“They were going to hurt me,” she told him.
He started walking toward her as he assured, “They won’t hurt you.”
She continued to retreat but he didn’t stop this time.
Her hand, with its palm still facing him, had started trembling.
“They were going to hurt me,” she repeated.
“They won’t hurt you,” he also repeated, but his voice was less gentle. In fact, it was not gentle at all. It was reassuringly firm.
His legs were longer (far longer) and he got close quickly.
She felt the logs of the cabin wall against her shoulders and stopped because she had nowhere else to go.
Then she felt his hard chest hit her hand and her hand slid up as he got even closer until he stopped, not an inch away.
She tilted her head far back and looked up at him. She felt her lips tremble and it mortified her.
She tried to stop their movement and couldn’t so through them she whispered, “Did you rescue me?”
His hands came up and she tensed but he placed them on the logs on either side of her head. He leaned down so they were face-to-face, so close, she could feel his breath on her skin.
“Sonia, no one will ever hurt you. Not when you’re with me.”
She felt a different kind of tremble slide through her body.
Because his voice wasn’t firm when he said that.
His deep, rich voice was rock-solid. Like those words weren’t just words, they were a sacred vow.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” she whispered and her tense body grew tight as his head got closer then veered to the side.
Then he did something bizarre.
And, she had to admit, it was strikingly beautiful in its tenderness.
With his temple, he nuzzled her own then down her cheek, to her jaw, up again and into her hair.
He stopped nuzzling her with his temple but, lips to her ear, he said gently, “Get showered and dressed, baby doll. I’ll finish with the wood. We’ll have breakfast. Then I’ll explain everything.”
Sonia stood, shoulder blades against the logs of her family’s long thought lost but always beloved cabin, her used-to-be most favorite place in the world, with the heat of her dream man’s body hitting her own, her fingers curled on the solid, very real, muscle of his shoulder, his stubbled cheek against hers, his lips at her ear, his glorious voice calling her his “baby doll” and she could do nothing but nod.
* * * * *
Sonia’s senses returned somewhat to normal when Callum stepped away from her but took her hand and led her to a plethora of shopping bags that were lined against the opposite wall.
He did a sweep and nabbed the handles all in one huge fist even though there were ten of them, some of them large. This proved her theory correct that he had every centimeter of his body under control and was stronger than an ox because she knew no man or woman (even expert shoppers) who could do that the way he did, effortlessly.
He carried the bags to the bathroom while never letting go of her hand.
He stopped her inside and dropped the bags by the wall.
Sonia stared at the bags idiotically, noting they nearly took up the remainder of space that Sonia and Callum weren’t occupying.
“Everything you need will be in these bags,” he announced, regaining her attention and she watched him c**k his head to the bathroom counter, “or those.”
She looked to the counter to see three more bags there but those were smaller.