Chapter 6
Luke
Anna stirred next to me and woke up. I wasn’t used to sharing my bed with someone, but waking up to Anna was amazing. Anna sat up, and she looked startled. She clutched the covers to her chest. I reached for her back and rubbed it in circles.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Anna nodded and looked at me over her shoulder. She was so sexy. But she looked worried.
“I don’t want to be rude,” she said, “but did you use a condom last night?”
I nodded. “I did.”
I had put on the condom after kicking off my jeans. When she had crawled into bed, I had pulled it off so she wouldn’t see it and ruin the moment, and I had thrown it into the wastepaper basket.
“I don’t remember you putting one on.” She blushed. “I was a little distracted.”
I sat up. “Look,” I said, picking up the waste paper basket and lifting the condom out for here. “It’s nasty to look at, but here it is. Peace of mind.”
Anna nodded, looking relieved.
“I’m sorry,” she said after I put the condom back. “I was panicking. With me being a virgin—well, before—I’m not on the pill.”
She blushed again, but I leaned forward and kissed her full on the mouth. “Don’t be sorry. It’s good to be safe.”
My stomach tightened. I had noticed something when I’d lifted the condom out of the basket, but I didn’t want to say anything about it, now. If she had worried about it enough to wake up from it, I didn’t want her to panic for no reason. It was probably nothing.
Anna huddled under the covers again, and I did the same. We lay facing each other.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
Anna smiled. “No regrets, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It wasn’t what I was asking,” I said laughing. “I meant physically. But I’m glad to hear it.”
Anna blushed, and it was beautiful. She blushed often. She was pure and naïve, and I was privileged to have been her first. Her cheeks flushed when she was shy about something, and it made me want to compliment her all the time only to see her blush again and again.
“I’m a little sore,” she admitted in response to my answer. “That’s normal, right?”
I nodded. “I think so. It’s a little different for guys, but it makes sense.”
Anna nodded, her hand on the pillow in front of her and she didn’t make eye contact. I took her hand in mine, intertwining our fingers.
“What can I get you?” I asked. “Do you need anything? Breakfast in bed?”
She smiled but shook her head. “I would love a shower,” she said.
“Coming up,” I said and slid out of bed, finding a robe to wrap around me now that I wasn’t in the warmth of the bed. Anna followed me to the bathroom, and I showed her how the shower worked before she stepped in. I watched her body as the water ran down her skin, and I had to turn away, or I would get in with her.
“I’ll get you something you can wear,” I said and closed the bathroom door behind me. Before walking to my closet, I walked back to the wastepaper basket and inspected the condom. When I had picked it up, the condom had been emptier than it should have been. I was probably being paranoid, but it didn’t look right. I inspected it even closer, searching for a tear. I found something that looked suspicious, but it was hard to tell without getting my come all over my hands.
I took the condom to the kitchen and wrapped it in a plastic packet before putting it in the larger kitchen bin. I didn’t want it lying around for no good reason.
I returned to the room and found a pair of my boxers, tracksuit pants and the smallest long-sleeved shirt I owned. I took it to the bathroom along with a fresh towel and knocked on the door.
“You can come in,” Anna said. She was still in the shower, rinsing her hair and suds ran down her body. I focused on the towel and the clothes.
“Here you go,” I said. “It’s my clothes. I don’t have anything else you can wear, unfortunately. And here’s a towel.”
“Thank you,” Anna said, and I left the bathroom without tempting myself by looking at her another time.
When Anna emerged from the bathroom, she was dressed in my clothes, and even though I had made an effort to find the smallest clothes, she still looked like she drowned in them. She looked adorable, though.
“Warm enough?” I asked.
Anna nodded and looked down. “It’s not exactly a fashion statement, but I appreciate it. Thank you.”
“I think you look great,” I said, and I meant it.
Anna laughed. “I think you’re biased now that you got some,” she joked, and I was surprised at how casually she joked about it. Women made a fuss about something like that so quickly. It was refreshing to see Anna be so natural about something that had been such a big step. Again, I felt privileged that she had chosen me as the person to lose her virginity to. It made me feel like I had done something right, even though most of my life had been a fuck up.
“Can I ask you a favor?” Anna asked.
“Anything,” I said, and I meant it.
“Can you drive me to my car? My bags with my clothes and makeup are in the trunk.”
I nodded. “Sure. We can leave right away if you want.”
