by Melissa West
“I’m sorry I made you tell me this, but I’m glad I know. Now, I can make sure someone’s with you at all times. In fact”—he started pacing again—“maybe I should put a tracker on you or something?”
Lila’s mouth curved up a bit. “You’re not putting a tracker on me.”
Charlie wanted to say that they had to do something, the psycho could try this again, but he didn’t want to scare her. “What does Lucas think?”
She looked at him. “It’s Lucas. What do you think he said?”
“Right.”
“Look, I know this is a lot to take. But it happened six months ago. I’m in a much better place now, and nothing has happened since. Well, nothing big.”
Charlie took a step back so he could see her better. “What do you mean ‘nothing big’?”
She glanced away. “Just a few random emails, messages on Facebook, a Charlotte paper delivered to my apartment today that I didn’t order. That kind of thing. None of them were from him or anything, but they were weird. Probably just weirdos messing around.”
“But maybe not. You should have told me.”
“So you could what?”
He didn’t freaking know, but something had to be done. “Look, he might own the cops in Charlotte, but you know as well as I do that in Crestler’s Key we look out for our own. They won’t put up with this shit here, even if he is rich and has a fancy lawyer. Regardless, you’re staying with me until we can be sure you’re safe.” Lila opened her mouth to argue, but he waved her off. “Nah, ah, Tiny Girl, you are with me every waking moment until we get this under control.”
“Charlie. It’s fine, really. This happened a long time ago. And I have to work. I can’t stay attached to your hip.”
Charlie wracked his brain for what to do, because she was right—she had to work, to live. He couldn’t imprison her at his place and watch her every moment of every day. “Fine. You can work and then I’ll pick you up. Take you there, too.” He paced again, trying to work through it all. “I still think the tracker thing is a good idea. I know a guy who—”
She stood up then and walked toward him, then she wrapped her arms around his neck, comforting him, and he nearly lost it right there.
“I’m fine.”
He gently stroked her hair. “I know you are. But no one should have to go through life afraid. Let me take away the fear. Let me help you.”
“You already have.”
Charlie’s gaze met hers, before dropping to her lips. She was so close and his emotions were out of control, his care for her taking over all logical thought. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Because I’m your friend or because . . . ?”
“Because one lazy day out on a hammock, I handed you my heart, and I don’t think I ever got it back.” And with those words went the last of his control, his need to have her close to him greater than his need to appease his friend.
His mouth came down on hers, and suddenly, he no longer cared about anything, not Lucas, not himself, only this moment. A surge of emotions hit him all at once—confusion and happiness, guilt and relief, each more conflicted than the last, but one thing was 100 percent clear—she was kissing him back. And that single thing meant there was no turning back. If she wanted him, he was there.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, securing her to him, as he deepened the kiss, ten years’ worth of pent-up emotions and desires pouring out of him, all the things he wanted to say and couldn’t, all the times he wanted to tell her and turned away instead. But now she was here, and Lucas wasn’t, and she needed him to be more than a friend. She needed him to show her in a way that only going past friendship could show that she was safe and cared for, that his very existence was focused on looking out for her, to step in front of her and shield her from danger. Lucas might be a world away, but Charlie was here, and he refused to let her go.
She pressed her body against his, clearly eager for more, and the kiss deepened. His tongue slid over her mouth, begging her to let him inside. She opened, allowing him in, and he went to work, teasing and sampling, absorbed in her taste and feel. And when she gripped his back and moaned lightly into his mouth, he lost his mind.
The fire had died out now, darkness finding them, the lanterns providing the only light. Everything about the moment intense and romantic. He scooped her into his arms and started for the tent, his wants trumping any doubts, and laid her down on his sleeping bag, then stared down at her, so damn beautiful it hurt.
“I want you. I want you so badly right now, I’m losing my mind here. But . . .”
“But . . .” she repeated, and he could see the hurt flash across her face.
“No, not that kind of but.” Her gaze lifted, and he pressed on. “You just detailed the most horrible thing that’s ever happened to you. The kind of thing that should never happen to anyone. Our emotions are high right now, and I don’t want you making a mistake.”
“I’m not.”
A smile played at his lips. “All right, then. I don’t want to make a mistake.”
“This would be a mistake?”
“No. Never.” He ran his hands through his hair and released a slow breath. “I’m trying to do the right thing here, and I gotta tell you, you’re not making it easy to be good.”
“Should I make it harder?”
He choked on a laugh. “Damn, where was this woman ten years ago? I’d have ditched Lucas in a heartbeat.”
She smiled. “You wouldn’t have, though.”
“No . . . I wouldn’t have.” He stared down at her again, wishing this was easier. Wishing Lucas understood that, with Lila, it wasn’t about attraction or quick sex. It was so much more. Maybe he could explain to him, help him see that he had real feelings for her. “I need to talk to him first.”
“I can’t have you asking my brother for permission to be with me.”
Charlie laughed again. “Who do you think I am? I’m not asking anybody for permission for anything. This is about us. I just want to handle it the right way. And the right thing to do is to tell him before we take it further. Let him react, and then you can make sure this is what you want. Because if it is, if I’m who you want to be with, then I am there. Yours.”
