Page 12 of Ash
ChapterTen
Lainey
“And you decided to do that naked?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. At first, when he had skidded to a stop in the snow around me, I had thought I’d been imagining it. But cradled in his arms with my face against his chest there could e denying it.
Ash was naked.
“Oh.” His feet slowed and a blush crept up his throat. “That.” He didn’t elaborate and to be honest he could have come to rescue me in a tutu for all I cared. I wanted off this damn mountain, I wanted painkillers and ….
He jostled me slightly, the smallest of movements and a scream ripped out of my mouth before I could bite it back. The noise of it echoed through the still air. Ash froze. His face mirroring the pain on mine almost like he could feel it.
“Sorry, sorry I didn’t mean.” He mumbled as he began to walk again and every step, he took made me sob afresh. Maybe the adrenaline from the crash had finally started to leave me because the pain was unbearable It was washed over me in sickening waves. “I need to get you down…”
The fingers of my good hands scraped down his chest. More claw-like than human. I didn’t even think twice about drawing his blood. I needed to let the pain out some way. Screaming was good but holding on for dear life was better. Not that it helped much. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, and it felt like I was spinning again.
“Shit.” He slowed to a stop again. “Shit, I need to check you over. You won’t make it down the mountain…” Ash was mumbling, talking more to himself than me.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my breathing which sounded raspy in my ears, it drowned him out. So I didn’t catch what he was saying, none of it really made sense until he set me back down on the floor. “What?” my eyes flew open as fresh cold seeped through my jeans.
“I’ve got to go, and I can’t carry you without hurting you more.” His rough fingers smoothed the ratty hair away from my face. It was such a tender gesture that I leant into the palm of his hand before I could help myself. He was so warm, even without his clothes. And that warmth was comforting. He kept his hands on my face for a second. And then stood. I stared up at him, craning my neck to peer up at his face.
“You’re leaving me here?” I blinked back tears mixed with snow. He couldn’t possibly be leaving me, right? “Ash, please don’t leave me. I won’t make a sound. I'll be quiet just take me…”
He was down on his knees in a split second. Cupping my face in his hands his eyes searched my face. “Only for a minute Lainey.” He whispered his voice calm and soothing and yet full of panic underneath. “I am only leaving for a second. You need help…”
“I won't last Ash, not if you go to get help from the others. Please.” I scrambled for his wrist holding his hand to my face so he could feel the tears falling down my cheeks.
“Not leaving you Lainey, never leaving you again.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I was in too much pain to ask him. All I knew was that I didn’t want him to leave me. I needed him. when he was around, I felt safe. Not because he was so big and imposing but because his very presence calmed me. Most of the time anyway. There had been moments in the past where the feeling he invoked in me were anything but calm.
What was wrong with me, I was injured on the mountain and in the middle of the worst storm in a century and I was thinking about the chiselled body I had glimpsed. The monster I had seen between his legs. I could be dying, and I was thinking of his dick.
“I’m going to get my pack, it’s on the road. I have a medic kit inside and some other bits we are going to need.”
“Just to the road?” I wanted my voice to be strong, to show him that I was made of harder stuff than I was. I don’t even know why I cared but I did. I cared what he thought about me. it didn’t come out strong though it came out weak. Pitiful. “You promise you won’t leave me…”
“Lainey.” He rocked back on his heels. “I promise. I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone. Close your eyes for a second and when you open them again, I’ll be back with my pack and the supplies we need to get through the night.”
I did what he asked because what other choice did, I have? But I must have opened them much sooner than he expected because when I did. he was standing there. and his junk was so close to my face that even through the pain I blushed scarlet.
He was naked. Naked on a rescue mission to save me from the storm. I had a million questions about why, but I knew those had to wait.
“Please come back Ash, “ I whispered as I closed my eyes again. Half through the pain and half because I should not be staring at his junk at a time like this.
Or any other time I reminded myself.
Keeping my eyes tight shut, I let my mind wander. I knew Ash liked me. I had seen the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn’t looking. And I had liked it or maybe it was that I liked him.
Or maybe it was just the fact that he had rescued me. Maybe what I was feeling was nothing more than gratitude.
Gratitude and a whole lot of lust.
