Страница 94 из 154
We’re yours, that’s what we are!
Fucking tosser, get a haircut!
Shut up, he’s yummy!
I reached upward and grabbed his forearm. “Please, ignore the bad comments and come join me. I’ll explain.”
“I don’t understand.” Almost in a daze, he let me pull him around the couch and sat heavily beside me. He couldn’t tear his eyes off the dizzying amount of comments still cascading in curiosity to know who he was.
Dude looks as if he murders puppies.
Where did you find the yeti, Gemma?
He swallowed hard as I made the video image larger and hid the comment box. Slowly, his gaze met mine, bouncing between the mirror image of us being recorded and back to me beside him. “Who are those people?”
I could only imagine the comments still pouring in, but I wasn’t here to scare Kas off the internet before he’d even become acquainted with it. I should’ve given him a lesson before now, but we’d had so much on. This was the first day where we weren’t being prodded by doctors, traveling cross country, or dealing with family reunions.
Taking a deep breath, I smiled at the people watching my live stream, noticing I had more traffic now than ever before. Kas was definitely a massive drawcard. “Guys, this is Kas. Long story short, but he is the reason I survived while I was missing.”
Kas scrunched up his nose. “What are you saying. I didn’t help you survive. I trapped you and hurt—”
“Whoa, whoa.” Pausing the video for a second, I whispered. “This is a video, and we’re live. I’ll explain what all of that means afterward. I wasn’t pla
His forehead furrowed. “I don’t understand. Why do they love me? They don’t even know me.”
“The comments show rampant curiosity. Which is a good thing.” I toggled back to the comment box, hoping only nice things were being said. “Here...see?”
He’s swoon-worthy.
How do you mean he helped you survive?
Why did you cut him off before? What did he do to hurt you?
Did he hurt you by breaking your heart because he’s just so damn fine?
I closed the window again. “See? This is my world, Kas. This is how I share my videos about climbing with a lot of people. Right now, I need to assure them that my cha
“Bear Grylls?”
“I’ll explain later. All you need to do now is sit next to me and don’t say anything unless I prompt you. Let me feel out the market for your own information cha
“My own cha
“I’ll help you.”
“Help me with what? This makes no sense.”
“With this. Making money comes in all sorts of forms these days, Kas. It’s a whole different world.”
“This is how you make money?” He scowled at my paused video. I had no doubt the comments would be full of people complaining that they’d been staring at a blank screen for too long.
“Yes.”
“But how?” His eyes filled with confusion. “I don’t get it.”
“Ad revenue, sponsorships, viewer watches.”
“I have no idea what any of that means.”
“I’ll teach you.”
“So it will be yet another thing I owe you?”
“Not at all.” I took his hand. “Think of it as payment for teaching me how to properly plant seeds.”
“Ha.” He rolled his eyes. “I doubt this is in the same realm.”
“It’s a skill for a skill.” I licked my lips. “Look, let me get rid of them, and we can chat properly, okay? I can’t make them wait any longer.”
He didn’t reply.
I took that as his co-operation and clicked resume.
“Sorry about that, guys. I had to explain how the World Wide Web works.”
The comment bubble popped back up, chiming with a thousand new questions.
What? Why?
How has he never heard of the WWW?
He’s legit a caveman!
I gri
No way.
Everyone is co “Kas is different to us, guys. He comes from a simpler time. A time where eating di
Holy. Shit. So he’s never been in society?
Where is he from? A religious cult?
Tell us moreeeeeee!
I glanced at Kas. He sat stiff and unreadable beside me. I couldn’t tell if all of this was too much for him or he found it strangely intriguing. I tried to see it from his point of view. To be snatched from the silence and savagery of the wilderness only to be slapped around the face with an online world that could be as dangerous and as hurtful as all the other monsters of his past.
I should stop. This is pushing him too far, too fast.
“Unfortunately, guys, this was just a really quick video to say I promise to have some climbing content for you in a week or two, but...in the meantime, let me know what you’d like videos on. Kas is here to stay. He has a lifetime of hardship that’s made him uniquely qualified to share tips on how to survive if you ever find yourself stuck out in the elements. For all you hard-core climbers who go off into the forests, would you be interested in what he has to share? I could potentially set up his own cha
Hell to the yes!
OMG, that would be amazing! I would love to know how to make my own food.
My brother is in the Army, and he loves all things survival.
Yep, my dad would go nuts for that sort of thing!
Yes! Tell him to share everything so we’ll be ready for the zombie apocalypse!
I laughed at the last one, nodding as the idea snowballed and excitement for Kas’s potential stardom built. I’d have to open him a bank account, get him a social security number, find his real name if possible or insert him into society with proper paperwork if we couldn’t.
There’s so much to do.
But...if he wanted to earn his own keep, this was a way of doing that with things he knew firsthand. He could be as open or as closed off as he wanted.
He could be huge.
Kas cleared his throat as he averted his eyes from the screen as new comments appeared.
Tell him to get naked. I want to see if he’s as hairy underneath his clothes!
What I want to know is, what is he like in bed? I bet he’s wild.
I want to lick him!
I closed the comment box. Sex and Kas would always come with triggers and torments. Smiling into the camera, I did my best to hide my worry over how Kas was feeling. “Okay, guys, that’s it for now. At least you know that I’m back! I’m not dead! And I’ll have stacks of exciting content for you soon!” I waved at the screen. “Bye. Happy climbing!” I turned off the video, posted the link to my static cha Kas didn’t turn to look at me. His forehead remained scrunched up, and eyes narrowed as if he found all of that distasteful. I couldn’t blame him. Online could be an onslaught to the senses. After a strained few heartbeats, I murmured, “We don’t have to do a thing if you’re not comfortable, Kas.” He sniffed and stood. Prowling around my living room, he raked a hand through his hair, noticing the blades of grass as they danced out of his strands and landed on the carpet. He winced. “I am what they call me.” I stood too, going to stand in front of him. “You mean sexy? Lickable? Swoon-worthy?” “No, a caveman.” He bent to pick up the grass, but I stopped him. Cupping his cheeks, I whispered, “I’ll say this countless times over the next little while, especially as you have a massive adjustment to make as life carries us forward into more and more things that you’ve been denied or never been given, but I need you to listen to me, okay?” His head tipped down as his large hands landed on my hips. My skin tingled beneath his hold. Electricity hummed between us, and the urge to kiss him sparkled on my lips. Standing on my tiptoes, I pressed my mouth to his. No tongue. No demand for more. Just delicious contact and co Pulling away, I said, “No one else’s opinion matters but yours, Kas. No one can touch you. The sexualized comments mean nothing—it’s just the way of today’s society which is very open and graphic in their likes and dislikes. Ignore those who are cruel and not willing to learn. Don’t let their misguidedness hurt who you are. They’re not worth it.” He wrapped his arms tight around me, resting his chin on my head. “But there is truth in what they said. And you lied to them. You made it sound as if I was the hero in looking after you. That you were some damsel in distress, trapped in a valley, completely helpless. When...the opposite was true. You are the reason I survived. You’re the reason I’m here. You’re the reason I can look at myself in a mirror and not have the urge to smash it into a billion pieces because of the ghosts haunting me.”