“I don’t want to make your males angry.”
What if he’s one of my males too? The thought penetrated through the fog of confusion and made things clearer. It explained the feelings I hadn’t been able to give a name to.
“You said you wanted to make sure I was safe,” I added. “I mean, what if someone breaks in while I’m sleeping and robs me or, like, tries to kill me or something?”
“I’d rip them apart,” Lake said with no hesitation. His stern tone and protectiveness reminded me of Maddox.
“Which you can’t do if you’re not here.”
Lake glanced at the window. Different expressions crossed his face; contemplation, worry, then finally, resolve. When he looked back at me, another expression greeted me: barely contained excitement. “I suppose I can stay for the night. But only to watch over you.”
My cuteness works again.It was about the only thing I had going for me. “Awesome. I feel safer already.”
When he smiled, it veered on shy.
The long day finally took its toll on me, and by the time I cleared the table and carried our dishes to the sink, I dragged my feet, too tired to lift them much higher. I yawned as I rinsed out our cups.
“Let me,” Lake said, taking the cup from me. “You can go upstairs.”
An argument was on my tongue, but another yawn came out instead. So, I nodded and shuffled from the kitchen and down the short hallway toward the stairs. I grabbed clean sheets from the linen closet and placed them in the guest bedroom for him before brushing my teeth and stripping down.
As I crawled into bed, a creak came from the hall before Lake appeared in the open doorway. “The dishes are clean,” he said.
“Thank you. You really didn’t have to do that. I could’ve done it in the morning.”
“It was my pleasure.” He tipped his head to me, the tips of his furry ears twitching. “Good night.”
“Night,” I said. “Sweet dreams.”
“The same for you.” Lake went to close the door but hesitated. “I… I enjoyed tonight.”
“Me too.”
Looking adorably shy, he pulled the door closed. His shadow remained in place on the other side for one second, then two, before he continued toward the guest room.
As I burrowed deeper into the blanket and closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but smile. Yeah… I had enjoyed spending time with him too.
***
I woke sometime in the middle of the night to growling outside the window. It took my sleep-muddled brain a moment to realize it wasn’t actually a growl; it was distant thunder. The dark room then lit up as lightning flashed, low rolling thunder not far behind.
Oh no.Just my luck that a freaking storm would decide to move in the one night Maddox and Briar weren’t with me.
A drop of rain hit the window. Just one at first, then another several seconds later. The wind picked up, sweeping through the dark clusters of trees. More flickers of lightning brightened the room, and the echoing rumbles only seemed to be getting closer, like the storm was hurdling toward my cottage at full speed.
I pulled the blanket over my head, squeezing my eyes closed. There was a crescendo of raindrops, distant at first then growing louder. Rain then crashed against the windowpane so hard I feared the glass would shatter.
It’s just rain. I’m safe.Logically, I knew this was true. But it didn’t stop the fear from gripping my sternum. It didn’t ease the hard beating of my heart or slow my quickening breaths.
As the storm intensified, the rain pelting against the window like bullets fired from a machine gun, I pushed my face into my pillow and stifled a cry. When thunder cracked through the air like a whip, sudden and so damn loud, a small cry left me anyway.
“Evan?” came a soft voice outside the closed door.
I tried to answer but was trembling too much. The heavy downpour would’ve drowned out any of my feeble attempts to speak anyway.
“I’m coming in.”
Under the covers, I couldn’t see the door open, but I sensed him enter the room. There was another crash of thunder, and I made myself smaller on the bed, stifling another cry. The mattress dipped beside me.
