“The same. I keep thinking about how easily we could have lost some digits. Maybe we would have if we were still out there now. I have all these little blisters across my knuckles just like you.”
She holds out her hand for him to inspect, and he reaches for it without considering how that could be read, slipping his palm under hers. Could fit a sheet of paper between them but her skin still brushes against his like a whisper. “We’ll both have these marks for a while.”
“Fair trade.”
They’ve gone low and quiet, talking like they’re sharing secrets, close enough that he catches her looking down at his lips before her eyes flicker up to a safe zone again. That’s when he clears his throat, dragging his hand away and back into his own lap.
For a moment, she seems disappointed, but then reaches for a pack of cards they found in a bedroom earlier, shuffling impressively, her words sassy as ever. “Feel up to playing cards for a while? Strip poker?”
“Twisted my arm.”
She’s enjoying teasing him, and he lets her do it because he likes to see her happy. The fluttering in his stomach it prompts isn’t half bad either.
They play several rounds of non-strip poker and he spends every second replaying her words in his head when he’s not staring at the cards. That offer was a mistake. She didn’t mean it. Only trying to protect herself, whatever that means. It probably has little to do with him, just like he thought all along.
He’s the only one who’s starting to feel differently and that means he needs to close that shit up tight before she gets wind of it. The last thing he wants is to make it weird now that she’s beginning to warm up to him again. They only have anothercouple of days left together. He can control himself. Hell, he’s controlled himself most of his life, this ain’t no big thing.
Soon enough, they’ll find help, and this entire mess can be put behind them. If he’s lucky, he’ll have gotten a friend out of the deal and isn’t willing to risk that. He has so few of those already.
Then, she loses a round and the slight pout on her lips makes him shiver with overexcited butterflies.
Shit. Just a few more days. A week at most, then he can put some distance between them and work on forgetting he was ever attracted to her in the first place.
Chapter 7
It would be easier to sleep with Theo now before she gets even more attached. Every day that passes, every story they share, every time she opens up to him and he doesn’t respond the way she expects, with disgust or pity or any of the other emotions she’s used to seeing, Nora grows more fond of this man she’s been paired with on this awful journey.
Resistance is a losing battle. That’s why she hadn’t been lying when she told him she was protecting herself, just hadn’t fully explained why or how. She left out a few important details about protecting herheartfrom him. If she fucks him now, like she thought of doing on that plane when it was only surface-level attraction, it could still be simple. She could still walk away. But that option grows less and less viable with every hour that passes, and soon the inevitable rejection or failure of whatever this might be between them will shatter the broken pieces still roughly stitched together in her chest.
She’s not strong enough to care for anyone else, only to lose them. Not that she cares about him. Not at all. He’s irritating, and there’s still the nagging fact that he’s a cheater that fucks with her ability to truly let him in. If she’s being honest with herself, though, she might be having second thoughts about that tabloid story, if only for how devastated he looked when she admitted that she didn’t believe him.
Nora wrinkles her nose at her own thoughts and how easily she’s swayed. They all deny it. Her second husband did too. He lied straight to her face with full confidence and tears brimming in his brown eyes, claiming he never strayed, all while she had the evidence straight from his phone.
Not that any of this matters. It doesn’t. She isn’t Theo’s judge and jury. It’s not her business who he did or did not sleep with, and taking offense isn’t going to serve her much out here in the frigid snow. Logically, she knows this. Emotionally, it still bothers her that he is such a strange contradiction. Her mind has a hard time pairing his caring and gentle demeanor with someone who would do such an awful thing.
That’s why ripping his clothes off on this sofa in front of a cozy fire sounds like an amazing idea. She’d ride him until they’re both breathless and sink her teeth into that full lower lip until she draws blood. Treat it like a fling. A one-night stand. Something fast and hard she wants out of her system. Then they can both move on. She won’t have to worry about him seeing her soul if she never shows it. Won’t have to worry that she might be falling for him. It won’t matter if all the rumors were true because he’d never have a chance to cheat on her anyway. She could even see him at events or gatherings and not be bothered. Maybe they’d even sleep together a couple more times whenever they’re in town to see Oliver and Gwen.
Casual. Easy. No more emotions involved except what she’s already failed to keep hidden.
That would be the safest route to take and why she nearly threw herself at him, but even considering it now leaves a funny taste in the back of her mouth like she’d be soiling something beautiful….something that could be beautiful,as if she has a clue what that might look like.
His soft eyes make her heart flicker every time he looks her way, and how easily he turns bashful when she teases him makesher want to kiss him with all the gentleness she can gather up from the depths of her cold heart. She may have earned something meaningless, but after hearing about his previous encounter with someone who sold the story of their time together to the tabloids, she won’t be one more person to use him.
Nora sighs, watching him dig through his portion of canned corn before they pick this house clean for more supplies. He catches her staring, wiping his mouth self-consciously and holding in a slight upturn of his lips before taking that last bite.
None of this is what she expected, especially not how raw and vulnerable she’s been with him after years of shutting herself off, like lancing open an old wound with a fresh knife. Telling him things about her life that she’s kept bottled up for years.
“We should start searching the rest of this place,” she says abruptly, as if he can read exactly what she’s thinking. She gets a nod of agreement before they both leave the warmth of the sofa for the chilly inner portions of the cabin.
The snow’s finally cleared, but at this point, she’s starting to think leaving could be a mistake, even though she’s gone along with this plan to pack up and hit the nonexistent road.
“Maybe we can just live here,” she blurts out, while Theo’s rifling through a bedroom closet for better winter gear.
“I think the owners might have something to say about us playing house.”
She scoffs. “Not forever. Just until they come back, maybe it’s safer to stay.”
“We’ll run out of food soon, and there’s not much to hunt this time of year. Pickens are slim.” He pauses, turning to face her with a handful of thick gloves. “It’s something to think about. Snow’s deeper. The weather’s colder. We’ve got a long hike ahead of us and it won’t be easy.”
