Page 12 of Owen

“What is it, Molly?”

I couldn’t speak. I could hardly breathe or even make sense of the thoughts flying through my head. Images. The way I’d clutched myself and prayed harder than I ever had before when the storm whipped into a frenzy only yards from where I curled into a ball and cowered before it.

I took as deep a breath as I could and struggled to get the words out. “I… it’s too much. I don’t want to go in there.”

“Molly. Look at me.” He waited until I raised my eyes to meet his. Beautiful eyes. Clear, gray flecked with gold. So interesting. Staring deep into mine. “Nothing will harm you now, lass. Not while I’m here. The storm is long gone, and you aren’t the only one who knows how to swing a pickaxe. Nothing will harm you. You are safe. Tell yourself you are, right now.”

It was ridiculous, talking to myself, but sounding ridiculous was better than being crippled by a panic attack. I’d never had one before and could only guess that was what this was. “I am safe,” I breathed, even though it didn’t feel that way.

“Again.” His voice was warm, but sharp. Stern. “Say it again and again.”

“I am safe. I am safe.” I breathed deeply, taking my time while the snarl in my brain started to loosen and pressure in my chest and throat started to relax. “I am safe.”

“Good.” He slid an arm around my waist and briefly squeezed, like an awkward hug. “Very well done. There is nothing here to be afraid of. You shall be just fine.”

“I was really scared in there,” I admitted, still looking inside instead of actually going in. “I thought… I was going to die alone, and no one would ever know what happened to me.”

“Och, Molly. Lass.” His arm tightened until it was almost an embrace, and what was there to do but lean into it?

The fact was, whether or not he was hot and whether or not I was insanely attracted to him—yes on both points—I needed comfort. I needed contact. I didn’t know just how much I needed either until he offered them.

“I’m sorry.” I turned my face away and blushed like a fool. “I feel stupid. This is stupid. I don’t know you. There’s no reason for you to be doing any of this for me. And here I am, unloading on you. I bet you wish you hadn’t investigated my fire when you could be someplace else, warm and dry.”

“That’s not true at all.”

“It’s not?” I looked at him again, more than a little skeptical. “You don’t have to say that. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings. I’m tough enough to handle it.”

I expected him to laugh, or at least to chuckle.

Instead, he hooked a finger under my chin and seemed to study me, the way he had when I was trying and failing to unlace my boot.

And just like I did then, I felt all fumbly and jittery when he looked at me like that. Like he saw something beyond what was on the surface.

“Och, I believe I’d rather be here than anyplace in the world.”

5

Molly’s eyes widened.

Her breath caught.

I had gone too far.

I released her, even though the feel of her skin—even just the slightest touch against her chin—left me wanting more.

“Come,” I said, shaking off the madness which I’d allowed to take control for one wild, heady moment. “You will be more comfortable inside, once you’ve unpacked your things.”

At least she didn’t fight me this time. Had I unsettled her so? Or was she simply free of the panic which had gripped her? Memories of coming close to death.

I could relate to that.

“You know,” I said, keeping her visible from the corner of my eye as I helped her sit on a wide, flat rock just inside the makeshift cave, “I had an experience not long ago which reminds me of what you just went through.”

“You did? I can’t imagine you being afraid of anything.” She slid her pack from her back with a sigh of relief and propped it between her and the stone wall to her right. “Are you thirsty, by the way? I have plenty of water left in here.”

“Still? After being out here all this time?”

“I always bring at least four days of water with me,” she explained with a shrug. “When I knew I’d be stuck for a while, I limited the amount I drank. It’s not like I was hiking and needed a whole lot.”

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