Anna nodded, and we bundled ourselves up in our thick jackets, ready to head out into the snow. It wasn’t snowing when we stepped outside, but the snow was thick.
“It’s so beautiful,” Anna said, looking around.
“It is. I can never get used to it,” I answered. I opened the truck door for Anna and shut it again before I climbed in behind the steering wheel. We took off, and I drove back the way I had come when I’d found Anna that night. She explained to me what she had done, where she had driven and then walked, and I drove to the shut-down gas station. We backtracked her path and finally found her car a mile from where I had found her. The car was snowed in.
I helped Anna scrape the trunk open, and we retrieved her bags.
“Which rental agency did you use?” I asked.
Anna shook her head. “Oh, no. I bought it. I think it’s a piece of crap. We should just leave it here.”
“Well, we’ll have to leave it until the snow and ice thaws, at least,” I agreed. I couldn’t believe Anna had bought a car. Why would she do that? Everything about Anna was mesmerizing, but every so often, she would say something that just didn’t add up. Again, I got the idea she was on the run, somehow. At first, I had found her nearly frozen to death out here in the middle of nowhere. She had taken the wrong turn, headed to a place she didn’t know, and she acted weird when I asked her certain questions about her past. And now this. Who bought a shitty car like this, on impulse? Who had enough money for that, and who decided to just ditch it? Something was up.
Whatever it was, I was inclined to believe Anna had a reason for running. She didn’t seem like the type of person that would be running from the law. Rather from someone she was in trouble with. And if that was the case, I wanted to protect her. I was naturally a protector, but with Anna, it was so much more prominent. She wasn’t mine, by a long shot. But something possessive had woken up inside me. I wouldn’t tell her what to do or force her to stay—I wasn’t that type of guy—but when I looked at her, especially since we’d fucked, something deep inside me screamed “mine.” It was at a primal level. The way some species mated for life and knew that they had found their mate.
We loaded the bags into my truck and drove back to the cabin where Anna changed into her own clothes. She looked stunning when she came out in her own jeans and a sweater, but I had wanted her in my clothes. It was sexy as hell when a woman wore my clothes. It was another territorial thing.
When Anna came out, she had a cell phone and a charger in her hands.
“Do you have a power outlet where I can charge this?” she asked.
“I do, but it’s not going to help you much,” I said. “There’s no cell service here. But if you want to charge it for your memos or games or something, you’re more than welcome to.”
Anna shook her head, looking disappointed. “I was hoping I could make a few calls. I have people who will be wondering where I’ve disappeared to. I don’t want them to worry.”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m going into town tomorrow to get supplies. Why don’t you come with me? Then you can make your calls while we’re there. It’s not a very far drive.”
Anna nodded. “Thank you, that would be great,” she said.
I wondered who she wanted to call. I wondered if she had someone in her life. It was far too late to be wondering things like this, now. I should have asked her if she was available before I had made my move. But I hadn’t been able to help myself, and apparently, neither had she.
I wanted to ask, but I had no idea what to say. “Hey, we fucked but are you seeing someone?” It would sound stupid.
So, instead of asking, I started making small talk. I explained to Anna that in the summer when it wasn’t so cold and there was plenty of food out there, I set up traps for woodlands creatures.
“Do you hunt your own food?” Anna asked, surprised.
I nodded. “It’s cheaper than having to run to the butcher, and I grew up learning how to hunt, skin, and cook game.”
Anna raised her eyebrows at me. “You’re so different than any of the men I’ve had in my life before,” she said.
“I take that as a compliment,” I said.
“You should.” Anna smiled.
I cleared my throat. “In light of what we did I think this question is a bit late, but you don’t have a boyfriend or a husband or something, do you?”
Anna blinked at me.
“I’m sorry, I have to ask,” I said. I hoped to God she wouldn’t say yes.
“No,” Anna said, but she sighed so heavily after she said it I had the feeling there was a hell of a lot more to the story. But she wasn’t going to share, and it wasn’t my place to ask. All that mattered was that she had said she was available, and it made me feel on top of the world.
“How about you?” Anna asked, and the strange mood that had befallen her was gone. She was smiling again.
“Oh, yeah. I have three of them in Dillon alone.”
Anna laughed. “I don’t think you’d be able to do that in a town as small as Dillon.”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even be able to pull it off in a city like New York. But no, I’m free and available. And interested in you.”
Anna blushed again. God, I loved it when she did that.