Fortis

Fortis | Decem

            Since I had woken up, my body hadn’t been feeling like my own. My skin felt thick and constraining; numb. I was fully aware of my surroundings and what I was doing, but it felt like an outer body experience. My body was an empty vessel with a working brain.

At breakfast, I had to excuse myself prematurely due to the fact that I couldn’t stand to be around Fortis for too long. His dark aura seemed to appeal to a side of me that I didn’t knew existed. Being around him caused my body to react in an unfamiliar way. A jolt of excitement would roll down my spine and spread through my veins like liquid need whenever he looked at me beneath his long, dark lashes. It made my toes curl within my socks, and my brain was only capable of conjuring a sweaty, naked Fortis that was laid over top of me, his strong arms supporting his weight.

I had never even kissed a boy, let alone of ever thought of sleeping with one. Rumors had always been fluttering around Fortis in school. He was a constant law breaker and womanizer. I heard he only had one true girlfriend, but he ended up cheating on her with multiple other girls. Even through Fortis’s physical appearance had always appealed to me, his bad boy ways didn’t. In fact, they disgusted me, but it didn’t stop my raging hormones from wanting him to take me on my bed, or the couch, or the kitchen table, or even on a wall.

As my cheeks flushed with the dirty thoughts, a knock on the door interrupted my quiet room. I shut my eyes tightly as a cold breeze wafted through the opened balcony doors, the icy air was the only thing keeping me from being over heated. But yet, sweat tricked slowly down the back of my neck. Why was I so hot? Maybe I had a temperature. Or maybe it was my impending death. 

I swallowed dryly. “Uh, yeah?”

“Are you all right?” Fortis asked, his deep voice muffled by the wooden door. Even though there was concern laced in his words, it sent a rough shiver through me, which awakened my over sensitive nerves of need.

I knew he was only worried about the fact that the full moon was today, the day I would supposedly meet my demise. But the thing was, I could care less if I died. It wasn’t a patronizing fear that consumed my every thoughts and movements, but a mere speed bump in my life. If I died: I died. And that would be it. I would be no more.

I didn’t fear the Grim Reaper no longer.

“Yeah, Fortis.” Perfectly fine.

“Are you sure? You’ve been acting weird all day…” He peeked through the door. Instantly, his unique smell—a spicy, woodsy, masculine, enticing smell—wafted around the room. The scent defeated the strong gust of air that rolled off the mountains. It danced around my nose and I inhaled deeply, my eyes staying closed. The walls seemed to close in, making me dizzy with a deep ache that was settled in my lower stomach. A feeling that only happened when I was around Fortis it seemed.

Not being able to bring myself to look in his irises, I opened my eyes to look out the window that was imbedded into the wall next to my bed. The sight of calming mountains and the setting sun didn’t repair my frayed nerves. Fortis consumed my thoughts. I cleared my throat, hoping my voice wouldn’t come out desperate. “Yes, I’m sure. Can you go, please?”

He slid his lean body through the slit in the doorway, scratching the back of his neck. I could hear his fingernails scraping against his tanned skin. “Um, actually, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Only when he closed the door behind him, confining us in the small space, did I start freaking out internally. He was too close. My body started to get heated again, my breathing eradicated.

“Can you tell me later?” I stood from the bed in a rush, trying to maneuver around Fortis to head into the bathroom to take my fourth cold shower of the day. My skin itched and tingled, my fingertips feeling numb.