Chapter 9

The next time he woke it was to duck a flying fist. “Whoa!” Thanking the reflexes of being one of three brothers and the smallest one at that, he saved his face from the punch that was coming. “Cam, wake up.”

“Get off me! Get off me!” she screamed.

He sat up and dragged her into a sitting position. “Cam!”

Her dark blue eyes blinked open and the shroud of dreams pulled back slowly. “What? Where?” she looked around the room and then closed in on herself, putting her hands over her face.

“Cam?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She pushed her hair out of her eyes and quickly twisted the tail into a knot at the top of her head, snapping the rubber band around the whole mess. Instead of looking ridiculous it just heightened her beauty and the exposed the fragile blue of her eyes.

He just shook his head. She was a constant contradiction in terms. She tried so hard to keep her game face on but when he actually got a look into her eyes he saw nothing but fear. “Tell me something…” he trailed off until her eyes met his. Some of the fear was fading, but she still wasn’t quite back to the feisty girl he saw a few hours ago. “What did you do before you started running?”

“Before Lucas started grooming me into the perfect Captain’s wife?”

“Yes, before Lucas.”

“I was a nobody, Jon. I worked in a dead end job that had no future. Why on earth do you think Lucas looked so appealing?”

“You don’t have a nobody personality, Cam.” He wanted to pull her out of her thoughts about Lucas, remind her of what she was before him. He had a feeling that was the only way to get through to her. She had to find some hope or they were both in serious trouble.

“I was an office manager for a small Mom and Pop distributor. It was so boring I thought I was going to go out of my mind, but I had school loans to pay and a car payment…and well, you do what you have to.”

“What did you go to school for?”

She slid from the bed and walked to the window. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters.”

She turned back to him, the stark grey of the sky behind her seemed to treat her with an ethereal glow. “I thought I was going to be the next great artist. What I found out was that I was just an average student with a bit of talent.”

“Or you were afraid to try and be more,” he said hoping to see a spark of something.

A slim, light eyebrow lifted. “Is this your version of a pep talk?”

“Is it working?”

Another real smile twitched her lips. “You’re a sneaky guy, Jon.”

“I have been accused of far worse,” he laughed with her.

The lights fluttered, then went out. The only light now was from the window, casting the room in a dim stone color. Her eyes went from amused to bone deep scared in a flash. “It’s probably just the weather,” Jon said calmly. “I’m going to go look.”

Her fingers twisted together as she stepped toward him. “Don’t go,” she said on a near whisper.

“It’s okay, I’m just going to take a look downstairs.”

“But-“

“I found a broken axe when I was bringing in some firewood, so I’ve got that as a weapon.”

Her eyes widened, “An axe?”

He grinned, “Just the handle. Wouldn’t want to tax the poor Rock Star with anything too heavy,” he winked and left. He heard her frustrated whisper as she called his name, but he ignored her. He padded silently down the stairs and toed on his work boots, reached behind the door and hefted the axe. He didn’t add in that the blade might have been missing, but it had a damn good weight to it.

He went around to the back door and looked out. No lights penetrated the never ending grey of the lake. The houses along the other side were just as dark as his. He scanned the property along the water and the natural incline to his rental. The good part of deep and blinding snow was that footprints were easily seen. The bad thing…they were easily covered up as well. He looked out into the quickly darkening sky and didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a cop, and he sure as hell wasn’t a hero, but that woman upstairs certainly made him want to be one and that was a miracle.

He’d been slowly sinking into that dark place he hated so much. It was easy to keep it at bay when he was busy, but it was taking more and more projects to remain sane lately. In fact, Richie had even cornered him and told him to get back to basics. It had worked for him, maybe the same would hold true for the neurotic mess he was turning into.

The last straw had been snapping at Tico at a fundraiser. Tico was the least likely to ever piss him off. Hell, he didn’t talk enough to even be able to do it. And the heat flaring followed directly by hurt had been the final push. He needed to get away and find out what the fuck was wrong with him. Where the happiness had gone and how the hell he’d finally gotten to the point where he didn’t give a shit about anything.

One scared woman with more problems than he could ever imagine had finally managed to get his brain moving. She’d even given his heart a kick start that had been sorely lacking for too many years to count.

A low thud had him heading around to the porch, the axe handle high on his shoulder like a bat. He shut the door quietly behind him and crouched low along the roughcut frame and up the stairs. The garbage can lay on its side. The wind must have taken it out through the storm. He righted it and made his way back around the cabin and inside.

The rooms were quiet now that the low hum of appliances and baseboard heat were gone. He collected two bottles of water from the fridge and a box of cookies before climbing the stairs again.

She’d stoked the fire while he was gone. A soft glow left her face in shadow, turning the wisps of hair into fire around her. She was huddled into the center of the bed, her arms around her knees.

She jumped off the bed when he came in and rushed him, holding herself back in the last second. Knowing he needed her as much as she needed him, he let the axe and goodies fall to the floor as he gathered her in.

Her arms looped around his shoulders as she hung onto him. One hand slid up her back and he buried his fingers into her hair. “It’s okay, just the electricity going out around this area. There are no houses out there with power that I can see.”

She simply nodded and stepped closer. He felt the tremor of fear and it sliced him in two. He felt the soft puff of her breath on his neck and the endless length of a woman’s softness hidden in his workout clothes. She felt so right in his arms. His head told him to step back, but his stupid melting heart would have none of it.

His chin nuzzled along her shoulder as he slowly found the collar of her t-shirt and the scent of her blending with his soap and his shampoo left him achy with want. He heard her quick intake of breath as the rasp of his beard met flesh. Felt the increased heartbeat a second before she drew back.

The liquid blue of her eyes shone in the near dark as her lips parted and the flash of pink tongue had him swallowing back a groan. Temptation was a rare thing for him lately, but this woman pushed buttons and tugged at him in a way he thought was lost. Her eyes drifted from his mouth back to his eyes and the pain was sweet and harsh as her hands slid down from his shoulders to the curve of his chest just before she stepped back.

When she turned away he pressed his hand over the place she’d been and down to the dip in his belly. He willed the swollen length of his cock to ease. She needed his help and protection, not his overactive libido. What kind of a sleaze was he anyway? He sighed as mental flagellation was evidently all he needed to lose a hard on.

He crouched and gathered the cookies and water, setting the axe against the nightstand on his side…well, what was becoming his side of the bed. He handed her a bottle and crunched on a few cookies to keep his fucking mouth busy.

Darkness settled in on the room as neither of them could think of anything to say. Awareness seemed to be another person in the room for all the power it had. He stood by the window and watched the blustering wind as Cam prowled the room.

It was going to be a long night.