Canem Story Time with Prince

When We're Dancing Close and Slow

Mature content.

When We're Dancing Close and Slow, PRN (1979)

By the time she reaches the burning cabin, Can is breaking down the door to get in. She watches helplessly as her heart, her life disappears into the flames. "Can! Can!" Sanem struggles to break free of the hold her father, Emre, and CeyCey have on her, "Let me go!" She can't lose him! She has to go to him. She has to get him out of there. She can save him, she knows she can. She keeps trying to escape the hands that are holding her, but they won't give, and all she can do is call out for him, her eyes wide with fear, desperate for him to be okay.

Long seconds pass, and with every second Sanem dies a little more. She's never felt so impotent. She pulls against the hands that hold her again, but she's so weak. "Can," she whimpers. "Can, please be okay. Please be okay," she whispers. How can everyone just stand here and watch while the fire rages and he's inside? He's inside!

Finally, he emerges, and everyone shouts his name in relief. He is carrying his bag. That's what he risked his life for? His bag? What could be so valuable to him that he would enter a burning building?

Sanem is so relieved, she shrugs off the hands that still hold her and she runs to him. She hugs him without thinking, holding him as tightly as she can, feeling his solid presence and his chest rising and falling with his life's breath. His skin is hot and sweaty from the heat of the fire, but she doesn't care. He's shocked at first, but it only takes a second before he's holding her, too. She buries her face in his chest and inhales deeply. He smells of smoke and burning wood; of masculinity and pure Can. "Can, I was so scared. Why did you do that? Why?" She pulls back suddenly, but she doesn't go far; her hands on his chest are shaking, she fists his shirt to still them. His arms are still around her. She searches his face and his body for signs of injury; he's covered in soot, but he seems to be unharmed. She wants to tell him she doesn't want him to go, that she wants him to be there for her--because he loves her and he missed her and he can't live without her--not because his boat broke down. She wants to tell him because she's not truly alive without him, and seeing him again after all this time has made that so clear to her.

Their eyes lock and he can see the fear written in hers. "I'm sorry I scared you," he says, smoothing the her hair back from her face. She doesn't flinch or move away from his touch, and he's so grateful. His touch is a soothing balm, erasing her fear. "I had to get something--something very important."

"More important than your life?" Sanem asks, stepping out of his embrace and fixing him with her stare.

"Yes," he says simply.

At that moment, he's overtaken by his concerned friends and family and Sanem stands back when everyone surrounds him to reassure themselves that he's okay. "I'm fine. Iyiyim," he repeats over and over again to calm them. Can looks past everyone to try to catch Sanem's eye. He doesn't want her to run away from him again. Sanem suddenly feels self-conscious about the way about she threw herself at him when he came out of the hut. She crosses her arms over her chest and looks down at the grass to avoid his eyes, and she wonders what is so important that he was willing to risk his life.

In all the madness, someone had had the presence of mind to call the fire department. The fire engines arrive at the scene and the fire is relatively quickly extinguished. Can is looked over by the paramedics and determined to be healthy, but the damage to the hut leaves him without a place to stay.

Mehriban offers him a room in her house, but he refuses. "I can just put up a tent somewhere. Or I'll go out to the boat and sleep there. Don't worry about me," Can assures her.