Chapter Twenty-One
Mira
Maybe it would work. Maybe Angus would look and eventually give up when he couldn’t find me. A knowing part of me scoffed at my naiveté. Angus was a thoughtful and organized hunter. He wouldn’t give up until his heart stopped beating.
Caleb’s house wasn’t what I expected, which somehow made me care about him more.
He didn’t reside in some country mansion like the one he’d grown up in.
He had spent his hard earned money on the acreage that made up his property and put a double-wide mobile home directly in the center of a meadow.
The home looked new, and well-made, but when I had cause to think about where he lived, I had always imagined a large homemade of sticks and bricks.
He came around the front of the Ford and opened my door. “What are you grinning at?” he asked, head canted.
“It’s just that your home is kind of perfect, is all.”
He bowed gallantly. “You want the grand tour?”
I rested my hand on his outstretched palm and nodded.
There was a sizable deck that constructed the porch, complete with two chairs and a small table to enjoy warm evenings.
Inside, his furniture in the living area was simple, functional, but everything worked well together to invite a homey feel.
The kitchen was large with modern appliances, and the two bedrooms in the back were spacious.
One, he had made into an office, and the other was his room.
I blushed when I saw his bed. The bedding was nice, dark, and haphazardly thrown in some semblance of order.
It was definitely a bed I could find myself comfortable in.
“You hungry?” he asked, deliciously close to my ear.
“Starving, actually.”
“I’m not much of a cook, but surely we can put something together from a stocked pantry.”
And stocked, it was. Caleb had everything I could possibly imagine in the way of food. I pulled out shelf after rolling shelf of non-perishables and found the refrigerator full as well. “I thought a bachelor would just have frozen pizzas to eat,” I murmured in awe.
Caleb yanked the stainless steel freezer door open and stood back. “I have those too if you have a hankerin’.”
I laughed at the row of meat lover’s specials. “Tempting, but would you mind if I cooked instead?”
A tender expression crossed his face. “You want to cook in here?”
I looked around. “Never cooked in such a fancy kitchen outside of Opal’s before.”
Slowly, deliberately, he crossed to stand in front of me. His skin smelled masculine and alluring with a faint undertone of animal. He took a breath before he spoke in a tone so velvety soft, it sent a warm sensation to parts of me I hadn’t given much thought to before he came into my life.
“Say it. Tell me you need me as much as I need you.”
My eyes focused somewhere in the region of his collar bones.
If I looked into the brilliant blue of his eyes, I would melt into a useless puddle on the wooden floorboards beneath my feet.
“I can’t say it now. I need you for safety, and you will always wonder if I said it for the right reasons. It won’t count.”
“Look at me.” He waited until my reluctant gaze met his. “The fact that you just said that will make it count. Say it.”
It would be the biggest admission of my life, but he was worth taking the risk.
“I need you. And not just for the material stuff. Fixing up my house and trying to get me a job… That stuff doesn’t matter.
I’ve needed you from the moment I brought you up to my house.
After I killed the grizzly? You had to live, and not just because it would be a weight on my conscience, but because you were the most beautiful thing I ever had in my life, and I couldn’t lose you.
I knew you wouldn’t ever think about me again after you left, but you had to exist.”
The tenderness in Caleb’s eyes was overwhelming.
He leaned forward, placing his hands on the counter behind me.
He rested his forehead on mine for just a moment before he kissed me.
His lips were as soft as the first time he kissed me on the balcony of the pie shop.
I clenched the front of his shirt with my fists, and he stretched forward, parted my lips, demanding more.
His hands found my hips, and with ease, he lifted me to sit on the counter.
His obvious arousal made me feel powerful.
How did I have such an effect on a creature so compelling?
His arms snaked around my back and pulled me closer to his body, and I wrapped my legs around him in desperation to be even closer.
“Can I see?” I asked in a ragged breath.
Caleb stopped kissing me, and for a second I thought he would refuse. He eased back slightly and pulled at the top button of his shirt.
I moved my fingertips under his. “Let me.”
I pulled at each button in turn and revealed more and more of the still angry red scars. When he shrugged his opened shirt off his broad shoulders, I raked my eyes over every inch of his muscular chest. “You’re so—” Words failed me. None were grand enough.
