316 Rose Rd (A Cherry Falls Romance)

"Harper?”

It’s him.

I look up, knowing that I can’t ignore him any longer. I feel as though I have conjured him through sheer force of will – here he is, right here in front of me, and I can feel the heat in my cheeks burning under the fluorescent lights above us.

"Are you all right?" he asks.

I nod, cheeks burning.

"I thought I heard someone in pain," he remarks, eyeing me curiously. Oh my gosh, he must have heard me moaning all the way out here...

"I – I don’t know what that was," I lie swiftly.

"You didn’t hear it?”

"No–"

I try to push past him, and I make it outside. What am I going to do? Run all the way back to my cabin like this? If he looks at me, he’ll see how embarrassed I am. He’ll guess at once just who was making those noises – and just what on earth I had been doing in there.

But I’m not going anywhere, not so soon. Because the moment that my foot meets the ground, it flies out from underneath me, and I go careering over, my towel flying off as I tumble toward the earth.

I let out a panicked little shriek, but I needn’t have worried about anything because, a moment later, he catches me in his arms.

And I realize that I am totally naked, in the dark of the night, being held by a man who has been the focus of all of my fantasies since I arrived here. And I have no idea what the heck I am meant to do next.

Chapter Five

Cliff

"Are you okay?" I ask Harper. She nods at once, and goes to pull away from me so that she can grab her towel. She hardly has the thing wrapped around her again before she lets out a yelp of pain.

"Ah!”

"What’s wrong?" I ask with concern.

"My ankle," she winces, and she tests it out, putting a little weight on it before shaking her head and retracting at once.

"You need to get it wrapped up.” It’s hard not to think about the fact that she is basically naked right now. I’m pretty sure that I heard her inside the shower block – not sure if that was pain or something else, but it was impossible to ignore.

"I can go back to my cabin,” she says. “I’m sure there’s a first-aid kit there–"

"That’s way too far," I reply firmly. "Mine is just around the corner. Come on, I’ll get you fixed up."

"It’s okay," she tries to protest, but she attempts another step on her foot and then shakes her head at once. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

"Come here," I mutter, and I lean down and scoop her up into my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck, holding on tight, and I try not to think about how close I am to her naked body right now. She smells good, like fresh air and clean clothes, and I have to put in the effort not to bury my head against her neck and inhale her sweet scent close-up.

My cabin is just around the corner, and it doesn’t take long before I get us both there. She balances on her good foot as I open the door, and then hops inside, holding her towel around herself tightly.

"Be careful," I warn her. "Don’t want to take the other one out, too."

"I’m not a total klutz," she protests.

"Could have fooled me," I reply, and she laughs. She has a nice laugh, warm and full and honest.

"Fair point," she agrees, and I put an arm around her waist and lead her to the small chair that sits opposite the fireplace. She sinks down into it and I go to find my first-aid kit.

She’s in my house. My house. The two of us are alone in my house right now. I try to push that to the back of my mind. She’s a guest in this place, that’s what I have to remember, and that means that this isn’t just about how much I want her. I’m just helping out someone who got themselves into a little trouble, that’s it. Even if I can feel her eyes following me around the room as I go to get all the stuff that I’ll need.

I kneel down at her feet, and she crosses her legs tightly and offers me the injured ankle – it doesn’t look like it’s in too bad a shape, but I am going to take my time anyway.

I pull out some bandages and some wipes, cleaning off some of the mud that is clinging to her skin. I can’t help but notice how shapely her legs are – strong, lean, as though she spends most of her time running around on them.

"Thank you," she murmurs as I brush the mud from her skin and carefully clean her up. She’s still a little damp from the shower, and it’s hard not to wonder just where the water might be dripping right now. I push that to the back of my mind. I need to stay on message here. Even if all I want to do is slide my hand up beneath that towel and feel what other parts of her might be wet.