Nate glanced out at the area behind her as he spoke.Always protecting me.Too bad that meant they had to be hands-off.
Shaking those thoughts away, Gracie stood a little taller. Whining and complaining wouldn’t help the situation, so she decided to try and make the best of it. After all, they were going to be sharing a cabin on a lake.It won’t be so bad, right?
A long stretch of rolling thunder passed over them and a big, fat raindrop landed on her cheek. She nearly laughed at its ominous timing.
It would be just her luck to be stuck inside a cracker-box cabin with the one man she wanted but couldn’t have.
Naturally, for the next three days, that was exactly what happened.
It had rained and stormed nearly non-stop since their first night there. The good news was that Nate was able to spend a lot of quality time with his computer, working to figure out why someone wanted to take her. The bad news? There was no T.V.
While Nate was busy working his magic—as he called it—she’d already finished reading the last of the only two romance novels the little log shop had for sale.
And why she’d decided to read romance at a time like this was beyond her. The last thing she needed rolling through her head right now were stories of endless love and hot, steamy sex.
With a loud sigh, she put the book down onto the end table next to her chair and went to the sliding glass door. The view would be beautiful, if it weren’t for the constant cloud coverage and pouring rain.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Gracie stared out at the dismal-looking lake. For what felt like the millionth time lately, she wondered how she’d gone from being excited to start a new chapter in her life to hiding out from someone who tried to kidnap her with a man who’d barely spoken to her since they’d gotten here.
It didn’t help that every time he walked into one of the cabin’s three rooms, her heart did this funny fluttering thing, and her insides began to tingle. The man had kissed her like a sexual god after she’d nearly been taken. Too bad he’d barely given her a second glance these past few days.
Logically, Gracie understood why Nate hadn’t made any sort of advances toward her since that day in Jake’s office. He’d been upfront with her from the start about how things had to be.
Their boss had declared this an official R.I.S.C. case, and Nate was in charge of keeping her safe. He’d told her he needed to stay focused on that, which meant nothing more could happen between them until this whole thing blew over.
He was definitely a man of his word.
Though, she’d argued with him that first night, Nate had insisted on taking the couch and giving her the bed. The bottom half of his legs hung out over the arm, and it was so narrow he’d had to remove the back cushions just to keep from rolling off.
Gracie was deciding whether or not she should try to get him to take the bed tonight when a pair of strong hands began rubbing her shoulders from behind. Startled, she jumped, but didn’t turn around. Instead, their eyes met in the reflection of the glass.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Afraid to move for fear he’d stop touching her, Gracie shook her head and smiled. “You didn’t.” She could see one of his dark brows lift at her claim. “Okay, so maybe you startled me a little.”
She loved the way his reflection smiled back at her. “You seemed very deep in thought. Anything you want to share?”
Uh, definitely not.Gracie did her best to act completely normal.
“Just tired of all the rain. I know we aren’t exactly here for fun, but I was hoping since wearehere, maybe we could…I don’t know. Go swimming or hiking or something.”
Immediately wanting to smack her complaining self, she turned to face Nate. As expected, his hands dropped back down to his sides.
Ignoring the intensity with which she missed his touch, she apologized.
“Sorry. That sounded completely ungrateful. I didn’t mean it to be.”
“I know what you meant.” He smiled down at her. “I’m sick of being cooped up, too.”
Tilting her head toward the computer set-up on the coffee table, Gracie asked, “Have you been able to find anything useful?”
“Not yet, but I’m not giving up. Neither is anyone else. Gabe texted earlier to say he and the others were checking up on a possible lead Ryker found, so I’m waiting to hear back about that.”
Gracie nodded, but didn’t verbally respond.
“Hey.” He tilted her chin up then waited for her eyes to meet his before continuing on. “I know this is hard. The waiting’s the worst. Not to mention being stuck in here with me.”
Nate smirked, and she knew he was trying to make her smile. Good thing he didn’t realizewhyit was so hard being trapped in the cabin alone with him.
