never seen a beautiful girl before.
I pulled the fridge open and grabbed a shiny green apple from it before placing it on the table for her to have once she’d finished inhaling my breakfast. When I’d seen that the winter storms were coming last week, I’d headed down the mountain to the nearest town and made sure my cupboards were well stocked with plenty of food to get me through at least another month up here, though at the rate she was eating, I might have to go again sooner than I’d thought. Not that I had any complaints about that. That girl needed to eat and I planned on letting her gorge herself to her heart’s content. Assuming she wanted to stay here.
I started washing up but fell still as Winter released a moan of satisfaction which had a shiver running down my spine. I glanced her way and found her chewing into the apple with more moans of pleasure as the juice slid down her chin.
I bit my tongue and dragged my gaze away, ignoring my body’s reactions to those noises as much as I could and focusing on cleaning up.
By the time I turned back to look at her, she was devouring the core, pips and all and I didn’t have the heart to tell her to leave that bit, because the look in her eyes said she was in heaven.
“You can help yourself to food anytime you want it, baby doll,” I murmured, my heart twisting at the idea of her being hungry for so long. She seriously needed to gain back some weight and I wanted her to feel welcome to eat whenever she was hungry.
Her eyes widened like she didn’t know how seriously to take that offer and I smiled at her as I waved at the fridge vaguely.
It took her three whole seconds before her restraint snapped and she leapt to her feet, hurrying towards the fridge and grabbing another apple from its depths.
“I’m going to go out and check the perimeter,” I said slowly as she leaned back against the fridge door and started eating with her eyes closed in pleasure. “You can just make yourself at home while I’m out. Tyson will stay to keep you company and I won’t be far away. If anything happens, I’ll hear him barking and come running. Okay?”
She just gave me the wide eyes and I offered her a smile which was probably hidden within the depths of my beard before making a move to go and grab some clothes from the closet. But before I could pass her, she reached out and caught my hand, laying her half eaten apple down on the work surface as I fell still.
Her gaze slid to the bloody marks she’d left on my chest and a deep frown furrowed her brow as she reached out to touch my stomach. I watched her as she painted a word on my flesh, trying to ignore the way my skin heated at her touch as she spelled out the word sorry.
“Not your fault, baby doll,” I assured her. “I’m the one who should be sorry for trying to touch you while you slept. I have enough knowledge of what you’ve been through to understand that I shouldn’t have done that.”
She stared up at me in surprise, like me apologising was some alien concept to her and I tried to pull away but her fingers tightened around mine as she painted more words on my flesh. I had to concentrate to grasp what she was saying but as she touched me, every fibre of my being seemed to be focused on that point of contact and it was probably easier than it should have been to decipher her words.
Don’t leave me here alone.
“You want to come with me?”
She looked up at me and nodded, those green eyes guarded as she bit into her lip, like she expected me to start laying out commands and tell her she had to stay here. But I was willing to bet she’d had way too many of those in her life and I wanted her to make her own choices.
“Alright…” I looked her over slowly, standing there in my shirt and socks with her pale legs bare. “But it’s cold out there. I can lend you clothes…”
She nodded eagerly and I snorted a laugh as I led her over to my closet. After a few moments of staring at the options, it was pretty clear that