legs damp. She applied hand and body lotion hoping to ease the discomfort, and it worked for a while, but the itching returned as soon as the lotion was absorbed. It was not unbearable and she was strong, so she told herself she could endure this rash, whatever it was.

Canada is known for its beautiful lands, gorgeous lakes, rivers and streams, and in certain times of the summer, tiny little pests called Black flies. They are attracted to moisture and sweat and their bites sting worse than a bee's. Traveling in swarms, they can swirl around a person, landing and stinging in multiple spots at once. Most popular bug sprays will repel them so that they are but a nuisance flying around a person, without landing. Emma brought a can of bug repellent with her, thinking it would last the entire outing, but she had used it heavily the first day to rid her campsite of any number of harmless flying and crawling insects. By day three, her bug spray was nearly gone and she decided to ration what remained for the evenings, hoping that her daylight activities would keep the Black flies away.

The morning of the fourth day she could feel the increase in humidity as she crawled out of her sleeping bag. She dressed quickly, relieved herself in the woods, and prepared breakfast over her small campfire. As a treat, she prepared a single portion of pancakes, opting for the high carbs to give her added energy for the morning run. In a moment of hazy thinking, she decided to do her runs before cleaning her dishes, leaving the remnants of her breakfast sitting on the stump by her tent. On her first run up the stream she encountered an unusually large swarm of Black flies. She tried to outrun them, but they were much too quick. Attracted to her perspiration, they swarmed her head and legs, flew into her ears, nose and mouth and bit her wherever her skin was damp. Her only alternative was to seek the shelter of her tent, and she immediately ran back down the slope for safety. Running at nearly full speed to try to escape the flies, she ran onto her campsite before she realized the danger that awaited her. There at the stump by her tent, was a bear cub enjoying the leftover pancakes and syrup which she had failed to clean up. Before she could stop, she nearly ran into the cub, causing it to squeal for its mother who was just on the other side of the tent looking for berries. Sensing the danger, the mother immediately turned to protect its cub, growled once as the cub ran to her, and then looked at Emma who was frozen in place.

The Black flies immediately attacked Emma wherever she was wet, especially her legs. She began waving her arms wildly to swat the flies away, but the mother bear interpreted that as further danger and growled angrily as she began to move towards Emma. Finally, her adrenal gland began to flood her system with adrenalin, and Emma recognized the true danger she was in. Quickly she ran to the stream and headed down hill, putting distance between her and the life threatening mother bear. But the Black flies continued their assault on her as she ran. She could hear the bear growling behind her and she ran as fast as she could, futilely waving at the flies, screaming, until she could feel them fly into her mouth too. With her eyes barely open, she ran down the stream, one foot after the other, in her desperate bid to escape.

Clarke was fishing in a pool formed by a waterfall. The pool itself was deep, twenty or so feet he thought, and was one of the largest pools in this his favorite fishing area. The waterfall itself wasn't much to look at, barely ten feet of fall off a sharp ledge. He had fished this pool many times throughout the years and had always succeeded in catching several large trout from it. He had been fishing about an hour when he was quite surprised to hear what sounded like a girl screaming in the distance. Because he was below the ledge, the sounds reverberated and masked the direction of origin, and he had no idea, really, how close or far away the sound had carried. Startled is not an adequate word to describe his reaction, shocked, amazed, astonished possibly, to the sight of a girl falling over the waterfall from above and landing in the pool of water where he was about to cast.

"What the hell?" He dropped his rod to the ground and ran to the edge of the pool as the girl's head reappeared in the water. "What the hell are you doing? Are you hurt?"

"Please help me. A bear is after me."

Clarke looked up at the ledge from which the girl had fallen but saw no sign of a bear.

"Are you hurt? Can you swim to the edge here?"

"No, I don't think I'm hurt." She began to slowly move to the edge of the rocks. As she emerged from the water, Clarke extended his hand to steady her and could see that she was covered with the welts of Black fly stings and what appeared to be a very bad case of poison ivy.

She sat on the rocks for several minutes, not saying anything.

"Where did you come from? What happened to you?"

"I have been camping up the hill. I was on my morning run and I ran into a whole bunch of those flies and they just attacked me all over. I couldn't get away from them, so I ran back to my tent, but there were two bears there, eating my food. One was a little one and I scared it, and I think it was his mother that came after me. I ran down the stream as fast as could but I couldn't get away from the flies. I just kept running. I couldn't see anymore, they were all over my face, and then I fell over the edge and landed here."

I need to get you medical attention. You have fly bites all over your body and it looks like your legs are covered in poison ivy as well. Can you walk?"

"Yes, I think so."

He picked up his fishing gear. "Okay, my campsite is only about a half mile down this path. We can go there and I will get you some medicine for the bites and then we'll deal with the ivy."