AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you think we can try starting over?”
“Maybe?”
Her voice was shy, and her eyes wary.
She was obviously afraid of being wounded or having her feelings hurt once more by him. Just seeing this glimpse of who she was behind the walls that she had protectively around her was humbling. He hadn’t even realized that the gentle woman before him hid an even softer soul deep down inside.
“I like yourmaybe… and I’m happy withmaybe,” he whispered teasingly, brushing back her hair, not willing to let this moment go. “Somaybewhen we start over - we can do it properly?”
“Like what?”
He smiled.
“Hi,” he began, tracing her cheek with his finger. “My name is Jake, and I think you are breathtakingly beautiful. Your place or mine for breakfast?” he joked, chuckling softly… and was enchanted at the way she rolled her eyes, arching her neck, and laughed easily at him.
“Hi Jake… I’m Lena, painfully shy, afraid of making a mistake, have zero confidence in myself, and I think you are handsome, too.”
“Oh yeah?” he perked up.
“Yeah,” she smiled, biting her lip, and nodded.
“Could thishandsomeguy press his luck with a good morning kiss?” he asked softly, falling under her spell as his eyes drank in everything about her.
She had the most adorable cowlick from where she slept, a faint crease on her temple from a pillow that had been on the loveseat where he’d slept – and had obviously brought with him, and her smile was bright enough to rival the sun.
“I’m going to be late doing my chores…” she breathed.
“Newsflash, we already slept in,” he countered softly. “So, maybe that kiss would be okay, roomie?”
She laughed nervously again, doing that same thing where she arched her throat as if she couldn’t stand the happiness in her, and he loved it. Instead of kissing her lips, he knelt down and dropped a kiss at the base of her throat, smiling tenderly at her.
“Maybe we start from the bottom, and I could work my way up to earning those lovely lips someday when you can trust me to be the right one for you,” he murmured huskily, her perfume tickling his nose mixed with the sweet smell of slumber.
Lena sighed and melted in his arms at his words.
It was so hard not to scoop her up, touch her, and take things to another level, but if he wanted this magic, this relationship to grow between them, then it was time for him to be a better man,the right man, for her.
And he hated that Captain Logan could have been right about him.
Jake wasn’t ready to be there for someone before, but he was now.
He smiled gently at her, and it took everything to pull away.
“Let’s get some coffee, my little lumberjack,” he urged softly, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm. “C’mon. You can have the first shower while it’s brewing.”
* * *
Jake could already tell things were changing between them, and it was fascinating how if you let your shields down, instead of being vulnerable? You felt stronger, more secure.
Spending that afternoon gathering up debris and brush, twisting it to make fire-starters for the baskets in the cabins, he kept looking for Lena. Each time he would see her crossing the field, catch a glimpse of her in the window, or meet her eyes during a meal, he felt different.
Alive.
The atmosphere around them was peaceful, almost in harmony, and he felt like his man-card should be revoked with that single thought the moment it hit his brain and smiled at her.
And when Lena smiled back… it was everything.
The sun was brighter, the food tasted better, even the air seemed sweeter, and he felt like the biggest dweeb. If he looked into the woods and saw some unicorn with rainbow hair, a leprechaun sliding down a rainbow, or a bunch of fairies flying around his head like mosquitos – he was checking himself into a facility to get evaluated.
