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He rose high, covering me in a wedge of his darkness, appearing so massive where he was backlit by the screen that had been running credits.
A fortress.
A tower.
Stony, majesticbeauty.
Looking at him right then was like standing at the edge of a cliff in the middle of the night and peering into the depths of a raging, toiling sea below. Fear drumming through my senses because I knew I was in danger, all while there was a heedless part of me that urged I take a step forward and fall into the abyss.
Holding Nolan, he crossed the room, and in the hazy grogginess, I drifted off again in a comfort I shouldn’t possess, but instead felt wholly cocooned in the sanctuary of it.
I didn’t know how much time had passed before my eyes were blinking open again and River was there, on his knees in front of me.
So big that even on his knees he loomed.
Shorn hair distinct in the night, the outline of his rugged, gorgeous face hidden in the shadows that eclipsed the room.
He pulled the blanket off me, tossing it aside before he slipped his hands beneath me so he could pull me into his arms.
He stood, and a breathy sigh whispered out of me as I curled my arms around his neck.
Trusting him the way I’d told him that I did.
Still, my insides quivered. Both in trepidation and anticipation. My stomach in knots and my heart battering wildly at my chest.
“Got you,” he rumbled, and he carried me out of the room. The thud of his boots was muted as he slowly climbed the stairs. At the landing, he went right down the hall, though he passed by the guest room where my things had been left and carried me all the way to a set of double doors at the end.
He shifted enough that he could undo the latch, and he led us into the lapping shadows of an enormous bedroom. There was a giant bed covered in black linens in the middle of the far wall, but rather than take me to it, he crossed to the left side where a loveseat sat against the wall near a rock fireplace.
My body trembled as he placed me on the soft, velvety leather. The man so tall. Obliterating reason and sight.
My nerves scattered when he slowly eased down onto his knees, and he planted his hands on either side of me as he leaned forward.
His devastatingly beautiful face was an inch away, and I stretchedout a trembling hand and set it on his cheek. Heat blistered at the contact, a fire that flashed through my system. The words were craggy when I spoke. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Charleigh.” His voice was gruff as ever. Low in the room, as if we weren’t alone and we were trying to keep from waking someone.
Energy glinted, tying the oxygen in knots that I had to squeeze in and out of my lungs.
“Why not?”
His head barely shook. “Because this is what I do.”
“What? Rescue damsels in distress?” I tried to play it a tease, but the air was too heavy for any lightness to stick.
His scoff was soft. “You’re no damsel in distress, fighting me every step of the way.”
“It’s all I’ve ever known how to do.”
River covered my hand that still rested on his cheek with his and pressed it closer. “Going to show you that you don’t have to do that anymore. You don’t have to run. You don’t have to be afraid. You can stand in the beauty of who you are. And you, Charleigh Lowe, are the epitome of beauty. Inside and out. Everything about you makes me want to lose my mind. Gonna drive me out of my head, Little Runner.”
My spirit shuddered in strained affection. In the feeling that this man summoned in me. He’d stoked the ashes and brought long-dead pieces to life.
I wanted to revel in them forever.
“I think you’re the one who’s made me lose mine. I still can’t believe I’m here. That I spent tonight with you and your family.”
The threat of a smirk hinted at the edge of his mouth. “If you talk to Nolan, he’d insist you were a part of that, too.”
