7. Lorraine
Chapter Seven
Lorraine
I walked through the cabin to the bedroom where I’d slept and shut the door as if I wasn’t alone in the house.
It wasn’t anyone else I was trying to shut out. It was my thoughts.
My mind spun. I’d felt something with Ash, a pull I couldn’t ignore. I’d let him touch me, kiss me, taste me. If he’d continued, I would have let him take it all the way. I would have let him fuck me.
I’d wanted him to.
What was wrong with me? I wasn’t like this. I didn’t just sleep with anyone. After Oscar and what he’d done to me, I didn’t want any kind of man ever again.
Except Ash, apparently.
I wanted him so badly, it almost hurt. My body hummed in the aftermath of my orgasm, and I could still feel his hands on my skin, his mouth cupped around my sex, and his hot tongue, branding me so that I would never forget.
I shook my head, trying to get rid of the thoughts.
Despite the hard blows to my head when the men had taken me, my head didn’t hurt. I should have had a concussion. They’d hit me so damn hard, I’d passed out.
But right now, I didn’t feel a thing.
I pressed my fingers against my temple in thought.
I glanced down at my other arm. The cuts and scrapes had healed even more, it seemed. They were barely visible now. The sickly yellow bruises had faded enough that I couldn’t see them anymore. I pressed my skin where I knew they’d been, but I felt nothing.
What was going on here?
Something about this place was all wrong. To the naked eye, it was just a cabin in the woods, but the moment I’d stepped into this part of the forest with Ash, I had felt a shiver running over my skin. A cold finger tracing a line down my spine.
Cat would have loved this. The air is filled with magic , she would have said.
Cat and her dreams. Cat and her musings.
Could she have been right?
I shook off that thought, too. Of course, she wasn’t right. Stuff like that didn’t exist.
Did it?
Thinking about Cat made my stomach twist and turn with panic. Where was my little sister? Was she safe? Had Oscar sold her, too? I had no way of reaching her—I’d left my cell in the bedroom when I’d gone to the living room to help Oscar, and they’d taken me with nothing but the clothes on my back.
Out here in the forest, there was nothing. The cabin didn’t even have electricity. I doubted there’d be a cell signal.
Maybe I could find a pay phone in a town nearby. I needed to find out if Cat was okay. Then I could hide out however long it took.
I just needed to know.
I bunched the oversized T-shirt in one hand, worrying the hem with my fingers. Panicking about any of this now wasn’t going to help; it would just drive me crazy. As soon as Ash returned, I would ask him to take me to the nearest town. I could figure things out from there.
I had to look decent when he returned. The T-shirt and robe wasn’t my most flattering outfit. Although, after the way he’d looked at me, the way he’d kissed me and touched me… maybe he thought it was.
My cheeks burned red at the thought.
I grabbed the door handle to the closet and opened it. Ash had told me he had clothes in here, and I scanned the outfits. They were all a little outdated—or a lot outdated. Everything was made of cotton or some similar material, and a lot of it was loosely woven, looking like it had been handmade.
There was everything from old medieval dresses to loose cotton pants and boxy shirts.
I opted for a brown sleeveless dress and a belt-like band that looked like genuine leather. I found shoes, too. Sandals that looked like they were from a different era.
It wasn’t what I would usually have worn, but it was so much better than the T-shirt and robe.
The cabin didn’t have any kind of indoor plumbing, but I heard the babble of a brook outside. Why hadn’t I heard it before?
I frowned and walked to the crude window, looking out through the dusty glass. A small stream of water babbled past the cabin.
I hesitated before bundling the clothes I’d chosen and leaving the cabin. I looked around, scanning the trees before I stepped off the porch, and walked around the cottage to the stream. The water was clear and cool. The sun overhead was bright, and it felt like I’d fallen from the real world into a fairy tale. Out here, the colors were so much more vibrant than back home, the trees a bright evergreen and the sky an impossible blue.
I looked around again. Not only for the men who wanted me back, but for any other prying eyes.
When I was sure I was alone, I pulled the T-shirt over my head and stepped into the stream. I gasped when the freezing water ran over my feet. When I got used to the cold, I kneeled and splashed water all over myself, getting rid of most of the grime and dirt that the fight and escape last night had left on me. I wet my hair, too. I didn’t have soap or shampoo, but I did the best I could to clean it.
I dried myself with the robe I’d worn and put on the strange dress and sandals. After I sat in the sun for a while, my long hair dried. I braided it so that it would stay out of my face; it was too tangled to look good loose. I tied off the braid with a piece of twine, and I felt a little more like myself again.
