When she emerged from the shower, Alex was still fast asleep, so after doing her daily check of the still-dead phone, she decided to go outside. Her horse, Barney, was used to eating at the exact same time every day. It wasn’t good for a horse’s digestion to have the time vary from day to day. Unfortunately, since Alex had come, she’d had to time her slipping out to coincide with his naps. One, because he was fun to hang out with while he was awake, and two, because she figured he would shit the proverbial brick if he knew she was wandering around outside.
Not that she was scared of him, Genevieve hastened to reassure herself. But why worry him if it was unnecessary?
The sun was out, so bright it hurt her eyes where it shined against the snow. As Alex had noted yesterday, the snow had stopped falling. She hadn’t listened to the radio yet, but no doubt the roads were on their way to being plowed out. Soon her telephone service would be restored. Since Alex was almost back up to speed, in another day or two, one way or another, he’d be on his way home. Genevieve rubbed at her chest. God, why did that hurt so much?
She entered her ramshackle barn and leaned her shotgun up against the outside of Barney’s stall. “Hey, buddy.”
He answered her with a whinny and she smiled. Now this she understood. Her animals had become her friends over the past few years, a silent sounding-board for her worries and problems.You’re starting to sound like a demented Disney princess.
Genevieve winced. Okay, maybe she’d become as weird as the gossips made her out to be. Alex had reminded her how nice it was to talk to someone who talked back. Though she had to say, she’d never enjoyed the company of any of her friends the way she enjoyed his…
Drop it.
She sighed as she finished taking care of Barney and closed the stall. She needed to stop mooning over the guy. As she left the barn and started trekking through the snow back to the house, she contemplated if that was even a possibility. Maybe they could have a sexual marathon for the rest of the day. She could work him out of her system a little faster.
Genevieve was so caught up in imagining the new sexual positions they could try out that her mind didn’t quite grasp the sharp crack that rang through the air. It was only as she felt the whiz of the bullet near her ear that she comprehended someone was shooting at her.
Though adrenaline pulsed through her body, her mind remained collected as she swiftly calculated the distance between her and the two buildings. Since the cabin was closer, she ran full tilt toward it, conscious of the bullets spraying the ground behind her feet. The sound of the gunshots was obscenely loud in the still winter morning.
When she was about four feet away from the house she heard Alex roar her name, and for the first time, pure panic flooded through her. Oh God, no, he couldn’t come outside, he could get shot. When the door opened and Alex ran out into the sun, she put on a burst of speed, hurtling through the door and right into him. She kicked the door closed and dragged them both to the floor. “Get down, get down!”
“Genevieve, what the hell…”
They were both breathing hard, her from her flight, him, presumably, from fear. “Someone shot at me.”
“I could hear that.” His arms were trembling as they wrapped around her. Taking her by surprise, he rolled them over until his body lay over hers. He was protecting her, she realized. “Were the bullets coming from just one direction?”
“I-I don’t know. I just wanted to get away.”
He squeezed her. “Okay. Stay here.”
He rose on his knees, and Genevieve dimly grasped that he was still completely naked. “What are you going to do?”
“I just want to see if I can see anything out the window. Give me the gun.”
She became conscious of her fingers locked tightly around the gun barrel. She’d forgotten she even carried it. Responding to the command in his voice, she almost handed it right over before she pulled back. “Wait. That’s stupid. The shots have stopped. Don’t give the guy a target.”
“We have to see if anyone’s there.”
He pulled the gun from her hand and stayed low to the ground as he moved over to one of the windows. He flicked the curtain aside and peered out.
It took Genevieve a couple of seconds before she understood she was just lying on the ground like a damsel in distress. She firmed her jaw and crawled over to the opposite window.
“Get the hell down and away from the window.”
“I’ll do it when you do.” She looked out the window, following his example and keeping her body angled away. She was struck by a strong sense of déjà vu, as she was recreating her exact position when she’d found Alex.
She had a feeling she wouldn’t be coming across a hunky guy in need right now, though.
The front yard was ominously silent and empty. A rustle of the trees on the west side caught her eye and she glanced quickly to see a flash of silver and a glimpse of something tan. “Did you see that? Over there, to the left.”
Alex went stock-still and they both sat in strained silence. Nothing moved. Shaken, Genevieve turned to Alex. His expression was frozen, intense, but he couldn’t hide the paleness of his face or the sweat popping out on his brow.
Between the sex they’d shared and the way she’d just body slammed him to the ground, he was going to be hurting a bit. “Alex, go lie down. I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m not letting a woman stand guard over me while I do nothing.”
“That’s stupid.”
