The Virtual Man [The Virtual Reality 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (22 page)

“Hi. Looks like your hunting trip was successful,” she croaked, forcing herself to try and sound positive and healthy.

“Yes, it was. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve felt better. I think the fever is coming back.”

“Try to get some rest while I cook us dinner.”

Cook … He was going to burn the meat so that it looked and tasted like it had been made through the normal process of regenerating matter in a synthesizer. What a man!

Still looking over the side of their platform, Tiana watched as Derek bent a small tree branch into a bow, tying the ends to each other with a vine stripped of its leaves. He then twisted another, straighter stick into the bow’s vine and then, using other pieces of wood … What is he doing? Somehow he was making the straighter stick spin back and forth. He had some sort of dried grass around the end of the stick. Why does he keep spinning the stupid stick? I thought he was going to cook that animal?

He kept this up for a while and, much to her surprise, she saw a small flame ignite. Derek blew on the flame.

Looks like his ‘toy’ has caught on fire and now he’s trying to blow it out.

The flame grew steadily as he blew on it. She watched, fascinated, as he kept adding bigger and bigger sticks to the flame.

He wasn’t trying to put out a fire, he was trying to start one. How clever!

Soon enough, Derek had a roaring fire going and, skewered on a couple of sticks, he held slices of the deer over the fire. He was cooking.

Tiana struggled hard to stay awake, but the fever fought harder, and won.

* * * *

“Tiana, wake up darling. We need to get some food into you.”

Derek touched his hand to her forehead. She was burning up. He lifted her back off the platform, propped her up between his legs and gave her water to drink. She probably had become dehydrated while he was gone. Her eyes opened, but they had an ominous-looking glaze over them. She was getting worse.

“Let’s get some water into you and see if we can get you better.”

Moistening her lips with a damp cloth he was finally able to get her to swallow water. Vigilantly caring for her, he finally coaxed her to swallow small bits of meat and watched her chew to make sure she didn’t accidentally choke. As he watched her, he stroked her beautiful yet pale face, and ran his fingers softly over each and every one of the cute little freckles on her nose and forehead. Derek was totally captivated by his wife’s smallest details. As he fed her, he allowed himself the indulgence of touching and caressing her soft cheeks with his index finger. Finding some strength she gently kissed his finger in return. She was too weak to speak, but that single act of tenderness spoke volumes to Derek.

Lord, I know she’s not mine to keep, but please don’t take her.

She wasn’t that hungry and didn’t eat much. Derek checked her leg. The infection was getting worse. It was redder and puffier than it had been before. That explained the fever. He shimmied down the rope and sterilized his knife in what was left of the fire. He knew what he had to do. After climbing back and returning to her side he saw that the fever had claimed her and she had lost consciousness. He was glad for this mercy. Without wasting any time, Derek cut the stitches away from the wound, reopened it and proceeded to drain it. He then gently applied more aloe juice and more mold directly into it. Tearing his shirt into strips he used these to rebandage the angry-looking wound without stitching it back. This process would need to be repeated later.

After a few hours had passed, Derek repeated the healing ritual to make sure the wound absorbed as much of the primitive medicine he had concocted as possible. Though what he was doing made sense, he wasn’t really sure it would work or make any kind of a difference, but he had to try.

Tiana continued to sleep under Derek’s loving and watchful eye.

* * * *

A fever-induced nightmare enveloped Tiana. She was on her back on a large round bed in the center of a large, dimly lit room. The bed was spinning. She was holding onto a baby, her baby, with one hand and holding Derek with the other. Tom was there too. He was the one who was spinning the bed. He kept spinning it faster and faster. She couldn’t hold on to them. The spinning motion was ripping them away from her grasp. Tom, laughing, kept spinning them faster and faster. She was losing her grip on her baby. She was also losing her grip on Derek. She was spinning faster … and faster … and faster … and faster. Tom kept laughing and grabbing for the baby. She wouldn’t give it to him. At the same time a tall, young-looking brunette entered the room and began grabbing for Derek each time he spun by. It was Chrissie, her former maid. She couldn’t lose Derek to Chrissie the way she had stolen Tom from her. Panic and anxiety engulfed her. The harder she held Derek and her baby, the more her arms tired and the more they seemed to slip away from her. Turning her attention to Derek for a split second, she felt her baby flying out of her hands. Tom caught the baby and ran out of the room. He’d stolen her baby. Derek was still there, but she was losing her grip on him too. Chrissie laughed at her futile efforts to hold onto her husband.
Please stop the spinning
. She couldn’t move her free arm over to grip Derek any tighter. Her arm just would not move. She clutched at him. Chrissie kept grabbing at him with each spin. He was slipping … slipping … slipping …

