17
The sound of water lapping and birds singing is what rouses me the next morning as bright sunlight shines through the wide bay window, the light stinging my eyes as I peel them open.
It takes a moment for my mind to get up to speed as I take in my surroundings. The bed I’m lying in is at least queen-sized, the covers on top of me sage green and white, as with the rest of the large bedroom I’m in.
I can’t even remember arriving here last night. The last thing I can recall is eating at the diner and then continuing on our journey. How did I get into bed?
I roll out of bed and notice my bags sitting at the foot. Alec must have carried them in when we arrived, and ultimately did the same with me seeing as how my mind is drawing a total blank.
I stroll across the room to the bay window to the left of the bed. It’s width allows the daylight to flood in, soaking the room in a soft orange hue.
“Wow,” I gasp when I see I’m overlooking the water. Alec wasn’t kidding when he said it was private. A dense wall of trees surround the water, not another house besides this one in sight. The backyard slopes to the edge of the water, a series of steps off to the right that leads down to a short pier and a boating dock. The water glistens under the sun and a wave of peace washes over me, settling a little of the unease that’s been inside me for weeks.
It’s stunningly beautiful.
This is exactly where I need to be.
I’m still wearing my clothes from yesterday and my skin feels sticky and unclean, so after pulling out some fresh clothes, I head into the en-suite bathroom and hit the shower.
Once I’m dressed, I make my way out of my room, and after taking the wrong turn down a corridor that lead to another bedroom that I’m guessing is Alec’s, I finally find my way towards the staircase. As I near the bottom, I can hear movement and find Alec in the kitchen, the smell of bacon and eggs drifting into my nose as they sizzle in the pan.
He smiles when he sees me. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” I say, sliding onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar.
“I made breakfast, I hope you’re hungry.”
My eyes trail over him as he cooks. Why is it so attractive? “Starving. How long have you been up?”
I watch as he places two rashers of bacon and two eggs each, paired with a slice of French toast onto two plates. “A couple hours. I went into town for some supplies early before you woke up. Did you sleep well?”
“So well that apparently I can’t even remember arriving here last night or getting into bed. Did you have anything to do with that by any chance?”
He smiles, bringing over our plates and sliding onto the stool beside me. “You looked too peaceful to disturb you. Besides, after yesterday, I figured you needed the rest.”
I take a bite of my breakfast and let out a moan. “This tastes amazing. Since when did you cook?”
“All my life. My mom made sure of it. She used to tell me that if I could cook, I’d have no problem finding a wife when I was older.”
“You mom was a smart woman. There’s definitely something about a man who cooks.”
“Oh yeah?”
I nod, biting around my toast. “Mmhm. It’s sexy.”
“Good to know,” he says, a slight smile playing on his lips as he takes a bite of his bacon.
“The view when I woke up this morning was breathtaking. I never imagined it could be so pretty here.” If it’s that good from my window, I can’t imagine what it’s like when I get outside.
“It sure is,” he agrees. “Being away for so long, it’s easy to forget just how beautiful it is.”
“I’m so jealous you got to spend your summers here when you were a kid.”
“My dad and I would go fishing sometimes. We’d take the boat out and spend hours out there. There’s a couple beaches nearby we used to visit—my dad’s brother and his son would come with us, it’d be a family day out.” Something flashes in his face at the mention of his extended family, but I decide not to press.
It’s not until now that I realise, he knows almost everything about me and I know nothing about him. Besides knowing he spent a large part of his life in the Marines and him telling me yesterday that his parents are dead, he’s a complete mystery to me—something I’m going to have to rectify while we’re here.
Once we’ve finished up with breakfast, I help him do the dishes before he disappears outside, and with the entire house to myself, I decide to go off and explore.
One of the doors in the kitchen leads out to the backyard which I’m saving for later, and instead, I head into the living area furnished in creams and whites. I take in the photographs that decorate the walls and every flat surface. I recognise Alec immediately. Those steel grey eyes piercing through the picture and straight to my heart. He can’t have been much older than ten or eleven at the time, but even back then he was handsome. There are photos of him as a baby playing with his toys and ones of him as a toddler, playing with another boy. The cousin he mentioned earlier maybe?
In many of the photos, there’s a man and a woman with Alec who I can only assume are his parents. I can see so much of Alec in his dad, the resemblance is uncanny. His mother is beautiful; tall and slender, her eyes the same exact colour as her son’s.
They look so happy together.
What I do notice is there are no photographs of Alec any older than around twelve, the exact age he told me last night was the last time he came here. Was that what he meant by his parents being gone?
I continue exploring the house. Heading up the stairs, I count three bedrooms and two bathrooms—including the en-suite in my room, and in the ceiling, there’s a hatch that leads up to another bedroom in the converted attic.
