Fresh Ice (29 page)

Tension released itself from his neck and shoulders and flowed down his arms and through his fists and into the bag. Soon, he started to feel better
so he eased up on the bag. Then he heard a gasp behind him.

* * *

Late that night, Sarah woke up alone and looked everywhere for Nathan. In the hallway, light spilled out from beneath the door of the spare bedroom. When she took a peek inside she saw a distressing sight.

She stopped in her tracks and watched
Nathan pummel the punching bag in the middle of the room. Sweat glistened between his shoulder blades. His muscles moved and flexed under his bare skin. It probably would have been a beautiful sight under different circumstances but Nathan looked even more focused than Dwight as he delivered blow after calculated blow to the bag.

Fear gripped its cold
, evil hands around Sarah’s chest.

She gasped at the sheer power and strength of
Nathan’s punches. Realizing she’d gasped out loud, she stumbled backwards to leave the room before he could see her only to bump her elbow on the door jamb. She cried out in pain and rubbed her elbow.

Nathan turned to see her and rushed over to help. He cupped her arm and bent down to press a kiss to her elbow.
When his lips touched her, she shivered.

“You sure are gentle for being so angry
,” she said shakily.

Nathan
pulled back and looked at her so intensely she held her breath. “I’m not angry when you’re around.”

“What is
this
?” she asked, pointing to the punching bag. If this wasn’t anger then she didn’t know what was. “What are you doing in here, Nathan?”

He
stood up, grabbed a towel from a nearby chair and wiped it over his face. “This isn’t anger, Sarah. I’m just working out. I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

“I wasn’t…I didn’t…” She huffed out a breath and tried again. “I don’t like seeing you like that.”

“It’s what I do to help deal with stress. You can only take a puck to the face so many times before you need to vent,” he joked.

“You mean you’re not angry?”

“I’ll admit I’m more than a little angry at your uncle but I think that’s understandable after what he did to you.”

S
arah couldn’t fault him for that. They both had their own ways of dealing with life. He beat the crap out of a leather bag and she read books.

“It’s okay to feel emotions
, Sarah,” Nathan told her. “We just have to find a healthy way to work through them. This is mine. This is my…
outlet
. Wanna try?”

S
arah eyed the punching bag like it was a cow carcass hanging in a slaughterhouse. Shaking her head, she took a step back. “No.”

“
Take a swing at it.”

She shook her head again.

“It’s okay, Sarah.”

Slowly, she
stepped forward, reached out and touched the smooth fabric. “I’ve never hit anything before,” she admitted in a small voice.

“Just give it a good whack,” Nathan encouraged from behind her.

She fisted her hands, raised them and swung. Soft at first and then with more force when Nathan told her, “Harder.”

It felt foreign
and strange but Sarah could easily picture Dwight’s ugly face on the front of the bag. Nathan held the bag in place as she let loose, hitting the bag as hard as she could. She landed one punch after another until tears streamed down her face. She punched the bag for every time Dwight had called her stupid and worthless. For every time Troy had spit on her and pushed her down. For every time Dwight had hit her, slapped her, kicked her and clawed at her.

She punched until her knuckles ached.

After a few minutes, she choked out a sob and collapsed.

Nathan caught her and
held her as she cried. Her slender body shook violently. He held her as tight as he could without hurting her.

“I won’t go back to him. I won’t
ever
!” she cried.

“You don’t have to go back
,” Nathan reassured her.

“He’s out there looking for me right now, I know it. He won’t stop until he gets me back.”

“He’ll have to go through me to get to you, Sarah.”

“No! I don’t want violence. I just want him to leave me alone.”

“I won’t let him near you, I promise.”

“
Oh, Nathan, please don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Chapter Twenty
-One

Falling

Nathan
and Sarah crawled into bed, exhausted and mentally and physically drained. Sarah curled into his warmth and within seconds they both fell asleep.

Early t
he next morning, Nathan lay awake and pondered everything that had happened in the last few weeks.

There were two sides to the universe.
Devastation and reparation. Good and evil in a constant struggle to balance each other out. Sadness and bliss, pain and pleasure. Nathan decided it was time to for Sarah to experience pleasure.

The bedroom was dark.
The heavy drapes kept the sunlight out creating the illusion that it was still dark outside. Nathan had heard Kayla leave for work hours ago.

Nathan sensed Sarah was awake so he
leaned over and kissed her temple. The smell of lavender flooded his senses. He brushed the hair away from her face and let the silky strands sift through his fingers.

S
arah turned over to face him and kissed him back. Their tongues met and his tongue licked at hers with lazy strokes. When he deepened the kiss she didn’t stiffen. Instead, she arched into him and wound her arms around his neck. She ran her hand through his hair, liking how soft it was in her fingers.

She was wearing
Nathan’s torn shirt from the day in the salon. It was baggy and fell below her knees but the fabric was soft and smelled like him.

A sound of contentment escaped her lips when h
e caressed her breasts through the thin fabric.

He
deepened the kissed and she gave into the flurry of emotions he always made her feel.

When he
went to lift up the shirt, she tugged it back down again. She wasn’t ready for him to see her body yet. She probably wasn’t ready for any of this. But the room was dark and he wouldn’t be able to see her completely.

