AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We continued in a different direction, my mood soured.
The silence was becoming too damn loud. The quietness surrounding us symbolized the lack of camaraderie between us, more than anything. It wasn’t peaceful—it was strained and awkward. At least I felt that way.
The honeymoon of our reunion had died a quick death. There was still a barrier we hadn’t stabbed through during the morning and afternoon of trekking. Keeping us apart. Weighing on me and, I imagined, him.
It was frustrating as hell. I simply couldn’t have silence with Little John. Whatever this was between us . . . needed to break.
At one point during our “detour,” I kicked a bundle of leaves in front of me and asked, “Are you okay, John?”
He grunted, surly as ever. “I’ll be fine.”
Biting my lip, I tried again. “I know what you’re thinking about. Perhaps you could . . . stop?”
“Stop . . . thinking?”
“Aye.” I smiled over at his confused face.
“It sounds so easy. And yet . . .”
I scurried over a small hillock, throwing my arms up. “If you have to do it, then maybe you could try thinking about last night instead of last day.”
At that, his face tinted and I caught the flash of a smirk. A tiny one, but it was there all the same.
Good. A ghost of a smile. We’re making progress.
I skipped up next to him, grabbing his arm. All but begging him to get out of his morose cycle. “Please?” I asked with big eyes.
To my surprise—and anguish—he shrugged off my hand. “I don’t need you fussing over me, little hope.”
Then you don’t get to call me that when you’re being a stubborn ass. I felt bad for thinking it, considering what he’d been through. Yet there it was.
Frustration welled inside me. I wrinkled my nose and continued forward with a sigh. Away from him. “I’m not fussing, and it’s not pity. I should be allowed to worry about the man I love without being reprimanded. You have to let me in, dammit.”
A minute passed as we continued hiking in silence.
Then five minutes, and I thought I had made the gravest error of all—pushing him away when he needed support. But he’s pushing me away, too! How am I supposed—
The gruff hand of Little John yanked my arm and spun me into his chest. I let out a gasp as his heat enveloped me, my body smacking into the stone wall of his, and he stared down at my baffled face.
“You’re right,” he said, and then dipped to kiss me.
The warmth inside me flared when our lips touched tenderly, and I dug my heels in to savor the kiss, combating every lustful feeling urging me to do more than this kiss, because I knew we had somewhere to be before nightfall.
When he pulled us apart, he gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry, love. I’ll try to be a more pleasant traveling companion from here on out.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, taking in every contour of his face in the dying sun.
“Sheriff George may have taken everything from me—mind, body, soul. But he didn’t take you, little star. And you’re worth more to me than all those things combined.”
A smile split across my face. We kissed again, and the stars were realigned once more.
A short time later, with my heart soaring a bit higher, we pushed through the end of dense foliage and came to the location.
John cursed under his breath. “Why have you brought us here, Robin? It’s cursed, after what happened here.”
We stared out at the crumbling ruins of the witch’s cabin, fraught with vines and twisted branches.
“I already told you. There’s someone I need to see.”
