Page 17 of Fate Awakened

I scream, jumping a good foot in the air and whipping my head toward that slow deep voice. Standing a few meters behind me on the trail is the most ruggedly handsome half-naked mountain of a man. He has hair that’s pure white and cut in a military-style fade, clean on the sides with longer strands on top. He’s older than me, maybe mid-thirties, not nearly old enough for hair that white. His eyes are so pale blue that they appear almost colorless and pierce through the confident grin on his chiseled, sun-tanned face, which has a salt and pepper dusting of stubble. Speaking of chiseled, his broad, muscular shoulders and defined chest drop-down to perfectly sculpted abs that are on full display.

As I silently count them, he interrupts me with his voice again.

“My eyes are up here, City,” his voice is playful with just a hint of a southern accent that feels like drinking expensive whiskey. He folds his arms and leans into a solid tree as if he has nothing to do but wait.

“I’m sorry!” I spit out apologetically, exasperated to have run into a person in the middle of nowhere, a person who has got to be freezing in just a pair of running shorts.

“Aren’t you cold?” I blurt before adding, “It’s freezing out here, and you don’t even have a shirt on.”

“That depends. You offering to keep me warm?” He smiles as he asks, and I’m sure I turn tomato red at his insinuation. His eyes dance with humor as he drags them up my body.

My jaw drops, and I try to speak, only to come up empty and sputtering. I throw my hands over my face and let out a sigh trying to regain my composure.

“Can you please tell me where I am?” I ask after a few moments, dropping my hands and throwing them into my hoodie pocket to keep them warm while also keeping from playing with them, a habit I’ve adopted when I’m nervous.

“On private property,” he responds, not losing the humor on his face.

“Shit. I had no idea.” I spin around, looking aimlessly for a sign or marking indicating I’ve crossed onto someone's property. Not that I cared. Property meant someone lived out here, and maybe they had a phone.

A phone!

“Can I use your phone?” I ask, stepping toward him and reaching my hand out expectantly.

“Can’t say that I have one on me at the moment,” he responds, looking down at himself, which causes me to skim my eyes over his body again.

Damn it!

“Um, well, could we maybe go to your place to get it? It’s kind of important,” I say, not wanting to spill my life story to a total stranger but hoping he’ll take me seriously. I smile at him in an effort to come off as less of a crazy person.

“Inviting yourself back to my place? Now times must’ve changed because I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone as forward as you. So tell me, do you often proposition strangers in the woods?” His voice, laced with humor, and the look on his face tells me he likes playing this game.

“I didn’t… I wasn’t….” I growl in frustration. Talking to this man is infuriating, and I’ve lost my patience. “I’m sure this is hard for someone like you to comprehend, but I wasn’t hitting on you. I’m lost. I need help, and if you must know, I have a boyfriend.”

He stares at me. Not speaking. Not reacting. Not changing his half-cocked grin or losing an ounce of the mirth in his eyes. After a few moments, I begin to wonder if he heard me at all.

“I just..” his head snaps left as I begin, his eyes focusing on something I neither hear nor see. I turn to see what’s caught his attention but come up empty. It’s just more trees, more snow, and more wilderness.

Maybe this guy’s crazy?

“Follow me. Stay close.” He adds no additional information, and for a minute, I start to wonder if this is a good idea, following the half-naked man I just ran into in the woods, but the way his demeanor changed so rapidly has me just as nervous as to what caused the sudden shift.

Liv would have a field day with this. “Next on Unsolved Mysteries”

He takes off, heading back toward where I just had come but veering more to the right. He doesn’t look back to see if I follow or slow down so I can catch up. I have to jog to keep up with his long strides, occasionally tripping over a branch or stone I didn’t see in time. If he finds any of my stumbling about amusing, it doesn’t show. He continues, his face giving nothing away and his eyes on constant alert.

While I follow him, my eyes wander across the thick muscles of his shoulders and back. A back that I now notice is covered in hundreds of white scars carved in erratic patterns that appear long since healed. Some are smaller than a cat scratch, while others are longer than my arm and half as thick. Catching up to his side, I lean in to get a better look at a particularly interesting-looking shape just above his shoulder blade when my toe catches on an outstretched branch, and I lurch forward, my hands reaching to brace my fall.

Before I hit the ground, a large arm wraps around my waist, suspending me in mid-air and pulling me back against him. The scream is only half out as I open my eyes, realizing he kept me from falling. We stand there a moment, me catching my breath, neither of us saying a word. I feel his broad chest against my back, and surprisingly it makes me think of Cain, of all the times I curled into his expansive chest and found comfort there.

I hate that he wasn’t who I thought he was.

“Thank you,” I say, though it comes out as a whisper, and I turn my head to look at him. When my eyes catch his face, he freezes, taking a deep breath before his eyes grow wide. His eyebrows drop in confusion, scanning my face as if some secret code hides on it. I step out of his grasp, concerned at the almost predatory way he looks at me.

“I... I’m sorry… I didn’t,” I stutter through an apology, though I’m not sure why I’m apologizing for falling. He didn’t have to catch me. He grabs my wrist, preventing me from backing any farther away.

“How did you get here?” he asks. His voice, no longer smooth whiskey, sounds guttural and forced.

My eyes widen, and my heart begins pounding out of my chest as panic sets in. My fight or flight reflex is pointing directly to flight as I consider trying to rip my arm from his hold.

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