It’s not until I’ve explored every inch of the house that I decide to venture outside.
The fresh, salty sea air is the first thing that hits me when I step out onto the back porch, as well as the warmth of the sun that seeps through my skin.
To the right of me, there’s a swing seat up against the house and I can’t wait to be sipping a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while watching the sun go down, or reading a book on the off chance it begins to shower with rain.
The sound of drilling catches my attention and I go off to investigate. I soon find Alec around the front of the house, attaching a camera to the wall.
The thick muscles in his biceps bulge as he presses hard on the drill, a sheen of perspiration coating his tanned skin, his sweat soaking through his tight white t-shirt. A jolt of arousal shoots through my clit at the sight and I find myself suddenly flushed.
“You alright over there?” he asks, a knowing smirk tugging at his gorgeous mouth.
Fuck, he knows I was checking him out.
“Uh, what’re you doing?” I ask, swallowing down the embarrassment.
“Making sure you’re safe. I got some of these security cameras at the hardware store in town. I need to know I have the place covered. I’ve also got alarms to fit on the doors and windows should we have any unwanted visitors.”
“You’re really not taking any chances are you?”
He stops drilling and turns to me, the heat of his gaze burning into me. “Not when it comes to your safety, never.”
His stare and his words have my belly flipping, but truthfully, with or without the camera and alarms, I don’t think I could feel safer than when he’s near.
A stab of fear hits me. “Do you think they could find us out here?”
“They could, had they followed us the entire eight hour journey. They have the means and the manpower to do so but as far as we know, Sloane’s gone into hiding. He knows he’s got a target on his back. He’s not stupid enough to risk getting caught. My guess is, he’s lying low, waiting for the heat to die down before he makes a move.”
The thought of that man waiting, biding his time, planning, plotting, makes me uneasy and I hate that the sheer mention of him has my belly coiling in fear.
Alec must see something on my face that has him putting down the drill and closing the space between us. “Hey, you trust me, don’t you?”
My eyes meet his. “Of course I do.”
He reaches up to dust his fingers over my cheek, my skin tinging beneath his tender touch, his expression unreadable as he brushes over the scar there. “I will always keep you safe, Sierra. Never doubt that.”
Sighing, I inadvertently lean into his touch. “I don’t doubt for a second that you’d let anything happen to me, Alec.”
Something passes between us as the air around us crackles, my heart skipping a beat as his eyes dart down to my lips and back up again.
The overwhelming urge to close the gap between us and press my lips to his is so strong, and just as I’m about to give into it, my phone rings in my pocket.
We break apart, and I glance down at my new phone that replaced the one that I lost when I was kidnapped to find Reese requesting a video call.
I shoot an apologetic smile to Alec and click accept to the call and walk away, but it’s not Reese’s face I see, it’s Ivy’s.
“Hi, Auntie!” she waves excitedly through the screen.
“Hey, munchkin. You okay?”
“I’m good. Wish you were here! Daddy tried braiding my hair but he’s pants at it, not like you!”
I’m trying to picture my brother fixing his daughter’s hair, but the image in my head is so unlike Rafe it makes me giggle.
A door on Ivy’s end opens behind her. “Ives,” my best friend, Reese says. “I said to wait until I asked Auntie Sierra first. She might’ve been busy.”
“Sorry, Mommy.” I love how she’s come to call Reese her mom, though Ree has made it clear that she’ll never let Ivy forget her real mom who died a few months back.
“Ree, it’s fine,” I say as she comes into view beside my niece. “How are you both?”
“We’re good. Bigger question is, how are you? Is Alec looking after you?”
“He is. It’s beautiful here. I’ll send you some photos later. It’s exactly what I needed.”
“Good. I’m glad. You take all the time you need, okay? And you let Kevin Costner take real good care of you, okay Whitney?”
“We’re really back to this again?” Reese has it in her head that Alec and I are like Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner’s characters in The Bodyguard about a singer being stalked by a creepy fan and hires a bodyguard to protect her.
“Who’s Kevin Cotsener?” Ivy asks innocently, her cute mispronunciation of his name makes Ree and I chuckle.
“Never mind, sweetie. I’ll explain later.” Ree drops a kiss to her head. “We’ll let you go, Si. Take it easy, okay? Speak soon?”
“Speak soon. Love you.”
“Love you too.” She blows me a kiss before the video feed cuts.
I glance back over at Alec who’s continued fixing the camera to the wall beside the front door. He oozes strength and power. There’s no wonder he was made for the Marines.
In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t here with me, and whether our story turns out as Whitney and Kevin’s character’s did, I have no doubt it’s going to be epic.