Chapter 5
*KNOX*
Emerson, with eyes as wide as saucers, stared at me as I walked outside to check the generator.
That was weird.
Rain splattered my bare back as I jumped from the porch and worked my way around the cabin. It was definitely the right choice to take off my shirt. With this humidity, it would take days for something to air-dry.
I didn’t want to leave her alone too long in case she had her post-boat-freak-out while I was wandering around outside the cabin.
It looked like the storm was coming in fast, and I didn’t want to waste any time securing the cabin.
Dante, my friend who ran these cabins, kept them stocked, but there wasn’t time to double-check the building before we got hit.
Dante had the generator at the back of the cabin, closest to the kitchen and bathroom hookups. I checked the wire, happy that if we had to go to backup power, the essentials would still work. It was still too hot in South Carolina to worry about the heat. That was one less issue.
The rain picked up, pelting me with heavy drops. I stopped and lifted my head to the sky. Dark, thick storm clouds piled toward shore, coming in off the water.
“It might be cold in Alaska, but at least we don’t have Poseidon threatening our existence,” I said as I made it back into the cabin and closed the door behind me. It caught on the edge, refusing to close completely.
Emerson turned from her spot in front of the bed and laughed. “No, you just have to deal with three feet of snow.”
Three feet? That was an understatement. “No bugs in the winter months either.”
Giant freaking mosquitoes in the summer, but I failed to mention that. It’s not like she’d be coming to Alaska to see them. She twisted a piece of her hair back into a fresh ponytail and popped out a hip. I grinned as the move made her seem feisty.
Feisty was good because it wasn’t panicking.
Emerson squinted one eye at me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
She squinted with the other eye. “I don’t know, but it’s something.”
I chuckled, which only made her squint more. It made me want to walk over, wrap an arm around her, and kiss her so hard I literally had to hold her up to keep her standing.
What the fuck?
My smile fell. Where did that thought come from? Sure, she was hot, but I was not in South Carolina to find a woman, especially not one obsessed with manatees.
“Can you put a shirt back on or something?” she asked, turning back to stare out the window behind the bed.
Oh, she liked me without my shirt on?
I liked knowing that she liked me shirtless.
“Well?” she asked again when I didn’t move.
“Sure, babe.” I grabbed my shirt from the back of the chair and slipped it over my head. “It’s safe to turn back now.”
Emerson spun on her heel. “That’s not… well… I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Sure.” My grin came back in full force. She thought I was hot. “It’s okay. I know how I look.”
Her mouth fell open. “Wow, arrogant much? I just didn’t want you to get cold.”
I laughed again as a flash of lightning lit up the trees outside the window. “No one is getting cold in this humidity. “
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “It’s the storm and also… August.”
A crack of thunder vibrated through the cabin. “It’s getting bad out there.”
“It normally does during a tropical storm,” she said with a bit of snottiness.
For some reason, my dick twitched with excitement. That was new.
She moved to the window by the bed and unlatched the shutter. “I like that these have internal shutters. That way we can all keep our shirts on.”
What a pity.
She hummed as she worked on closing up the cabin.
“You’re really not freaking out yet?” I asked as she made it to the door where I’d taken up space watching her work.
She stared at me for a moment, the light hitting her eyes at just the right angle, making them sparkle as she stared. “About what? The storm? Or my boat?”
“Take your pick.”
Emerson let out a deep sigh that gave me a bigger sign she wasn’t as unaffected as she seemed.
She stood less than a foot from me as her gaze slid to the now boarded-up window across the room.
Emerson flicked her head, her ponytail coming close to my face.
She smelled of salt and sunshine, like the perfect ending to a perfect day at the beach.
“I figure it’s safer here than on the boat during the storm, and who else has their own private SEAL to see them through it? I’ll save the freak-out for once this is over and deal with it all at once.”
Silence stretched for less than a minute before she broke it again.
“Plus, to be honest, I’ve got a lot more than boat and storm problems. Maybe this is Mother Nature telling me it’s time to throw in the towel and try again somewhere new?”
That was an interesting way to word things.
“Is that what you normally do?” I asked, leaning up against the door.
She turned to face me, her smile growing. I didn’t understand how she was smiling with everything waiting for her on the other side of this storm. “No.”
“No?”
Emerson shook her head. “Nope, normally I’m stubborn as a bull. Or at least that’s what my mother would say. But…”
She paused to think, and I let her.
“Do you ever feel you’re working so hard to keep the walls standing, but everyone’s trying to tear them down? Maybe it’s time to let them fall.”
Her words gripped my heart. “Believe it or not, babe, yeah.”
“Really?” she asked, her gaze full of hope.
“Yeah.” I nodded slowly, getting lost in my memories. “I wanted to stay in the military and make a lifetime career out of it, but the harder I pushed to find my meaning there, the more the universe showed me it wasn’t.”
It took a long time for it to get through my thick skull, but I eventually made it out.
Another flash of light, immediately followed by a crack of thunder, shook the windows.
“Shit, this is moving fast,” she said, staring at the wall as if she could see past it outside.
The heavy wooden door moved; claws scratched against it. Emerson and I both froze as we stared at the spot where the noise originated.
“What was that?” she asked before freezing again. “Open the door.”
“What?” I asked, stepping in front of it.
She pushed me out of the way. “Don’t you hear that?”
I moved to the side, ready to protect her from herself as she opened the door and I stepped into the opening. There’s no way Rex found us already, but I also wasn’t taking chances as I slipped past her.
What the hell? I stopped and stared at our dangerous threat. “It’s a cat.”
“I know,” Emerson said as she moved me to the side. “Didn’t you hear the meow?”
I guess I missed that while mentally preparing to take on a sex trafficker. “Don’t go around opening doors.”
“It’s wet and storming, Knox. We’re saving her,” she said, with the gray tabby already clutched to her chest.
I scowled. “It’s a cat, and you don’t know where he’s been.”
“She’s been through the storm. Move,” she demanded as she pushed me out of the way again to reenter the cabin. “You’re okay, sweetheart.”
The lights flickered right before another explosion of lightning. That couldn’t be good. Emerson stopped whispering sweet nothings to the cat. When the pop of thunder hit, the cat hissed and jumped from her arms.
“Crap,” she said, bringing her hand to her mouth.
I grabbed it first. “Here, let me see.”
A deep scratch across the side of her hand was already welling up with blood. “This is why you don’t take in wildlife.”
She shook her head and pulled her hand back toward her chest. “She was just scared.”
The cabin shook, and the front door blew open, hitting Emerson in the side. She screamed as I jumped in front of her, wrapping her in my arms. “Hey, I got you.”
I slammed the door shut with my back and used my free hand to set the latch as the wind battered it on the other side.
“Thanks,” Emerson whispered. She tipped her head up, meeting my gaze.
Right then, my life flashed before my eyes. Her waking up in my bed, her eating breakfast on the other side of my kitchen table, her laughing as she threw a snowball at my head while I shoveled the porch. My god. This woman was my future everything.
“What?” she whispered, her plump pink lips staring at me, begging me.
I grabbed her close until we were chest to chest, her heart beating against mine. “Make your next adventure moving to Alaska with me.”
Her lips parted, but I didn’t wait for a response.
My lips crashed against hers. Her summer scents wrapped me in a warm blanket. I breathed her in along with the rest of my life.