Page 36 of Tempted To Be Mine

Another knock. More insistent this time.

I dragged myself out of bed and shuffled to the door, pulling it open with what I hoped was a sufficiently unwelcoming expression.

Jeremy stood there, holding a tray. The smell hit me before I could even process what was being presented. Roasted meat. Fresh bread. Something savory and warm that made my stomach growl audibly.

“You have to eat,” he said, not waiting for an invitation before stepping inside. “Otherwise you’ll never get warm. Food is fuel. Your body needs fuel to generate heat.”

“Did you Google that, too?”

“Not funny.” He put the tray on the little round coffee table. “Turkey sandwiches. Fresh from the kitchen. I also grabbed some of that potato soup with real bacon bits.”

I looked at the food and decided I was starving. “Fine,” I said, still pouting a bit. It wasn’t his fault I was frozen. “But only because you went to all this trouble.”

We settled onto the couch together. The sandwiches were incredible, thick slices of turkey on crusty bread with some kind of cranberry spread that was both sweet and savory. I devoured mine in what felt like seconds, barely pausing to breathe.

“Hungry after all?” Jeremy asked, smirking.

“Shut up.”

He laughed and handed me half of his remaining sandwich. “I had one in the dining room.”

I took it without argument, too tired to pretend I didn’t want it.

The food was good and I had to admit, Jeremy was right. I did feel warmer. More human. Less like a popsicle with hair.

He pulled the little plastic cover from the bowl. I watched as he opened the little pack of crackers, crumbled them and dumped them on top before stirring it up. He’d seen me do that a hundred times. I wondered how many meals we’d shared together. I liked tomatoes and he liked pickles. We didn’t bother trying to complicate orders at restaurants and swapped once we got our burgers.

I took the bowl and the first bite hit hard. I felt the warmth sliding down my throat. I could practically see little fire bits spreading out from my belly and chasing away the last of the cold. I ate half of it before my stomach finally told my brain we were full.

The drowsiness that had been lurking at the edges of my consciousness came rushing back. If it wasn’t Jeremy, I’d wonder if there had been sleeping pills slipped in my soup. My eyelids grew heavy. My body sank deeper into the couch cushions. The cabin was finally hot. My toes toasty. My belly full. The craziness of the last twenty-four hours kicked my ass all at once.

I was vaguely aware of Jeremy saying something. My head felt too heavy to hold up. I let it fall, finding the solid warmth of his shoulder. Everything else faded away.

Safe. I felt safe.

12

JEREMY

Ifroze and it had nothing to do with the cold outside. Her head rested on my shoulder with her body relaxing into mine. I felt her trust in that moment. I never expected anyone to feel that way, especially not Lucy. Her breathing evened out almost immediately. The slow and steady breaths that only happened after complete exhaustion.

Poor woman was wiped out.

Alaska had not been kind to her. I thought about the day. I’d seen her standing near the propane heaters with her hands buried in her pockets. She’d been stamping her feet against the cold, watching me chop firewood in a suit. She’d never once complained. Not when the van got stuck briefly on the access road. Not when the wind cut sideways and knocked her beanie clean off her head. I had watched her chase it across the frozen ground and jam it back on. I knew she was frustrated, but she never said a word. She’d gone right back to checking her phone like nothing happened.

She’d showed up for me. Like she always did. And what had I done? Flew her six hours north of nowhere so she could stand in subzero temperatures watching someone else get photographed.

Guilt crept in. I’d dragged her out here to Alaska. She hadn’t wanted to come. The cold, the wildlife, the bush plane from hell were her version of a nightmare. None of it was her idea of having a good time. And yet here she was, because I’d asked her to be.

I’d told her I needed her. I told her I couldn’t function without her by my side. I hated admitting that it was true. She kept my life running smoothly in ways I didn’t fully understand and probably took for granted.

But the real truth? The one I didn’t like to admit to myself was far simpler.

I just liked having her around.

Seeing the world with Lucy at my side over the last few years had been the best time of my life. We clicked in a way I’d never clicked with anyone else. She was honest with me, brutally so sometimes. She had no problem calling me out. If I did something stupid, she told me. She didn’t do it gently or hide behind a bunch of nice words.

I’d come to crave that honesty like oxygen. Too many people in my life blew smoke up my ass. They told me whatever they thought I wanted to hear. Managers, agents, random women, they all had an angle. Everyone wanted something. My body. My time. My name.