Idiot. I stood and twisted away, breathing fast. It wasn’t just the attraction. As I’d looked at her, just for a second, stupid fantasies had started playing in my head: her and me and Rufus, all together like—
Like a family.
Stupid. The monster doesn’t get a happy ending.
I checked the pot. “Food’s ready.”
I passed her a bowl of stew and a hunk of bread and she thanked me. But she kept looking at me, her eyes full of concern. All she wanted was to help me.
I deliberately looked away and avoided her eyes until I felt her finally drop her gaze. People like me don’t deserve help.
I only had one chair, so I gave that to her and leaned against the edge of the table. As we ate, my mind was turning. How the hell am I going to make this work? Already, she was getting too damn close. She trusted me...liked me even. Thought I was a hero. I couldn’t let her get close enough to find out the truth.
I was picking up her empty dish when she said, “Cal? What are we going to do?”
I looked at her and, in a heartbeat, my own problems were forgotten. The fear in her eyes made me want to just grab her and pull her into my arms.
“They know my name,” she continued. “They know where I live. I can’t go home.”
My hands actually twitched, I wanted to hug her so much. “I don’t know,” I told her. “But I know you’re safe here. And you can stay here as long as you want.”
She bit her lip, her eyes going moist. She started to thank me and I just nodded quickly and looked away. Anymore looking into those big, brown eyes and I was going to fall right into them.
A little later, as I cleaned the dishes, I heard her yawn: the poor thing was exhausted. She’d probably never walked so far in one day in her life, and she’d done it all without complaining. For a city girl, she was tougher than I could have believed.
The yawn woke Rufus from his nap and he trotted over to Bethany and butted his head against her, then rolled on his side, demanding tummy tickles. As she obliged, she gazed out of the window, just...listening. For a while, I tried to figure out what she was listening to, because I couldn’t hear anything. Then I realized she was listening to the silence. She’d never heard it before. God, she was so far out of her comfort zone, here. Was she going to be okay? City folk need people around them, they need to chatter. It’s okay for people like me. I do just fine on my own.
Right?
Bethany yawned again and looked around...and then she just went still. I frowned, wondering what she’d seen...and then I followed her gaze to the bed.
The only bed.
She looked up at me and then back to the bed and then to me again and I saw the math going on in her head. Is that why he took me in? Is it a deal? Room and board in return for—
Her lips parted in shock. Before she could say anything, I stepped forward and put my hands up, dish suds dripping from them. “No! No.”
We stared at each other. She nodded. She believed me, but….
But I could feel how hot my face had gone. Just the thought of the two of us...God, I was rock-hard in my jeans. “I’ll sleep on the floor,” I said firmly.
She swallowed. Held my gaze almost defiantly.
I caught my breath. Dammit, the temptation to just crush my lips down on hers and run my hands all over those fantastic curves….
A woof made both of us jump. We looked down to see Rufus looking up at us, concerned. Then he trotted across the room, jumped onto the bed, and sat down very firmly. Okay, but whoever’s sleeping in the bed, I’m sleeping with them.
I started grabbing blankets to bed down on the floor. When I turned back to Bethany, she’d stripped down to the t-shirt—on her, it was more like a nightshirt—and was slipping between the covers. Rufus pushed up against her legs, snuggling in for the night.
I turned down the lantern and lay down on the floor. But even with my back turned and my eyes closed, I couldn’t forget she was there. Her dark curls spilling across the pillow, her full breasts pushing out the front of the soft white t-shirt…. And I was going to have days, maybe weeks of this. Living in a one-room cabin with a woman I was crazy about and could never, ever have.
What the hell am I going to do?
22
Bethany
I WOKE FROM SLEEP so deliciously deep, so silent and complete, that I had to haul myself up hand-over-hand through the layers of wakefulness until I finally opened my eyes, a big, goofy grin on my face. I couldn’t remember ever having slept so well.