Page 26 of Dare To Live

I bang my head gently against the door. “Well, you might as well go and get unready. We’re not going anywhere.”

“For god’s sake, Eli. Make your mind up!”

I spin to face her. “Me? I’m not the one who fucking turned up here knowing there was going to be a snowstorm. You fucking knew there would be no way I can take you back to town.” I narrow my eyes. “What the fuck do you really want?”

Chapter 15

Arabella

His outburst catches me on a raw nerve, and I stiffen. “Now wait a damn minute. I didn’t know there was going to be a storm! Elena said nothing, nor did your friend when he dropped me off.”

Eli’s lips twist. “Of course, they didn’t.”

“You think I’m lying?”

“Who in their right fucking mind would come out here without checking the weather report first?”

Hands on my hips, I glare at him. “An idiot who got talked into looking after a sick asshole. I don’t want anything from you. Why the hell would I want to be snowed in and stuck here?”

“I never asked for your help.” His voice is flat and emotionless.

“I’m aware. As you keep reminding me over and over—you’d rather talk to the people in your head than the real people who care about you.”

“We both know you don’t—”

I snatch the closest cushion off one of the chairs and hurl it at his head. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be here, you jerk. I swear this place is making you even more crazy than you already were.”

He scowls as the cushion hits its mark and tumbles onto the floor at his feet. “Shut up—”

“Because you’re not a sad and pathetic hermit living in a cabin in the woods, right?” I toss his words back at him. “God knows what the locals think. Crazy Mr. Travers, the artist who looks like some kind of freaking wild-eyed lumberjack who wanders around talking to himself.”

Eli stalks towards me, his expression dark and menacing. “You know nothing about me.”

I stand my ground, raising my chin in challenge. “I knew you once.”

He laughs, the bitter sound bouncing off the cabin walls. “A lot has changed in ten fucking years. I’m not the boy you used to know.”

“No, you’re not.” I agree. “You’re an even bigger asshole than before. But I’m not the same either, Eli. I’m not the scared little girl you used to intimidate.”

His gaze rakes over me from head to foot. “No, you look more like the spoiled little princess I imagined you to be now.”

I keep my features impassive, ignoring the nickname I hate. “What if I am?”

“How did that twenty-year plan work out for you, hmmm?”

“Right on track, thank you.”

He tilts his head, studying my face. “So, you have the perfect little life?”

There’s no way he knows that I hate my job and boss. I haven’t told my mother, and the only people I’ve confided in are Ivan and Miles.

I smile tightly. “That’s right. I do. I have the perfect job, an apartment of my own, a busy social life … what do you have?” I take a slow look around. “Other than snow and loneliness?”

We glare at each other, neither of us moving or blinking. The tension between us is electric. Eli is looming right in front of me like a disgruntled caveman. Does he seriously believe I made the storm happen? If my mom hadn’t sent me to check on him, I wouldn’t be here now.

No, he would have been alone and sick in a frozen cabin.

I push the annoying little voice in my head aside.

---