“NO! Derek, no!” she screamed out in her tormented state.

“It’s okay, darlin’, I’m here,” Derek said, trying to calm her.

“Where am I? Why can’t I see anything? Where’s Tom? Am I blind?” she questioned restlessly in the fever-induced delerium, scrambling around to try and make contact with a human.

Derek took her hand.

“It’s me, Derek, and you’re not blind, sweetie. It’s just nighttime. I’m right here with you. You had a nightmare.”

“He took my baby,” she sobbed. “Melinda took you.”

“Shhh.” He smoothed her damp hair back from her face. “I’m right here with you and you’re safe. Nobody’s taken me. We’re both safe.”

Derek gently held her as she shook. At intervals she could hear the terrifying roars and noises of the creatures of the forest as they either hunted or became the hunted. Derek’s touch, however, won out and she calmed down as the last vestiges of her nightmare receded.

“Would you like some water?” he asked in a low, soothing whisper.

“Please,” she whispered back.

Tiana felt the coolness of the water soothe the dryness of her parched throat. The most soothing thing, though, wasn’t the water. It was his words, it was his touch, and it was his tender care as he sought to allow her to bring herself out of the fear instead of telling, yanking or forcing her out of it.

Derek is here
, she thought.
He’s taking care of me
.

She felt comforted. She was safe.

* * * *

Throughout the night Derek stayed up and watched her, as best as he could watch anything in a pitch-black environment. At intervals he re-applied the aloe and mold to the wound. He also did his best to get her to drink as much water as she could each time she woke up, and managed to get additional bites of meat into her weakened body. Several times she was overcome with chills from the fever. He did the only thing he could. He covered her body with his and tried to keep her warm.

* * * *

When the sun came up the following morning, Tiana woke to find herself drenched in sweat and very weak. It had been a rough and torturous night. She was in Derek’s arms. She remembered him being awake and with her throughout the night. That had been her only comfort. Apparently he had finally succumbed to his weariness and fallen asleep. She felt him stir and finally heard his voice.

“Good morning. How are you?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t feel cold any more. I feel hot.”

“That’s a good sign. Your fever may have broken. Are you hungry?”

“No, but I have a feeling you’re going to make me eat whether I’m hungry or not.”

“Well, just as long as we understand each other,” he said, flashing his signature grin and melting her heart in the process.

Goodness gracious. That smile ought to be illegal.

“Ah, madame, I give you ze best table in ze café,” Derek announced in his best imitation French accent. “From here ze view is le magnifique! Down by ze lake you will noteese le wart cochon pooping, oui? And ze cervide feeding on delicious appetizing leaves just down the trail. Incidentally, we’re about to eat his ex-girlfriend, oui? Here, have some,” he finished, pointing to a pile of thinly sliced venison.

Laughing at his performance, she tried to sit up, but failed miserably.

Yup, I still feel like crap. I hate feeling helpless, Control, control, control.

Derek handed her a small bite knowing she had to feel a part of her own care.

“Mon garcon,” she gave a slight smile, “this is tres bien. It might actually be better than regular synthesized food.”

The concession was a big step for the city girl who, just as soon as she finished her meal, fell deeply into a peaceful slumber.

Tiana awoke as she watched Derek, who no longer had a shirt to wear, take his pants, underwear, shoes and socks off and stand stark naked before her. The pants, underwear and socks he tossed over the side of the platform and watched as they landed at the foot of the tree that had become their starter home.

