Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

“Go find a large pot and fill it with water,” I instructed, I’d never had to clean linens by hand before, but it wasn’t all that complicated.

Once he’d done as instructed, I pointed over to the fire for him to set it down. I waited a bit for the water to heat up, since I wasn’t too keen on sticking my hands in a nearly frozen pot of water. After a few minutes I walked over and stuck a finger in it.

Deciding it was warm enough, I rolled up my sleeves and plopped down in front of it. Sitting right in front of the fire was much better than standing near the window, that was for sure!

A few minutes later, the water was a murky brown and the linens were laid out in front of the fire to dry. If we were stuck here for the night, at least we’d have somewhere clean to sleep. I glanced over at the blanket, debating cleaning it, then decided against it. It was a bit too large to try and dry before night fell.

And there was no way I was sleeping with a wet blanket in this weather! I’d be lucky if I wasn’t frozen to it when I woke up!

“Go dump that out,” I said, nodding to the pot.

Just like before, Nathan did as told without even a comment.

I liked this version of him. It was nice having a bit of muscle around to do all the heavy lifting. And as Nathan lifted the pot to dump it down the sink, I couldn’t help but see his muscles flex beneath his tight sweatshirt.

Instinctively, I licked my lips. Then I shook my head and chastised myself. Nathan was my stepbrother, for crying out loud. No matter how fit he was, it wasn’t right for me to be checking him out like he was some model on display in a magazine.

Deciding I needed to get my mind off things, I grabbed my bag and pulled out a book, then plopped down in front of the fire. The fact that I’d only packed a few trashy drug-store romances didn’t help much, but it was better than staring at Nathan the entire time.

Nathan

As I cleaned the pot out, I watched Sarah. She seemed to be lost in her book, and for a moment, it looked like she’d even forgotten we were stranded in an abandoned cabin. This definitely wasn’t how I wanted her to celebrate turning twenty-one.

I’d thrown a huge party when I turned twenty-one and had a blast. On her birthday, we just had family over and a couple of her close friends. I’d tried to talk her into having some fun and throwing a party of her own, but she’d been completely against it.

She wasn’t really the party type, so I’d dropped it until I had the idea to bring her up to the ski resort for a week. It wasn’t really her thing either, but this at least I knew she would enjoy once she got up there.

Part of me was regretting that now. Sitting in this godforsaken cabin wasn’t exactly a great way for her to celebrate. Then again, Sarah always was a bit of a loner, so I wondered if it really wasn’t all that bad for her. She spent most of her time holed up in her room, so it wasn’t like much had changed, except for the lack of electricity.

After the pot was clean, I wondered back over to the window. The snow was really coming down now, which just made me frown even more. At this rate, no one would be crazy enough to take a side road up the mountain. Hell, most people probably wouldn’t even risk coming up the mountain, even on the main path.

I had a feeling we were going to be stuck here for a while. A day or two at the very least.

As I watched the snow continue to fall, I decided to go cut some more firewood. With the way it was coming down, we could’ve ended up snowed in here, and the last thing I needed was for us to run out of wood while we were snowed in.

“I’m gonna go cut some more wood,” I said as I put my snow gear back on.

Sarah nodded and muttered and “uh huh” without even bothering to look up from her book.

I never understood what was with her and her books. She could spend hours in the same place, just staring at the words on the page. Not me, though. If I sat still too long, I was liable to go stir crazy. Which was one of the reasons I was heading out to cut wood.

At least that would keep me moving, keep me doing something. It was already my fault we were stuck out here, and I hated just standing around not being able to help the situation. I wished I could get some cell service to call for help.

The back door was stuck and took a bit of yanking to pull it open. I frowned at it before heading outside. It would’ve been easy to fix, if I’d had some tools. But, once again, I was helpless to fix even a simple problem.

Sarah may have thought I was just some rich boy who paid people to do everything, but that wasn’t the case. At least, not completely. Sure, we had hired help that took care of most of the things around the house, but that didn’t mean I was completely useless.

I’d learned to work on cars when I was a young teen. Whenever we’d had to call out our mechanic, I’d been right there with him, watching how he did everything. He’d taken me under his wing, teaching me how to fix all but the most serious problems with a car. But that had all been before Sarah had moved it.

