Page 42 of Unspoken Love

She smiled against his shoulder and pulled the blanket up over them both.

When she woke, Nate’s arm was pinning her down to the mattress. It felt wonderful.

Except, she had to use the bathroom.

When she moved to slip out of bed, he reached for her.

“Bathroom break,” she said, and rolled away from him quickly.

After she brushed her teeth and washed her face, she found him standing by the window with a cup of coffee in his hands, looking out the window.

She had pulled on her bra and underwear and now reached for what appeared to be his shirt, which was lying on the floor where it had been discarded last night.

“I like you like this,” he said, turning toward her.

“In need of a shower?” she joked as she took his coffee mug from him and took a sip.

“No.” He wrapped his arm around her. “Soft, sexy, warm.” He kissed her forehead. “Waking up in my arms.”

“Starving,” she added as she felt her stomach growl.

“I can fix that.” He leaned back, kissing her softly. “Finish that coffee and shower, and I’ll fix us up some breakfast.”

“I’m going to get spoiled. But I’ll take the win. I’m heading up to my bathroom to shower though.”

He nodded and then disappeared down the hallway toward the kitchen while she climbed the stairs to her room.

She had just climbed out of the shower when she heard a sound coming from the other room. Thinking it was Nate, she wrapped a towel around her and stepped out into the bedroom.

“What did you make us for breakfast?” she asked, looking around. But the room was empty.

Thinking Nate had slipped back out into the hallway and downstairs, she walked into her closet to get clothes and stopped when she noticed the hidden door was wide open.

“Hello?” she said, sticking her head in the opening. Her voice echoed in the empty space.

She hung her towel on the hook on the back of her closet door, pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top, and slipped on a pair of sneakers. “Hello?” she called again as she stepped inside. “Nate?” She waited but with her hearing now so muffled, she couldn’t tell if he was responding.

It had to be him down there, right? Maybe he’d remembered her talking about the passage and had wanted to check it out for himself?

“Nate?” she called as she descended the stairs slowly. She continued down to the bottom level and through the passage until she stepped into the room at the end.

She blinked a few times until her eyes could adjust, only then realizing that she hadn’t brought the flashlight. She hadn’t needed it. There had been light flooding the space the entire time.

Last time she’d explored the passage, it had been cloudy out. Today, there was full sunlight outside.

Now, standing in the room, she could see the sunlight streaming in through cracks in the walls. No, not walls, rocks.

Massive boulders that were wedged so close together that they made up the walls. How had she not noticed it before? Sure, it had been darker, but she was pretty sure that she’d run her hands over the walls and they had felt solid.

Walking over, she ran a fingertip down the seams and was amazed that they felt seamless. Almost as if the thin line between each rock was made of glass.

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, she jerked around. Her heart raced, her breath caught.

A shadow. There, over in the corner. She moved closer and it disappeared. Where?

She continued and stepped behind the rock wall. She ran her hand over the space that she believed it to be solid, and it passed through the dark shadow completely. She realized there was an opening that had been hidden from her view before. It was basked in shadow, which made it almost impossible to see, even when she’d had her flashlight.

“Nate?” she called out again as she squeezed behind the rocks. She slowly made her way through the passage, her hands scraping against the stone.