For now, they’re warm, safe, and sleep comes easier than it did the night before. The fact that she misses being closer to him is an unexpected side effect of recent events that she squashes the moment it springs to life.
Letting anyone in is dangerous. Everyone leaves one way or another. Maybe that’s why she’s gotten so good at running away first.
She has no plans to quit protecting her heart, especially near someone who can be so cruel to someone he intended to marry.
Chapter 6
There’s a blizzard outside. Theo doesn’t want to imagine being stuck in the cave now that the weather’s kicking up a tantrum.
Wind seeps through the log wall seams, tickling his fingertips when he presses a hand there, howling louder than those wolves back at the crash site. He can barely see a foot past the window before it all turns white.
They have enough firewood and food to last a few days. They’re in a better place now, even with the snow, than they have been since this whole thing started. He should be more focused on all of that instead of the hard-on he got in the cave while Nora was pushed up against him.
That never happens, unless he counts that one time at Oliver’s friend’s house when a cute girl took a liking to him. He wasn’t even supposed to be there but his brother dragged him along, barely twenty-one and full of hormones, and then she smiled at him, and that flicker of kindness was enough to pull him in.
She fucked him twice because the first time lasted all of a minute. The second time wasn’t much better. He only found out later that she sold the story of their night together to the tabloids when his brother sent him the article, laughing up a storm, while scolding him for not vetting his partners more effectively.
Theo didn’t touch anyone for years after. He dated sparsely and superficially. Only enough to please his father, who expectedhis sons to put in effort at maintaining their bloodline. At least not until the fiancée he supposedly cheated on flew into his life. Letting anyone in hadn’t been worth the risk when the odds of being fodder for another tabloid or trash social media account are far too high, and yet he apparently never learns his lesson. Oliver never cared about any of that. He thrives on the chaos and attention.
Theo takes everything far too personally to risk another reminder of how it feels to be betrayed. He won’t be fooled a third time.
Being alone isn’t difficult, though. It’s not lost on him that the benefits of being born into this family are what allow him to escape to the solitude of the woods and farm peaches.
It’s hard to be tempted by a pretty face or a kind smile when there’s no one around. He’s even grown to like his solitude, preferring it over the company of others, but he’s beginning to wonder if that fondness for silence was all just a coping mechanism because helikesbeing around Nora. Likes hearing her voice even when she’s snarking at him, and he may even miss her when this is all over and they part ways.
Plus, his dick decided to perk up for her after being mostly dormant for anything other than his own hand for a long time. That shocks the hell out of him. It hadn’t been only a morning thing, either. He spent most of the night trying to keep it down.
It’s a her thing. A Nora thing.
He’s attracted to her, much as he tries to deny it, and now she’s all he can think about. How she might feel against his fingertips. If she’d be sweet in bed, or rough. If she’d taste as good as she looks. He’s caught in a blizzard of x-rated thoughts that give the weather a run for its money, and that’s why he’s been quiet as fuck since they settled in. If he takes a moment too long and really looks at her, she’ll just know every single X-rated image floating through his head.
He should admit to himself that she’s just like all the rest who believe the media instead of the truth, but he got a glimpse of her before she remembered that false story about him, and put up a wall to keep him out. She was gentle and kind, even patient with someone like him who’s a walking disaster on a good day. He wants to see that version of her again. Hopes he might get a chance to coax her back out somehow.
And that’s when his stress-induced migraines decide to make another appearance. He winces, stuffing his reaction down, hoping she didn’t notice, while he silently wishes for that coveted bottle of pain meds lost in the plane crash.
“Are you sure everything’s okay?” she asks, putting a can of peas on the counter and searching for an opener. “This one doesn’t have a pop top. Can’t find the—”
“Yeah. Yup. Everything’s fine. Why? What do you mean? Do I look…not fine?”
Well, that was suspicious.
She offers him a confused stare. “I don’t know. You’ve been quiet today. I thought maybe we could forget what happened in the cave, because everything seemed fine when we got here, but now I feel like I need to say something. And now you’re doing a weird squinting type of thing.”
Shit. He should have known she’d ferret out the truth. She’s far too perceptive for her own good.
“The squinting is because of a migraine. That’s all. It’ll pass.”
“Does it happen a lot?”
“Only when I’m stressed.”
“Can’t imagine what could be stressing you.”
There’s a hint of a good-natured tease in her voice that prompts his forced smile. “Right, it’s a vacation out here.”
“Do you take anything for them?”
“Yep, and it’s lost wherever my luggage ended up.”
