“We all deserve a life bigger than the one you’re hiding from.”
Until I said those words to him, I thought I knew what I meant. I meant seeing the world, letting people in, experiencing life. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Growing close to someone, sharing something you will never share with another,thatis my new purpose. Because within seconds of meeting him, I am sure that is just what I am going to do with Reece.
I am so shaken by my meeting with him, I pull off the road before I get down the mountain. I can’t catch my breath. There was something...magnetic about him. It’s not his huge body—which was barely covered by a tiny towel—or the scars that I touched on his face. I touched him. Who just goes up to a beautiful, reclusive stranger and touches them? I do, it would seem.
I couldn’t control it. Reece turned those tortured eyes on me, and I was compelled to touch him. To try to take some of the rage, the pain, in those dark eyes into myself somehow. Other men have intimidated me before, they say things or demand things I am not going to give. But that man...that mansaid filthy things to me. Filthy things I wanted him to prove he could do.
Reece might be hiding out on his peak, but I won’t let him stay hidden.
Racing back to the lodge, I am out of breath when I storm into the kitchen. Theo takes one look at me as I throw open the double fridge, letting out a laugh. He knows what mode I am in.I told that man on the mountain I was going to make him dinner and I meant it. I might be a reformed spoiled brat, and yes, a littleprincess, but one thing I am not is a quitter.
“I see you met Reece. Went well for you, did it?”
Glaring up my uncle, I smile and nod as I let my facade fade. “It went well by my standards. I will need to go to the store. I promised that man dinner. I am taking him a dinner he won’t forget,” I exclaim.
After a trip to the small market, I am better prepared. I am going to cook him a meal that he won’t forget. Because with that meal, I will give a little of myself. In the spices I use for the meat, the lush butter I use to make the potatoes, and the earthy produce. It will do more than fill him up, I hope.
If Reece can find comfort in my food, maybe he can seek other comfort from me too.
Chapter Three
Reece
It is too hot here. Too dangerous. I cannot let her get hurt.
Steel crumbles around me as the weight of the rig begins to collapse in on itself. Fire flickers in every corner. I am filthy, sweaty, my entire body hurts. I am no good to her this way. I can’t get to her, but I know she is there. I sense her without ever having to lay eyes on her. I won’t let her get hurt.
“Reece! Please! Reece!” Her soft voice with it’s soft eastern lilt calls to me. I am terrified and turned on at the same time. I want to save her. I want to keep her. I want her safe and protected—things she can’t be with me.
“It’s dark out here, I have a delicious meal waiting for us. I am not going anywhere until you open this door, caveman!”
Startled by this sudden shift in the dream, I pull myself from the darkness. Only it wasn’t that dark, was it? She was there. There was not as much heat, not as much pain, not nearly as much choking smoke. Hell, I think there was even some sunshine piercing through the twisted metal. I sit up, sweating, shaking a little, with a hard dick and a head full of questions.
Just as I am about to lay down in the dark haven of my room, another knock sounds at the door. Cursing, I swing my feet out to climb from bed. No sooner do my feet hit the cool wood, grounding me when I need it most, I hear another sound. The front door opens and closes with a thud. I snatch my sweatpants off the end of the bed and rush towards the front of the cabin.
“Who the hell is...” I swear my feet skid across the hardwood when I get an answer about who the hell is foolish enough to just let themselves in.
It’s Rain. Standing in my kitchen in a sweater dress that clings to her ample curves, she glances over at me with a smile. It’s so surreal. Because it doesn’t feel all that strange finding her there in my kitchen, with a meal for us. Seeing her in my space is a shock to my system I am not quick to recover from.
“You ever wear clothes, caveman?”
She smiles, her eyes devouring me, and I can’t help the grin that pulls at my face. God, she’s adorable. Who is this woman, and why is she even here? I glance down, noting I’m at least more appropriately dressed than our last meeting—even if my sweatpants aren't doing a thing to hide how hard I am.
“Not if I don’t have to,” I admit, surprising both of us with my honesty. What the hell? Why would I say something so stupid to a stranger? To a sexy, sweet smiling stranger.
“Touche, caveman. We’re born naked, yes? Anyway it is seven at night, dark as pitch out there, so I got tired of waiting for dinner. I am a girl who loves to eat,” she declares as she grins up at me, giving a little smack to her backside.
Well, fuck. I watch that round ass shake a little from the force of her smack. My head is filled with images of me riding her from behind, giving my own little spank as I buried my cock inside her. I count to ten. To twenty. I think about my grandmother or anything but how goddamn hot she is. But when my gaze swings back to her, I am absolutely screwed.
Because Rain is watching me with heat in her pretty blue eyes
I know she didn’t mean for that to be hot. She was just being herself, using humor to deflect, with no hidden agenda or flirtatious intent. But it doesn't matter how she meant it; it only matters how it landed. And God, it landed like a blow—along with that spank—waking up a sleeping beast.
“Have you never read the fairytales, princess? Girls who find their way into the beast’s domain never get what they came looking for.”
“Oh, caveman, I know all the fairytales. They might not get what they came for, but they get what they need, don’t they? Now, enough flirting with me while you’re half naked, big guy. I brought food to feed the beast.”
I am so screwed. Since she showed up on my doorstep, I have not been able to think of anything else. I jacked my cock more than once just as I teased her I was going to. I’ve never been so attracted to a woman before. I was always a big, brooding guy who women steered clear of. Now with my broken body and broken spirit, I run them off even more than before.
