Pulled In E-Book

Rowena Dawn

• Herausgeber: Rowena Dawn
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Nick wanted only to be left in peace so that he could forget of the ugliness of the outside world. Yet, his world is invaded and he finds himself in the position of the white knight. 

She wanted shelter but she can't trust another man.

Two strong people, caught in a tough situation - will they find a common ground?

Leseprobe

PULLED IN

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Rowena Dawn

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Scarlet Leaf

2018

© 2018 by Rowena Dawn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

All characters in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Scarlet Leaf Publishing House has allowed this work to remain exactly as the author intended.

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PUBLISHED BY SCARLET LEAF

Toronto, Canada

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Pulled In (The Perfect Halves, #3)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

EPILOGUE

EXCERPT BECKA’S AWAKENING

EXCERPT MATT’S DILEMMA

AUTHOR’S BIO

To Andreea and her soul mate

CHAPTER ONE

A door slammed hard in the distance, and Darcy practically jumped out of her skin. She halted her furious pacing and sharpened her ears, listening intently.

Emmett Driscoll was in one of his moods. He barked orders left and right, but so fast that Darcy didn’t understand what he was saying. The woman tiptoed to the door and listened intently.

Quick steps sounded on the wooden floors toward the front exit of the mansion. Darcy sighed with relief. She leaned her shoulders on the door and crossed her arms over her chest.

Emmett didn’t want to come to her that evening. He probably went out into town, either for a deal or to find some relief for his tension.

Darcy didn’t care a fig about his intentions. For her, it was important that he left.

The woman went back to the window and looked out. Her eyes swept the border of the forest again. Darcy had already decided to escape, but she had been waiting for the right moment to run away and slip from under Driscoll’s thumb.

Initially, Darcy had come as a guest in Emmett Driscoll’s house, but the woman had been held a prisoner in that bedroom since she came back from her shopping trip the day before. Darcy had returned earlier than everyone expected her and unwillingly witnessed something she shouldn’t have.

The expensively furnished room felt like a cage. The walls suffocated Darcy, and the golden decorations danced before her eyes.

The woman rubbed her red-rimmed eyes with the back of her fingers and winced. Her eyes stung, and a pang of pain shot through her puffy eyelids. Tears had dulled the cobalt of her irises, but the dark blue still set off the paleness of her skin.

“Jim, Gabe, and Jon, you and your teams will come with me. Frank and Matthew will hold the fort with their men,” Emmett Driscoll’s voice shouted distinctly from the front of the house.

Darcy’s heart beat faster in anticipation. If Emmett Driscoll’s left, she could fly the coop right then.

The sun was already setting in the west, and Darcy didn’t know the mountain. However, she knew that the night would conceal her movements.

“What about the woman, boss?” a grave tone of voice asked.

Darcy held her breath. She feared Emmett’s answer.

‘What if he puts a guard under the balcony and one before the bedroom door?’ she wondered frantically.

“She won’t pose a problem, Gabe. I took care of that,” Emmett Driscoll replied to his employee.

Sarcasm filled the man’s voice, and Darcy fairly growled with impotent rage. Her belly revolted with repulsion.

Darcy remembered how Emmett had taken care of her with his fists. He had also kicked her a few times for good measure.

Worse, the man had laid his hands on her body. In spite of her constant refusals and begging, Driscoll had raped her a couple of times.

Darcy felt like throwing up again when she remembered everything. But then, her stomach was empty. She hadn’t been able to swallow any food since the beginning of the previous evening. Darcy would just gulp some water now and then when her lips got dry and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. The mere sight of food made her sick.

Darcy shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She had more pressing things to do and couldn’t wallow in self-pity.

The sound of wheels running over the pebbles in the yard reached her ears. Darcy rubbed her arms with anxiety. Her eyes searched the patch of woods visible through the balcony doors again. The woman felt her heart in her boots, but she knew what she had to do.

Darcy wiped off her forehead with the back of her hand. The air inside the bedroom was moist and hot, although the ceiling fan was busy. The blades continuously stirred the air coming through the French doors thrown wide open toward the garden and the forest.

The hypnotic movement of the pallets compelled Darcy’s eyelids to drop. Yet, she couldn’t fall asleep. She needed to leave right then.