“Okay, I’m going to help you get your clothes off. It’s laundry time,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Oh, is this a new game?” she asked with an impish grin, even though she realized full well that the only games she was probably fit to play at this time were ones that involved sleeping. Correction, sleeping a lot.

“Nope. No game. Now let me strip you, woman!” he ordered with a laugh.

Derek slid her skirt off, followed by her panties, and tossed them over the side. As he slid them off and her most private of areas came into view, a small gasp escaped his throat.
He finds me sexy. Even in my current disheveled state, he still desires me.

Taking note of Derek’s forming erection, Tiana couldn’t help herself. She stretched one leg flat on the platform and stretched the other one straight up and bent at the knee, forming a perfect L with her shapely legs, leaving herself totally spread for his enjoyment. Tiana watched as his cock sprang to immediate attention. She reveled in the power she held over him.

“You are such a bad girl,” he said, apparently doing his best to keep his voice from cracking.

“Yes, I know. It’s one of my many character flaws,” she stated in that sultry, smoky tone only he seemed to elicit.

“Mrs. Hart, even though I would give my right arm to make mad, passionate love with you right now, you need to rest. I’m simply going to remove your blouse without sampling the goodies to be found underneath, got it?”

Hmm, I like the sound of my married name.

Curling her lower lip, she shot the most pitiful pout she could muster up at him and, enjoying his casual teasing, helped him remove the blouse as best as she could.

“So, are you planning on keeping me stark naked from now on?”

“It’s got potential. It would definitely save time,” he growled in a guttural, primitive-man tone.

Giving her a playful kiss, Derek climbed down, gathered the clothes and headed for the lake.

Looking over the side of the platform, Tiana could see Derek washing the clothes by the lake. She figured water would probably play some role in the cleaning process, since obviously a sonic washer was not available here in the middle of, well, nowhere. She saw him rubbing sand into the clothes and scrubbing them on a rock. Would what he was doing get their clothes clean? Based on Derek’s track record with this living in the wilderness thing, she wasn’t about to think otherwise. Obediently sipping some water and eating some nuts, she lay on her back. The hot sun gently caressed her naked flesh, and slowly lulled her into yet another nap.

* * * *

Hearing a noise, she opened her eyes.

“Hi,” she heard him say. “The clothes should be dry in a few hours.”

Seeing her blouse and dress drying on a bush down below attracted her attention. Her white outfit was now a beautiful and delicate shade of pink.

“Derek, my clothes … I’m confused.”

“Oh, that. I hope you’re not disappointed. I couldn’t get all the stains off the white cloth, so I dyed your outfit pink using some berries. I couldn’t have my bride wearing dirty looking clothes during our honeymoon, and all the stores were closed, so I couldn’t get you a new outfit.”

“Derek, it looks brand new, so feminine and so beautiful. Thank you,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.
What’s with all this crying crap!
she admonished herself. “You would have made a great twenty-second century house-husband,” she continued trying to lighten the mood.

“How’d you get that up here?” she asked, noticing for the first time what used to be the case to the medical kit that he apparently had turned into a water container.

“Slowly, very slowly. It is now your official wash basin. Since you are not well enough to go to the water yet, I have brought water to you. Now, let me move you so that your head is over the wash basin, my lady, and let’s allow water to flow through your beautiful hair.”

She did as Derek asked, glad for the chance to be able to wash her hair for the first time in a week. She reached her arm up to work through the knots in her hair.

“Put that beautiful, scrumptious and kissable hand down, my lady. I, Derek Erecticus, will do that for you.”

She laughed. “Okay, just don’t call me Mrs. Erecticus!”

The combination of his hands and the water was heavenly. She couldn’t remember the last time someone and not a machine had washed her hair. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the relaxing feeling.

Once he finished, Derek sat her up. She felt him combing her hair.

“Hey, where’d you get the comb?”

“I made it for you,” he responded shyly, handing it to her.

The comb was made of some kind of plastic-like substance, except it was polished and had a shiny, lustrous quality. Even the teeth were perfectly spaced as if it had been synthesized, except she had never seen a comb as beautiful as this one.