Page 31 of Protecting Vidalia
“I-I hear you.”
Her reply was muffled but he heard it. He reached over and turned her face gently up towards him. Tears were streaming from her eyes and her face was flushed. “Are you going to pay attention to what I’m saying and give up this crazy idea?”
She glared mutely at him and he took that to mean they weren’t finished yet. “All right, it’s your ass. I can keep this up all night.” He laid into her again, concentrating on the tops of her thighs this time until she yielded.
“Okay, okay! Just s-top,” she finally wailed.
That was good enough for him. Maybe she meant it, maybe she didn’t, but at least she’d have something to think about. Maybe the pain in her ass might keep her from going ahead with her terrible plan when and if she actually decided to do it. He pulled her upright and turned her over, snuggling her into his shoulder while she sobbed. On an impulse, he told her, “If you want, I’ll take you to Rangers Pass, but not in the rain. That’s just too damned dangerous.”
***
STARTLED AT HIS SUGGESTION, Vidalia tried to get herself under control. She hated crying, always had. It gave her a headache and her eyes puffed up like she’d had an allergic reaction. She hadn’t meant to let her secret plan slip out like that, but now that it had, she’d really put her foot in it. Her ass burned worse than a sunburn ever could, and she’d had a few of those in her life. What she wouldn’t give for a soothing bottle of aloe vera sun lotion about now.
Grabbing at his words like a lifeline, she peeked up at him and tried to sit up. She grimaced at the roughness of his jeans on her tenderized bottom. “Do you really mean that?” she asked, searching his strong face. Tapping down the urge to punch him was difficult, but she managed. Her position right now was too precarious and she didn’t want to feel any more of his board-like hand on her nether regions.
“If you really think it will help you, then yes,” he replied.
His eyes had lost that granite expression and softened. Obviously, he didn’t think it would, but he was willing to compromise. It was the best she was going to get and she knew it. If she was honest with herself, she’d been terrified at the thought of going to the pass alone, especially in the rain, and had had her own doubts as to whether she could do it. She just knew she had to do something.
She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and her face, soaking up some of the embarrassing tears as best she could. “T-thank you,” she said, her words wobbly. Reaching down she tugged at her panties bunched inside her jeans and tried to pull them up while leaning from side to side.
“I can help with that.” Jake stood up, taking her with him, then reached around and slipped her panties over her bright red mounds, giving them a satisfied pat before doing the same with her jeans.
“You don’t have to look so proud of yourself, 1870,” she groused, feeling a little sassier now that she was covered. “You had no right to do that.”
“I can do it again,” he warned, his eyes narrowing down at her.
She opened her mouth to say no you can’t, when she saw the light of battle creep back into those gray orbs. She huffed instead and walked stiffly to the kitchen for a bottle of water. She purposely ignored the male chuckle behind her. After taking a huge swallow, she turned around and ran right into his hard chest, some of the water sloshing out between them. “Damn,” she muttered, staggering back slightly. “Do you have to sneak up on me?”
He held her steady by her upper arms and grabbed the neatly folded towel off the cabinet and brushed the water off. “Sorry, it’s an old habit,” he replied ruefully. “You got another one of those?”
She stepped away and motioned to the fridge. “Help yourself.” Heart racing, she turned and headed into the bathroom to survey the damage to her face. Wrinkling her nose in the mirror, she decided it wasn’t too bad. Her eyes were definitely brighter with red rims around them, but not that bad.
On an impulse, she turned around and slid her clothes down to inspect her bottom. “Ouch,” she grumbled softly as she placed her cool hand on the hot skin. Picking up the lotion she’d set on the sink, she poured some in her hand and then gently rubbed it into the red flesh. “Oh, geez,” she whispered to herself. “That feels good.”
Away from his overwhelming male presence, she was able to think more clearly. Okay, so maybe he was right, maybe it was a stupid idea. He was also right about zoning out becoming more of a thing.
At first, it had been people clicking their fingers in front of her face and saying something like “earth to Vidalia”, which had seemed funny, but now it was more than that.
She remembered driving home and hurrying into the cabin trying to beat the rain, and then going to the window to pull the blinds down when a huge sonic boom had deafened her ears, Light had lit up the outside for a split second and the angry trees had seemed to close in on her, their branches waving in her face and a sense of urgency overwhelming her. Curling up on the ground, she feared for her life, wanting to get to the little girl she knew was fighting to live amongst mother nature’s fury. But how could she? She felt so helpless, so incapacitated. Dani was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.
Then Jake’s face had swam into her vision and she’d grasped it like a lifeline to sanity, finally coming back to reality. She sighed, her hand trembling as she picked up the hairbrush and pulled it through her tangled locks. What if she did that out in that ravine? Jake was right, she knew it. She just didn’t want him to be right.
Gathering her courage around her, she opened the door to the bathroom. Even if he was right, he didn’t need to be spanking her. Her butt didn’t belong to him. Even if itdidbelong to him, he didn’t need to be spanking it.
When she returned from the bathroom, Jake was propped up on the couch with pillows and another blanket he’d apparently robbed from one of the loft beds.
“Inviting yourself to stay overnight again I see,” she mocked, shaking her head. His hands were behind his head and a fire was beginning in the fireplace. The red long-sleeved t-shirt strained against the muscles of his arms and she could clearly see the six-pack in his taut stomach. Most deadly of all was the lazy grin on his firm lips.
“I think it would be best,” he drawled. “Care to join me? It’s nice here in front of the fire.”
Wanting to and not wanting to, her hands fought her internal battle by twisting her own t-shirt between her fingers. “What part of I don’t want to get into a relationship do you not understand?” She asked finally, scowling at him.
He sat up and lifted the blanket to entice her into his cocoon. “The same part that keeps telling you that you need to talk,” he replied, “but you don’t listen any better than me in that regard.”
“I just did talk,” she grumbled, her feet moving of their own accord towards a man who appeared to meet her stubbornness head on. With a grudging respect, she relented and sat down beside him. “Talking it to death won’t change anything,” she muttered as he slid his long arm around her shoulder and pulled the blanket over their laps. “And it won’t bring her back.”
He cuddled her in close and they both sat staring at the fire until he finally spoke. “Hamal was a little six-year-old boy, full of life, happy, and running around like a mad whirling dervish. Once his shoulder healed, he was always underfoot, always curious in spite of the loss of his family. The camp director was trying to find some of his relatives but hadn’t been successful.