Darcy had made the math. Her only way to freedom was to cross the forest and climb up the mountain slope. She had caught a glimpse of the ridge while driving up toward Emmett’s ranch. The sight had intimidated her then. Now, she just pushed that thought aside.

Darcy had noticed that Emmett left only a few guards behind when he left the house. About fourteen people milled around, and most of them kept their eyes on the stables.

Emmett feared that someone would snatch his award-winning horses. He didn’t believe that someone would dare to breach into his house. So Darcy planned to sneak out the opposite way.  

Absently, Darcy wiped her clammy palms off the towel discarded on the back of the chair set before the vanity table.

She had taken quite a few showers within the last twenty-four hours to get rid of Emmett’s smell. It still clung to her skin and invaded her nostrils, even though Emmett hadn’t come to her room since the day before.

When she replaced the towel, Darcy avoided looking at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was ashen, and lines had found their way on her forehead. Bruises marred her once beautiful face and smooth arms – a constant reminder of her credulity.

Darcy strode quickly to the bed where she had prepared a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt earlier. She pulled them on with hurried gestures.

The woman chose to wear sneakers for her hike, and she tied their laces tight. Darcy had never climbed up a mountain, but she didn’t think that she could make it in regular shoes.

Darcy looked around, her mind searching for what else she should take with her.

‘You should have thought of that earlier, girl,’ the woman admonished herself with irritation.

Darcy felt like slapping herself. She wasted precious time on small things.

In the spur of the moment, Darcy fished her ID and a few banknotes from her purse. She left the credit card behind. Films showed that people’s moves could be traced if they used credit cards.

After she shoved everything into her pockets, Darcy started toward the balcony doors with purposeful steps. The woman looked over the edge of the suspended terrace.

Darcy had to climb down the trellis, which ran on the side of the balcony, but she could do it. She had climbed a few trees in her adolescence.

Darcy clambered over the brink of the balcony. Men’s laughter from the other side of the house reached her ears.

CHAPTER TWO

Most of her trek, Darcy avoided the slope of the mountain covered with thick bushes and grass. Anyone could have spotted her there. She chose to lose her trail through the patches of dense trees.

Darcy slid and went down hard. However, this time, she braced herself on knees and hands.  The fall took the wind out of her, and she groaned. 

That wasn’t her first fall. Luckily, it wasn't the worst either. The leaves littering the forest floor had protected her. The woman even patted them with affection, although some doubts concerning her sanity lurked in the corner of her mind. 

Darcy knew that her skin must have been blue and black by now, on top of the bruises which already covered her body before she left Emmett's grounds. 

'It doesn't really matter,' Darcy mumbled to herself when she caught her breath. 'I am free, and that's more important.'

Earlier, am owl had hooted and startled her. As a result, Darcy had stepped onto a patch of musty soil and fallen down with a thump. She skidded a few yards down the slope. 

That had scared her out of her wits. The woman had barely broken her fall by pure chance. At the last moment, her fingers had blindly grabbed the trunk of a young tree. God only knew how far the foot of the hill was. Darcy could live just fine without finding out.

Darcy shook her head to clear it. Exhaustion had caught up with her, and the woman pushed herself to put a foot in front of the other.

Darcy hadn't slept much the night before. She had also paced across her bedroom most of the day. That had sucked up some of her energy.

Darcy had sneaked out of Emmett's ranch through the back gardens so that the guards wouldn’t see her. She had hiked through the forest and up the mountain, walking almost all the night because of sheer will.

The woman had tarried only a few minutes here and there to rest and take her bearings. She didn’t doubt that she had even walked in circles a few times. 

Darcy had moved fast at the beginning of her journey, afraid that Emmett Driscoll's guards would discover her absence and come after her.

Her vivid imagination had created all sorts of scenarios. The woman had even crossed a stream a few times, in case Emmett's goons had brought dogs with them to catch her scent. After a few crossings, she had decided to walk through the stream up on the mountain. She had reasoned that the dogs would lose her track in the water for good.

When she arrived at Driscoll’s ranch, the man had shown her around, pointing to most of the buildings close to the ranch house. Darcy had noticed Emmett Driscoll’s pen full of hunting dogs, situated on one side of the ranch yard.

Darcy had also caught snippets of conversations here and there. She understood that the dogs were used for hunting. It wasn’t apparent what kind of hunt, though. However, she didn’t put it beyond Emmett to chase after her with the dogs.

