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Chapter Three
Rowan
As soon as the sun lightens the sky, I climb out of bed. I hadn’t been asleep. How could anyone sleep after getting news that their aunt had been murdered?
The sheriff had said that suicide had to be ruled out as well, though Ven and I assured him that we didn’t think that was a possibility. Sybil had never struggled with depression; she’d always been happy and care-free. He’d promised to keep us posted and disappeared into the night. Which had left me staring at the ceiling for hours, trying to calm the racing of my heart.
So, as soon as day breaks, I get dressed in yoga pants, a tank top, and running shoes. I don’t know where I’m going to go, I just know I have to get out of this house, and I have to be alone. As soon as I step out onto the front steps a cool breeze blows, as if the forest is calling to me. How long has it been since I walked in an actual forest? Somehow, my life had become this concrete prison in LA, never leaving the crush and bustle of the city.
I walk out into the yard and head into the trees, moving away from the road. Hopefully away from any neighbors, too. Not that I can see any in these dense woods. My feet move of their own volition and I begin to jog. Before long, I can feel my muscles warm up. It feels good to move. To be free.
My head space has been completely wack for the last year. First, finding out my husband was cheating. Nearly a year of dealing with that drama: attorneys, separating households, fighting over who got to keep what, as if he had any right after what he’d done. In the end, I’d let him buy me out of my portion of the house and everything in it. I didn’t want to take any of our stuff with me anyway. Too many memories I no longer wanted.
And just when I thought the bad times were behind me, just when I thought I was free, this had happened. Sybil had died, murdered no less. What the hell had I done to create all this bad karma?
I’m running before I realize it. Full out, arms and legs pumping, heart galloping in my chest, lungs burning. The forest is a blur around me, nothing but a world of emerald and sage and peridot. I let it all burn out of me, every bit of rage and shock and sorrow. Sweat it out through my pores, pound it out with my footsteps.
When I finally stop, exhausted, I have no idea where I am. There are still no houses to be seen. I’m in the absolute middle of nowhere. And I’m thirsty as hell. But I don’t regret it.
As if the forest is taking pity on me, I hear a trickle of water and follow the sound. My eyes widen as I come around a grove of trees and see a waterfall coming down a small cliff, probably a dozen feet high. The water spills over several boulders before forming into a pool at the base, and then continuing as a tiny stream meandering through the woods. The sun, which has now risen substantially higher, glints across it, and dragonflies flit over the surface. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, but more importantly, it looks like exactly the thing to cool me off.
There’s no one around, so I strip off my tank top and throw it into the grass at my feet. My sneakers follow it, and I tip-toe forward to dip my feet in the water.
That’s when something steps out from behind the waterfall, parting the sheets of water like a curtain.
Not something, but someone. And not someone, but a man.
A man who is wearing not a lick of clothing.
He’s tall and rippling with muscle like a Roman statue. The water streams off of him, plastering his black hair away from his face. He’s got a jawline that could cut a diamond, and his eyes are the oddest shade of gold I’ve ever seen. He has to be wearing contacts.
I’m completely gawking when he flicks those golden eyes over to me. At which point I realize that I’m standing here in nothing but my bra and yoga pants, alone in the middle of the woods with a strange, naked man.
And yet I can’t force myself to look away from him.
He stares at me with an unreadable expression, eyes roving over me. Drinking me in, like I’m drinking him in. He doesn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable that he’s nude, and the cold water hasn’t shrunken anything. In fact, as he stares at me the substantial length of it begins to grow, and I feel the first flicker of fear.
We stand like that for several breaths, staring. Then he lets out a low growl and turns away from me abruptly. He strides off into the trees, and a moment later, he’s gone.
