Page 11 of Laying it Bare on the Run

“The pancakes can wait. Do you still want pancakes?” He kissed my temple. “I still have soup left or I can make you something else.”

“You were looking forward to pancakes and I’m curious to check out some more of your culinary skills. But this feels nice right now.” I snuggled closer to him, absorbing his heat. Half of my brain sputtered about what I was doing and warned I needed to be careful. But the other half argued that he had done nothing to show even an inkling that he wasn’t sincere in his wanting to help me. Besides, at the moment, I wasn’t sure I could muster up the energy to run. I needed this solace and once again had the feeling I was making the correct decision.

“It does feel nice.” He shifted a little on the bed, wrapping me up tighter in his arms. “I hope you can start to trust me. I promise not to let you down again. I will support you however you need me to. I want you to stay here and let me help you. Please say you’ll stay.”

“That offer is so tempting.” I sighed. “But I don’t know you and you don’t know me. And when my brain actually shifts to things that don’t have to do with how my life has just imploded, I can’t believe I actually came home with you. Like who does stuff like that?” Closing my eyes briefly, I released a small noise of disbelief at the irrationality of it.

But before I could burrow too far into my own head, Cannon touched his fingers under my chin to tilt my head up to meet his gaze. “And how many people invite someone into their home who they find sleeping in an abandoned building? I went with my gut reaction and it was to take care of you. I believe fate placed you in that particular building last night. If it would have been tonight, I wouldn’t have been working. Or if you would have made it a little farther, you wouldn’t have been in my patrol area. I was meant to find you, Harper, and to help you. Please allow me the chance. I can protect you and we can figure out a way to end this for you. I don’t want you to have to be on the run for the rest of your life.”

I released another huge sigh. He had had the perfect opportunity last night when I had fallen into such a sound sleep to take advantage of my vulnerability. After feeding me and allowing me to get that revitalizing sleep, he lessened his chance that I would be easy prey. Although deep down, I really didn’t believe I had to worry about that with him. I may not have known him really all that well but something told me I was in good hands. And the hands that were trailing along my skin made me incredibly interested in finding out what else those hands could do. Mentally shaking my head, I had to shove away those thoughts and concentrate on figuring out my mess and finding a way to be safe again. Plus, who wanted to get involved with someone who had no job, no house, nothing but the clothes on her back – which weren’t even hers – and a huge target on her back? The most I could hope for was someone who was on the correct side of the law that could maybe help me find a way to expose Waik’s heinous crimes and make him pay. Only then would I be completely safe.

“I’ll stay but I don’t want to be a nuisance. I can’t work right now to pay for things because I need to stay off of the radar. I don’t want to freeload. So I can take care of your house for you. And maybe someday – ”

He cut me off with his fingers to my lips. “If you were in a position to help someone who desperately needed it, would you?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“Then let me do this for you. No expectations and no worries. Just let me help you. We’ll figure out the rest as we go. Okay?”

I released a deep sigh. “Okay. Thank you. I’m so glad you found me in that building. Embarrassed about your first impression of me but grateful all the same. At the moment, I hadn’t realized how lucky I was. And I was rude and reeked.”

“Hey, you were in a bad place and I was pretty impressed by your moxie, facing off with three police officers.”

A laugh burst from my lips. “That was fear and adrenaline pumping through me.”

“I think it was a lot more than that. So do you want to try to eat something now? We can continue to talk while we eat if you’d like. And we could talk about something else.”

“Yeah, I guess my pillow talk needs some work.”

His lips curled up into an amused smile.

My cheeks warmed slightly. I wasn’t sure if I was embarrassed about my topic of discussion or the fact that I had just called it pillow talk.

Dismissing my awkwardness, I shoved aside my earlier comment. “I don’t know if I’m more hungry or tired. But I doubt you want to spend your time off sleeping.”

“Actually coming off of eight long shifts in a row, I planned to sleep, drink, watch television, and sleep some more. I know that sounds boring but work has kicked my ass lately.”

“Then you should be taking it easy not taking care of me.”

He eyed me like that was a ridiculous remark. “I’m offering you a safe place to stay and I think you can take care of yourself pretty well. Besides, like I said before I like the company. Come on; let’s go get something to eat.”

After we crawled out of bed, he led me back to his kitchen. I sat at the bar while he resumed mixing ingredients in the metal bowl.

“Can I help with anything? Remember, not taking care of me.”

He shot me a devastating smile. “Not taking care of you, making breakfast for my guest. What kind of host would I be if I didn’t make you breakfast?”

His smile was contagious and I couldn’t help reciprocating and giving him one of my own. “Fine. But I will help you clean up after we eat. No arguments.”

“I can live with that.” He cracked a few eggs and dumped them into the bowl. “So do you want to tell me about some of your journey here? If not, we can talk about something else. I’m just impressed with your resilience. I couldn’t imagine running on my own with nothing. I mean it’s different if you go backpacking across another country or travel across our country to see the states. You have supplies, a place to stay, transportation for at least a spell if you are backpacking.” He poured some flour into his mix and then added a few spices.

“What are you adding for flavor?” I craned my neck so I could sneak a peek.

Using his forearm, he swept the bottles out of my sight before returning them to his cupboard. “It’s a secret. It makes them delicious but I don’t share that information with just anyone.” He winked at me. “Was that your way of telling me you didn’t want to discuss your incredible journey? Because my curiosity can wait.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I was really curious about your secret ingredients. Your soup last night was really good so I figured you had some tricks up your sleeve.”

“I have many.” His eyes locked on mine for a moment and I thought I caught a glimpse of attraction or desire there but it passed so quickly I figured I had imagined it because he really couldn’t be interested in me like that.

---