After the first few hours of freedom, Darcy had slowed down. Her feet hurt, and she became more concerned about the wildlife on the mountain. The woman had read about bears and bobcats and didn’t intend to be their dinner.

A couple of times, Darcy had seen something like red eyes shining in the dark through the leaves. That had scared the wits out of her. She had run like chased by the hounds of hell.

'I will have to find a place to stop and rest,' Darcy thought. 'It will be dawn soon. I won't be able to walk in the daylight anyway. Anybody would spot me easily.'

Darcy feared that even if Emmett's people wouldn't see her, someone else might, and they would tell on her. 

The woman pushed herself off the ground with determination and grimaced when a sharp pain crossed her right knee. 

'Damn, not an easy thing to wander through the forest at night,' Darcy reflected with acrimony, rubbing her knee. 'Especially after it rained,' Darcy mumbled under her breath.

A sharp pain made her swore. The young woman didn’t refrain herself. She uttered all the bad words she had learned during her last stint at a ranch near Missoula. No one lurked near her in the forest to hear what she said after all.

It had rained furiously for about a couple of hours earlier, and besides soaking Darcy to the skin, water had also saturated the soil.

'It’s poured too much, and the ground can't absorb the water,' Darcy thought. At the same time, she continued dragging her feet through the slime on the ground.

The woman shivered now and then when a gust of wind swirled in the air. But then, Darcy didn't really feel the nippy bite of the night air. The effort had heated her, and she had been sweating profusely. 

Suddenly, the forest made way to shrubs and grass. A pale moon shone over Darcy's head, and the woman had a better view of her surroundings.

Her eyes swept the slant terrain, and she noticed the menacing sharp rocks in the distance. Darcy resolved to walk into that direction and find a cave or something where she could lay down over the day. She didn’t have a precise idea in her head.

The woman headed up, following an oblique trajectory. Darcy didn’t dare to brave the steep incline directly. Her strenuous walk had depleted her stamina, and the side of the mountain tilted at about forty-five degrees. 

Darcy stumbled over an overgrown root, and once more, she found herself kissing the ground with a resonant 'woof.' When she caught her breath, the young woman swore viciously again.

Darcy thought of lingering on the ground for a while but changed her mind. She stood up, using the trunk of a tree for support. Once standing, she breathed deeply and allowed herself a moment of rest, leaning onto the tree with a sigh of relief.

Then, she glanced down at her dirty pants and sneakers in dismay. A thick layer of grime covered almost every inch of her body. Darcy grimaced with disgust, but then she thought better. 

'Better covered in mud than having Emmett over me,' she reflected with disgust. 'Anything is better than that... All right, maybe not everything. It’s not better if a bear ate me, but other than that...'

Darcy shrugged and decided to continue her journey. She pushed ahead, but her legs shook already. The woman knew that she needed to stop soon. 

CHAPTER THREE

Darcy woke up with a startle. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. The woman scrambled a bit and sat up with a groan.

Her muscles protested loudly. The chamber created by the enclosure of rocks was narrow, and Darcy had been forced to sleep in an awkward position, with her knees gathered to her chest.  

Darcy tried to accustom her eyes to the dark, and only then she became aware that something had interrupted her sleep.

The woman decided to go and check what it was. She began crawling toward the mouth of the cave. 

Darcy already knew that side of the cave as well as the back of her hand. She had traversed it several times by then.

The passage, which the water had dug in the rocks along the time, didn't offer her much room to move. Besides, it narrowed even more in some places. Darcy scratched her elbows, arms, and knees, but she persevered. 

When she stumbled onto the opening of the passage at dawn, Darcy had crawled for over fifty paces before the makeshift cave widened enough so that she could lie down in a fetus position. Darcy had fallen asleep like a log.

Darcy wriggled through the passage and reached the exterior wall of the cave only after a few minutes this time. She had acquired enough practice. Her muscles screamed, but she clenched her teeth and endured. 

At the exit, a glance at the sky told her that she had slept almost all morning and part of the afternoon.

Various sounds had interrupted her slumber several times. Darcy had felt compelled to check each one of them, afraid that Emmett had found her.  

