Chapter 16 #2
The rain that found my bare shoulders even through my cotton jacket was bitterly cold.
I had been out in the storm for maybe five seconds, and I was already soaked from head to toe.
I realized pretty quickly that I hadn’t really thought this plan through.
I was only wearing a pair of cotton pajama pants tucked into my rain boots and a tank top underneath my jacket.
That was all I had to protect myself from this storm, but the poor cat had nothing to protect it, so I continued on my mission.
My boots squished in the rain-soaked grass. I wiped away the rain coating my face and let my eyes adjust to the beam of light from my flashlight. I was getting close to the cat by the way its piercing meows had grown louder. The closer I got to the sound, the closer I got to Luke’s porch.
How is he not hearing this poor animal?
I heard one last cry from the cat and finally spotted its soaked black-and-gray fur. It was stuck! My heart dropped when I saw the tree branch lying on its long, tangled tail. Its glowing, green eyes found mine, and then it meowed even louder, as if it were asking me for help.
Or telling me to go away. One or the other.
“You poor thing!” I whispered, tasting the chilly rain that dripped into my mouth.
I walked over to it quickly, placing my flashlight on the muddy ground, and put my hands on the branch to lift it up. Just as I grasped it, a huge branch suddenly came swinging down, missing my head by a hair.
“Argh! Shit!” I yelled, falling back onto my hands. The freezing mud coated my palms, but I leaned forward again, getting on my knees to move both branches. I reached for my flashlight to see better, but it had disappeared somewhere in the muddy mess.
“CAMMIE! What the hell!” a loud voice boomed through the hurricane winds.
I looked up from the ground to find a dark figure looming on the nearby porch.
“There’s a cat!” I yelled, digging my fingers into the bark of the branch.
“Get up here!” Luke yelled back down to me, but I ignored him.
I cooed, “It’s okay, kitty. Hold on.”
“Cammie, get the fuck up here right now! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Luke’s voice was demanding and full of testosterone, but I kept on.
By the time I got the branch off the cat, Luke was down beside me, preparing to drag me back inside. I watched as the cat scrambled underneath the opening of Luke’s porch, and I let out a huge breath. The cat was safe now. The porch would shelter it, for sure.
After letting out another long breath, I felt two strong and sturdy hands lift me up from underneath my armpits. Once my feet hit the ground again, they were only there for a moment before I was whisked up even higher.
“Luke! What the hell!” I yelled over the rain pounding his soaked back.
“You are the most infuriating person I’ve ever met,” he grumbled, carrying me over his shoulder, up the porch stairs, and into the entryway of his house.
The warmth of his house hit me instantly as he placed me back on the floor. I quivered from the cold rain seeping into my skin.
“Stay,” he stressed.
I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him disappear into the darkness of the hallway. I could hear his stomping feet, and when he returned, he handed me a cotton towel.
I whipped it out of his hand and wrapped myself in it, smelling the fresh, laundered scent.
“Come on,” he whispered as he ushered me forward. I followed behind him closely through the darkness until we reached another room.
I could tell it was his bedroom by the soft glow of a candle flickering in the far corner. His bed wasn’t made, the dark covers rumpled and bunched as if he had been in it just before he’d come outside.
My gaze filtered around the room until I found him again, pulling clothes out of his dresser. He looked at me, eyebrows still furrowed, and handed me a long T-shirt, a pair of boxers, and some socks.
“Get dressed. I’ll grab some blankets.”
Then, he exited the room, holding his own dry clothes in his hand. So demanding, and yet, so sexy.
I dressed quickly, pretending like my mind wasn’t drifting beyond the imaginary line that I’d drawn. Luke’s boxers were now resting on my most intimate parts. His dick had been in these at one point, and now they were touching me… Hmm.
Draping my wet clothes over the edge of his bedroom door, I walked out into the dark hallway, using the wall as my guide to the living room.
The flickering of the candles illuminated the room, and I found Luke standing beside the couch, placing blankets on the soft leather. I bypassed him quickly and lowered myself onto the sofa, wrapping two blankets around my cold, shivering frame.
