My head throbbed from the impact on the steering wheel, but I wasn't dizzy, so I gave myself a minute to clear my head and look around outside before I pushed the door open. I didn't hear any other vehicles on the road, so I crossed it quickly, keeping off the road as I continued up the mountain.
The rain poured down in buckets, and less than a mile into my walk, I was soaked to the bone and shivering so hard my teeth clattered together violently. Golden light shone in the distance, but I couldn't be sure if I was really seeing it or if I was starting to hallucinate. "Help," I said, barely above a whisper, certain nobody could actually hear me over the rain.
My legs moved slower and slower, but I was determined to keep moving because I refused to die on the side of a mountain road after everything I'd been through the past few years. "Keep going," I urged as my steps became slower and more labored. "Don't. Stop." I didn't stop. It took what felt like forever, but I lifted one leg, and it landed on a step, so I lifted the other leg. Again and again, until my body leaned against the door, and I gave two half-hearted knocks with my palm.
My legs wobbled, but I dug my heels into the wet wood of the porch as my chest heaved and my breaths came out in empty, wheezing sounds. The door opened, and I nearly fell forward. "Sorry." I tried to look up once, then twice, before my gaze dragged up the tall, broad-shouldered figure with haunting gray eyes. "I, um, I need some… thing." Finally, my legs wobbled and gave out there on the rain-slicked wood, and everything went black.
I'm not sure what happened, exactly. All I knew was that I slept terribly. My dreams were strange, like hallucinations, visions, or something equally weird. It was a strange sensation, being locked into crazy visions that I couldn't explain or wake up to escape, but they didn't stop, and I was too exhausted to wake up and stay awake.
A few times my eyes opened, and I caught glimpses of the man with the silver eyes, but he never lingered for long. He gave a hard stare and walked away, giving off the impression that I was an unwelcome visitor, which I kind of was.
Eventually, the visions stopped, and I slept. I just slept until I couldn't sleep anymore.
Chapter 5
Xavier
Instead of just taking care of myself, I now had two extra people to take care of.That was the uncharitable thought that went through my mind as I passed the sleeping blonde who had collapsed in my arms three days ago.
Yep, three days. To be fair, she'd slept, albeit fitfully, since she passed out, so there wasn't much to do other than check that she was still breathing and her fever had broken. I had no clue if she was a lost traveler, a salesperson, or just an injured driver, but the small bruise that had formed on her forehead gave me some clue as to what had brought her to my doorstep.
It was impossible not to notice that she was gorgeous, even while doing a good impression of a drowned rat. Her thick, golden-blonde hair mostly covered her face, but I'd caught a glimpse of her almond-shaped amber eyes when she woke a few times over the past few days. She had a gorgeous, girl-next-door appeal even at her worst, which meant I needed her to wake up, get better, and get gone because I didn't need to see her appeal when she was at her best.
Nope. No, thank you.
I was already too invested in this woman and her well-being; watching her eyes flutter shut and her legs buckle had shaved at least a month off my life. She slept fitfully, but when she did, I took care of the baby, wasting two or three diapers with each change—and there were a lot. She ate like a grown man, which meant the canister of formula was damn near empty, and I couldn't leave, not with two females taking up all of my time and attention.
Finally, on day four, when I went to check on the woman I'd dubbed Sleeping Beauty, her amber eyes were open and a little wary as she sat up and looked at her surroundings. When her gaze landed on me, she blinked and then her gaze focused on my bare chest. "Hello?"
I flashed a smile at the way her voice went up at the end. "Hey."
"Um," she said, drawing the word out to about six syllables, her gaze swirling with uncertainty. "So, thank you for letting me into your home, and I apologize for the fright you must've had when I passed out." She let out a nervous laugh and covered her face. "I was driving up here for a job interview and the weather got worse and worse, so I slowed down, but someone going down the mountain didn't, and I swerved—too much, it turns out—and I hit a tree."
Shit.
Those amber eyes watched me carefully before she started to sway on the bed and clutch her head.
I went to her and gripped her shoulder just enough to grab her attention. "Relax," I whispered when her golden gaze collided with mine.
"I'm just... I'm sorry."
"It's fine," I lied. "Settle down. You hit your head."
She practically vibrated with nervous energy as she shook her head, as if that act alone could undo the past four days. "I can'trelax or settle down. I'm... how long have I been here? I have a job interview that I have to get to, like, yesterday."
A sinking sensation settled in the pit of my stomach at her second mention of a job interview. "Four days," I muttered.
Her eyes widened in shock, and her chest visibly rose and fell, quicker and quicker. "Four days? Please tell me you have a really strange sense of humor."
"I don't." No one who knew me would ever accuse me of having any sense of humor.
Her brows arched. "Ever?"
"Ever," I confirmed, barely able to hold back my smile in the face of her incredulous tone.
"That's too bad because I could really use a laugh right about now." Her shoulders fell in disappointment, and her eyes closed for a few seconds. When they opened again, she sat up taller in bed and squared her shoulders as if she were preparing for battle. "Okay. Thank you for the unexpected hospitality, but I, um, I should really get going."
I didn't ask how she planned on doing that because we'd come to it when we came to it.