Now that she reached the mouth of the cave, the noise that had disturbed Darcy’s sleep became distinctive. Hooves eating the ground sounded closer to her location. Their thunder pounded louder in her ears.

Darcy glued herself to the rocky floor. The opening wasn't wide enough, and Darcy’s line of vision was abysmal, but at least, she could hear. 

"Where the heck is that cursed woman?" a rusty voice inquired with irritation. 

Darcy's heart stopped for a moment when she recognized the timbre of the voice. She couldn't put a name on it, but it was clear that Emmett's men had found her. 

"You should know," another man's voice answered with obvious irony. "You were supposed to take care of the woman if I remember correctly." 

A string of crude curses followed, and Darcy cringed, but she kept quiet. That man's irritation didn't hold in store anything good for her. She prayed that he didn’t discover her position. 

"Where the hell did she go?" the first voice asked with bewilderment. "We've looked almost everywhere."

"Are you asking me, Frank?" the second man replied. "Maybe she got eaten by a bobcat or a bear," the man advanced the idea in a hopeful tone of voice. 

"We'd have seen a trace or something," Frank countered in a frustrated tone of voice. 

"With that rain last night, traces might have disappeared," a third voice intervened.

Darcy noticed with amazement that the voice belonged to a very young man. She didn’t think the boy was even twenty.

"Shut your mouth, kiddo," Frank barked. "We’d have seen the traces of her steps in the mud," he remarked.

"Not really," another man said, and now, Darcy recognized Gabe's voice.

She wouldn’t forget Gabe. The man had forbidden Darcy to go out in the garden the previous day. Gabe’s eyes betrayed the man’s brutishness.

He even had the mug of a thug, and his slanted black eyes had looked at her as if she had been a bug, he wanted to squash under his foot. The man’s blatant disregard for another human being scared the wits out of her. 

"It depends on how much it rained after she had passed along the trail," Gabe drawled. "And if she got to this rocky area, there's no way we can find out where she went from here. We shouldn’t have sent the dogs back to the ranch, even if they’d lost her trail at the stream," he observed in a hard tone of voice now. His words betrayed a mute reproach for his mate.

Frank swore again, apparently in agreement with Gabe's last assessment. Frank was terrified of what Emmett would do if they didn't find Darcy. His voice showed that.

However, the woman didn't intend to make their job easier, so she didn't move a muscle, afraid that she would give her position away. 

The men had chosen their master, and she didn’t care about what happened to them. In her opinion, they deserved everything that came their way.

"It's already after four," the younger man said. "I think we should grab something to eat and continue our search later. I haven't swallowed anything since morning," the boy complained. “I don’t see why we have to starve,” he pointed out.

"We don't have time for eating, boy," Frank’s voice whipped the young man. 

"Why not?" Gabe intervened. "It's not like we'd waste too much time if we stopped and had a bite. I suppose you've brought something with you, Dean?” he inquired.

Darcy’s heart froze. She couldn’t bear the thought that they would eat right there, nearby to her hide-out. Darcy was already hungry. Besides, she didn’t know how long she could hold the same position.

"I haven't thought of taking any food with me," the young man admitted. 

Gabe looked around at each of the men and noticed that all of them shook their heads. 

"Good thinking, people," Gabe observed with irony. "We'll have to catch a cottontail. We’ll make a fire and roast it," he concluded. 

"We don't have time for that," Frank snapped. "God knows where the woman has gone by now, and I don't want to lose my head for a light skirt," the man snarled, and then he spat with disgust. 

"No one will take your head if we stop for a bite, Frank" Gabe waved his comrade’s worries aside with nonchalance. "The men won't say a thing about our break to Driscoll, will you?" he turned to the rest of their party and pierced them with a black gaze. "Keep in mind that you'll also get into trouble if he hears that we stopped our hunt to eat," Gabe warned them in a sharp tone of voice. 

Darcy noticed that two of them seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, but then they nodded.

"So then we’re on the same page here," Gabe concluded. "Let's find ourselves a cottontail or two," he signaled them to follow him. "Two or maybe even three would be better. We won't fill our bellies with only one," the man threw the words over his shoulder with ugly laughter. 

Then, he galloped down the slope toward the grasslands, and the men followed him. The clatter of hooves filled the air, and Darcy held her breath, full of hope.

Darcy kept her position at the edge of the cave for a while. She didn't dare to move from there until the men had departed and left the area.