Still, s
he tensed in his arms. Then she remembered. There was nothing to be afraid of. This was Nathan. The man who had been kind to her. The man who had rescued her. The man who made her feel safe. The man who gave her butterflies and made her skin tingle.

She pushed the images of the past into the deep, dark recesses of her mind and locked the door on yesterday. Today was all about her and Nathan.

Taking cues from her body language and breathing, Nathan left the shirt in place and kissed her breasts through the soft cotton. When her nipples were hard and poking through the thin shirt, he took one in his mouth and gently suckled. She moaned and he did the same with the other. After taking turns kissing her nipples, he made his way down to her stomach.

Her breath caught in her throat when he
moved his hand further south and slipped it under the waistband of her panties. She gasped when she realized where his hand was wandering but her body arched with need.

He cupped her hip and slid his hand around to caress her belly.
Slowly, his fingers trailed lower to the thatch of hair between her legs. When he found her center she was already moist and ready for him.

She moaned
again and clung to his shoulders for dear life. Every protest she had was swallowed up by the blast of sensations radiating through her body. Because it was so dark and quiet in the room there was nothing else to focus on but the feel of Nathan’s hands gliding over her skin.

Ever so softly, he trailed feather light kisses down her body and settled between her thighs.
He tugged her panties down and pressed his lips to her inner thigh. Softly, he kissed her folds and gradually began using his tongue.

Whenever she stiffened, he went back to light kisses until she was ready for more. Soon, she started writhing with pleasure and clutched at the sheets. Gently, he inserted a finger inside her.
It was immediately enveloped by her warmth and wetness. Gradually, her breathing sped up. Her eyes were closed, mouth open. Simultaneously, he kissed her and slid his finger in a “come hither” motion. Then, he added a second finger and stroked her with it, slow and deep.

Finally, she
gave in to the wave of pleasure he created for her with his touch. Her muscles tightened around his fingers and she cried out with her release.

Nathan
planted one more kiss beneath her belly button before sliding back up to her face.

S
arah curled into him and hid her face under his chin and sighed. He held her for a minute before pulling her back so he could look into her eyes.

She smiled sheepishly.

“You don’t have to hide.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re beautiful and you deserve to feel pleasure. Please don’t be embarrassed.”

“Aren’t you going to…Don’t you
want to…?”

“Tonight isn’t about me,” he answered.

She squeezed her eyes tight and when she opened them again, he was still looking at her. “Thank you,” she said.

He caressed her cheek.
“I’m falling in love with you, Sarah.”

The words floated over her and enveloped her like a warm blanket.

Her hand fluttered up to cover her mouth. Tears splattered onto her hand. She stiffened, but he only held her tighter.

“It’s different than anything I’ve felt before
,” he said softly. “But I know its love. When I’m with you it feels so…right. And when you’re not around I wish you were.”

Falling in love
. Sarah had read about it time and time again but she’d never really understood it. Never could relate to it. Until now. She was feeling the same exact way. The butterflies, the anticipation, the comfort she felt when they were together. The angst when they were apart.

“You don’t have to say it back
,” he said. “I just wanted you to know how much I care about you.”

“I love you, Nathan.
With all my heart.” Even though she’d never felt love before, she could recognize the feeling she’d been experiencing ever since she first saw him. Love was that tingling feeling she got whenever he was around. Love was the butterflies in her stomach whenever he kissed her. Love was the warm feeling of being whole when he held her close.

He kissed her ag
ain and she melted in his arms.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Hammond Family Road Trip

When Dwight returned home after the air conditioning debacle, a whole new set of problems arose. It was amazing how people who owed him money suddenly thought they were invincible to the consequences just because he was out of town. So, Dwight sent Troy to collect the debt and
voila
, wouldn’t you know it, the guy coughed up the two G’s. Dwight needed that money to settle his own debt with his bookie.

On top of that, one of
Dwight’s dealers was arrested for assaulting his old lady. After a trip to the police station, Dwight cleared up that mess, too.

When it rained, it poured. Hopefully there would be a break in the clouds long enough to zip up to Red Valley and back. The longer he waited to bring Sarah back, the harder she was going to kick and scream.

Finally, with his business settled and Dottie’s A/C fixed, Dwight and Troy headed out to make another go of it.

Dwight
stepped out the front door and squinted into the early afternoon sun. Man, he hated the sun. Why he decided to shack up in southern California, he didn’t know. He really should start thinking about relocating up north somewhere. Washington only had a month’s worth of sunshine a year or something like that, right?

Troy went around to the passenger side and opened the creaky door with a huff. His beefy hand curled protectively around the handle of his
little red ice chest like it contained a heart for transplant. Dwight hoped it was full of enough snacks to last the entire trip so he wouldn’t have to stop at every convenience store from here to Red Valley.

Dwight opened the
driver’s side door and as he was reaching for his sunglasses on the seat, Troy hefted himself into the truck.

“Don’t sit on my—“

Crunch
. Troy’s fat ass came down on the sunglasses, cracking the flimsy frames in half.

“—sunglasses.”

Troy lifted up and pulled out the broken frames. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Dwight snatched the
crushed sunglasses away from Troy’s chubby fingers. “Shit!”

If this was a
ny indication how the trip was going to go, they might as well call it quits right now.