I shrink back from him, spinning around just as the thunder hits. My heart jumps in my chest. I start to move quicker to the door of my studio. I’m already soaked through to the bone. The temperature dropped surprisingly fast, making me shiver when I step into the AC.
I turn around on the stoop to see him walking away, back toward town.
“Hey!”
He turns to face me.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Just stay inside, Summer. The windows are impact-resistant.”
He turns away again, and fear spikes in my veins.
I run out after him, grabbing his elbow. “You can’t go out in this! Get in here, you crazy asshole.”
He looks down at my hand on his elbow for a brief moment before following me inside. It’s early evening, but with the gray clouds, it looks much darker.
I walk inside, shivering as I grab a clean beach towel and start drying my hair. Dayton picks one out from the basket by the door and dries his face off. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and dries it, too, before checking his weather app.
A few seconds later, his jaw tics.
“What is it?”
“High winds and a flash flood warning. The local weather service says to take cover away from windows and to conserve water. We might lose power.”
“The house …” I whisper, covering my mouth with my hand.
Dayton’s expression is grim as he continues drying his body off. “We need to focus on our immediate safety.”
He searches my lower kitchen cabinets until he finds my big soup pot. He starts filling it with water.
“Do you have any flashlights or candles?”
I nod, pointing to the drawer they’re in. He opens it and pulls out two flashlights and a lighter. As soon as he turns off the water filling the pot, the power goes out.
My heart thunders inside my chest. I immediately step toward him. He switches the flashlight on, and I realize we both moved closer together on instinct. I don’t want to analyze what instinct made me do that. I glance at the windows as the wind howls outside.
“We’ll be safe here. These windows are built for hurricane weather. Only a bullet could bust that glass.”
He licks his lips, stepping toward me. “I really was just on a walk when the rain started. I didn’t intend to even come this far, but …” He swallows. “I saw the gray clouds and decided to make sure you were okay.”
The ice around my heart starts to thaw. I nod as a shiver passes over me. The AC inside is still on.
After a brief pause of debate, he flickers his amber eyes over me. Finally, he gives up whatever battle he was waging inside and wraps his arm around my shoulders. I’m shivering, so I lean into his comforting body heat. My teeth are chattering.
I hate storms. My dad died from getting caught in a storm, riding his motorcycle. The eighteen-wheeler driver never saw him through the downpour.
“Let’s get you out of this wet T-shirt. You’re freezing.”
I look down, realizing my nipples are poking through the thin layers. He sets the flashlight down on the counter so it shines over us and helps me peel the soaked shirt off.
He’s already seen it all, so I untie my bikini top. He sucks in a ragged breath.
I halfway expect him to start kissing me or to initiate sex, but he doesn’t. I wiggle out of the bottoms, dropping them onto the growing puddle on the floor.
He looks like he’s in physical pain as he wraps me up in the beach towel and massages the goose bumps on my arms. I freeze when he presses a kiss to my wet hair before moving over to my dresser and pulling out a pair of comfortable boy-shorts underwear, my thickest gray sweatpants, and my Save the Turtles T-shirt.
When he comes back over, he slides my head through the hole of the T-shirt before pulling the towel away. With each of his gentle movements, my anxiety over the storm eases.
