Chapter 2
TWO
DAISY
Cash Cunningham stood there like a dark cloud beneath the rays of the sun. Hands clenching and unclenching.
So gorgeous my belly fisted and my soul ached as I lay eyes on the boy who had been scored in my psyche like a brand.
Well. Not so much a boy anymore.
He was all man.
Wearing worn jeans and a tight white tee that hugged every muscle of his intimidating frame and a plain cap on his head.
Locks of brown hair barely curled out at his ears.
Face hard and ferociously beautiful and so different than I remembered.
He was so much bigger than before.
Hewn of ripped, rugged muscle, and every bit of exposed skin was covered in ink.
I wanted to take the time to evaluate every detail, but eyes the color of the forest were glaring back.
A toil of greens and golds and browns. Almost familiar. You know, all except for the disbelief and hate that roiled in their depths.
The man was the very definition of shooting daggers.
It wasn’t until then I realized I was basically standing there nude in the freezing river.
Surprise ripping out of me, I dropped the bar of soap into the river and my hands flew up to cover my very bare breasts that were peaked and pebbled from the ice-cold water.
Oh, crap, no.
Why did this have to be my horrible, bad luck?
Shivering, I fumbled back and forth, hobbling a little faster each time since little rocks kept impaling the soles of my feet.
“Ow, ow,” I cried as I tried not to take a full tumble into the unbearably freezing water still melting from the mountaintops.
I did my best to cover myself, all while attempting to wrap my head around the fact that he was there.
That I was actually looking at him.
That he was alive and whole and…raring freaking mad.
Eyes that dragged like blades along my bare flesh took stock, raking down to my hands that covered my boobs, down, down, down my trembling belly to my soaked underwear.
He emitted a low growl, and I felt like I got blasted back by the shockwave of energy that rocketed through the air.
Talk about humiliating.
He finally jerked his attention back up to my face.
My face that had to be flaming red.
A muscle in his jaw ticked, and his anger only seemed to grow.
Crap.
“What the hell are you doing here?” His voice was a scruff of low aggression that sent a tremor rolling through my body.
Harsh enough that I finally snapped out of the stupor and jumped into action, tiptoeing and stumbling over the small stones on the bottom of the river toward the towel I left on the bank.
Frigid water splashed up my legs as I blundered my way toward the bank, all while trying to keep my boobs covered with my hands.
I almost made it out when a razor-sharp rock cut into the sole of my foot.
Piercing pain shot up my leg, and I tipped forward.
“Ouch!” I cried. My hands flew out to catch my fall, and my palms planted onto the wet dirt on the bank of the river.
“Gosh dang it,” I mumbled as I struggled to catch my breath and find a little of my dignity, but coming here promised that I didn’t have any of that.
At least I didn’t crash face first into the bed of rocks a little higher, but I doubted it made my fall any more graceful.
Great.
Just freaking great.
Could this get any worse?
Any more embarrassing?
Oh, but it could, because Cash was suddenly there, running up and grabbing me by the outside of the shoulders and dragging me upright.
“Are you okay?” he demanded as he dipped down to get in my line of sight.
The only thing that I could feel right then were his hands. Hands that sent flames scorching up my arms and sailing through my middle.
Chills scattered beneath that touch, and my mouth dropped open. As hard as I tried to form the words, none would come out.
Cash tightened his hold and gave me a tiny shake. “Are. You. Hurt?”
“I…I…”
“Damn it, Daisy. Are you hurt?”
I shook my head. “No. I-I’m fine.”
Okay, I wasn’t fine.
Not even close. He would know it soon enough.
A frown carved his rugged brow, and I had the stupid impulse to reach out and smooth it with my fingers. To tease him the way I used to do.
Look at you. Heartbreaker. How many hearts did you steal today?
But he wasn’t mine. He had never really been. He made that much clear when he left me behind.
That knowledge did nothing to stop the butterflies from lifting and scattering in my belly, the same way as they did when I was little more than a girl.
