Page 23 of Silver Brewer

Please don’t let her be disappointed.

I don’t know why that’s my first thought, but when I find her eyes in the dimming glow of the battery light, she slowly smiles.

“So tired,” she whispers as she lays flat on her stomach, her head tilted in my direction. “Thank you,” she mutters before closing her eyes. She drifts off to sleep, but I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight. Not with this beautiful woman next to me who just breathed life back into my hollow lungs.

10

Cold night and shoulder

[Letty]

I’m drifting to sleep when Giant rolls to his side once again, giving me his back. The storm has passed, but a different one rumbles through my chest. I want to scoot into him and press against him, but I fight the urge. Actually, I’d like him to hold me, wrap his arms around me and draw me into his chest like he did before we left the tent. Still, I shouldn’t fool myself into thinking anything other than sex is happening between us, but it would be nice to be held for a few minutes before he dismisses me again—before he rolls to his side and forces a wall between us instead of his arms around me.

I remind myself he took care of me during the storm. He sensed my fear and tried to comfort me, tried to distract me. Maybe sex is simply a distraction for him. I wish I could be so casual. He’s the first man I’ve slept with since Hudson. I probably shouldn’t have slept with him, yet I wanted nothing more than to feel him inside me, blocking out the thunder and my thoughts. Pulling my knees up to my chest to add another barrier between us, I brush away the dangerous desires.

I wake to heavy footsteps on the decking outside the station, and Giant instantly rolls over me, covering me like a blanket while his eyes stay trained on the door. It swiftly opens, and a man stands just behind my head, pointing a gun at us.

“Fucking hell,” the man swears.

“Stand down, James,” Giant yells.

The man slips his gun into the back of his jeans. From my upside-down angle, I see he’s tall, leaner than Giant, and has more salt than pepper in his hair. A patch of scruff dusts his jaw, and his eyes match Giant’s—dark and dangerous—but intensely blue instead of brown.

Giant peels himself off me, and I press myself up slowly, shaking as I go. I’m not a fan of guns, and the reality of a man standing over me with one catches up to me. I twist and scoot back toward the wall where Giant and I first sat upon entering the station.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” the man named James asks as Giant kneels and then easily unfolds to stand to his full height. His pants are righted on him. It occurs to me that neither of us removed our boots during what we did last night. I curl my arms over my middle, not wishing to think of the raw sex we had, how much I enjoyed it, and how Giant then turned away from me again.

“I’m camping.”

James glances at me and back at Giant. “This isn’t a campground.”

“I fucking know that,” Giant snaps. “We were over by the stream, but a storm rolled in. It was too much for the tent.” I’m thankful he doesn’t rat me out by exposing my freak-out over the thunder.

The man steps forward and offers his hand. “I didn’t mean to scare you. As this oaf won’t introduce us, I’m James.”

“I thought you went by Ranger now,” Giant bites, clearly upset that James has approached me and holds out his hand. I reach up to shake it, and I’m surprised when he tugs me, forcing me upright to stand. His eyes roam down my body and then he turns to Giant. “I’m impressed.”

“You’re an ass,” Giant says, stepping forward and slipping an arm around my waist to drag me behind him.

“Uhm, excuse me, but the woman doesn’t need to be shoved around like a rag doll.”

James’s brows rise, and his mouth crooks up in the corner. “Oh man.” He chuckles, warm and rich, and not half as menacing as his overall appearance, which includes heavy black boots, like one would wear on a motorcycle, along with washed-out jeans and a leather jacket with a light gray crew-neck sweatshirt underneath.

“And you are?” James addresses me.

“Letty,” I say from behind Giant’s back at the same time Giant counters, “None of your business.”

“Don’t be like this,” the motorcycle man speaks to Giant.

“Then come home.” Giant’s gruff demand startles me. Are they friends? Related possibly? The longer I look, the more I see the resemblance. The shape of their noses. The set of their mouths. James turns his head away from Giant and stares out the open door.

“You know I can’t,” he whispers, and something in his voice resonates with me. Heartbreak. Loss.

“What are you doing here?” Giant questions again.

“I needed a break.” James meets Giant square in the face.

“You know I get that,” Giant responds, his voice softening as his head slowly shakes. He looks at me over his shoulder. “We’re set to go. The storm is over.”