“You’re mine,” she said in a small voice, like she was processing the words.
“I’ve been yours for a very long time.”
He crawled beside her. “And if it’s okay, I’d like to sleep here, beside you. So long as you can promise to be a good girl. Not sure I can resist you twice.”
She grinned. “Okay.”
They snuggled up together, and without bothering to change, they fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms. And for the first time in a long time, Charlie thought that future he’d envisioned all those years ago, Lila forever by his side, might finally become a reality.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day, Lila and Charlie hit up another trail with a new purpose—to try to catch some rainbow trout. Lots of trout, hopefully, but Lila had her doubts about her catching anything other than water.
While Lila had been fishing with her family before, she had never fished rivers or streams. Her idea of fishing was in a boat on the lake, the sun above, while she cast, reeled, and cast again, never getting the first bite, while her expert-angler brother caught fish after fish. Eventually, she’d get tired of his gloating and would ditch the pole in favor of a good book.
So when Charlie mentioned they’d be fishing a mountain stream, from the shore because he hadn’t brought waders or the gear for fly-fishing, she thought maybe he’d be fishing. She would be lucky if she threw the lure into the right spot to even tempt a fish, let alone catch one.
To Charlie’s credit, he hadn’t mentioned her attack, likely in an effort to keep her distracted, but occasionally she would find him looking around, searching for something, then he’d glance at her and take her hand, gripping it tightly, before continuing on.
She wanted to assure him that everythin
g was fine, no way could Wyatt be here. Besides, after she listened to her lawyer’s voicemail from yesterday, she got the impression that someone within the police department felt Wyatt could be responsible for the disappearances and was keeping a sharp eye on his every move.
She was fine.
They were fine.
But just the same, she glanced down at the pistol protruding from Charlie’s waistband, tucked inside his shirt, out of view and yet clearly there. Never in her life had she felt a gun was necessary to feel protected. Her family owned them for hunting and such, and of course, Lucas had them, but never had she considered buying one for herself. And never would she have thought she would feel so relieved for one to be near her. But then her assault changed her opinion on a lot of things.
“We’re here,” Charlie said, motioning to a stream ahead.
And wow. Forget fishing, Lila would be content to sit and take in the view. Clear, bubbling water glided over rocks, some large, some smaller. Pebbles cradled the edges, followed by green trees and foliage, the only sounds coming from the water as its current continued its path down the mountain.
“It widens just down there,” Charlie said, pointing to their right. “Until it meets the falls. We’ll scour the shore for slower moving pools, then fish upstream. Rainbows tend to like to hide, and they have amazing sight, so we have to be careful not to cast a shadow on the water, or we’ll spook them.”
“That’s a lot to think about.”
He grinned. “It is, but you get in a rhythm. And just wait until you hook one. They’re strong, will fight you hard to get off. You’ll need to show them your muscle if you hope to reel one in.”
She pointed at herself. “Wait, me? No, no. I’m like an anti-fisherman or something. I’ve never caught a fish, despite all the trips I’ve been on with my family. They catch them, even my mom. But me? Yeah, I repel them.”
Charlie’s smile spread. “Maybe you never had the right teacher.”
“Ah,” Lila said, smiling too now. “So you’re going to show me the path to fishing greatness? Teach me the real way to do it? Like a fishing Yoda.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I don’t know about a Yoda, but I’ve never been up here and left without a fish. Besides, if you don’t catch one, what are we going to eat tonight? This is survival, baby. We either hook ’em or go hungry. Kind of elevates the game. You up for the challenge?” The glint in his eyes stirred something in her belly, and despite the joking nature of the conversation, she found herself leaning in closer, pressing her lips easily to his. A surprised expression crossed his face.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
“Please . . . feel free to lose your self-control anytime.”
Now it was Lila’s turn to laugh, the feeling spreading out in her chest, making her forget for a moment that she’d been in a dark place just months ago, unable to get out of bed, to eat, to sleep. “I like this. You make things easy, better.”
“I just told you that you have to catch a fish to eat and you call that easy? Man, I need to work on my poker face. But I’ll take it, if it gets me more of your attention.” His gaze dropped to her mouth, and he pecked her lips lightly, then again, this time a second longer, before he groaned and pulled back. “Damn Lucas,” he muttered, before nodding to the stream and taking a deliberate step away from her.
“Let’s start up there. I’ve had good luck with that bend.” He pointed with one of the poles he had carried, and then he started away, and Lila thought about the change happening between them. What would Charlie do if Lucas said no, he wasn’t okay with this? Would Charlie walk away from her? Would he choose his friendship with Lucas over what they could share together? She wouldn’t blame him and would respect him for honoring their friendship. She loved Lucas, and she would never want him to be uncomfortable, but at what point did her opinion on all of this begin to matter?
She was still lost in her thoughts when they stopped on the shore by a small, open area of water with a large rock sticking out from its depths. Charlie set down his tackle box and passed her a rod, then opened the tackle box, took out something that looked an awful lot like Play Doh, and put the hook through it.
