“Sweetheart, I can drive this road blindfolded. Besides, I'd much rather look at you.”
Celine faced the window, trying to hide the furious blush stealing over her face. He'd been like this since they'd hit the mountain, as if once they'd turned down this overgrown beaten path he'd finally allowed himself to relax. He was acting how he did when they first met, like the past couple of months never happened.
He was acting like the man she’d fallen so hard for in the beginning.
After leaving the Pentagon, he'd had her ducking and hiding every time they hit a stoplight. Even after they ditched the car and he'd stopped to buy them food and clothing, he'd insisted she hide her face under the most god-awful ball cap and pair of plastic sunglasses she'd ever laid eyes on.
“I know it's not much, but that sedan wouldn't have made the climb.”
Celine turned and caught him glancing at her from the corner of his eye, both hands on the wheel now as he slowed their breakneck speed.
“At least the car had air conditioning.” Her clothing clung to her skin in the sticky heat of the cab thanks to its non-functioning a/c unit. She should be used to it after her little trip through the desert.
But what she wouldn't give for a long hot bath and a big glass of sweet ice tea.
“That ac wouldn't do you any good when we got stuck halfway up the mountain and you had to hike to the cabin.” He turned a sharp right unexpectedly and Celine slid across the slick padded leather bench seat and slammed into his side. His arm immediately went around her waist and anchored her in place. “If you wanted to be close to me, all you had to do was ask.”
She allowed herself to savor him pressed to her for a second, feeling every inch of his body that touched her and then planted her hands on his side and shoved, sliding back to her seat and latched back on to the handle for support. “You did that on purpose.”
Why couldn't she just turn this attraction off? She still didn't believe he was here of his own free will, not really. He'd been ordered, otherwise he never would have given up on his chance for revenge. She wouldn't have.
Knowing he'd at least started out with her because he had to, not because he wanted to, enforced her need to keep her distance.
Then he gave her that big goofy grin, making it really hard to hold on to her anger. “Absolutely.”
Celine ducked to hide her smile. She’d done nothing but given him the cold shoulder and he had failed to reciprocate. Instead her snarky comments seemed to bounce off him like pebbles on steel, not even leaving a scratch.
In fact, he’d been nothing but a gentleman, trying to tease her dark mood away. Forcing her to repeat the words O'Keefe had said at the Pentagon to remind herself that this was all just a front for him. Another mission.
“Look, just up there.” Aaron pointed directly in front of them where the road seemed to come to an abrupt end and slowed the truck as he eased around a dense copse of trees and brush, revealing an A-frame style log cabin nestled in the pines.
The deep reddish wood held a large front deck about a foot off the ground with a solid wood door in the center. There was a window on each side and then one larger pane of glass in the top point. The yard stretched out wide from the sides and a small shed stood sentry on the left.
“Welcome to paradise. We're over fifty miles from the nearest human being. Best of all, no one, not even Noni, knows about this place.” Aaron put the truck in park and killed the engine.
“Do we have electricity?” Celine sized up the cabin once more, wondering how long she'd make it with no TV or music or a blow dryer. “Running water?”
Aaron popped his door and hopped out, reaching into the back for their bags. “Why don't you come on inside, let me show you around.”
Avoiding the question. Nope. No shower meant no Celine.She'd suffered enough in that hell hole overseas, the filth becoming a living thing covering her body. Even now, the drying sweat on her skin itched and screamed at her to scrub it off.
She got out, the sun barely above the tree line and followed Aaron up to the front deck. She half expected the door to creak open on rusty hinges, a little off kilter with spider webs drooping down from a rotted out old ceiling. Instead what she saw was surprisingly...nice. Polished pine floors and dark brown leather furniture arranged in a half rectangle around a large stone fireplace.
The walls were pretty bare and painted a deep hunter green. Through an open doorway to the right lay a matching kitchen with new stainless steel appliances and dark wood cabinets.
Directly in front and above the living room stretched a wide loft with a narrow set of stairs along the kitchen wall leading up to it.
Aaron stepped inside and sat the bags on the ground, the department store plastic crinkling loudly in the silence. “What do you think?” He put that careful expression on again, the one where his forehead smoothed out and his mouth relaxed, but his eyes reflected his concern.
He was worried what she thought about his cabin?
“It's clean.” She hedged unwilling to throw a complement his way just yet.
Aaron took the comment and ran with it, breaking into a big smile. “Built it all myself. It's perfect don't you think?
Surprise filtered through her. “You did this? When? Aren't you gone all the time?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but usually not for long. This is where I like to come and decompress after a tough mission. Helps me get back to being a human being again.”
