50. Aspen
ASPEN
I jerk awake to find a silent figure standing in my room.
Somehow, I’d known he would come, especially now I’d seen his room and Blake had told me about him. I’d gone to bed expecting a midnight visitor, and though I’d fallen asleep, it had only been a doze. A part of me had been alert, waiting for him.
I could have locked my door, but there didn’t seem to be much point. A locked door hasn’t kept him out before. I assume he must have a master key for the hotel, so he can move freely around it.
Besides, I’d wanted to meet him properly.
He’s standing in the window, his back to me. It’s been snowing, but the sky is clear now. The moon is full, and that, reflected off the smattering of snow on the ground, means it’s almost bright enough to see clearly.
He definitely has his father’s build. I assume Levi got his build and looks more from his mother, but I can see Blake in Dov, and that automatically warms me to him.
Does he realize I’m awake yet?
I feel like I’m approaching a wild animal. I have no idea how he’s going to react. But he wants to connect with me, I know he does, and if he wanted to hurt me, he’s had plenty of opportunities.
I clear my throat. “I know we haven’t formally met yet, but my name is Aspen. I’m the daughter of a man your dad used to be friends with a few years ago. Your name is Dov, right?”
He turns toward me. I’m not sure what to expect. His expression is serious. Intense.
“I shouldn’t be here.” His voice is deep and gruff. “It’s not a good idea to be around me. People get hurt when I’m near.”
“You haven’t hurt me yet, and I know you’ve been near me.”
Has he hurt other girls? Surely Blake wouldn’t have brought me here if he thought Dov would be a danger to me. I’m his best friend’s daughter.
Had my father known about Dov? About some of his… tendencies?
I think of my missing sister. She’d have been just a couple of years younger than Dov. Had they ever met? Could she have been the reason my dad had pushed Blake out of our lives?
No, I don’t believe that would have happened.
If my dad had any inkling that Blake or his sons had something to do with my sister’s disappearance, he would have called the cops.
He wouldn’t have even hesitated. Both my parents were destroyed by her disappearance, and if he’d suspected someone he’d known had something to do with it, he wouldn’t have held back for a second; even more so if he’d thought those same people might have posed a danger to me, too. My dad loved me more than anything.
That didn’t stop the timing from concerning me, though.
I reach to my nightstand and pick up one of the stick dolls, the first one I’d received. “You made this for me?”
He angles his head, observing the item in my hand, then nods.
“I love it. Thank you.”
A hint of a smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. The expression changes his face completely, going from brooding and intense to more playful—younger.
I should run screaming from this place, shouldn’t I?
This man has been watching me, stalking me, coming into my room at night and possibly even touching me, unless my mind made up that part.
That Blake and Levi have kept him hidden should set even more alarm bells off.
But strangely, I’m not afraid of him. I’m curious.
If he wanted to hurt me, he could have, many times over.
He’s a man of few words, that much is clear.
“You’ve been watching me, on the cameras?”
He nods.
“I caught you on my camera, too. Look.” I take my phone from my nightstand and pull up the screenshots I took when I wanted to prove to Blake that I’d been seeing someone and my sense of being followed hadn’t all been in my head.
He hesitates.
“It’s okay,” I encourage. “You can come closer.”
I hold out the cell phone, and he takes a couple of steps. Does he not trust himself around me? Or is it simply that it’s different for him when I’m aware of his presence? Maybe he finds it easier to be around me when I don’t know about it.
How did Blake and Levi think they were going to keep this secret?
Surely, they’d realized I’d have found out about Dov soon enough?
Or is it just that they only needed to keep him a secret until the snow started to properly fall and then I wouldn’t have any way of leaving after I found out? I wouldn’t be able to run.
I wonder what this huge, silent man has done to make his family want to hide him away.
Blake talks about incidents where someone got hurt.
Was that by accident, like with me and Tobias?
Or had it been intentional on Dov’s part?
He doesn’t seem violent. If anything, he seems the opposite—huge, yes, but cautious and almost withdrawn.
He angles his head to look at the screen, and I flick through the collection of photographs I have of him in the grounds of the hotel.
“I caught you in these pictures and I’ve…” I try to think of the right word. “Sensed you, too. You’ve been watching me.”
“You interest me.”
I get the feeling he doesn’t use his voice very often. He’s clearly a man of few words.
“Are you the reason Blake bought this place? So you’d have a place to live?”
He lifts one massive shoulder in a shrug and drops it again.
“Why? What did you do? Why do you need to stay hidden away in here?”
His lips thin, and I feel like I’ve said the wrong thing.
He’s retreating, taking a step back. He doesn’t want to talk about his reason for being here.
Blake and Levi both say they like to be this far from society because it means they’re away from other people.
I’ve loved the solitude, too. I’ve been sheltered here, protected.
Without the stress of bills and social interactions with people I don’t even like, I’ve been able to flourish.
There’s something special about this place.
My art has thrived. Perhaps Dov feels the same way.
“I’m dangerous,” he growls, retreating farther.
What is it they say? If a man tells you who he is, believe him?
“Would you hurt me?”
“Not on purpose.”
I take a breath and choose my next words carefully. “I live here now. Blake invited me. He said I can stay as long as I want. Is that going to be a problem?”
He shakes his head.
“I don’t want to have to leave,” I tell him.
I really don’t. The thought of going back to my hometown knots my stomach.
I wouldn’t be able to do it. People would be asking questions about Tobias.
I’d probably end up in jail for manslaughter.
This is a big country, though. I could go somewhere else, become someone else.
I’m sure if I asked Blake for money, he’d come through for me.
I don’t want to, though. For the first time in forever, I finally have a home.
I don’t want to give up Blake, the feeling I get when I’m in his big arms. He makes me feel safe, which I know is nuts considering he’s been hiding so much from me.
Crazily, I don’t want to give up Levi either.
I’ll miss the sexual tension and verbal and physical sparring we have with each other.
Levi doesn’t have the nurturing quality that Blake has, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that he makes my heart race every time he’s near.
Being around them both makes me feel alive. They make me feel chosen, special.
“I don’t want you to leave either,” he replies.
He moves closer again, and I look up at him. He must be six-four, even six-five, and he has muscle on muscle. His black t-shirt clings to his frame, and his biceps are practically busting out of the sleeves.
His eye contact is intense. I’m pinpointed in it, like a spotlight.
“I thought you might be a ghost,” I admit.
He takes my hand, but I don’t pull away. His grip is strong and firm, his fingers warm. I suck in a breath, frozen, still sitting in bed. His touch is gentle, though, despite his size.
“No ghost,” he says.
I have no idea what he’s going to do, but I don’t try to stop him. Something about this strange man fascinates me. That he’s Blake’s son, and reminds me so much of him, is definitely part of the attraction. It’s like I’m getting access to Blake as a younger man, the version who hasn’t lied to me.
He places my palm flat over the top of his t-shirt, right above his heart, and holds it there. The steady thud of his heart beats beneath my fingers. How can his heart be so steady, when mine feels like it’s going to pound straight out of my ribcage?
“Alive,” I confirm.