AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My cheeks grow warm at his compliment. Eliciting a feeling I’m not ready to analyze yet. I turn back to the fire to sever the moment, still overwhelmed by everything that’s happened. I focus on my breathing and relaxing all my muscles, finally feeling slightly at peace after the longest day of my life.
* * *
“Do you want me to move you to the couch?” He asks, but I shake my head in response, too comfortable to want to move. I don’t know how long I’ve been lying here already, but I’m too content to care.
I sense Nathan’s movements behind me as he shuffles back and leans his back against a couch that sits a few feet away. He stays on the floor with me, his legs stretched out just behind mine. The fire crackling is hypnotic, the warmth lulls me to the brink of sleep but my thoughts won’t completely fade away.
Not wanting to ruin the calmness I feel, but needing to lift a weight off my chest, I wiggle my arms out of the blanket I’m wrapped in and turn my whole body so my back is to the fire and I am facing Nathan.
I take a second to absorb my surroundings -his living space. We’re in the living room of a modern, but cozy, cabin. The only light coming in is from a big front window, and the fireplace behind me, casting anything behind the living room in shadows, making it too hard to see. From what I can tell so far, everything looks new, almost untouched.
He watches me closely as my eyes explore, making me self-conscious. I fidget, using my hands as a pillow to prop my face off the floor, mustering up the courage to ask the question that has been plaguing my mind.
“What are the chances they’re still coming after me?”
Nathan sighs, “It’s hard to say. They’re injured, I made sure of that. But depending on how far they were from where you escaped…” He pauses, but continues, “I won’t know until I go back out there and track them to see which direction they went.
Sitting up from my position, I assess him. “You can’t go back out there, it’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll be fine,” he grunts. “I’ve been in worse places.” He doesn’t elaborate anymore, but stands up from his place on the floor, towering over me. It doesn’t startle me, but I’m surprised at how large he looks now that we’re inside.
“Nathan…” I start, but he cuts me off.
“I wanted to wait and make sure you were okay, but I still have an hour or so of daylight left, I’ll be back before you know it. Get some rest, you’re safe here.” He goes to leave but I reflexively grab his hand- Quickly dropping it once I realize what I did. He has already carried me, held me, and stripped my clothes, but holding his hand feels too personal, too intimate. He probably already thinks I’m overstepping boundaries.
“Just be careful, please,” I say, my voice timid even to me. I slide his jacket off, giving it back to him to use.
He looks at me for a few moments, like he’s trying to analyze me, again. His eyes are intense, and calculating, like his thoughts are moving a hundred miles a minute. Finally, he acknowledges my request, giving a quick nod before grabbing his jacket. He’s out the door quickly, without putting it on.
“Bye to you too, then,” I mutter to myself. He also didn’t exactly confirm that he’ll be careful out there. I’ll just have to hope his self-preservation skills are as honed in as his damsel in distress rescue skills.
The four-wheeler starts up, the sound slowly dissipating as he gets further away. Suddenly feeling vulnerable again, alone in his cabin, I get up to make sure the door is locked, tiptoeing across the dark wood floor.
I check the deadbolt, and of course, it’s locked. I should have known, he doesn’t seem like the type to overlook a security detail like that.
Grabbing the blanket from the floor, I lean against the pillows on the couch, feeling more secure with it wrapped around me. Taking a few needed deep breaths, I can’t fight the yawn that overtakes me. I don’t want to fall asleep yet, not until I know Nathan is back and okay. It feels odd being in his home, making myself comfortable when he’s back in the woods, potentially with the bad guys.
Needing a distraction, I let my eyes wander around his home again. The fireplace sits in the center of the wall directly in front of me, with two armchairs facing it on either side. The couch sits in the middle of the large room, dividing the space. Behind me it opens up into the kitchen, and a hallway off to the side. A big island sits in the middle of the kitchen with bar stools lining it. No dining table.
All his furniture and appliances look brand new. There isn’t really any decor but the space feels homey regardless, maybe because of the fireplace being the centerpiece. I look in the direction of my thoughts and watch the flames flicker around the logs. My eyelids grow heavier, struggling to stay open.
My thoughts drift to Nathan again, who he is, what he’s like. His home is earthy and simplistic, but very manly. I’d wager it reflects his personality quite well, at least from the little bits I’ve seen from him so far.
My last thoughts as I’m dragged into sleep are about how good the blanket I’m enveloped in smells. Like the freshness of summer rainfall and cedar wood… Entirely masculine…
Chapter Ten
Nathan
I walk back in the door as the last bits of light are fading outside, dusk turning to night. I immediately see Callie curled up on the sofa with the quilt from my bed, the one I gave her earlier. I’m relieved she was able to fall asleep after the day she had, though a part of me was worried I’d be returning to an empty home. A nagging pit in my stomach plagued me the whole time I was gone, worrying that she might be frightened by me and afraid to accept my help. Her opinion of me shouldn’t concern me, yet I’m already spending too much time thinking about it. I’ve already become consumed with too many thoughts of her.
Her slow, steady breaths draw me in, giving me the chance to examine her unabashedly. Her fair skin is flushed, her cheeks pink from the warmth of the fire. Long lashes fan down, casting a shadow across her cheekbones. In the dim light of the fire, I can’t make out the freckles that I know cover the bridge of her nose, and I’m not entirely sure why, but I feel a pang of disappointment. I watch as her lips part slightly, her soft breathing deepening with her slumber. My eyes linger on the fullness of her bottom lip, remembering how it looked while she was biting it earlier. Beautiful isn’t complex enough of a word to describe her. She’s ethereal.
Not that her looks matter, because they don’t. She needed help, I’m helping her. I need to reign in my thoughts and focus. However, it doesn’t stop me from brushing a loose strand of hair away from her forehead. The light casting from the fire makes it look more red than it did outside, hmm. That could explain the fair skin and the freckles. Moving the hair off her forehead makes another bruise visible, pissing me off all over again. I can’t wait to find the fuckers who did this.
The image of sneaking up behind the man from the river who threw the rocks flashes through my mind. My fingers itch to wrap around his head, twisting hard enough to snap his neck. My arms jerk just thinking about it.
Not wanting to disturb her rest and needing an excuse to stop staring at her, I quietly make my way to my bedroom to shower. The cabin’s small, and only has two bedrooms, but my main suite still has its own bathroom and shower, as well as another full bathroom in the hallway. I designed it that way in case I have a guest, but not encouraging people to think my home is an open house. Namely, my mom and sister. They mean well, but I learned a long time ago to set boundaries. They’re still working on it.
