Speechless Read Online Free

heart sped up, but she didn’t know whether it was at
his direct answer to her thought or at the threat implicit in his words and low
voice. She heard the words he did not say echoing in the nighttime silence of
the cabin, “of me”. She was right to be afraid of him. She let go of his hand and
he withdrew his arm. Eva shivered.
    Who are you?
    He traced a line down her cheek and she suddenly realized
just how dangerous he was. Just how much power he had over her.
    “Fear protects you, Eva.” He raised himself onto an elbow
and looked down at her. “I don’t want you to be hurt because of me. The less we
are connected, the less you know about me, the safer you are. I will do
everything in my power to get you home safely. Don’t ask me for more than
that.”
    You’re not a consultant .
    This thought, apparently, he could not read in her
expression, for he leaned over and set a kiss in the center of her forehead.
She took it as a rebuff, as his way of saying, “I care about you, but not that
way,” without having to actually acknowledge that he knew what she wanted.
    “Do you need another painkiller?”
    Eva did, but she didn’t want one or the wooziness it
brought. But then, it might help her other ache—her ache for him to touch her,
her longing for him to change his mind and bring his lips to hers. He read her
like no man had ever been able to read her—like no one at all except perhaps
her mother—and certainly faster than anyone. She felt open and vulnerable and
she could not help imagining how he would read the rest of her body.
    Stone moved suddenly, swiftly, rising to sit on the edge of
the bed, his back to her. He ran a hand through his hair, rose and snatched up
a shirt and his shoes.
    “I’ll be back.”
    He was out the door before he’d pulled the t-shirt
completely on. Eva stared after him, confused, lost, bereft.
    * * * * *
    Stone paused outside the door just long enough to pull on
his hiking boots and wish he’d taken the time to grab a jacket. Then he started
walking, keeping to the edge of the lake and judging his position by the soft
splashes of the miniature waves that washed the pebble beach. He tried to
identify what had driven him out of the cabin, but he couldn’t follow what had
happened, his tracing of events hitting a brick wall every time he reached the
moment when he realized Eva knew he’d lied about his profession. Even in the
dim light, he’d been able to read every thought on Eva’s face, every
conflicting fear and desire, the accusation that he was not who he said he was.
He’d kissed her—a chaste kiss to be sure, intended to soothe, but a kiss all
the same, moist lips against warm skin. He felt himself harden just thinking
about the merest contact between them. He’d had his arm around her for God’s
sake. And he wanted to lie like that again with her safe inside his embrace,
both of them peaceful, secure with each other. He bent to snatch a rock from
the beach and he hurled it toward the lake with a roar.
    She was just another woman! Why did he feel so connected to
her? He felt as if she were wide open to him, like everything she thought or
felt flowed directly from her to him. And he’d suddenly realized that she felt
it too, that she would let him take advantage of that openness if he wanted to,
that she feared and embraced it and would let him read not only her expressive
face but her body as well. Exploring their connection, her every response and
thought guiding his touch.
    He flung another stone and another, as far as he could throw
them, then continued his circuit of the lake, trying to put distance between
himself and the woman he’d so foolishly rescued, between his rational needs and
his physical desires. He suddenly wished he hadn’t smashed her cell phone so
some form of rescue could be called, even if it meant questions asked, names
recorded, lies told.
    He was a third of the way around the lake when he noticed
the light strengthening. The water