I opened the window just an inch to let in some of the fresh air.
A cool breeze licked my cheek.
Isabella’s parents seemed very quiet, their arms no longer wrapped around each other.
Instead, they were focused intently on his words.
I listened closely and was surprised when I could pick up on snatches of his whispered words.
Words of warning.
“An unknown… stranger… should be careful… Isabella… fragile...”
I couldn’t make out the entire conversation but I got the gist of it.
I was an unknown quantity and he was warning them not to take any risks with me.
As Liam climbed back into his cruiser, he cast a look up at the house and caught me looking down at him.
His face was unreadable, bereft of emotion.
As he pulled away, Isabella’s parents drifted back inside, lines of concern etched on their faces.
It was a good idea to be careful, especially with strangers.
Especially with one who didn’t know what he was capable of.
Isabella
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why I’d let a perfect stranger into my home.
I mean, yes, I was there when he fell from the sky, and yes, I was the one who called the ambulance and hung around the hospital until I knew he would be okay, but that didn’t mean I had to take responsibility for him, did it?
I had my own issues and concerns to deal with.
I didn’t need to be babysitting a guy who was a stranger even to himself!
And yet, I hadn’t hesitated to invite him into my parents’ home, to stay in my brother’s old room and wear his clothes.
I’d learned through hard experience that strangers really were something to be afraid of.
They were something you shouldn’t allow to enter your life unless you were certain they were reliable and wouldn’t slit your throat the first chance they got.
I took a seat at my old desk and buried my face in the palm of my hands.
Calm down, I told myself.
Breathe.
Stop panicking.
I’d never responded like this with strangers before.
But then again, since I’d returned home, I hadn’t crossed paths with a stranger even once.
I knew everyone around Ashbourne.
I grew up surrounded by them, knew all the juicy details of their past and their exploits, knew more about them than I ever cared to know.
Nothing had changed.
Nothing, until Clint showed up.
My eyes rose to my bedroom door.
He was there, I thought. Right on the other side of that door.
In my brother’s old room.
He would be trying on his clothes right now.
How could I have been so stupid?
How could I have let a complete stranger—a big stranger with enough muscles to wrestle Bully (our bull) to the floor in a single round—into my life?
I knew what strangers were capable of.
They could tear my life apart, could take my best friend in the whole world with them, and disappear her like a magic trick.
But the truth was, I felt something with Clint.
Something about him drew me in, tugged at me like I was attached to balloons.
I would float into the atmosphere if he wasn’t there to anchor me down.
It was a very strange feeling, one I wasn’t used to.
To be dependent on someone else.
It wasn’t in my nature.
I was an independent woman.
At least, I used to be.
The stranger that abducted my friend had implanted a kernel of fear deep inside me.
When someone passed me on the street, they made me start.
I had to hurry into a store and sit in one of the changing rooms or restrooms until I calmed down.
It got to the point where I could no longer function in the real world any longer.
But when I saw Clint, I felt something much deeper.
He didn’t scare me, didn’t put me on edge as many other people did.
He looked like a lost child—a big, muscular child I admit—who needed my help.
And I couldn’t deny the sudden racing heartbeat in my chest or the cold sweat that broke across random parts of my body.
Well, some were random, others were predictable…
My cheeks flushed at the memory of seeing him in his hospital room for the first time.
I’d come to pick him up and bring him home.
The hospital staff was busy, constantly rushing from one ward to another.
His arms were muscular and tanned and his hair lay spread across his shoulders like a lion’s mane.
My eyes slipped down…
Down to that hard round ass and narrow waist.
Oh, my.
I turned away to stop staring but my eyes refused to leave.
I gazed like a cat at a nearby mouse ripe for the feast.
I even licked my lips, my mouth growing unconscionably dry.
I felt hot just looking at him.
How would it feel for him to be inside me? I wondered.
I slapped the thought aside but it rebounded back twice as strong.
I hadn’t thought about a man like that since that fateful day when my friend had been abducted.
I felt drawn to him, like a thread tugging on me from the center of my chest.
An entirely new sensation.
And as I edged forward to reach out and touch him, the nurse making the bed noticed me standing there.
My cheeks blazed brighter than a ripe strawberry as I introduced myself and invited him to my parents’ farm.
There was no way to go back on making that offer.
So what was I going to do now?
Give up on him and talk to my parents and help me to get rid of the stray I had invited into our lives?
That would go down as well as a lead balloon.
My parents would sagely tell me I had invited him into my life and now I had no choice but to live with that decision.
They were warm, caring people who never hesitated to help a lost cause.
Which is what I am, isn’t it? I thought wryly.
Wasn’t I every bit as lost as Clint?
Afloat in a sea of nothingness?
Weren’t we two souls adrift, lost to wherever the wind blew us?
And fate had blown him into my life.
And I had taken responsibility for him.
And with no way to shift him, that meant I had to