“What is that?”
“It’s called PowerBait, and trout love the stuff. Especially rainbows. But their appetite can change quickly, so I have a few other things up my sleeve. And if we get really desperate, I brought some soft cheese and corn.”
Lila laughed. “Wow, are you going to offer them some steak, too?”
“You laugh now, but just wait.”
He prepped his rod, then directed her over to the stream’s edge. The sun peeked through the trees here and there, creating a kaleidoscope effect on the water. The air smelled like fresh rain, though the sky was clear, hardly a cloud in sight. And despite the fact that they were halfway up a mountain, Lila with no clue how to get back down without Charlie’s assistance, she wasn’t worried. Or nervous. Or scared.
She was happy.
“All right, Mr. Pro Angler, show me how it’s done.”
Charlie cast into the water, inside the bend and just beside the rock. He reeled slowly, slowly, then all of a sudden he jerked his rod up. “Got ’em.” He started reeling, then sighed. “Damn, he got off.”
Lila set down her own rod and cracked her knuckles dramatically, then shook out her shoulders. “Maybe you should let me show you how it’s done.”
Beaming, Charlie took a step back. “By all means, Tiny. Show me how a real pro does it.”
It was all for fun, and Lila knew she stood about as much chance of catching a fish as she did of getting struck by lightning in that moment. But it was fun to pretend, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy having Charlie’s eyes on her.
She followed the basic knowledge she had of fishing and combined it with what she’d seen Charlie do, then cast out to the same rock Charlie had fished moments before.
And everything went just fine for about ten seconds. Fine and altogether innocent. She held the rod and reeled every once in a while and smirked arrogantly over at Charlie, with his cute cargo shorts and Southern Dive T-shirt and backwards baseball cap. But then her smirking turning to looking, which turned to straight checking him out and how perfectly his T-shirt covered his thick biceps, and then she remembered that first day she’d seen him at the animal hospital, no shirt, all those defined muscles visible for her to drool over. Only she hadn’t checked them out, not nearly enough anyway. And now she found herself wishing that she could ask him to take the shirt off, it was a hot day after all, so she could—
“Whoa!” Something yanked on her rod, and she fumbled with it, nearly dropping it to the ground as she tried to remember what to do and how to do it.
“You got one!” Charlie called.
Panic raced through her. “Me? But I don’t know what to do!”
“Set the hook, reel him in, don’t let him off.”
What and what and what? Which was she supposed to do first and how? She gripped the pole and started reeling, but holy hell this fish was fighting. Suddenly heat roared to life inside her and sweat tricked down her back that had nothing to do with the smoking hot man beside her and everything to do with this damn fish and his epic determination to get off her hook. But oh no, this was the first fish she’d ever caught—accident or not—and by God he was not getting away.
“All right, steady the rod so it’s secure and wear him out. Let him take the line out a little, then reel him in. You don’t want to reel too fast or he’ll snap the line and get away.”
Lila tried to follow Charlie’s instructions, to steady the rod, but the little joker was pulling hard, and she felt her own biceps coming to life to try to keep the pole from flying into the water, the fish taking it away like a souvenir. “How do I get him over here? He’s beating the crap out of me.”
Charlie started to laugh, until Lila glared over at him, and he covered it up with a cough. “Okay, rest the end of your rod here,” Charlie said, adjusting
it so it rested against her hip. “There, now choke up on the rod, closer to the reel. Good,” he said, his hand covering hers, and then his chest was against her back, and she drew in that lemony-spice scent of his, and almost dropped the damn pole again. He chuckled against her ear. “Easy, Tiny Girl. Remember we need that fish for dinner.”
“Then you should probably take a step back, because I’m seconds away from saying screw the fish and attacking you.”
He went still, and Lila worried that she’d said too much too soon, but before she could worry too much about it, the trout splashed above water. “You got him now. Reel!”
And she did, slowly, then harder, then slow again, until Charlie had the net ready and grabbed him with the net. “Woohoo!” He took the fish out of it and then held it out toward her, his thumb in the fish’s mouth, holding it tight.
“Grab him. We gotta get a pic of your first catch. Then you can clean it.”
“Are you insane? I don’t know how to clean a fish.”
He handed the fish to her, and she lifted it up, smiled as he snapped several pictures with his iPhone, then he took the fish from her and placed it in the small cooler he’d brought with them. “But you’re a vet.”
She nodded slowly. “Exactly. My job is to keep animals alive, not learn all the ways to properly kill and cook them.”
“Ah, good point. All right, I’ll clean it, while you cook the veggies. Deal?”
“You giving up on catching one so soon?”
With one look, he grabbed his rod and set off back to the river’s edge. “See, I was going to let you have your win and celebrate, but oh no, you have to throw a man’s dignity on the line. So no, I’m not giving up. We’ll keep this little game going and make a little wager of it. Go by weight. Whoever weighs in the most fish, wins.”
Lila placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. “And what does the winner get?”
