Chapter 46: Make Sure Your Employer Also Offers an Emergency Search-and-Rescue Benefit

“Fuck,” Octavia spat. She lay on the cold ground with one foot twisted in an unnatural position.

Around her, the thick, snowy forest swallowed her cursing, her whole self, and responded to her panic with a calm, pristine silence.

“Okay, Octavia,” she said to herself, “relax. Breathe. Let’s assess the situation.” Octavia took three deep breaths. “Okay, problem: I think I’ve twisted my ankle. Not good.

“Also, I may very well be lost. Definitely not good. I have my phone with me, but there’s like zero cell service in this place. Absolutely NOT GOOD!”

Octavia stopped herself to take a few more deep breaths. The assessment of her situation only made her more panicked.

Octavia had previously been hiking down the trail, eyes glued to the screen of her drone controller. That, she now realized, hadn’t been a good idea.

At some point, she looked up and realized she had stepped off the trail and walked right into the forest. She had been walking for at least an hour before she realized what she’d done.

She only stopped because a sudden gust of wind blew her drone off course, right into a tree.

Octavia jammed at the buttons on the controller and wildly thumbed the joysticks, but nothing could shake the contraption from the branches of the tall pine tree.

Being the logical being that she was, she decided to head back to the hotel before that ominous storm came around.

She’d have to rescue her drone another time, trusting the advertised “weatherproof” feature of the drone to keep it safe for at least one night.

That was when she realized she was lost. She walked around for a while, trying to find her way back to the trail—and failed. She brought out her phone, hoping to call someone—that didn’t work either.

She thought that if she got to a higher surface, maybe she’d be able to get a signal. She spotted a large, mossy boulder at least a few yards high.

She tried to climb it—and that was how she ended up with the twisted ankle. Funny thing with moss, it’s actually quite slippery, she found out.

“Damn it all to hell!” she told herself. Her ankle hurt like hell, she was getting colder by the second, and the sky was getting darker with a threatening wind blowing through the air.

Things were not looking good.

Octavia lay on the ground and listlessly stared at the sky. “God, I hope someone comes looking for me.”

But that was rather unreasonable thing to expect. By the time anyone realized she hadn’t come back yet, the storm would be raging.

And how could they find her? It’s not like she had a bank card with some kind of tracking technology in her pocket.

~Also, it’s not like Raemon will be looking for you,~ a sinister voice in her head pointed out. Octavia swallowed.

That had been her last hope at the back of her mind, whether or not she wanted to admit it. But given their last interaction, it was a hope she might as well let die.

Figures. The one time his controlling possessiveness could come in handy, it wouldn’t.

Octavia didn’t know how long she lay there, but she soon felt herself drifting off to sleep. Another small voice in her head advised her not to, but she didn’t care.

“This is how I die, I guess,” she whispered to herself.

“Not if I can help it.”

Octavia, eyes still closed, wrinkled her nose. “Great. I’m hearing voices now. The end is near!” she said dramatically.

“You’re still able to sound ridiculous. That’s a good sign,” Raemon said. “Open your eyes, Octavia.”

Octavia’s eyes shot open. She blinked several times as the image of the man standing over her came into view.

“It’s you!” she exclaimed.

Raemon’s lips twitched into a small half smile. “Yes.”

“But…how?” Octavia said. She sat up. “I don’t have your card on me.”

“I found you the old-fashioned way,” Raemon said. “I followed your trail of trampled foliage. It was plain to see where you’d left the hiking path.”

He crouched to examine Octavia’s ankle. “Can you stand?”

Octavia winced at the touch of his hand on her foot.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Raemon said. He scanned the area around them. “We need to find shelter. The storm’s coming in fast.”

“How far away is the resort?” Octavia said.

“A few miles,” Raemon answered. “You walked pretty far.”

Octavia lay back and groaned. “Stupid fucking drone.”

“Is that what led you out here?”

“Yes.” Octavia sighed. “It got caught in a tree. I couldn’t get it down.”

“You tried to climb a tree for a simple drone?” Raemon said.

“A very expensive drone,” Octavia said. “You should be happy I tried to get it. You paid for it, after all.

“And anyway, I didn’t fall trying to climb a tree. I fell trying to climb a rock to get cell service. This whole place is like a black hole of network.”

Raemon knelt beside Octavia’s sprawled body. “I know, that’s why I selected it. Makes it harder to get hacked.”

He picked up Octavia in his arms and lifted her off the ground in one swoop. Octavia didn’t have the time to register what was going on.

All she knew was that one moment she was lying on the ground, and in the next, she was being carried by her boss as he made his way through the snowcapped trees.

Once again, she found herself in awe of how strong he was. He’d picked her up like she weighed nothing. She most certainly did not weigh nothing.

“Where are you going?” Octavia asked.

“There’s an old house near here. We should be able to wait out the storm in that,” Raemon answered.

“How do you know so much about this place?”

“I spent some time here as a kid,” Raemon answered. “My mother once worked at the resort. Back then, it was a smaller place. I’d hike these trails a lot.”

Soon enough, they came upon an old wooden structure. Raemon carried her through a door that was hanging off its hinges.

The interior of the house was dark and somewhat musty, but the floor was dry. It was a single room with boarded-up wooden windows.

Piles of hay lay scattered in some places, and Octavia gratefully sank down into the pile Raemon set her down on. She hugged her arms around herself for warmth.