She listened intently until she couldn't hear either their voices or the gallop of the horses anymore. Then, the woman dared to glance out of the opening surrounded by rocks.

Darcy noticed that the sun had already reached the west side of the sky. There wasn't anyone nearby, and she sighed with relief. 

For a moment or two, she had feared that the men just played with her and misled her, letting her believe that she was safe.

Darcy also thanked the heavens that the men hadn't decided to build that fire there and cook their meat. She was already famished and wouldn't have borne the smell of freshly fried roast. Her stomach was growling only at the thought of food.

The woman crawled out of the so-called cave, and once out in the open, she stretched, in spite of all the aches tormenting her body.

She massaged her calves energetically because she needed to restore blood circulation in her limbs, and she felt tickles everywhere. When she recovered somewhat, Darcy decided to go round the group of rocks covering the cave and reach the other side of the hill. She hoped to find some water on her way because her lips had cracked and her throat was parched. 

The woman started up the hill again, clinging to bushes and grass in places where the ascent proved difficult. She began to pant in no time at all, and her t-shirt stuck to her back. A sheen of perspiration glistened on her face and chest.

Blisters already covered her feet in the aftermath of the previous night's hike. Every step was pure torture.

Darcy glanced up at the solitary peaks braving the sky. She knew it wouldn’t be easy. However, the woman tightened her teeth and continued walking.

An eagle shot through the skies, gliding graciously above the butte. It disappeared beyond the rocky tops, and Darcy envied the bird and her smooth journey.

Darcy’s stomach growled, and she tried to move her thoughts away from food. What she needed most was water.  

CHAPTER FOUR

Nick couldn’t see at two feet before his eyes. He looked up and noticed the gray blanket which covered the night sky.

‘Hmm, the moon must be hiding behind those clouds,’ he thought. ‘Besides, it’s this damn cold, humid fog around,’ Nick reflected with dismay.

That night’s atmosphere matched his mood. The man felt restless, and something bothered him, although he didn’t know precisely what.

The humid air had left wet traces on his exposed skin. Even though it was cold, Nick still had to wipe his eyebrow. He rubbed his fingers off his denim pants and groaned. Everything annoyed him that night.

Nick longed to go inside and simmer in his favorite armchair set before the fireplace in the salon. His cottage became cold at that time of the year, even during the day. However, Nick didn’t need to light a fire just yet. But then, the man often enjoyed a cozy atmosphere at the end of a workday. When the summer made way to fall, he would always light a small fire in the fireplace.

However, the man couldn’t go inside just yet. He had something else to do. Nick had sensed an unusual scent nearby. The smell of gardenia mixed with fresh blood, creating a unique combination. Nick had to check and see what it was. He had survived and reached his ripen age of thirty-eight by being cautious, after all.

The smell of flowers didn’t bother Nick, although it didn’t belong there.  However, he worried about the scent of blood. Nick’s instincts screamed, telling him about someone’s presence at the far end of the ranch yard.

Someone hunched very close to the bushes of white flowers, whose name he had never known. Not that Nick would have ever cared about their darn species. The plants just brought some color to the otherwise gray and sparsely green enclosure.

The scent of fresh flowers mingled with something a bit sour, reminding him of the sweat lingering on the body after a hard day of work. The smell wasn’t as pungent as his in similar circumstances, though.

His ears caught a light breath, and Nick thought of a small animal, lying down and keeping quiet, afraid of the hunter who tracked him. That nauseated Nick. A flash of a memorable hunting day crossed his mind. He still loathed that day profoundly. At the time, he had often found himself a mere puppet in other people’s hands, and Nick couldn’t stand the lack of control.

That day, Nick’s uncle had taken him out into the woods for the first time, intending to show to the boy what real killing meant.

‘It’ll make a man out of your pansy ass,’ the overweight thirty-something-old man had said to Nick with a smirk on his face. He enjoyed Nick’s fear and horrified curiosity.  

‘Yeah, you were arealman, uncle. A real killer,’ Nick thought and tasted the bitterness of his bile on the tongue.

His uncle’s face, with clumped dirty locks, hanging around the sides of the man’s face, danced before Nick’s eyes. A big man, with meaty hands, his uncle loved inflicting pain without remorse or discrimination.

