Chapter Two

Chase

I wake up shivering, feeling a strong gust of wind over my bare legs.

Sitting up on the creaky cot, I rub my eyes and squint through the darkness, realizing that the window has been blown open – again – and that my blanket has been blasted to the floor.

As I pick it up, the door to the barn opens, Isaac standing there in his blue robe, holding an electric lantern.

“Get up,” he says, a worried look on his face. “There’s a tornado coming.”

And he’s gone.

I scramble to put on my sweater and shoes so that I can follow him, running toward the light gleaming in the darkness.

A tornado? At this hour?

Another gust of wind hits me, slapping a leaf against my cheek. I stop to brush it off, staring at the horizon. The skies, clear when I went to bed, seem covered in thick clouds now, the moon and stars obscured. They rumble restlessly. A bolt of lightning cracks, revealing their greenish hue.

A tornado is coming, all right. And fast.

I put on the hood of my sweater and sprint to catch up to Isaac, listening to him bark his instructions. As he secures the sheep shed and the cattle barn, I secure the stables, hastily hammering down every loose piece of wood and making sure the door to each stall is locked so that the horses don’t run away. The animals already look like they’re ready to bolt at the first opportunity, whinnying and stomping restlessly in their stalls. I pause to stroke the mane of Alexander, Isaac’s black stallion.

“Shh. Everything will be all right.”

The horse calms down but only for a moment, aware that something’s coming. Horses are smart creatures, after all.

By the time I come out of the stables, the wind has picked up, beginning to howl. Another gust blows my hood off.

I don’t bother putting it back, running to check the locks on all the tool sheds, making sure they’re firmly in place. Then I circle back to the house. Lauren is outside it in her rose-colored pajamas, perched on a ladder while she’s putting the shutters on the upstairs windows. She’s clearly struggling, the wind sweeping her hair over her face. The ladder quivers, too.

“I’ll do it.”

She comes down the ladder and I take her place, securing the windows while she keeps the ladder steady, a task which Isaac helps her do when he returns. The wind is even more furious now, branches snapping and floating around. One almost hits me but I manage to duck, gripping the ladder as I nearly lose my balance.

Whew. That was close.

With the upstairs windows secure, Lauren, Isaac, and I make quick work of the ones downstairs. Then we all make a run for the storage barn.

I hold Lauren’s hand as the wind threatens to sweep us away along with everything else, already whipping against our clothes. She holds her father’s hand, the sash of his robe already undone.

“Smoke!” he shouts behind him.

The dog darts ahead.

Reaching the storage barn, we rush inside then head into the storm cellar hidden there, Isaac closing the hatch above us as I set the lantern on a table in the middle of the room, letting out a sigh of relief.

Finally, we’re safe.

It’s a small room, maybe eight square feet, the cement walls and floors making it cold. I grab the pile of blankets on the table, handing one to Lauren, who’s already huddled in a corner, shivering.

“Are you all right?” I ask her.

She nods even though her hands are shaking, her hair in complete disarray. “Thanks.”

She wraps the blanket tightly around her shoulders and I do the same with another after handing Isaac his.

“Do you get tornadoes often?” I ask him.

“No,” he answers, sitting in another corner, Smoke curling up beside him. “But when they come, they come.”

“They don’t usually come at night,” Lauren adds. “The last one that came at night was when…” She pauses, looking at the floor. “When Mom was still alive.”

The strain in her voice makes my chest a little tight. Isaac told me his wife died ten years ago but Lauren makes it sound like it was just yesterday.

She coughs and I go to the crate of supplies under the table, finding a bottle of water there. I hand it to her, sitting beside her, though I move a few inches away when I notice Isaac looking.

She opens the bottle, taking a sip.

“Thanks,” she mutters again as she closes the bottle, then lets out another cough.

“You’re welcome,” I tell her. “And I’m sorry about your mother.”

Lauren rests her head on the wall. “She was always smiling, even when there was a tornado.”

“She sounds like an amazing woman.”

“She was.” Lauren looks at me with a smile, the yellow light from the lantern making her amber eyes glow beneath her long lashes.

It’s the first time I’ve seen the corners of her full lips turn up into a smile, dimples forming on her cheeks. It lends her an almost ethereal radiance and I can’t help but stare, captivated.

It is fleeting, though, the smile replaced by a frown as her gaze shifts from me to the lantern.

“I miss her,” she says sadly.

“I know.”

I glance at Isaac, finding his eyes closed, so I move closer to Lauren. Smoke, however, still has his eyes open, watching me on behalf of his master.

“Do you miss your wife?” Lauren asks.

“Yes.”

“If it’s not too much to ask, how did she die?”

“Illness.” I say the first thing that comes to my mind.

Lauren nods. “And how long were you married before she passed away?”

“Just a few months, but we knew each other for years,” I lie.

“I’m sorry.”

I shake my head. “Sometimes, the people you care about just don’t stay around as long as you want them to.”

She opens her mouth as if to ask something but decides against it, falling silent.

Just then, the wind gives a loud howl and I hear a clatter somewhere above us. Lauren straightens, eyes darting toward the hatch. Smoke whimpers, snuggling against Isaac, who snores softly, oblivious.

“It’s okay,” I tell Lauren. “We should be safe here.”

Lauren nods, relaxing. Isaac gives another snore.

Lauren chuckles. “Count on him to sleep through a tornado. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t sleep through.”

I grin. “Lucky him.”

She covers her mouth as she yawns.

“You should sleep, too,” I tell her. “Who knows how long this tornado will last?”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll wake you up if we’re not in Montana anymore.”

“Very funny.”

She falls silent and a few minutes later, I hear her soft breathing. I look at her to see her eyes closed, some of her ebony hair forming a veil over the side of her face.

I take the chance to stare at her. Asleep, she’s far from the feisty woman I met in the tool shed, but she’s just as beautiful, her skin smooth, her cheekbones high, her nose like a button, her upper lip shaped like a bow. Just as the first time I met her, she’s a mess, hair in all directions, her pajamas wrinkled and smelling slightly of sweat. Strangely, that only makes her more attractive to me. My groin stirs in response.

Her grip on her blanket loosens, causing it to slip off her shoulders. I steal a glance down her pajamas, taking in her firm breasts. Unfortunately, she’s wearing a bra, the black lace showing through a gap between two of her pajama buttons but that doesn’t stop me from imagining how perfectly round her breasts are, how soft they feel. It doesn’t stop me from wanting to touch them, to feel those curves in the palms of my hands.

I don’t, though, and I settle for skating a finger over her thigh and leaving a soft trail over the cotton.

Lauren shudders, shifting her legs and snuggling closer against the wall as her lips part to let out a murmur. I draw a deep breath, suddenly seized with the urge to see her trembling beneath me, to hear her moan.

To make her moan.

The desire is so strong it knocks the breath from my lungs, rivaling the tornado sweeping outside. My cock stirs to life and strains against my pants.

Fuck.

I must be crazy, getting an erection in the middle of a storm in a tiny storm cellar where I’m locked up with the father of the object of my desire and his dog, who is now staring at me curiously.

Conscious of my audience, I shift my legs and wrap my blanket tighter around them in an effort to conceal my situation, trying to think of less exciting things to quell it.

It’s no use. I haven’t had a woman in a while and my male body is well aware of the female one next to me. My senses are caught up in their own storm, my skin burning in spite of the cold.

Frowning, I move away from Lauren, scurrying to the opposite corner. I press my cheek against the cold cement, squeezing my eyes shut as I try to sleep against the wall.

It’s going to be a long, hard night.