6. Emile
CHAPTER 6
Emile
I sit and stare at her as she sleeps, wondering if I should crawl under the blanket with her. I’m shivering even though the little room is warm. The fire is going and the flames dance around, landing on her soft round cheekbones and her pale skin, warming it right up until she’s a vision of warmth and light. A goddess of the night, resting in her slumbers until something wakes her and she shakes out her long, wild, light red hair, rising to fool some idiot man into thinking that she’s more than any other woman out there. That she’s honest and forthright. That she’s that rare beauty out there that just needs a man to let her unfurl her metaphysical wings and spread her love and joy around like a butterfly flitting to and fro and dancing on the effortless breezes of life.
Life isn’t effortless. It’s hard and dirty and crushes you under its stiletto heels when you least expect it.
I know for a fact that no woman is what I think she is. I thought I knew my wife. Thought I could trust her to always be faithful to me and to love me, take care of our life.
Only she didn’t. She cleaned out my accounts that I worked so hard to save for us and she fucked another man in my bed while I was at work. She did it all in plain sight and then when she cleaned out my account, she did it in such a way that I needed to be rescued out on the road which meant everyone found out about what was going on. Should have embarrassed the hell out of her to do it. To clean us out and leave me with nothing. She even took the house.
So don’t tell me that women are a rare, beautiful thing like honest and caring. Loyal and loving. All they are is traitors. You can’t trust them as far as you can throw them.
She stirs in the little nest of blankets that I laid out on the floor by the fireplace, letting her catch the heat and warm up, dry out.
She rolls over and her perfect bow lips open on a yawn and sigh. Perfectly pink and open in a silent O that makes my dick hard as a fucking rock. The pup is curled up with her and grunts and growls when she moves.
She jerks and her eyes open, wide and golden in the morning light. She turns towards me and squeaks out a soft, “Hello.”
“Hello, Lizzie Montgomery.”
She winces and groans, covering her eyes almost before I see the quick flash of hurt in her eyes.
“Why don’t you like your name?” I ask her, for some reason needing to know whatever strange thought is going through her head.
“It’s my ex’s name. I should have changed it when our divorce went through but I didn’t want to start over with my work and everyone knows me by that name.”
“What is your work?” Her hazel eyes flash to mine and the pure golden spice in them makes my heart race in my chest. Her lips curl up in a soft smile.
“Travel blogger.”
“Ah.” I nod my head. “You must have travelled to a lot of different places then.”
“No. Actually, I have only been here. This is my very first trip.”
“How can you write a travel blog when you’ve never travelled?”
“A lot of research and videos mainly. But of course that meant that my stories needed more of a personal touch and it’s something that I knew I could do better.”
“What held you back?”
“My ex. He didn’t want to travel. He is a huge homebody and just likes to stay at home.”
I nod my head. “I see. So he wouldn’t even go with you, even when he knew that you were good at it and you liked it.”
“No, he wouldn’t. He just told me to find something else that I could do from home. He didn’t want me to work outside of the house. Or at least he didn’t want me to until he started seeing the secretary at his office.” She hangs her head and my fingers itch to push that soft cascade of gentle red-gold out of the way so I can lose myself in those golden-green eyes, touch the soft curve of her pale cheek, trace the light freckles that dot her nose and the top of her cheeks.
She sighs. “He didn’t even flinch when I walked in the bedroom and found him in our bed with her, his dick in her like it belonged there.”
Sympathy wells up in me. I know that feeling. Know the shame and anger that fills you when the person you trust most in the world does something that breaks that trust more than anything else can.
I grunt and push the long hair off my forehead. “You’re better off without him.”
“I know that,” she chuckles but it’s short-lived and I see the pain in her eyes. “Doesn’t make it any easier.”
I nod my head but don’t tell her that I’m well-aware of that particular fact.
She stretches out and touches my shirt. “Do you need the shirt back? My clothes might be dry.”
I shake my head, angry at the thought that she wants to get out of my clothes as fast as possible. “No. Keep them. I’ve got more.”
“Thank you.” She glances around and then sees the tiny kitchen with a very tiny stove. “Is there food here?”
“Kind of. It’s all just dry stuff that can be cooked quickly. I’ve even got some MRE’s here.”
Her brow lifts. “I know you think I don’t know what that means but my daddy was in the army.”
“Where’s he now?”
Her eyes spark with so much sorrow that I wish I’d kept my damn mouth shut. “You don’t have to tell me,” I say quickly, not wanting to hear what she’s going to tell me.
“It’s okay.” She sighs and sits up, wrapping her pale arms around her knees. “They passed away in a car accident right before I married my ex. I actually wanted to postpone the wedding but he threw a fit about wasted money until I gave in.” She huffs and pushes her hair out of her eyes, tilting them up to me, giving me a heartbreaking smile. “I guess I should have known right then that he didn’t give a damn about anything but himself.”
Nodding, I stand up and stalk to the door, whistling for the dog and fastening a rope lead that I made for him around his little neck. “I’m gonna take the dog out. I’ll be back as soon as I get things checked out.” Maybe I’ll be able to get out of here faster than I think. I really hope so. The more time I spend with the fascinating redhead, the more I want to stay with her, ask her a million questions until I feel like I know every facet of her, inside and out.
She nods and stands up, padding over to the kitchen, my eyes locking on her thick, pale thighs that are barely covered by my flannel shirt. I trip over the dog and it yelps as I struggle to keep on my feet. Her hazel eyes turn towards me, questioning.
“Sorry…” I mutter under my breath. “Little thing likes to get under your feet.” And I’m an ass to blame my lack of attention on anything but her thighs and what’s hiding between them, especially a totally innocent little puppy. The mutt turns its eyes up to me and the way it cocks its head and its ears perk makes me think that it knows just what I’m doing.
Just how big of an ass I really am.
I open the door and let the dog out, following behind him. But as I pull the door tight, I see her thighs again and my body tightens to a painful degree.
I close the damn door and lean on it for a second before I follow the little dog who’s sniffing the bushes around us. He perks his long ears at me and yips like he’s telling me off and I groan. “Don’t you start it too. I know I’m an asshole.”
He just saunters off, his little ass shaking his tail around until he falls over his own big feet and I fight a smile.
“Buddy, you’ve got problems but not like mine. I sure as hell hope the trail is clear so we can get her out of here.”
But I have a feeling it’s wishful thinking. I’m bound to this soft, sweet, sexy, young woman for awhile yet and that terrifies the shit out of me.
I’m not sure how long I can be around her before the want that’s bubbling up in me makes me do something stupid. Like fall in love with a woman who doesn’t belong here or to me.