The old bag of wind enjoyed killing and not only beasts in the woods. He had tried his knife on a few women’s bodies as well. Thankfully, the police had locked him down for life, although that had come a bit too late. A few women had already lost their lives under the man’s knife.

Nick shook off his thoughts and resolved to come back to more earthy and pressing matters. After all, he still had to find out who was hiding in his bushes in the dark.

Nick never left things to the whims of chance. Life had taught him better than that, and his previous sting in special ops had also seasoned his instincts enough. The man preferred to know his enemy and strike first, so he headed to the bushes with long strides.

“Hey, you,” Nick shouted at the person hiding in the bushes after he stopped at about three feet away, ready for any attack.

Nick’s ears pricked, ready to catch the slightest noise. No answer came back, but the intruder’s breathing rhythm had changed and became shallow and louder.

Fright reverberated in the unconscious sigh that reached Nick’s ears after a few seconds. The intruder chocked it immediately, but it was too late. The smell of sweat became stronger, and Nick’s nostrils flared.

For a fleeting moment, Nick thought of going back to the house. He could forget about the person hiding in the shrubbery. It didn’t look like they would pose a threat to him.

It was more likely someone who had their own issues. Nick didn’t interfere in other people’s troubles. That line of action had worked just fine for him. After all, Nick wasn’t the man to offer comfort, or hope, or what the hell people might have expected from the others.

Nick had resolved to turn around and go back to the house when another stifled sigh reached him. He turned his head back to the bushes with resignation.

Almost unwillingly, stepping onto his heart and cursing himself ten times for being a fool, Nick shook his head. The urge to help that poor being appeared to be stronger than his indifference.

With a sigh of his own, Nick walked toward the bushes with massive steps. He made noise on purpose to warn the person lying down in the undergrowth that he was coming so that they wouldn’t be taken by surprise.

Nick said in a loud tone of voice, “I’m coming to you. Come out of the bushes so that I could see who you are!”

The rustiness of his voice didn’t reassure much the person hunched in the shrubberies, and once more, no answer came from the scrubs. Now, no breathing reached Nick’s ears either, and the man suspected that the person held their breath, most likely because of fear.

“Don’t be afraid,” Nick shouted again. “I’m not going to take a piece out of you, but you do have to come out of there. I need to see who I am dealing with,” he explained patiently in a measured tone of voice.

No one replied to him, and Nick cursed viciously. He decided to get closer to the shrubs. Now, the breath had become shallower, a sign that the person’s fear had turned into terror.

Nick knew he was a big man. Many had resembled him to a bear and looked at him with apprehension when he was in attack mode. However, the last time he had looked at himself in the mirror while trimming his stubble, Nick hadn’t seen anything very threatening in his appearance.

Of course, if he discounted the scar which marred his left cheek – a sign of his previous life when he was able to handle a knife better than anything else.

Nonetheless, Nick didn’t think that anyone would notice the scar in the dark if they didn’t have catlike vision. The light from the porch didn’t reach so far out, and shadows abounded there.

With giant strides, Nick reached the bushes. He distinguished a shadow clinched on the ground.

“What are you doing there?” Nick asked in a softer tone of voice.

In spite of his efforts, his inquiry remained without reply. However, it wasn’t as if Nick hadn’t expected that.

The man sensed that the person was staring at him. With a resigned shake of his head, Nick reached out with the intention to help the shadow stand up.

The tiny human package turned into a wildcat in a second and started fighting him with a warrior-like cry. A small, cold fist punched Nick in the chin. The stretched fingers of the attacker’s other hand aimed at the side of Nick’s face. At least one nail scratched his skin through the stubble, and a distinct hiss sounded in Nick’s ears.

Faced with the savage attack, the man’s patience snapped. Nick snarled, and his fingers encircled the upper limbs of his opponent tightly, pulling the person toward him in the process. The arms he had grabbed felt rounded but frail under his fingers, and Nick assumed that he was holding either a child or a woman. The man forced himself to restrain his anger and strength at once. He had never fought against a child or a woman and didn’t intend to start doing that right then.

Nonetheless, he half-dragged and half-carried the small package toward the porch of the house where a lamp hung from the ceiling. Nick had to make some effort to reach the porch with his little burden. The person wriggled in his arms, and a few times, Nick almost dropped them.

