“No, Angel.” She didn’t correct me, tell me to call her Angela. “You are perfect.”
She blushed bright red. I fucking loved it. I turned and reached for the chips in the pantry. When I did, a sharp pain shot into my shoulder. I felt the scab pull open and blood seep out. When I touched the back of my shirt, it was drenched in red.
“You can’t just leave that, you know,” Angela commented dryly.
Fuck, she’d seen me wince. “What’s the alternative? I can’t reach back there to stitch it up.”
Angela paled a little, the redness in her cheeks from her blush draining away. “You stitch yourself up?”
I nodded, wondering why she looked ill.
“Oh, God,” she said and pressed her hand to her mouth. “I can’t do this.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Blood.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t do well with blood.”
Ah. I didn’t understand people who couldn’t deal with blood. It only added to her purity, though. To her innocence. I’d lived my whole life with blood, spilled a metric fuck ton of it myself. To see her shy away from it was refreshing. Endearing.
There was no end to how this woman surprised me.
“We’re going to a doctor,” Angela declared.
“No fucking way.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. I’d turned to face her, and now that she couldn’t see the blood, she didn’t look like she was going to keel over.
“What is your problem? You don’t have to be the big macho guy all the time. You have a hole in your shoulder,” she said, emphasizing the word hole. “If you don’t get that fixed, it might get infected. Ever heard of septicaemia?”
I grunted a negative sound as I stared at her. Of all the shit I've had to deal with in life, diseases weren’t one of them. “I never even get a fucking cold. I don’t need a doctor.”
“It’s blood poisoning. From terrible infections. It can kill you.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She was trying to look out for me. It was sweet, but I wasn’t going to a doctor. They would ask my name and other questions I didn’t want to answer. I didn’t want to be in the system.
“Where do you go for your supplies?” Angela asked.
“Snowmass.” It was a small village where most of the employees who worked at the ski resorts commuted from.
“Bet they have a clinic there.”
“Bet we’re not going.”
Angela’s lovely face contorted into a scowl. “It’s not all big and strong of you not to go, you know. If you get sick because you refuse to look after yourself, that’s not manly. It’s stupid.”
Was she… challenging my manhood? I lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t go to the doctor.”
“Well, I can’t stitch you up and you keep reopening it,” she complained, glaring at me. “It’s ridiculous. Go to the damn doctor.”
“Angel, you need to mind your business,” I reminded her.
“And you need to mind your body!” she yelled, walking closer to me and poking me with her finger. “If you get sick up here, I can’t do a thing about it! I don’t know how to get out of here! I sure as hell couldn’t carry your big ass out of here!” She sucked in a breath. “Go to the damn doctor!”
I stared at her, enthralled. Her face had pinked with anger and yelling. A little shocked, he was amazed by the fact that her beauty was almost ethereal. He wanted to kiss her more than he had before, and he couldn’t bring himself to argue with her as he looked down at her.
“Fine,” I bit out. We could go. But Angela was not taking her phone. I didn’t need her calling anyone. I didn’t want her to cause trouble unnecessarily. I would hide the fucking thing before she could think of it.
The doc already knew me; I’d met him when I’d bought supplies. I’d given him a fake name and could do it again. And I’d pay in cash.
“Good,” Angela said, deflating a little when she realized I wasn’t going to put up more of a fight.
I both hated and loved that she’d challenged me. No one had in a long time; no one had cared enough to. I wasn’t used to that and couldn’t get used to it. I could take care of myself. But she had a point –this wound needed to be taken care of. I couldn’t afford to get sick. I sure as shit couldn’t afford to be weak if Maksim decided to come for me.
When that happened – and it was just a matter of time – I needed to be in tip top shape so I could end that motherfucker for good.
“Where is it?” Angela asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“Not too far.”
“How do we get there?”
“On foot,” I told her, having every intention of wandering about so she wouldn’t remember the route. Once I found out who she was, that she wasn’t a danger to me, I’d ease up on the restrictions.
Angela nodded, looking dejected. “I was hoping if we could go there, I could go home.”
“You don’t want to be here.” I didn’t want her to go, but I wouldn’t admit it.
She shook her head. “It’s not like that. I just… well, a fresh change of clothes might be nice. And a toothbrush.”
“We’ll take care of it in town,” I said.
I was a fool. I hadn’t thought about what she might need. Truth be told, I loved looking at her in my shirt and nothing else. It made my cock hard and I had to control myself so I didn’t think too much about fucking her, but I still liked it. But she was probably uncomfortable. I would get her whatever she needed. Then she could stay with me for a while longer. I tried to convince myself it was for my safety, not because I enjoyed having her around. If I admitted to the latter, I would have to admit that I liked her. And that was a bad idea.
I couldn’t have her. She didn’t want someone like me in her life. And that only meant that I was going to fall short. My fucking heart would get broken, and she would walk away without a scratch.
I tried to clear my mind and think of something else.
I needed to get some wood chopped now that the rain had stopped. I glanced at my axe on the porch. The blade was getting not just blunt, but chipped, and I’d been meaning to drop by at Axel’s for a new blade.
Axel was one of my few acquaintances on the mountain.
His past was just as dark as mine. We each had our reasons to live beneath the shadows, and the forests of the mountains gave us just that.
I’d managed to tuck myself into the woods so far away no one but Axel knew where to find me. He was my neighbor – a couple miles away – though he knew well to stay the hell away from my place. And I didn’t go near his without warning. Axel and I were not comrades, though he’d offered me work.
He made his living as a lumberjack, had noticed I was good with an axe, and asked if I wanted steady income. I wanted to keep my hands busy, so twice a week I went into the forest and found the best trees, chopped them down, and made quick work of cutting the large trees into lumber that could be used at the mill or when Axel was in the mood to build some furniture.
One thing I appreciated about Axel was his need to replace what he’d taken, and though I thought it a waste of time at first, I’d learned the value. At least one day a week, alone as usual, I planted trees, replacing what I’d taken. I didn’t believe in karma or any of that bullshit, but planting the trees was a good start.