“You’re an idiot,” he said when he looked down at me.
“Did you expect me to just let the cat die?” I asked, staring at anything but his face.
“Somehow, I think I value your life more than I do a cat’s, Cammie.”
I grinned. “Was that a compliment, Soldier?”
“I said I think ; it’s not decided yet,” he quipped.
The couch dipped low as he sat down beside me.
Our bodies were only a foot apart, yet it felt like they were miles apart.
I wanted to inch closer, but I was still thinking rationally.
I couldn’t do that. It was probably a bad idea that I was even there, let alone wearing HIS clothes!
I was in so much trouble.
I was in even more trouble considering I had just jumped closer to him at the loud bang outside. It sounded as if another branch had fallen down.
He chuckled beside me, turning away to look out the window. You couldn’t see a damn thing. It was too dark. Even the few candles did nothing to light the room except display some dancing shadows along the far wall.
“So,” I croaked, suddenly feeling awkward sitting there next to him in a dead silence. The room was crackling with tension. Whether that was sexual tension or just the normal tension that seemed to follow us, I wasn’t sure, but there was definitely a crackling spark of energy in the air.
Luke sat forward, leaning his arms on his cotton pants. “Do you remember”—he looked over at me—“that time we pranked your ex and he was sleeping with a blow-up doll?” Luke laughed so hard that the entire couch moved beneath us.
“I hate you,” I said, holding back my own laughter.
Then, he laughed harder, and I followed suit. I crossed my bare legs under the warm blanket and rested my elbows on my knees, my head hanging down.
“I can’t believe I’m admitting this,” I intoned, “but I’m so embarrassed that you saw that.”
That only made him cackle harder. I continued to stare at the blanket on my lap until he finally gave up and caught his breath.
When I got the nerve to look over at him, his eyes were twinkling with amusement.
“Tell me something, Cammie.” I clenched my teeth at how raspy and sexy his voice suddenly sounded saying my name. I literally felt my body heat from the inside out. “Did he ever…please you?”
I groaned internally and sat up a little straighter.
“That’s hardly your business, Luke.” My voice dripped with irritation, which was a serious telltale sign that my answer was no .
Grant never really pleased me. He was a lousy lay, but I was blinded by lust. Or stability . Whatever it was that held me to him.
The idea came to me so quickly that I pretty much yelled it. “I’m actually a virgin.”
I heard the gasp from Luke before I looked over. His mouth was hanging wide open, and his eyebrows shot up toward his forehead, crinkling the skin.
I couldn’t hold in my giggle.
He shoved my arm softly and shook his head. “Good one, but I knew you weren’t a virgin.”
“What? How?” I asked innocently.
“Because no virgin responds like you did the other night.”
That had me closing my mouth abruptly. Visions of his mouth on my nipple came crashing through my mind. Mmhm, I’m in trouble .
We sat in silence a little bit longer, and if I’d thought the air was full of tension earlier, now it was completely suffocating.
Sitting there on his couch, mere inches from Luke, smelling the fresh rain mixed with his scent, his hair jumbled on top and still a bit damp…
It was intoxicating. I felt drunk on him, and I hadn’t even touched him.
My body was humming.
“Let’s dance,” he uttered, and I turned toward him, eyes narrowing.
“What?”
“Come on.” He jumped off the couch, blankets falling to the floor. “Let’s dance.”
Trying my best to get out of the situation, I said, “There isn’t any music. I’m not dancing with you.”
“Listen,” he whispered, standing a few feet from me. He reached his hand out for mine. “The rain can be our music.”
The room was filled with silence, except for the pattering of the rain against the house and the wind whistling and howling from a distance. My heart went into triple speed in my chest, staring at his long fingers stretched out to meet mine.
“Live a little, Doc.”
My eyes flew to his, and even though I knew I shouldn’t have done it, knew that I shouldn’t have been letting myself get caught up in him, I still found myself walking over to him without an ounce of resistance from my limbs.
It was almost like he was honey and I was the bee. I couldn’t stay away, even if I tried.