When the sun started to set, I pushed myself up and walked back to the cabin. I let myself in and looked around. The cabin was dusty and neglected, nothing like a home. It needed a bit of help.
While I decided what needed to be done, the atmosphere shifted. It was almost as if clouds moved in front of the sun, but when I looked around, the room was as dusky as it had been before, with the small windows keeping out most of the light.
I frowned. What was going on?
A strange feeling crept into the air, like fog after the rain.
My heart beat in my throat. It was as if the atmosphere itself shivered along my skin, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have said what I felt was?—
The door opened, and Ash stood there. The strange sensation died down again.
He looked me up and down, his expression flickering across his features too fast for me to read. Something passed between us—a jolt of electricity that brought that sexual hum in my body right back.
“You’re back,” I breathed.
“I said I would be.”
I nodded.
“You’re dressed.” His blue eyes darkened as he took in the sight of me, and there was no guessing what primal thoughts were flitting through his mind.
I nodded again and licked my lips.
Ash’s eyes lingered on my lips, slid down to my breasts, slid further down…
He cleared his throat, and I watched as he shut himself off and stepped into the cabin. He had a large paper bag in one hand that I only noticed now.
“What’s that?” I was acutely aware of the shift in atmosphere, how bland it had suddenly become.
“I brought you food. You’re going to have to stay here for a while.”
“What?” I asked, but my stomach rumbled at the thought of food. “I can’t stay here. I need to get back home.”
“Your friends are camping around the forest, waiting for you,” he said pointedly.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “They’re not my friends.”
“Which is why you might have to stay awhile. Here.”
He put the bag down on the wooden counter and started unpacking things. Despite how crude and outdated the cabin was, the food he’d brought me was very modern. Potato chips and crackers, bread, cold meats, cheese, fruit.
“Where did you get all of that?” I asked. “Are we near a town or village?”
“I have connections,” he said with a shrug, putting stuff into the cupboards without making eye contact. I watched him move around. Ash was a large man—his head reached the same height as the tops of the cabinets overhead, and even though he wasn’t bulky, he had lean muscles that rippled under his skin when he moved.
He was delicious to watch.
He seemed completely distant, though. This morning, he’d been open, so easy for me to reach. Hell, he’d been ready to sleep with me right up against the wall next to the front door. Now, there were miles and miles between us, despite us being squeezed into the small kitchen.
I couldn’t figure him out.
“There,” Ash finally said. “Make something for yourself. I’ll find wood.”
He walked past me. His scent wrapped around me and made me dizzy. It wasn’t the scent of cologne, but it was as intoxicating as a drug. I swayed lightly on my feet.
Ash left the cabin, and I heard him walk around the side of it. I stepped into the kitchen and assembled two sandwiches, putting ham and cheese on the bread. I sliced apples with a crude blade, which had been sharpened roughly on one side.
The plates I found were made of rough wood, as if handmade. Was everything in here handmade? Was everything as old as time?
Ash returned with a stack of wood in his arms, and he marched to the fireplace. He stacked the wood in the fireplace and sat back on his heels.
“You just light this up tonight, and it should keep you warm through the night.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
The atmosphere was strained as hell. Where was the ease we’d had between us before? I still felt the same attraction. Didn’t he?
Ash got up and walked to the door.
“I made you food,” I said.
Ash froze and blinked at me. “What?”
I pointed at the other plate I’d prepared.
Ash frowned. He looked unsure, as if he didn’t know what to do with what I’d made him.
“Eat,” I said. “There’s enough for the both of us.”
He hesitated before reaching for the plate. He walked to the living room and sat down stiffly. I sat down opposite him and took a bite.
I groaned in delight. It was the first meal I’d had since yesterday, before everything had gone to hell, and I was starving. This had to be the best ham and cheese sandwich I’d ever had.
Ash finished his food almost in two bites. I usually ate slowly, but tonight I was so hungry, I practically inhaled my food, too.
When Ash stood and walked to the door, my chest tightened.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Out,” he said.
“Can I…” I swallowed hard. “Can I come with you?”
He frowned.
“I’m going crazy alone here in this little cabin,” I said. “I just want to get out and breathe a little, and I figured it might be safer with you than if I wander around alone.”
“Did you wander around alone?” he demanded.
I shook my head quickly. “No, I’m not stupid.”
Ash relaxed visibly. I couldn’t figure him out. He was completely invested in me one moment and wholly uninterested the next.
Ash hesitated, and I watched him, willing him to say yes.
“Okay,” he finally said. “But we’re not staying out after dark.”
I nodded. The sun headed toward the horizon, but the night was still a while away.
“Come,” he said with a nod.
He didn’t need to tell me twice.