Nina took a deep breath and forced her mind to do something else. Eventually, she would have to stop this pity party and find a way to move on to a new life. One without her family and friends.
She couldn’t hide out here for much longer before someone found her. She and Tucker might be the only ones who knew about this place, but that wouldn’t protect her for long. Her big brother would eventually seek her out.
Pain sliced through her. She had to face facts. Tucker wasn’t her brother and neither were Levi or Mason. Everything. God dammed everything was a lie. Her whole stupid life!
Nina surged to her feet, unable to sit still another second. She needed to do something. Anything. She searched the immediate area for something to throw. Since no one had used this cabin in quite a while there wasn’t much to grab. She settled on the hand carved coasters sitting on the coffee table and flung them across the room.
Unfortunately, her aim was off and one crashed against the window.
She gasped, waiting for the glass to shatter. When it didn’t she didn’t know whether to sigh in relief or cry in frustration. She couldn’t even have a proper fit.
Instead, she dropped back onto the couch and let her head fall into her hands.
“Feel better?”
Nina screamed and scrambled across the side of the couch, seeking cover while searching for something to use as a weapon.
“Whoa. Whoa, it’s just me.”
Nina barely heard him over the roar of her pulse as it rocketed straight into orbit.
“Gabe?” She peered over the arm of the sofa to find him standing in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling most of the space around him. Was her mind playing tricks on her now? How could he—
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just you looked pretty frustrated and I didn’t want to interrupt until you were done. Are you done?”
She lifted her hand to her chest and tried to calm her racing pulse while also choosing to ignore his sarcasm.
“You did scare the hell out of me. Have you forgotten how to knock?” She rose to her feet and moved away from her hiding spot while keeping plenty of distance between them. “And no, I’m probably not done, but the urge to throw something else right now has temporarily subsided.”
He arched his brow, a questioning but sexy look on the man she could technically still call husband. Or could she? He could have had their marriage annulled by now. She pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter. She had no right to call him anything.
However, that didn’t stop her from noticing everything about him. Such as how delicious he looked standing there, with his tousled dark hair and three-day-old scruff on his face that made him look even hotter than usual. And that was saying something considering every time he walked into the same room as her, he took her breath away.
Taking a moment to take more of him in, she also didn’t miss the way his dark slacks hugged his legs to perfection (probably tailored like that on purpose).
Or the way his long sleeve thermal shirt hugged his broad chest and thick arms. Then there were the buttons undone at the neck that allowed her to get a peek at the muscles and tattoos that always made her hands itch to touch him.
She’d never denied what a fine specimen of manhood he was. And even if she tried, the flutters low in her stomach would call her out as a big fat liar.
But it was the intensity in his eyes as he stared back at her that made it difficult for her to maintain eye contact. He’d yet to cross the cabin threshold and she already felt like a captive from a single look. Or maybe hunted. Yeah, hunted. That seemed to fit this scenario much better.
“How did you find me?” She immediately waved her hand in the air. “Never mind. I know. Only one person could have told you about this place. The traitor.”
Gabe stalked forward and closed the door behind him. “You consider Tucker telling a desperate man where to find his wife traitorous?”
The word wife zinged through her like a bolt of lightning, a flash of heat left behind in its wake.
“Not much of a wife now am I? In fact, I would have expected you to have our marriage dissolved by now.” It was a sham anyway, although it hurt to admit even if only to herself.
“I have no intention of having our union dissolved, so you can get that thought out of your pretty little head. We made a deal that you belong to me now, even put pen to paper to make it official and I’m here to make sure you live up to your end of the bargain.”
