Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
I should let her go. It was insane doing what I was doing. Shoving into her space like I had the right to be there.
When she didn’t say anything, I pointed to her suitcase. “It’s clear to me you aren’t intending on a hike. Where are you headed, Little Runner?”
Unease had her gusting out a breath, and she ran a flustered hand over her face. Sorrow filled the movement. “I’m just…leaving.”
“Why?” I pushed in closer.
I got smacked in the face with her scent.
The warm, sultry spice. I was never going to get it off my tongue.
“Because it’s time for me to go.” It was a whisper of helplessness.
She went to angle around me, and I sidestepped her, a protective rage blocking her escape. She startled, and her attention snapped up to my face.
“Please get out of my way,” she gritted.
My mouth dipped down close to her ear. “Tell me you’re not running scared, and I’ll be happy to.”
The happy part was a fuckin’ lie, but I’d do it.
The flash of turmoil that moved through her expression told me everything that I needed to know, even if she was prepared to let a thousand untruths slip from between her lips.
When she remained silent, I pushed in closer. Pressed in deeper. “Don’t be afraid, Charleigh. Don’t give in to whatever you’re thinking. Don’t run. Can feel that you’re supposed to stay.”
I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know how.
But I did.
She heaved a disbelieving sound, and those enchanting eyes flicked up to meet with mine. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Not sure. Only thing I do know is I can’t stomach the thought of watching you leave right now. Don’t know what it is or why, but there’s something about you.”
My insides were knitted with the need to wrap her up and promise her I’d never let anyone get near her.
That whatever she was running from wasn’t too big for me.
I’d pull the stars from the sky if it meant it’d erase the fear that had overcome her last night.
Emotion swam through her eyes, lashes fluttering as she blinked. “I told you last night this needed to end.”
“Why?”
I had a thousand reasons myself, but I couldn’t listen to one of them right then.
“I…you don’t know anything about me.” There she went, throwing up more barriers that couldn’t quite stick.
“Then how about you let me? Show me who you are.”
She searched my face. “You warned me last night I should stay away from you.”
My stomach fisted. “Might not be able to have you the way I want…the way I’ve been aching to do…but everything about you tells me I’m supposed to be here, right now, in front of you.”
The lure she emitted thrummed, stretching tight between us, keening like the roll of a tightly wound drum.
Yielding to it, I edged forward, unable to stay away.
I got near enough to her that I could reach out and run my fingers along her trembling jaw. The words fell low as I murmured, “And if you need someone? If you get scared or want to give into whatever the fuck happened last night? If you want to run like I know you were planning to do? Then you come to me. You understand? You don’t have to be afraid.”
A shiver streaked through her body, rocking her feet and nearly pitching her into me. Took my all not to loop my arm around her waist and hold her up. Bury my face in her neck.
Take a little more of what I knew better than to be taking.
This woman was dangerous. I couldn’t let her slip through the cracks and the fractures lined inside me. But I wasn’t sure how to stop it when the only thing I wanted to do was slip through hers.
Invade.
Possess.
Her veil slipped, and her expression turned wholly vulnerable. “And what if being afraid is the only thing I know?”
“Then you give that fear to someone who can hold it.”
“Is that what you want? To hold it for me?” It was half a plea. Half a challenge.
I didn’t get the chance to respond before a shrill squeal pierced the air.
“Charleigh! What are you doing? I thought you’d already be out on the trails like the masochist you are, contending with the bears with your bare hands!”
My sister’s voice rang through the morning air, a full tease, and both of us jerked to look that way. Raven was striding up the sidewalk with Nolan trotting along beside her, their hands twined and swinging between them.
Looking of light and life.
Hope for the hopeless.
Charleigh tried to straighten herself out. Hide the evidence of the trauma I could see stamped all over her.
Concealed but in plain sight.
I shoved my hands back into my pockets to keep myself from making some brazen move like slipping an arm around her waist, staking a claim, and I let a scowl take to my face so Raven wouldn’t be getting any ideas in her pretty little head with the way she was looking between the two of us right then.