BLAKELY

“Wait…” panting, I stopped climbing the stairs. “How many steps have we already taken?”

We were in the middle of climbing the stairway that would lead us to the white villa in the upper middle of the mountain. It was midnight. I didn’t anticipate we would climb a mountain at this very hour.

“Fifty-eight steps already. We have seventeen left.” He gently wiped some strands of my hair off my face. And then he crouched in front of me. “Ride on my back, I’ll carry you.”

“What?” I was surprised to hear that. Knowing how hard to climb the stairway, I hesitated. “I’m heavy. You can’t—”

“Nah… What is...