Chapter 10
*EMERSON*
The hot summer afternoon sun beat in through the now-open storm window of the cabin. I rolled over. The heat made me sticky as humidity clung to all my surfaces. A large, powerful hand rested on my lower stomach.
Knox.
Last night’s events flashed through my mind. Fighting with a criminal, blowing up his boat, the rush back to shore. Then our bodies, the connection, me promising to move to Alaska.
My heart rate kicked up, causing my chest to hurt.
What was I thinking?
It was lust.
And hot guy abs.
It wasn’t my fault. No one’s brain worked at maximum capacity when they were kissing a hot guy.
The cabin grew smaller as I lay there trying not to move or breathe so my stomach stayed flat. It was dark when he saw me naked. I wouldn’t look the same with the sun being all shiny.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” he asked, his voice groggy.
I jerked. “Nothing. I’m not thinking about anything. Why would I be thinking? What are you thinking about?”
“Okay, then,” he said, but he drew out the okay to a level that annoyed me.
How was he just lying there all… calm?
Like we didn’t blow up a boat last night.
Like we weren’t fugitives now.
Like I wasn’t next to him completely naked.
His words settled on me and made me more annoyed. How dare he sleep peacefully while I was having an emotional breakdown?
“It is not okay then,” I said, rolling over to face him.
Ugh awful choice.
Knox adjusted himself so we were chest to chest with less than a few inches separating us. His lips were tipped up into a perfect smile, and his chin had the right amount of stubble to make him even hotter. His eyes twinkled—they freaking twinkled—in delight as he stared at me.
“What are you so happy about?”
He tried to fight his smile deepening but failed. “It feels like this is about to be our first fight, and I can’t wait to see how it goes.”
“This is not our first fight…” Was it?
The first morning after was supposed to be romantic. Waking up to the man you’d spend the rest of your life with should be a perfect memory.
This wasn’t romantic. It was terrifying.
I sat up, pulling on the sheets to bring them closer to me. My breath came quicker as the room felt like it was closing in on me. Trapping me.
We couldn’t stay here. I had to get away.
Knox blinked as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, stood, and grabbed my pile of clothes with shaking hands. The floorboards creaked under my feet.
“Emerson?” Knox asked, sitting up but letting the covers pool around him, leaving his naked chest on full display.
I froze.
Knox leaned over, eyeing my hands full of clothes. “You okay?”
The question cracked my heart into three large chunks and sent a tremendous surge of panic through me. “Are you serious?”
“What?” he asked, his smile finally becoming a frown.
My eyes widened, and I threw out my free arm, vaguely gesturing to the cabin. “This is insane.”
“What’s insane?” he asked, his face scrunched up with the question as if he really didn’t know.
“You. Me. This cabin. Last night.” My voice rose despite my efforts to remain steady. “Everything.”
“Ah,” he said smugly. “So this isn’t our first fight. This is the freak-out I’ve been waiting for?”
“No,” I said and snorted in disgust. “This is definitely our first fight. You don’t get to just decide my life now because you look good without a shirt on.”
His expression hardened. Not angry, but the first piece that maybe he wasn’t in control. “I didn’t decide anything.”
“Oh, really?” A sharp laugh burst free from me as the anxiety grew. It clawed at my chest as if I had gone mad. “It sure feels like you’re trying to trap me in Alaska with you.”
I waved my hand again, my shirt falling to the floor. Knox kept his gaze latched on to my eyes.
“That’s not fair, Emerson.” He pointed to the window. “We’re not in Alaska now.”
“We might as well be.” I hurried to put on my pants. Being naked around him made me too vulnerable. “You want me there.”
“I never said you had to come, but fuck yeah, I want you there.”
His honestly knocked the wind out of me as I pulled my shirt over my shoulders.
“But I’m not going to kidnap you and take you to Alaska. Everything is and always has been your choice.” He paused for just a second and then continued. “I want you to come because you’re ready for an adventure. With me.”
“You don’t even know me. I might be crazy.”
He laughed. “I know enough, and I’m willing to risk it.”
“That’s not how this works.” Fully dressed, I threw out both hands, needing something to do with my nervous energy. “You don’t wake up one day and decide to take a woman to Alaska and build some perfect future in the woods.”
His face shifted. Into… pain. Hurt. Ache.
“You think that’s what this is? I just saw a hot woman and decided she’d do?” he asked quietly.
I tilted my head, one word getting in more than the others. “You think I’m hot? No, wait. That’s not important.”
Knox shook his head, his smile still not forming. “I’ve never even given a woman a real chance. My last long-term girlfriend was five years ago. There are very few people I’m willing to give up my solitude to spend time with.”
I swallowed hard.
“I don’t date, and I don’t let women into my cabin. Not unless they’re a mountain mate.”
What? “A mountain what?”
That made him laugh. “It’s a long story. The important part is that with you I’m not worried about any of the things I normally am. I want you in my space. Talking all the time. Hell, you can even bring the cat.”
My chest tightened. “Well, duh. I’m definitely bringing the cat.”
“I’m not trying to trap you,” Knox said. “I’m offering you something I’ve never tried with anyone else. Something amazing. I can’t name what you and I have, Emerson, but I feel it. Deep in my chest. Right here.” He placed his hand in the middle of his chest.
I felt it there too. But it was new. Not something I’d felt before. What did it mean?
“I’m scared,” I finally admitted. “This feels too real. I don’t know what to do with that.”
He exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders, and got out of bed. “Okay.”
Okay? What did that mean?
My anxiety rose sky-high again. Did that mean he was leaving me here? Why wasn’t I happy about that?
Shit.
Did that mean I wanted to go to Alaska with a man I had just met?
Yes.
My mother was going to kill me.
Good thing Knox had a gun.
Not that he’d ever shoot my mother.
I was just about to confirm the no-shooting mothers when he asked. “So you’re bringing the cat?”
“Where?”
“Alaska,” he said as if that’s where we were in the conversation. “He’s going to have to learn to stay inside.”
“Of course.” We couldn’t let her run around outside. She’d get frostbite.
Knox stared at the sleeping cat who had taken up a spot on the counter. “He’d be a snack for a bear.”
“That, too.” My nose crinkled. “And she’s a girl.”
“I looked, babe, and I’m pretty sure it’s a he.” Knox smiled and tilted his head at the cat. “He’s going to need a litter box.”
For whatever reason, that did it for me.
My eyes stung with unshed tears. “You’ll really let the cat come?”
Knox came right up to me and rested his hand around my hip. I let him leave it there. “For you, anything.”
“Okay, we’ll give it a shot, but you better have a lot of chocolate stocked up for those months we’re snowed in.”
He squeezed me tight and laughed. “I’ll put an order in for pickup once we’re back.”
I didn’t know exactly what came next, but I knew it would involve me, Knox, and a gray tabby of undisclosed gender.
This didn’t end here.
It was just the beginning.
THE END