CHAPTER EIGHT
I was a fucking masochist.
There was no other explanation for it. Why else would I have invited the girl – Wisp – to stay with me?
She was forbidden fruit personified, and I had decided to dangle her just within my grasp, daring myself to give in to the primal urges that threatened to overtake my ability to think rationally whenever she looked at me with those dark eyes.
It had only been a day, and already she was relentlessly invading my space and senses with her sweet, cloying scent, that soft smile, and those cutesy, little mannerisms. Like the way she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Christ, it made me what to free that bit of abused flesh with my thumb and suck it into my mouth – show her the proper way her pink, little mouth ought to be treated.
Goddamn it.
It was unreal how badly I wanted her.
Yeah, sounds real torturous, a voice inside my head taunted.
But it was.
I hated how off-balance she made me feel. I hated that she made me feel at all – raw, unfiltered emotion that I’d fought to tamper down for well over a decade. But something about her brought those animalistic urges out in me. I wanted to simultaneously hide her away from the world – protect her from anything (anyone) that could possibly hurt her – and tie her down to my bed and have my wicked way with her.
It was outrageous. Especially because I knew that I could never – would never – satisfy those urges.
I didn’t even know for sure if Wisp was a full-fledged adult, for Christ’s sake. The thought of any man taking advantage of her – even if that man was me – caused a flurry of violent thoughts race to the forefront of my mind. I knew that if anyone ever tried, my retaliation would be swift and merciless.
Maybe instead of contemplating imaginary scenarios involving your… houseguest, you ought to be concentrating on the task at hand.
It was true enough, and I tried to put Wisp out of my mind as I made my rounds and checked the various traps I had set throughout the forest. I couldn’t rid my thoughts of the girl completely, though, and found myself wondering what she was doing as I went through the motions of my morning routine. I speculated whether she had showered yet.
And, fuck, the image that came to mind. Tiny rivulets of water running down her naked body, dripping from the delicate curve of her clavicles, the little swell of her breasts – stop.
Gritting my teeth, I banished the image from my mind and forced myself to concentrate. I’d already checked all my land traps and was working on pulling up the underwater one. It was a crude snare – essentially a cage made of chicken wire meant for catching unsuspecting trout traveling downstream. With two more sharp tugs, I was able to heave it up and out of the river.
I didn’t have to examine it closely to see that it was full of fish.
The wriggling trout were a welcome sight.
All my land traps had been empty but for one – a trap-door device had caught a rabbit. While I wasn’t averse to skinning the critter to make stew, it had been too small to bother with – just a kit, really – and I had set it free.
I went through the fish, making sure all the edible varieties – trout, salmon, even a few catfish – were of a decent size before tossing them into the bucket I’d brought with me for that purpose. I would fillet the fish when I got home, cook half of them up in a fish fry tonight, and freeze the rest for winter.
Replacing the trap in one of the deepest parts of the Skagit River, I finally began heading back in the direction of my cabin. I’d rushed through my usual routine of checking traps and circling the perimeter of my land – it was a way of both marking my territory and making sure it remained undisturbed – in an effort to hurry back.
I wasn’t blind to the way Wisp had looked at me when I’d said I was leaving – the naked fear shining in her eyes.
If she had any common sense at all in that head of hers, she would have been scared of me, not of being without me. Regardless, the nervous way she’d held herself, the anxious way she’d grabbed at my shirt before I’d left, had me moving faster than usual.
When did you turn into such a fucking sap?
Apparently, since I had found a little girl who didn't even know her own name clinging to life on my property.
In fact, I suspected I would have skipped my morning routine altogether if I wasn’t so intent on heading back to the place I’d found Wisp two nights ago. I’d spent a half-hour looking for clues – to her identity, how she had wound up on my land, anything – but there had been none. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to find. A purse I’d somehow missed with her ID stowed away inside?
Nothing was ever that easy, at least in my experience.
There had been no sign that anyone else had been there either, neither before nor after I’d found Wisp. I didn’t pick up on any strange scents, at least. It’d been nearly two days, though, and it had rained, so I couldn’t be as sure as I wanted to be.
Ultimately, there’d been no evidence either way if someone had been with her – or “after her”, as she’d said – when she’d somehow ended up in the river. Disappointment and frustration had battled at the realization, making checking the remainder of my traps more tedious than usual.
Now that I was finally finished, I was anxious to get back, refusing to examine too closely the reason why. I wiped away the thin layer of sweat that had formed on my forehead with the hand not holding the fish bucket. It’d already been close to four hours since I’d left, and the sun was at its highest point in the sky, shining down on me mercilessly as I trudged home despite the shade the forest provided.
I wasn’t far from the cabin when I heard it.
Thane.
The dog sounded like he was going berserk, a desperate sort of yowling ripping from his throat over and over again.
What in the hell? Why is he-?
My thoughts stuttered to a stop.
Wisp.
My heart fucking plunged into my stomach, and dropping the bucket of fish to the ground, I ran.
What could have happened to make Thane react like that? No one ever came by the cabin. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, a half-dozen horrifying scenarios flashed through my mind.
I’d never forgive myself if someone had snatched her.
Thane must have heard me crashing through the forest because as soon as I broke through the line of evergreens surrounding my cabin, he was on me. I didn’t even bother asking the dog what had happened. “Take me to her.”
Visions of someone grabbing Wisp, wrestling her to the ground and slinging her over their shoulder still running through my mind, I was half-expecting to have to give chase through the woods. Confusion broke through the panic when instead of leading me to another section of the forest or up the driveway, however, Thane broke for the garden.
Regardless, I followed. “What-?”
As soon as I turned the corner around the tall stalks of corn, I saw why. I saw her.
Relief flooded me.
