Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 90769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
I blinked in surprise, then nodded, my mind spinning. He was in agony, inside, but he had it so well hidden, I hadn’t seen it until now. What happened to him?
He marched on, stoic and silent, and I fell into step alongside him. I missed the touch of his hand already. And then, as the wind picked up a little, I shivered. It wasn’t just the cold, it was the endless blackness of the woods around us. I felt so small, in the middle of all this—
He noticed, cursed, and whipped off his thick, red-and-black plaid shirt. “Sorry. Didn’t think. You must be frozen.” Suddenly, the shirt was around me, big enough to be a coat. It was gloriously thick and still warm from his body and it smelled of sweet woodsmoke and pinecones. I cuddled into it. Cal pulled it closed and then kept his hands on the lapels for a moment as he stared down at me. He was still gruff, but I could hear the concern in his voice. “Better?”
I nodded dumbly, overcome by the look in his eyes: that fierce will to protect me and, beneath it, just a hint of that awful pain. I have to help him!
He removed his hands almost reluctantly and we walked on, Cal on one side of me and Rufus pushing up against my legs on the other.
Cal seemed to know exactly where he was going but I couldn’t understand how: everything looked the same to me. We climbed carefully down steep banks and up rises, over a few small streams and through spooky, empty clearings where the moonlight lanced down in thick shafts through the trees.
We came to a gully as deep as I was tall and he had to lower me down by the hand until my feet touched bottom. On the far side, he put his hands together and motioned for me to put my foot in them, so he could boost me up. As I pushed off and climbed, I was very aware of just how thin the dress was, and how warm his cheek was as it nestled against my hip.
A little further on, he grabbed my shoulder to stop me. “Gorse bushes,” he warned, nodding at a sea of undergrowth ahead of us. “They’ll scratch your legs to pieces.”
We looked at each other. Then he held his arms out and nodded. I’ll carry you.
I swallowed. He bent down and I tentatively put my hands on his shoulders and...jumped—
My breasts pillowed against his chest and I went heady. His arms folded around my back and pressed me closer. God, he was so big: it was like hugging a bear. My legs slid either side of his body and I closed my eyes as his hard abs mashed against my groin. It was just like my dream.
“Okay?” he asked.
“Mmm-hmm,” I replied, trying to keep my voice level.
He straightened up and I gasped as we lifted into the air. The wind blew my hair across his face for a second and I felt him sway. “You okay?” I asked, worried.
Now it almost sounded like he was trying to keep his voice level. “Mm-hmm.”
Then he was marching through the gorse bushes, the rough denim of his jeans battering the thorns aside. Rufus expertly threaded his way between and under the tangled stems and waited for us on the far side, tail wagging.
When we were through, Cal put me gently down. My whole front was deliciously warm from where it had pressed against him. The feel of him—the huge, solid bulges of his pecs, the washboard of his abs—was imprinted on my mind, never to be forgotten. It had felt so right, like that was my natural place, and all I wanted to do was nestle in again. I looked at a tree in the distance, unable to meet his eyes, and hoped he couldn’t see how red my cheeks had gone. He pulled a few gorse stems from his jeans, freeing the thorns that had stabbed through the fabric. I was sure he must have picked up a few painful scratches but he made no mention of it.
A little further on, we came to a clearing and he stopped. “We should stop here for the night,” he said.
Spend the night out here?! “Why?”
He pointed at the moon. “Cloud’s just about to hit. Once it does, there’ll be no light at all. Remember that gully we crossed? We could step right into the next one and break our legs.”
I stared at the thick bank of cloud that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. It was already nibbling at the moon. I nodded, completely thrown. In the city, the night just means the sky changes color. The idea that darkness could trap you somewhere until morning was alien and chilling.