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She gives a nod of agreement, and I continue weaving her story.
“He went fishing. He’s usually gone for hours, so you didn’t think anything of it when you didn’t see him all day, but then it started to get dark, and you started to worry. By total nightfall, you knew something was wrong. You could just feel it. You’ll stand out on the porch and call for him, and you’ll tell them you did that too.”
“Why do I have to actually do it? Isn’t that weird?”
“If there’s anyone nearby, they’ll hear it. If they hear it, it could corroborate your story if they’re asked.”
Her downcast eyes and nod say she understands the relevance.
“After that, they’ll search for him. You’ll be too shook up to join, but you’ll stay behind with an officer for moral support. When they do find him, you’ll be beside yourself with relief. If you cry, it’ll sell it better. Remember, you’re going for an Oscar here. Everything is riding on your performance.”
“Yeah, okay. That all makes sense.” She steps up onto the porch. I stay rooted to the ground below. With her hand on the handle, she said, “I’m so nervous. What if I can’t pull it off?”
Without thinking, I place a foot on the bottom stair, as if to go to her to comfort her. “That won’t happen. You can do this.”
Her pleading eyes meet mine. “I’m scared.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. The worst is already behind you.” She’s already done the hardest part. Now it’s a matter of getting through the next few hours, and after that, the next few weeks of sorting the legal stuff will be a cakewalk in comparison.
She nods again, hesitant, and draws her bottom lip into her mouth, scraping it with her teeth until the pale, rosy flesh turns white. “Will you…will you come in with me? Just for a little while,” she rushes on. “Just until I calm down a little.”
My immediate answer is to say no. I know that going inside with her is a bad idea. I can’t foretell the future, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that with the chemistry between us and emotions running high, things we can’t take back are bound to happen.
Neither of us needs the added complication in our lives. It’s better for both of us if I walk away now.
“Just for a little while.” The words leave my mouth unbidden, and my feet are already carrying me up the final two steps to stand by her side before I know what’s happening. I am so dismayed by my own inexplicable behavior that I just keep going. Like a zombie, trapped inside my body, watching my every move play out as if on a screen and with no ability to stop it, I follow her into that cabin and close the door behind us.
I’ve officially crossed the line. Broken my own rules. God help us both because if this turns out badly, I will have no one to blame but myself.
Twenty
~Faith~
There are no games, no illusions. We both know what we’re here for.
His first words when that door closed were, “If I’m going to break my own rules, I’m going to make every moment worth it.”
My response was, “I would be disappointed if you didn’t.” A shiver of awareness traces up my spine. I have been waiting for this moment to happen since day one. Except, I never thought it would. It had felt like a fantasy, something that would never come to pass unless in my wildest dreams. And it had there, many times.
Now I am standing in front of the real thing, knowing that what comes next will be my dreams come true, quite literally. It makes a girl stop and think, is this what I really want?
Of course, it is! I may have been married to a fool, but I wasn’t one. I have spent my life in servitude, and now I am going to get served. Cal is a sexy man beast with a killer instinct and fortitude to match. Everything about him screams virile, and I want him to take me with a ravenous hunger of a wild animal.
I have a feeling that’s exactly what is about to happen.
He stalks closer, inspecting me visually. Wondering what part of me he is going to sink his teeth into first? A flash of heat pools between my legs, tingling close on its heels, and it makes my body ache for even the smallest piece of him.
But I have a feeling that nothing about Cal is small.
“The only reason you want anything to do with me is because your husband just died. You’re running on endorphins.” Cal’s comment is accurate, but it isn’t the whole story.
My craving for Cal has been consuming me for far too long. Now, I just don’t have any reason standing in my way to ignore it. “Does it matter the reason?”
He stands in front of me now, chest to chest, staring down into my eyes. Those cold, dark eyes, so menacing, holding an untold depth of cruelty that I can only guess at. It excites me like nothing else.
Lifting a hand, he traces a single finger across my exposed collarbone. “Not to me. As long as you understand this is the first and last time anything will ever happen between us.”
I do understand that. It’s the way things have to be. We’ve undertaken an impossible situation that came with untold danger to our future and freedom. Beyond this moment, beyond this night, I have no intention of risking any of that ever again. But as long as I’m here, I might as well take full advantage.