But it was short-lived. Wisp was lying prone on the ground, right near the edge of the garden, her dark hair spread out around her head like some demented sort of halo. Her eyes were closed, and I didn’t detect any movement.
“Wisp!”
I ran towards her, dropping to my knees as I carefully took her face in my hands. She was flushed, her cheeks and forehead a painful-looking pink. Her skin burned hot against my palms. The sun above us beat down harshly.
What was Wisp doing outside in this heat? What had she been thinking...?
“Why don’t you pick some raspberries from the garden? I’m sure they’re falling off their branches. I would have gotten to them yesterday, but, well… something came up.”
The sardonic words – my words – replayed themselves in my head.
Damn it.
I could have kicked myself.
“Wisp, honey, do you hear me?” I asked, the moniker slipping out without permission, but I was too shaken by the sight of her unconscious form to give it much thought.
She didn’t respond to the question beyond a vague fluttering of her lashes.
Besides her natural sugary-sweet scent, there was the faint smell of vomit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was suffering from some sort of heat exhaustion and had thrown up before passing out on the grass.
I had to get her out of the sun.
Carefully scooping her up in my arms, I ran towards the cabin, holding her tightly to my chest in an effort not to jostle her. I kicked open the front door before lying her gingerly on the couch. Then, hesitating only a second, I began to strip her of her – no, my – clothes.
And, goddamn it, I hadn’t thought that through either.
Wisp didn’t have any clothes of her own, and I had all but forced her to wander around in the ninety-degree heat in my baggy cast-offs. It was no wonder she’d fainted.
Ignoring the guilt sitting heavy in my gut, and Thane’s whining – he’d followed me into the house and had clambered onto the couch near Wisp’s feet – I left her alone for just a minute to rush to the bathroom. I plugged the tub before cranking on the cold water. I needed to cool her down as fast as possible, and this seemed like the best way. Taking a moment to ensure that the water spurting out of the faucet was, in fact, cold, I hurried back to the living room.
Wisp remained where I had laid her, the only visible movement the slight rise and fall of her chest as she took worryingly shallow breaths.
How was I going to keep her afloat in the tub if she remained unconscious?
I thought my options through for less than a minute before coming to a decision.
Fuck it.
I tore my shirt from my head, and shucked off my boots before jacking my jeans down my legs and kicking them to the floor as well. Then, doing my best to ignore the fact that we were both mostly naked, I once again lifted her in my arms. My dick was half-hard despite the circumstances, but the little whimper she let out at the sudden, jarring movement caused it to deflate – thank Christ.
I already felt like enough of a pervert without adding that to the list.
I walked to the bathroom, Thane continuing to trail us, then took a second to brace myself before stepping into the cold water. I tensed as soon as it hit my skin. It felt like ice, and I gritted my teeth as painful pinpricks crawled up my legs, where the water stopped half-way up my shins.
After reaching forward to shut off the faucet, I began slowly lowering us into the tub. Wisp shuddered as soon as she came into contact with the icy water, and I could physically feel the jolt of shock it sent through her small body. Her breath hitched – a sharp, jagged gasp that sounded painful.
She twisted in my arms and her eyes fluttered open, but I could see that her vision was blurred – out of focus – as she instinctively scrambled to get away from the water – from me. “St-op!” she cried, her voice breaking on the word.
Thane yipped in concern from where he watched us near the tub.
It felt like my heart was stuck in my fucking throat.
She collapsed against me, only half-conscious as she buried her face into my bare chest. “It hurts,” she sniffled, mewing pathetically against me. “Derek.”
Fuck.
My heart plummeted, and it felt like it shattered as it hit the bottom of my stomach, little shards of it digging into my guts.
I smoothed her hair back out of her face. “I know, honey. I’m sorry.”
There was that damn pet name again.
“Please.”
My entire fucking being longed to comfort her, and I allowed myself to press my lips to her forehead – it wasn’t a kiss, exactly, but it was something.
Whatever it was seemed to help. She calmed in my arms, her eyelids fluttering closed as she relaxed against me. She was still a discerning mix of hot and cold – her flushed skin warm against my chest, yet goose pimples erupting over her arms as near-constant shivers wracked her body – but she was no longer panicking.
Eventually – after about a half-hour of just holding her stiffly in the tub, hardly daring to move in fear that it would set her off again – the shivers stopped.
I pressed a hand to her forehead. She no longer felt like she was sweltering, either. She was still out of it, her body limp against mine as it recovered, but her breathing was steady – warm, reassuring puffs against my neck.
Still concerned, but relatively certain she wasn’t in danger of suffering a stroke, I readjusted my grip on her before finally rising from the tub. Ignoring the way water dripped from our forms, I grabbed a towel and managed to wrap it around Wisp without dropping her before carrying her out of the bathroom.
I deposited her gently on my bed before heading for the dresser, digging through the drawers for something she could wear that didn’t drown her. I managed to find a short-sleeved t-shirt that I had accidentally shrunk in the wash years ago, but had never thrown out. I carefully dressed her, keeping my eyes averted from the damp – and damn near sheer – bra and panties that covered her private bits.
Wisp didn’t make a peep through the ordeal, and when I was finished I stepped back to examine my handiwork. She looked infuriatingly angelic resting against my white bed spread, her long lashes casting shadows over her flushed cheeks and freckled nose.
I tore my gaze from the sight, ridding myself of my own soaked underwear before pulling on a fresh pair of pants. I couldn’t bring myself to leave her, though, and found myself hovering over her like some bedamned mother hen when I was finished.
Thane seemed to be suffering the same problem, watching her with alert, anxious eyes from where he sat on the floor by the bed. I patted his head. “She’ll be fine, boy.”
I didn't know which of us I was trying to comfort.