“I’ve got different kinds of soups, stews. I can make an omelet.” I was rambling, so I stopped looking at her and headed into the kitchen, pulling the pantry door open.
I’d been away from people too long. Except for the occasional call to my attorney or the visit to Pop’s to pick up a few supplies, it had just been me and my dog for the past two years. I didn’t know how to act in polite company. My conversational skills had grown rusty. So had the synapses in my brain.
“Gray?”
I nearly jumped out of my fucking skin when she said my name from right behind me and covered my surprise by grabbing a couple cans of soup. I turned to find her leaning heavily against the counter. “Chicken noodle or vegetable beef? If you’re vegetarian, you’re out of luck around here.”
“I’m not, and I’m not hungry just yet. I was just wondering if you might have a pair of shorts or something I could put on.”
My attention dropped to the blanket she was holding around her waist, and I couldn’t stop from thinking what was beneath it. Nothing. Just her.
When I pulled her jeans and panties off earlier, I’d forced my eyes and mind somewhere else. But my fingers had felt the soft skin, the lean muscles just under the surface. The curve of her ass.
With a desperation I thought was long forgotten, I wanted to push those thighs apart and find her with my mouth. I wanted to suck on her clit and fuck her with my tongue until she was no longer able to scream.
“Gray?”
Fuck, man. Pull it together.
I sat the cans on the counter. “Sure. Let me see what I can find.”
Grabbing a battery-operated lantern, I turned it on bright and headed to the bedroom. A bit more steady on her feet, she still used the walls for balance as she walked like a cat behind me, padding so softly across the wood floor that I only felt her presence as she followed me into my bedroom.
Heading straight into my closet, I pulled open a drawer containing my sweats and began riffling through them. I pulled out a navy pair and held them up.
We both laughed.
I wore an x-large tall, and these looked like a sleeping bag in front of her small frame. Tossing them aside, I pulled open another drawer containing my athletic shorts.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Zoe fingering my flannel robe. The same robe Jessica bought me the Christmas before her death. A part of me wanted to scream for her to stop touching it, but another part — a larger part — wanted her in it.
She’s gone.
Yes, Jessica was gone. Her body was gone, at least. But wasn’t a human being more than just muscle and skin? Her spirit remained, and it was that presence that kept me trapped, shackled to the past as surely as if manacles were wrapped around my ankles and wrists.
How did you move on from someone you loved so much? From all the hope and possibility that love provided in your life?
When they died, how did you just move on? Pretend they didn’t exist?
I’d spent the past two years trying to answer those questions.
As I watched Zoe stroke the soft material, I thought that maybe letting another woman wear something so precious might be a start.
Opening another drawer, I grabbed a pair of flannel sleeping shorts. There was a drawstring that could be pulled tight. I held them up. “How about these for now?” I nodded at the robe. “With one of my shirts and that robe, you should be warm enough.” I thought of handing her a pair of socks but worried that, with her concussion, she could more easily slip and fall on the wood floors.
God. She was incredible looking when she smiled.
Noticing that the t-shirt was damp from washing her hair, I yanked open my t-shirt drawer and pulled out the first one I came to, then pressed everything into her hands. “My bathroom is through here.” She followed me out, and I started going through the bathroom cabinet. “New toothbrush.” I tossed it onto the counter and kept digging. Floss. New tube of toothpaste. Nothing else that a woman would need or want. I opened another cabinet. “Here is any medicine you might need. For pain. Stomach. Just about anything you—”
I stopped when her hand rested on my arm. “This is perfect, thank you. You’ve been more than generous.”
That pull again. Pulsing and circling around us with a terrifying strength.
Warmth climbed from my balls to my cock, and I stepped away from her. “I’ll give you some privacy. Soak in the tub, use the shower, anything you need.”
She smiled, holding the clothes to her chest. “Thank you.”
I turned toward the fireplace that warmed both the bathroom and bedroom on the other side of the wall. “I’ll toss some additional logs on the fire, make sure you stay warm enough.”
She nodded, then winced, her fingers moving to her temple. “Okay.”
Shit. I needed to leave this room. I was staring and fucking rambling again. With a burst of willpower, I walked out, shutting the door behind me.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Zoe
Whew.
I’d been around attractive men before, but I’d never felt anything like this when I looked at them. In fact, for the past few years, I’d avoided being alone with a man at all costs. I didn’t date. I rarely went out at night, and never alone. I wore baggy clothes, no makeup, and usually had a pair of fake glasses planted on my nose.
I didn’t like male attention. But I liked what my presence was doing to him. I liked what his presence was doing to me.
Gray.
For some reason, the name and face rang some distant bell. Did I remember hearing it a couple years ago? As I turned on the faucets of the huge jacuzzi tub, I tried to bring the memory to the surface and couldn’t. I couldn’t even think of in which context I might have heard it.
Tabloids? That didn’t seem right. I wasn’t able to think of any reason a man like Gray would catch their attention. The cabin was beautiful, but it didn’t seem ultrarich.
The news?
Walking back to the cabinet, I opened it up to see if I could find his last name. That might trigger the memory. I couldn’t remember what he told me his last name was earlier. My head simply hurt too much. There were no prescription medications. Nothing in any of the drawers either.
Feeling guilty for being so nosy, I quietly closed everything back up. His name might come to me later.
I groaned as I slipped into the hot water, hissing when it touched the numerous scrapes on my skin, then moaned as the heat soaked into my sore muscles. I was beginning to hurt everywhere, not just my head. The place where the seatbelt held me tight. Even my jaw from gritting my teeth so much. Tomorrow would be worse, I knew, but I’d deal with that later. Now, I just needed to soak.
I startled at the knock on the door.
“You okay?” Gray called out from the other side.
“Yes.”
“Alright. I’ll check every few minutes. Don’t want you to get dizzy and drown.”
He had a point.