Page 69 of Unnatural
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Autumn stretched and yawned before sitting up and rolling her neck on her shoulders. She was getting used to waking up in this bed, even though the expected someone wasn’t currently sleeping beside her.
Outside the window, the sun had already risen. How late had she slept? She was generally an early bird. Well, she had performed quite the workout the night before. She swung her legs over the bed, feeling that now-familiar ache between her thighs. She started to smile but pressed her lips together instead. This temporary life they were living in this cottage by the lake was not meant to be enjoyed, not really. They were hiding out, passing time, on the run so to speak, and yet…and yet Autumn was also falling in love.
The smile she’d worked to suppress melted into a frown.
Oh, Autumn. Oh, you are a very stupid girl.
Her heart dropped and then floated and then settled somewhere near the place it was supposed to be. She let out a small huff of breath, feeling strangely winded.
Oh, this was terrible. Horrible.
Wonderful.
She loved him. She did. Strange, curious, beautiful, broody Sam.
And there was no fathomable way this was going to work.
She clenched her eyes shut, too many warring emotions to deal with here, where there was nothing to do but wait.
Except…she only had a short time before she had to return to work, and perhaps there was one errand—one bit of research—that could be done safely and discreetly, with little risk. And she needed to talk to Sam about it.
She pulled her sweats on and then left the bedroom, spotting him outside on the deck, looking out over the water like he seemed to love to do. The silky white strands of his hair caught the muted sunlight and glinted both silver and gold. Metallic. Just like much of him.
Autumn pulled on her boots and jacket and went outside.
He must have heard her approaching, but he didn’t turn. She put her arms around his shoulders, nuzzling his neck and kissing his cheek.
He smiled, leaning into her touch, enjoying.Allowingwhere once he’d all but shrunk away. “You shouldn’t have let me sleep so late.”
“I didn’tletyou sleep. You were snoring. What was I supposed to do?” He smiled as she took the seat next to him and faked a moment of outrage.
“I don’tsnore.”
He started to laugh, then cut it off. “Oh. No, you definitely don’t. That must have been a plane flying overhead.” He squinted up at the silvery sky, pearly rays splitting the clouds.
She laughed and gave him a teasing swat. Sometimes, like now, he surprised her with his sense of humor. It was as if he wanted to laugh, he just hadn’t known how.
Before.
Before this.
Before her maybe? Although she hesitated to take credit for Sam’s personal growth. That was all his to own.
She swore she saw him stretching though, taking tentative steps outside the box he’d put himself in, testing the solidity of the new ground beneath him.
For a few minutes, they simply sat in companionable silence, enjoying the crisp air and the gauzy sunlight sparkling on the water’s surface. It would be wonderful to go inside and stoke the fire, let it warm their chilled skin. She’d like to spend the rest of the day there with him…just…exploring. God, she couldn’t get enough of Sam. But she also knew there were important answers that might be waiting.
“Sam, I have to go somewhere.”
He looked over at her, his eyes worried, body still. “Okay. Where?”
She took a deep breath and told Sam about the files she’d stolen, about the portion of her own file that listed her as a “suspected ADHM” baby.
His brows lowered. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. But maybe…something.”Maybe something very big.She paused for a moment. “I found my mother. The day of the…shooting,” she said, glancing at him and then back to the lake. God, that day was such a blur. Meeting her mother had been…well, eventful to say the least.Traumatic.At any other point in her life, it would have been the most momentous thing that had happened to her.