Octavia looked up and saw that Raemon was gathering some of the chopped logs of wood thrown in a careless pile by what appeared to be a fireplace.

“Some of the local farmers use this place to sleep in when they’re grazing their animals,” Raemon was saying, “but at this time of year, no one will be passing through here.”

Raemon did manage to get a fire going in the fireplace. Within minutes, the whole room was considerably warmer and bathed in a soft, flickering, golden glow.

“He can track people down and start a fire from nothing,” Octavia muttered to herself. “What can’t this man do?”

Raemon stood by the door, observing the incoming storm. Outside, the wind was howling relentlessly, and a light flurry of snow was already billowing through the air.

He shut the door, locking the hostile wind outside.

“Are you cold?” Raemon asked, seating himself beside Octavia.

“Not so much anymore,” Octavia said, tightening the collar of her jacket around her throat.

Raemon put a hand to her forehead. “You’re freezing,” he said. He shrugged his own jacket off himself and then wrapped it around Octavia’s shoulders.

“I can’t take your coat,” Octavia said, “what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Raemon said, “I have a high tolerance for cold. Something I’ve built up over the years.”

Octavia wanted to launch further protests, but she drew his jacket closer around her, appreciating the warmth.

“I could use some of that right now. How did you do it?” Octavia asked.

“I submerge my body in ice water every morning,” Raemon said.

“Forget that.”

Raemon observed Octavia huddled underneath the layers of two thick winter coats. Still she shivered.

“You might be getting a fever,” Raemon said.

“Just what I need,” Octavia said with a weak laugh. “This is why I hate the cold.”

Raemon suddenly reached across for her and, like he’d done before, scooped her up into his arms. He then sat back with Octavia nestled in his arms, her head lying against his chest.

Octavia was too weak to pull away. And damn it, the man felt like a heated blanket against her skin. At that point, she would take whatever heat she could get.

“Thank you,” Octavia said suddenly. “I think this is the second time you’ve saved me. I don’t know how I keep ending up in these possibly deadly situations.”

“You seem to be making it a habit,” Raemon answered. When he spoke, she could feel the words rumbling in his chest.

“It’s not like I intentionally try to get into scrapes like this,” Octavia responded. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten lost if I was in a clear frame of mind when I left the resort.”

“Oh? So you weren’t just trying to get away from me?”

“No, I was,” Octavia answered, “but my intention was to come back.” She paused. “To the resort, I mean.”

Raemon was silent.

“Why did you come looking for me?” Octavia asked. “We didn’t exactly part ways on friendly terms.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Raemon said.

Octavia lay against his chest, feeling the warmth of the fabric of his shirt against her cheek. She considered his words.

“I guess it doesn’t,” Octavia mumbled. “I’m glad you did, anyway. And I have thanked you.” She yawned. “Let the record show that you have been properly compensated.”

Raemon smirked. “Just sleep, Octavia.”

Any person witnessing the sight of Octavia curled up in her boss’s arms would have a few questions.

What could prompt a man like Raemon Kentworth to tramp out into the cold after an assistant he spent a lot of time being annoyed with?

But one can only theorize on the inner workings of a mind like Raemon Kentworth’s. So, let’s do just that:

Even to the casual observer, it would appear there was something going on between this tech billionaire and his assistant. Raemon Kentworth had never treated anyone the way he did this employee.

The people in his life were only there to do their job and nothing more. Even when it came to his women. This wasn’t a man who invested his time in any person beyond the bare minimum.

He was cold, distant, and unconcerned.

But not with her.

He had tried to be the same kind of person around Octavia. But where others cowered in fear at Raemon’s disapproval, Octavia would laugh and make a corny joke.

It was as if she looked through him when looking at him. She saw the money, the power, the influence, even the technical genius—and was unfazed.

Even when she witnessed the force of Raemon’s blinding rage, she didn’t back down.

The appearance of Lucas was another complex puzzle. Raemon hated Lucas and wished him dead.

Seeing his assistant being friendly toward the man he loathed more than anyone else in the world should only have prompted him to fire her and be done with it.

But instead, an intense fire had risen up in him, a fire that felt disconcertingly a lot like a jealous rage.

The whole blackmail incident had changed everything. No one had ever challenged him like that. And the way she had done it, in spite of his fury at her dissension, he felt a small twinge of pleasure.

He recognized that kind of boldness and genius. Here was someone who was his intellectual equal. That was rare to find.

Sure, he’d tried to change his approach. He figured it would be less of a risk if Octavia could be brought under his control.

He had romanced many women in his time, sometimes without even trying to. He knew no woman could resist the allure of being with him.

To be seen with Raemon Kentworth was an unmistakable signal to society, an instant form of one’s eternal validation.

So he had planned for her to see how he was worshipped. Like so many others, she would fall in line, eager to worship at his altar as well.

Except that didn’t happen. Octavia’s constant response was one of indifference. And instead of her immediately falling for him, it seemed that the opposite had happened.

Raemon Kentworth had spent a long time being on an island. He was separated from the world by walls of intellect, money, and power. It was an envied position. But it was also solitary.

Octavia had essentially smashed through every single one of his walls. And she’d done it without any intention of doing so.

Octavia Wilde was exceptionally intelligent, comically sincere, and unapologetically herself. And so, inevitably, Raemon Kentworth—the Raemon Kentworth—had fallen in love with her.