I found myself mumbling, “Fuck, Daisy.”
The words were complete surrender.
Succumbing to the one person I had never been able to say no to.
“Get dressed, and I’ll take you back to my cabin. Temporarily.” I emphasized the last.
A warning.
One I pretty much directed at myself.
“Until I understand what’s happening and we can figure out a plan.”
Relief blasted through her being, and her shoulders sagged with her exhalation. “Thank you, Cash. I know you didn’t expect us…I mean…I haven’t seen you in years.” She laughed an unsettled sound. “But I…” I watched her gulp before she whispered and peeked up at me. “I need you.Weneed you.”
I couldn’t stop the way greed smacked through my being at her words.
I need you.
That right there should be the inciting factor. The one thing that had me packing up their things and dumping her at The Sanctuary.
I could not afford the reaction she incited in me.
I leaned closer, trying not to breathe her in. Or maybe that was exactly what I wanted to do.
Gulp her down.
Devour her.
Consume her in a way I’d never gotten the chance to do.
“Once we get to my place, you’re going to answer every fucking one of my questions.”
Her nod was choppy, and she peeked up at me with those cornflower eyes that did something stupid to my senses.
On bare feet, she spun around so she was facing me as she fumbled backward in the direction of her kids, holding that towel to her body as she tossed me one of those playful looks like she used to do.
“I see you never stopped being bossy,” she mumbled before she turned around and hurried for the tent.
“You have no idea, Daisy. Not one fuckin’ idea,” I grumbled to myself as I stood there wondering what the hell I was getting myself into.
“Whatcha doin’?” The tinkling voice came from the little girl who crouched beside me, so low her butt nearly touched the ground.
She had her tiny arms wrapped around her knees as she grinned over at me with far too much interest.
I rolled the flimsy tent into a ball so I could stuff it into the bag. “Packing,” I grunted.
“Why you packing it? We not camping anymore?” she asked in a slight babble.
Frustration lining my bones, I grunted again, this kid cute as fuck and messing with my head. “No.”
“Iwikecamping. Do youwikecamping?”
Air huffed from my nose. “Yeah.”
One-word answers were the most I could get out. Hell, one-word conversations were normally my forte. I lived out here for a reason. No one around me for miles.
Isolated.
