Page 35 of Electric Kiss

They acted as if they had known each other all their lives.

Chapter Ten

Nate

After nearly two weeks of trekking up to Daisy’s cottage using his tokens, the security guys on the movie set knew who he was and gave him a nod when he passed them. He went the long way around to get to her via her office window in case she was still working. That had happened one evening the previous week.

The office was in darkness when he strode by, and he jogged the rest of the way to her cottage. When he got to her back door, it was open. The kitchen was in darkness, and he couldn’t hear anything. The house was so eerily quiet. Still, somehow he knew Daisy was at home.

Nate bolted up the stairs knowing the layout of the cottage blindfolded, and headed straight to her bedroom. Daisy huddled in the corner on the other side of the vast room as big as his workshop. Her knees were up, she’d wrapped her arms around her shins, and she stared into space.

This was the third time he’d seen her like this, and he hated it. Not only did it scare the shit out of him, but there was so much pain distorting her face he wanted to rip the memories out of her head.

Nate fell to his knees in front of her and then flopped back on his arse with Daisy in his arms. He rocked her from side to side as she burrowed into him. He kissed her temple and then eased her back in his arms to press a kiss to her mouth. She had kissable lips, plump and soft, and he wished to fuck that she felt his kiss because he wanted her to kiss him back so badly.

“Daisy,” he whispered over her lips. “Come back to me.”

Her mouth twitched below his, and he kissed her again, more firmly than the last two times to see if she would come round more quickly. To his surprise, she puckered her lips and pecked at his mouth. He stayed where he was, brushing his lips over hers as she came around from her spaced-out daze. He didn’t dare move until he knew she was lucid and at the moment.

“Nate, what happened?” she whispered, her voice filled with panic.

He moved back to focus on her face. Her eyes were still closed, and she whispered like she was hoarse.

“I found you in the corner, curled up, knees to chest, rocking.”

“I’m not sure what triggered it.”

“If a memory from years ago invades your head and scares you, it’s possible you are still dealing with that fear internally, especially if it comes up without you consciously bringing it up. The memory stresses your body and reacts. In your case, it shuts down, possibly because you’re not ready to deal with it. But the fact they are coming out now could mean you’re strong enough to meet the fear head-on.If you don’t consciously deal with it, then your body and head are going to think you might end up in the same situation. So we need to come up with why you have these flashbacks and why you think it may happen again. Then we need to put things in place to prevent that from happening. I suspect you are already doing one of those things, but avoidance isn’t acceptance.”

Daisy hummed but said nothing.

“Have these been happening outside of the two times you had them with me?”

“Yeah,” she said and then burst into tears.

“Hey, don’t cry. You’re safe here with me,” he said and kissed her cheek. “You’re going to be okay.”

“I hate that this is happening. It’s too much for my mind to process being back on Copper Island.”

“Please don’t say you want to move away,” Nate said.

He was frantic that she might run away. Daisy had already told him she’d run away for a month after the first flashback when she saw Luke argue with one of the staff from Turner Hall. Getting to know Daisy night after night was the highlight of his day. He fixed the actor’s boat in record time, so the customer had given him a list of things to do on the boat during the day while he was filming. It still gave him his evenings free.

He usually slouched on his sofa, watched TV, or went for a pint, but that all changed once he’d swam in her tub. It had nothing to do with bathing in luxury and everything to do with the bohemian woman in his arms. He never wanted to spend another day away from her.

Maybe he was being overprotective, but she needed looking after, and her brothers checked in on her but not on a deep level. She had three friends that he could tell, and they were her brothers’ wives and fiancée. They led busylives, and Nate wasn’t sure she was sharing her pain with them for fear it would get back to her brothers. Daisy said they have their own pain to work through and didn’t want to bother them with hers.

“Would you miss me or my bath?”

Nate grinned and pretended to think about it.

He wanted to be skin-to-skin with her and not have sex. Nate needed her to know how much she meant to him since they met a month ago.

Nate knew he couldn’t let Daisy out of his sight, not even for a moment. He was afraid that she’d disappear like a gust of wind, never to be found again. Her pain was too much for her to bear alone, and he was the only one who could comfort and make her feel alive again.

“Will you have a bath with me?” Nate asked.

“Yes,” she said instantly.

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