When he got under the light on the porch, Nick discovered that he was holding a young woman, and she didn’t look well at all. The woman’s clothes were torn and dirty, likely because she had trampled through the woods and over a roughened land.

The imprint of a hammy fist marred the right side of the woman’s face, and an angry bruise tainted the corner of her mouth. Her nose had bled, and a trail of clotted blood had smeared her upper lip and chin. The woman had probably tried to wipe the blood off several times, and Nick could see the result of her efforts.

The woman wasn’t even thirty yet, in Nick’s opinion. Fear shone wildly in her cobalt eyes and dilated her glassy pupils. However, in spite of her fright, her furrowed eyebrows betrayed her deep anger.

Nick searched the woman’s face with his dark brown eyes. He understood that she was determined to fight him back by any means necessary and regardless of the outcome.

That almost brought a smile to Nick’s lips. Unless the woman had been an indisputable martial arts expert, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. He freed the woman’s arms with slow gestures and opened the door to the cottage.

“You may get inside,” he said mildly, and with an almost elegant wave of his fingers, he invited her to step into his cottage.

The woman cringed at his words, although his tone hadn’t been menacing, and her lips quivered. In spite of those outward signs of fear, Nick felt that the woman was more than ready to dig her nails into his jugular, and he shook his head, a shadow of a smile appearing briefly on his lips.  

However, at a closer look, the woman looked tired and depleted. Her deep paleness worried him, and now, he shook his head in dismay.

“Don’t worry,” Nick told her, and bitterness found a way in his voice. “I don’t attack defenseless women. At least, not in this life, sweetheart,” he thought to add in a dry voice.

Nick infused a particular bite into his words. He imagined that sarcasm might bring some color to the woman’s face, and he wasn’t wrong. The woman’s frown deepened, and a faint blush spread over her skin. Nick read on her features that she didn’t believe his words, and probably she had reasons to be cautious.

The young woman took a step back to put some distance between them, and she almost fell down the stairs. With another sigh filled with dismay, Nick reached out and grabbed her arm again to stop her sprawling down the stairs. Then, he spoke once more, and now, irritation rang in his voice.

“Don’t be stupid, woman! It’s too late in the night for that. It’s damn too dark right now. The air will turn cold soon. You shouldn’t wander outside on the mountain on your own, don’t you think? I promise you that I’m not going to touch you. I always keep my word. It’s not like you look desirable right now, anyway, you know? I will only try to keep you warm and out of trouble for one night. If it is possible, of course. With your behavior, you do ask for a good spanking,” Nick added in a harsh tone of voice, his patience almost gone out of the window.

That night didn’t turn out the way he had expected. The man had hoped to spend a quiet night in the solitude of his cottage. Now, he was saddled with an unwanted guest.

Tears welled into the woman’s eyes. The man’s right eyebrow climbed up his forehead. Nick wondered if relief caused her crying, but he doubted that. It was more likely that his last words had brought tears to her eyes. Once more, he sighed in dismay.

The woman still stared at him as if she couldn’t trust him. But then, at least, she didn’t step back again and didn’t try to shake off his hand either. She seemed to have chosen a different way of action.

‘Maybe she’s thinking to stare me into submission,’ Nick reflected maliciously.

When Nick waved toward the door once more, the woman accepted his invitation. She entered the cottage without a word. Apparently, she had decided to just wait and see what he was going to do next.

Nick imagined that the best thing he could do was to reassure her that he didn’t have any evil intentions toward her. The man let her go ahead and closed the door behind them. Then, he walked around the woman, careful not to touch her, and stepped in front of his guest to show her the way to the first room of the cottage, which played the role of a living room and a dining-room at the same time.

Darcy looked warily around, and her pulse slowed down. She didn’t know why, but she felt better when her eyes swept around the room full of mismatched pieces of furniture. The eclectic style warmed the place even though that salon seemed far too manly for her taste.

At the other end of the room, Darcy spotted an anemic fire dancing in the fireplace. After she had been in the cold and humidity outside for so long, she perked up. The tongues of the flames touched the grill set before the fire and brought Darcy a measure of comfort and reassurance.

The young woman’s mood improved, but still, Darcy didn’t feel at ease. She kept her guard up and watched the man’s every move from under her lashes.

Darcy k [...]