Cave Men by Frankie Love
Hammer
When I sawthe tracks and I followed them, I hoped against hope that it would lead me to another human, a person, a lifeline.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would lead me to her, a woman so damn beautiful—ready to fall into my goddamn arms.
But it does.
She is.
I catch her and she takes my breath away.
Her eyes are clear. Her hair is soft. Her lips are full. Weightless. Beautiful. Mine.
"Hold on," I say. Her arms wrap around my neck and I pull my gun from its holster, shooting the goddamn jaguar before it can jump.
One, two bullets. Thank God I have 100 more.
I should've never gone into that cave after my father that day. I knew he was a bad man. He had been my whole life. A terrorist with so many people after him. My family name brought me nothing but shame. What does it say about a man who doesn't want to be connected to his own family, who wants to run from the blood that is his own?
I've never really wanted to face him, but that day I did because I knew my father was on a mission that would bring more bloodshed to this world and I couldn't let it happen.
I was going to kill him. I knew a Special Ops team was after him, and I figured it was my chance to deal with him first. Once and for all.
I was on him, close enough that I could smell his breath. I saw his eyes before he threw the grenade, ready to kill me.
"It doesn't have to be this way." That's what I said as the blast went off. But it was too late. The cave—it spun and shook and then I ended up here in the goddamn Stone Age.
Alone. So fucking alone.
But haven't I always been by myself?
I've been here a few years. I lost track. Time seems to have stopped.
And now her, here in my arms.
Fuck. It feels like fate.
"Who are you?" she asks, her fingers running through my hair.
"My name's Hammer," I tell her.
"I'm Summer,” she whispers, her soft fingers caressing my cheeks, drawing my face toward hers. “Thank you for saving my life.”
And she kisses me and, hell, it's the last thing I expected, her mouth meeting mine. But I give in. To what? I guess I give in to everything. Her, this, us.
There's a dead jaguar five yards away and we're on top of a mountain in paradise. And I don't know how we ended up here or when she got here, but we are, and she is.
We move to the ground. Her shirt reads ‘Summer's Apothecary.’
"That you?" I ask her, tracing the letters on her top.
She nods. "Yeah. I make stuff," she says with a smile.
"Stuff, huh?"
She nods. "Yeah."
"What kind of stuff?" I ask.
"All sorts of things," she says. "I could heal that scar," she says, running her fingers across my brow and then tracing the lines along my jaw, my neck, my forearm. "You've seen a lot of trouble, huh?" she asks.
I nod. "More than my fair share. What about you, Summer?"
She nods. "Not the kind of trouble that's left scars you can see, though. Trouble that's left scars on my heart mostly."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I tell her. Then I kiss her again. This time with a different kind of need. I lean down on top of her, my arms on either side of her body, running over her skin. Between kisses I ask, "How long have you been here?"
"One day," she says, "one single day."
I swallow. "I've been here a few years."
"Yeah?" she asks. "The guys I met yesterday have been here longer than that."
My eyes narrow. "You met other people?"
She nods. "Yeah. I'm guessing your men from Special Ops."
I shake my head. "Those aren't my guys. They’re the ones who were trying to kill my father."
"Shit, so your father was their target? Not you?" she asks, trying to understand my story. "And you never saw them in all this time? Yet you found me?"
"Crazy, huh?"
"A little bit."
I roll to my side and bring her with me. My hand moves to her hip and she hooks her leg over mine.
"You've been okay out here, alone?”
I shake my head. "Hardly."
"You make a camp somewhere?" she asks.
"No. I just keep moving, looking, hoping to find someone, something."
"I'm looking for my friend. That's how I ended up here. I need to find my friend, Fancy."
"We can find her together," I say. "I'll help you look."
"You'd do that?" she asks.
"I'm not letting you go after her alone. Hell, that jaguar nearly killed you."
"It was stupid of me to leave camp this morning."
"Why'd you go?" I ask.
"I got in a fight with the guys, or the guys got in a fight with themselves… I don't know. It was stupid. I shouldn't have left. I think they wanted me to choose between them. And I didn't want to pick just one."
My eyebrows lift. "You were interested in them both?"
She shrugs. "I mean, interested seems like a strong way of putting it. I’m here. I time traveled, whatever that even means. It's all crazy, right? This is crazy, isn't it?"
I nod. "It's crazy."
"So I was just giving in to the moment and they were the moment. And so I thought, hey, why not have some fun with this? Why not just give in to..."
"Pleasure?" I fill in for her, intrigued by this woman’s confidence.
"Exactly. But they didn't like the idea of sharing. I guess that was kind of naive of me to think that two men would want to share one woman."
I smile. "I think it sounds kind of fun."
"You do?" she asks.
I nod. "Yeah. I mean, it's kind of sensual… making sure a woman gets everything she needs in life, everything she desires." I run a hand over her body. I see the way she moves, needing it. Maybe she came here for a reason. Maybe that reason was me and whoever those two guys are, maybe it was fate she left them. "Would it be so bad to have a little fun on the way to find your friend?" I ask.
Her eyes brighten. She licks her lips. "Who are you, Hammer?"
I smile. "It seems like right now I'm yours."