Page 51 of Escaped
“The sooner you can call her, the better.”His thumb stroked my fingers as he guided me the final few feet toward the cabin.
“And being here...”I hesitated as we neared the front door, overwhelmed at the idea of going back inside.
So much had happened in that small, wooden space.So many fantastic highs and awful lows that I wasn’t sure I had the capacity to cope, especially after the uncertainty about Chelle.
“Too many memories?”His tone was wry.
“That’s one way of putting it.”I pulled in a shaky breath, glancing inside to see the outline of one and then both of our hiking bags.Our phones were in those packs, and that technology was the route to discovering how Chelle was, but gripping the doorway, I was paralyzed by the weight of just being back there.
It was inexplicable to be in that place where so much peril and pleasure had transpired.I could hardly remember the woman I’d been before I’d laid eyes on that cabin.
“You brought me here to rescue me, sir, but by the time Hawkins’ men dragged us away, I wasn’t the same person.”
“I don’t think either of us was, little girl.”His hand slipped around me, pulling me against him.“I fell in love with you here, and even then—before Hawkins came and fucked everything up—I couldn’t imagine a world without you in it.”
“Even then?”
I gazed at him, half-delaying the inevitability of going inside and half intrigued by his admission.I could scarcely remember the intense feelings he’d inspired within the cabin’s dark confines, and whether or not I’d been ready to give our love a chance when we’d headed to bed that last cold night was difficult to say.All I knew for certain was that by the time I’d fended off Hawkins’ pawing hands and found Eli again, all thoughts of leaving his side had been abandoned.The idea of losing him then was simply intolerable.We hadn’t known each other a long time and there was no way of knowing what the future would bring, but we’d been through too much to not give our chemistry a chance to bloom.
“Yes.”His smile was sincere as we stood on the threshold.“I knew then.I just didn’t know how to tell you.I wasn’t sure you wanted me.”
“You thought I’d say no.”I smirked at the idea.
‘No’ wasn’t a word Eli was used to hearing.
“I…” He paused, apparently doubtful.In the relative safety of our current situation, it was refreshing to see him hesitate.Eli had been my rock on more than one occasion, but it was good to know he was only human, and that he, too, experienced insecurity.“I just didn’t know how you’d react.”
“Because you were such a swine to me?”
Smiling, I realized it was fun to play with him, and the growing tension sizzling in the air between us was finally cutting through the sickening sense of unease I felt about my friend.
I was pursuing a facetious tone that he might make me live to regret, but I couldn’t help myself.It was so unusual for my lover to be on the backfoot, and for once, we’d achieved it without him needing to be shot or beaten.
“A swine?”He arched that delectable eyebrow at me, knowing precisely what impact it would have.Right on cue, pleasure pooled between my legs, goading me to keep playing.“I sound like a hero in a nineteenth-century romance.”
“Hero?”I sniggered at his comparison, leaning into the simmering chemistry.It had been too long since we’d tugged at the loose ends of our smoldering connection; too long since I’d felt comfortable to yield entirely.“Does a hero strip the heroine and turn her over his lap to spank her?”
I tapped the new boots I’d purchased against the wood beneath my feet as though I was impatient, but in truth, it was excitement stirring inside.Not that I should have been even thinking about how masterful my new man could be—not given my concerns for my friend—but standing there, I was heady at the idea of provoking him.
“What are you doing, little girl?”
His tone was shrewd, suggesting he appreciated what I was doing, but the bemused expression on his face conveyed his confusion.Poor Eli probably had whiplash.One moment, I was shaky and emotional, clinging to him for support as I tried to process what fate might have befallen my friend, and the next, we were there at the genesis of it all, and I was thinking between my legs again.
“I’m just saying, does that sound heroic to you, sir?”My pulse sped up as his lips curled at my insistence.
“That depends on what you judge to be heroic.”He edged closer, forcing me back against the doorframe, and I went willingly, enjoying the feel of the wood behind me as my lover loomed large.“As I recall, I saved you in this place.”
“I savedyouat Hawkins’ place,” I countered, as though the trauma of the last few days had been a competition.
It hardly mattered who had done what, but the one-upmanship was suddenly unreasonably enticing.
“But that didn’t happen here, did it?”His voice had deepened to that lower, sexier octave that spoke directly to my clit.“Here was where I looked after you, kept you warm and stopped you from running out into the snow again.”
“Yes.”I craned my neck to meet his eyes.He was so tall and physically capable, and I already knew how good he was inside me.
“Yes,what?”
He skimmed his palm along the length of my body, pausing to fondle my right breast.I mewled at his touch, caught in the conflict of the moment.We were there to collect our things and find out about Chelle, but the heat ballooning in that doorway was difficult to ignore.