He held my shoulders rigid for a moment before he peeled his hands away, and he averted his gaze as he dipped down and snagged my towel.
Irritation lined his mouth as he opened it and held it out.
“Put this on.” Every word out of his mouth was a coarse scrape.
Jagged and grating.
Deep and low and sending vibrations rolling through the air.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, and I quickly wrapped myself in the thin cotton.
A tremble rolled through me, though it didn’t have anything to do with the chill from the water. It was all from the cold in Cash’s eyes.
He backed away, and he crossed his thick, tattooed arms over his chest.
My attention dropped there. Taking him in for a beat. This man who I hardly recognized but who once had known me better than anyone.
“How the fuck did you find me?” More knives and blades.
“I…I…” I stammered.
“What the hell are you doing here? Hiding out on my property?” he pressed. That question jerked my attention back up where it belonged.
To the ferocity in his expression.
My tongue stroked over my suddenly dried lips.
“I needed to see you,” I admitted.
I might not have seen him in years, but he was still the one person in the world I truly trusted. The only one I could trust with this.
His plush lips thinned. “You didn’t see the No Trespassing signs posted all over my property?”
I chewed at the inside of my cheek as I peered over his shoulder to make sure they were safe before I looked back at him. “I thought they might not apply to me.”
“That so?” he challenged.
He said it like I was a stranger.
A trespasser.
Unwanted.
All the hurt and rejection came back at me full force. The fact that he’d just…left me.
After everything.
I still couldn’t understand it.
But none of that mattered now. It wasn’t what was important.
This was what was crucial.
I tipped my face up at him, and I gave him all my vulnerability. “I had to find you, Cash.”
“Why?” The single word was hooked on barely hinged fury.
“Because I need you.”
At my admission, a bristle of rage skated across his flesh, the muscles of his arms that were still crossed over his chest bulging and bunching with strength.
It was the first time I noticed the tattoo on the back of his left hand.
Two stacked Ss with a dagger running through them with an eye in the middle. At the top of the dagger was a torch. The flames coming from it curled up his wrist. Those flames seemed to weep. As if they were written in grief.
My own grief clotted off my throat, but I didn’t have time to acknowledge it because a laugh suddenly echoed from farther up the mountain. From the tent that was hidden under the shelter of the trees.
Cash whipped that way.
Shock froze his giant body when he saw my children sitting on a blanket in front of the tent.
I instructed them not to move from that spot while I quickly bathed in the river, never fully letting them out of my sight while I washed the scum off my body after hiding out here for two days.
Today had been the day I was going to gather enough courage to go to Cash’s door.
The day I was going to plead with him for help.
“Mommy! Are you all done? I gotta go pee real, real bad!” My three-year-old, Eva, shouted it from the blanket. She waved her hands overhead and jumped toward the heavens like we hadn’t noticed her, her hair that was the same reddish, dark brown as mine whipping around her.
“Shh…” Addy chastised, my daughter who was seven and thought she was the boss of the other two. “We’re supposed to be really quiet in the woods. Don’t you remember we’re playing hide and seek with the man?”
“I think we already lost because he found us!” Colin, who was five, pointed a finger at Cash who gaped at the three of them.
The man nothing but a burly, rigid beast who looked like he was one second from coming out of his skin.
Maybe I was a fool for reaching out and touching him, but I couldn’t stop my hand from curling around his massive bicep.
He barely shifted his head toward me.
His hazel eyes were full of incredulity and cynicism and the ridging of fear.
They flickered from my face to my hand and back to my face again.
The muscle rippled beneath my hold.
I got the sense he couldn’t decide if he wanted to throw off my touch or toss me over his shoulder and drag the whole lot of us off his property.
My throat nearly closed off as I stared at him, and my voice went hoarse as I begged, “I’m in trouble, Cash. Really bad trouble. And you’re the only person I can trust.”