"I'm okay," I said to reassure him. I leaned in and kissed him back. His hand went to the back of my neck. My heart was pounding so hard I worried he could feel it.
"Come on," he said, taking my hand and leading me to the couch. There were two cups of hot cocoa on the floor. He picked one up and handed it to me as we sat. He put an arm around me, holding me close. It was nice. No amount of guilt would make me deny that. I pushed it away, sipping my hot cocoa, feeling his hand brush through my hair. When we had had sex, everything around us had disappeared, and he had been all I felt. I tried to do it again, on the couch with him. It was just us. There was nothing wrong; it was just us.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cameron
I was cold; that was what woke me up. I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Why was I up here... oh, right. I had slept in the bed last night. Well, we had fallen asleep eventually; other things had happened first. I scrubbed a hand over my face and stretched. I felt good. Great, actually. That might have been one of the best nights that I had ever had. It was good being back in the bed after the last couple nights on the couch, but it might have been my partner last night that had really done the trick.
She must have been up already. I was alone in the bed. I got up, looking around the loft. Where was she? I would have thought downstairs, but I couldn't hear anything.
"Natalie?" I called. No answer. Maybe she was in the bathroom, I thought. Taking a phone call outside perhaps. I looked around the loft. I hadn't really come up here since giving it over to her to use while she was here. Where did she put her clothes? I knew that she had had some, but I couldn't see them anywhere. I checked the dresser and closet where my stuff was, but it wasn't in there. Weird.
"Natalie?" I called again, coming down the stairs. She wasn't in the kitchen or the bathroom when I checked. I unlocked the deck and looked out there too but nothing. Where the hell was she, I asked myself, opening the front door and looking out on the porch. I heard a car—her car.
I could just make her out behind the wheel as the car pulled out and she started down the driveway towards the road.
"Shit," I said, running out to the porch. I called to her, but she didn't hear me. Where the hell did she—
I stopped. She turned out onto the road, and her wheels gave out, sliding across the ice, off the road towards the trees lining it on one side. I ran inside to get some shoes on and hurried back outside. I ran out onto the road to her car. It seemed alright; it wasn’t smoking or on fire or anything. No apparent damage. It had skidded on the ice and gotten lodged in the snowbank by the side of the road. If that hadn’t stopped it, ramming sidelong into the trees would have. Her door was open; I went over to help her out.
She seemed okay too, apart from the fact that she apparently thought that she’d be able to get anywhere in her car. The ice and snow were inches thick; hadn't she said herself that I'd need a snowmobile up here to get around?
"What the hell, Natalie? What were you doing? What the fuck were you thinking?" I asked, getting her out of the car. She looked at it, stuck in the snow, and cur
sed.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking down. "I just..."
"You just what? What happened?"
"Last night? What we did? It was a mistake, Cameron." Mistake? I was pretty sure it had been the best night I had had in a long time.
"What are you talking about?"
"I shouldn't have asked you to come to the bed. I shouldn't have come onto you."
"Come onto me?" I asked. I was pretty sure I had been the one who had made a pass at her, not the other way around. Who had done what wasn't important right then. She was upset, so upset she had driven her car off the road trying to...shit. Had she been trying to get away from me?
"You're Mr. Porter’s son. I shouldn't have," she stopped and cursed, burying her face in her hands.
"Hey, Natalie," I said, taking her wrists and pulling her hands away from her face. Shit, was she about to cry? I didn't want that. This wasn't as serious as she thought it was. I didn't want her to feel bad. She looked at me and sighed.
"Your dad was my boss. This isn't supposed to happen. You and I last night wasn't supposed to happen." She had been saying something very different last night, I thought, remembering the two of us in bed. She had been more than eager to get the ball rolling the night before. I’d never forget her begging for my cock, moaning as I fucked her. You didn’t go from that to this in a matter of eight hours. She needed to cool it. Maybe she thought her job was in trouble or something. I tried to calm her down.
"It's not that serious, Nat," I said.
"Yes, yes, it is," she insisted. She was getting upset.
"Okay. Okay. Let's... let's just get you back in the house first, alright?"
She grudgingly let me lead her back into the cabin. Well… good morning to me, I guessed. After the night we had had, I had been expecting something different, let’s say that. Best case scenario would have been waking up to her with my cock in her mouth, but I would have settled for some coffee and the woman I had just slept with not trying to walk out on me before I had gotten up. In the beginning, I had felt a little iffy about making a move too. I could get that. But now it had happened, and it had been incredible. Every move I had made, she had responded to. Every word, every touch, and now this. She had tried to run away. Literally.
I walked into the cabin after her and told her to go sit on the couch. I went to the kitchen and started some coffee before going over to the fireplace. She was sitting, running her hands through her hair, clearly anxious.
"Are you hungry?" I asked.
"No."