He ran his hand through his hair as if uncomfortable. “Ruined?”
“No. Perfect. You’re perfect to me.”
His smile was slow, and he ran a light fingertip over the scars on my neck that peeked out from beneath my loose collar. “So are you.”
The moment was interrupted with the shrill trumpet of the telephone. Caleb reached across me, apparently not inclined to put any distance between us, and answered it.
There was a muffled murmur of a girl’s voice on the other end of the line.
“No, I think I got it,” Caleb said, brushing a strand of hair out of my face and tucking it behind my ear. “Hey, Mira says hi.”
Dead silence filled the other end. The voice picked up in an excited volume that I could almost understand. He chuckled and handed the phone to me.
Sadey didn’t bother with a greeting. “Are you back with Caleb? Tell me you’re back together!”
“Yes, we’re back together.”
His eyes danced, and he inhaled slowly, as if he were savoring a weight being lifted from his shoulders.
A string of incomprehensible shrieks followed, and I handed the phone back to Caleb, then rubbed my throbbing ear.
“Gotta go, Sadey. We’ll see you at Sunday dinner.” He hung up while Sadey was still mid-question.
The mention of Sunday dinner would have been intimidating if a more desperate fear didn’t loom in the forefront. Every minute or so, I thought of the very real danger I was in. Of the danger I put Caleb in by being with him, and it sent a cold bolt of fresh dread skittering up my spine.
He watched my transformation with concern knitted into his blond brows. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m scared. Angus won’t stop until he finds me.”
Caleb watched the waning light out the window as if it held the answers. “Look, he won’t find you here. Tomorrow we’ll go to the sheriff—”
“But he hates me.”
“Hear me out. If he and his deputy ignore us, at least we tried there first. We’ll go into the city and find someone who will help. We’ll keep at it until somebody takes us seriously and grants you a restraining order against him.”
The plan sounded solid enough, and a wave of relief washed over me. I knew he would figure out a way to keep me safe. He was calm in the face of adversity, confident under strenuous situations. It’s what made him so good at his job. His self-assurance eased my cowardly bits.
I put my mind to more favorable ventures than dwelling on imminent danger. “I want pasta.”
He grinned. “I have a craving for spaghetti myself.”
I hopped off the counter and rummaged through the pantry until I found the ingredients I needed.
Caleb pulled his shirt on, to my dismay, but left it unbuttoned as a consolation.
Eventually, a fire crackled in the fireplace and the smells of a hot meal wafted through his cozy home.
I was standing at the stove when he pressed his body behind me.
His hands fell to my hips, and he kissed my neck softly. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“Keep doing that,” I said, stifling a moan.
His breath was delectably warm on my neck, and the vibration of his chest rumbled against my back as he chuckled. “Anything else?”
I sighed happily. “Taste this.”
Caleb did as instructed and said the spaghetti sauce simmering away in one of his pots was perfect as is.
“Okay, take the garlic bread out of the oven then. Dinner is ready.” I gave the Caesar salad one more toss and set it on the small dining table.
We took our time eating. There was no hurry, and our conversation was easy, like before I’d tried to set him free.
He asked about my mother, before she’d met Angus, and I shared the good memories I had.
Playground visits when I was younger, slip-n-slide summers, and infinite wishes she’d made on dandelions.
“She used to be fun,” I explained. “She didn’t like raising me by herself, but she always took me to the library and read me books before she tucked me in at night.
And on Friday nights, she’d always order us a pizza and rent a cartoon for me from the movie store.
I thought we were happy the way things were, but then she met Angus, and she changed.
For the better, at first. She practically glowed when he helped around the house and took care of me when her friends asked her to go out for girls’ nights.
It didn’t last, though. He was pretending.
That was part of his manipulation, to show her his best side so she’d cling to the way he used to be when he would drink.
I always knew he was bad, though. He didn’t trick me at all.
I didn’t care about him, so I could see how hard his eyes looked when he told my mom he loved her.
I could see him holding his hands out like he wanted to choke her when her back was turned.
They weren’t even fighting. He would just do it in passing. ”
Caleb drew my legs into his lap under the table and leaned back. “He sounds like a piece of work.”