Hell, I doubted she knew I’d completely resorted the vintage Corvette sitting in our garage. She probably just assumed I pulled out Dad’s credit card and bought it from some old collector.

While most of my friends had gotten new BMWs and shit when they got their license, I’d gotten a nearly destroyed 1966 Corvette. Dad had offered me a new car, but I turned him down. The ‘Vette was all I needed. It’d taken nearly two years to restore it, but in the end, I had a car I could be proud of.

Unlike the Jeep, I thought bitterly. The damn thing wasn’t even that old and had chosen this week, out of all weeks, to break down.

By the time I’d chopped another load of wood, I was in a worse mood than when I’d started.

I’d tried so damn hard to make Sarah’s twenty-first birthday memorable. Oh, it’d be memorable all right, but now all she’d remember is me getting her stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere. So much for trying to do something nice for her.

It took a bit of maneuvering, but I managed to get the cabin door open and shut, without dropping the wood or killing myself in the process. When I stood just passed the doorway, taking deep breaths to warm my insides, I saw Sarah was right where I’d left her, still absorbed in her book.

I smirked. At least it didn’t seem like she was panicking or anything. Hell, it didn’t even look like she realized she wasn’t in her bedroom or the study back home anymore. Knowing her, she was probably in some far away land as she read about a prince saving his princess.

If only I could save her from this.

I let out a sigh, then put the wood with the rest of it. That would be enough to keep a fire going for at least three days, I thought. Even if we needed to use some for the stove, we still wouldn’t have to worry.

Well, that was one problem solved at least.

I crossed back over to the window. My little sign was still hanging from the tree, though I had doubts whether anyone would be able to read it with the constant fall of snow. Even from here, I could just barely make out the brown rectangle amongst the sea of white.

Then again, anyone foolish enough to drive in this would probably be going at a snail’s pace. If we were lucky, someone else was on their way up the mountain right now and would find us before nightfall. Then again, I doubted we were that lucky.

And, sure enough, soon the sun was beginning to set, the temperature going down along with it. I hadn’t though it could get much colder, but I was proved wrong once again. I went over to the fire and tossed a few more logs onto it, which seemed to get Sarah’s attention.

She blinked up at me, then marked her page before setting the book aside and stretching. “What time is it?”

I pulled out my phone. “A little after five. Good book, is it?” I asked nodding toward the discarded paperback.

“Eh, not really,” she said with a shrug. “But it could be worse. I guess we should make some food, huh?”

“I guess.” It didn’t seem like we were liable to get rescued any time soon. And once the sun was down, I k

new no one would be coming through. Nobody was suicidal enough to drive through a snowstorm in the dark.

Together, Sarah and I headed over to the tiny kitchen and started going over the cans of food that had been stock piled. Apparently whoever used this cabin wasn’t a huge fan of balanced meals, since there wasn’t a wide selection.

Sarah frowned at a can of chili, then sighed. “At least it’ll keep us warm,” she said as she searched the drawers for a can opener. “Why don’t you get the stove started?”

I nodded and stared at the thing. The massive wood burning stove looked like it was older than I was! Hell, the damn thing could’ve very well been older than my father.

It took a bit of poking and prodding, but eventually I had it figured out. Soon, the fire beneath it was roaring, and Sarah had a pot of “fresh” chili on the stove for us. It wouldn’t be the most filling meal, but at least it would keep us from starving.

Once it was hot, Sarah split it into two bowls, then handed me one with a spoon. “Bon appetit,” she said with a grin.

I shook my head, returning her smile. Then I took a bite and managed to avoid wincing. “Well, it could be worse,” I said after swallowing some.

Sarah took a bite herself, but she didn’t stop herself from wincing. “Not but much.” She wrinkled her nose, then headed to sit back in front of the fire.

Dinner was a quiet affair, with us mostly just trying to stomach the less than appetizing meal. I kept telling myself it could’ve been worse, but it really couldn’t have gotten much worse. Fresh, homemade chili was to die for. Crap out of a can? Not so much.

Finally, after eating maybe a third of her bowl, Sarah set it aside. “I’m done.”