She was standing in front of me looking so seriously at my hair. It was utterly adorable, and I couldn’t take another moment of it. I grabbed her and tried to pull her toward me, but she pulled back.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m cutting your hair. No distractions right now.”
She was so serious that I had no choice but to listen and remove my hands from her ass. Jordan didn’t even look me in the eyes as she put the longest guard on the shaver and began working the machine over the top of my head. Her eyes stayed glued to her work, and I smiled as I watched her.
“Now?” I asked as she put the shaver down.
“No, I’m just changing blades. You behave yourself, mister.”
She worked with a different length blade and moved around my head again as she blended everything in. She took her time, and I was beginning to think she was purposely taking forever.
“Now?” I asked again.
“No, I still have to do your beard. Anyways, you said there were things we needed to do outside. I think we should go get them done before the snow gets too bad, don’t you?”
“Nope, I have something else I want to do.” I playfully grabbed her ass and pulled her toward me.
She had the razor in her hands and started working on my beard without even blinking. I held onto her for a moment and then reluctantly let her go as I saw the determination in her eyes. Jordan wasn’t about to stop working until she had finished making me over.
“I’m almost done. Hold still,” she said and thrust my chin up into the air, so she could work on the neck area.
“You look so serious. How often do you cut people’s hair?”
“Never.”
“What?” I said as she moved the razor over my jugular. “You said you knew how to do this.”
“I’ve watched a ton of videos on it.”
“Oh, no,” I groaned as I closed my eyes and hoped that she hadn’t done a horrible job. “It’s okay. I’m not that picky,” I said more to reassure myself than anything.
“It looks fantastic if I do say so myself,” Jordan said as she kissed me.
Right away, I felt the difference of having my beard out of the way. I could feel the girth of her lips across mine. The next thing I thought of was what her other lips would feel like if I was kissing between her legs.
“I like it.”
“You haven’t even seen it,” she protested.
“Well, I like how it feels. Let’s go test it out.”
“No, no, no … we have work to do, remember? And plus, you have to go look at it in the mirror and tell me if you really like it or not.”
I did as she asked and went to the bathroom to take a look at her hair cutting job. She had done fantastically. My hair looked almost identical to what it was in the picture except it was a little shorter on top. My beard looked pretty damn good too, the shorter length looked sophisticated with my short hair.
“Very nice work. I think I’ll hire you to do my hair all the time,” I teased.
“If you have a straight razor, I can clean up the edges, and it will look even better.”
“Maybe later. I’ve got something I want to test out first.”
I grabbed her and lifted her up as she yelped out playfully. The chores were just going to have to wait. I couldn’t wait another minute before I tested out this new shorter beard.
“Caleb, we have stuff to do.”
“Later, right now I have you to do,” I joked and threw her gently onto the bed.
“I’m not going to be any help to you on the chores if we do this,” she protested.
“I don’t care. I’ll do them all by myself. I have to taste you again. I can’t wait. It’s impossible.”
She pulled me down to her and kissed me hard. I knew by the energy in that kiss that she also wanted to feel what my new beard length felt like on her body. I just couldn’t get enough of Jordan. I didn’t care if we were trapped there together for a month—I planned on enjoying every last moment of it.
Chapter 15
Jordan
He did feel different against my skin. I’d expected him to be smoother, but the shorter beard actually felt prickly against my soft center. Maybe I was going to have to shave the whole thing off, so I could really get a good feel from him.
We made love well into the evening. It ended up being so late when we finally finished that there were no chores happening that night. Instead, we hung out on the couch each with a book as we cuddled up with one another.
“So, this is what you normally do with your nights?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ve usually been working so much during the day that I’m ready to crash. I like to read, though, it calms my thoughts before I head to bed.”
“Do you have a hard time calming your thoughts normally?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you come to the mountains? It couldn’t have just been because of a girl. What else was going on?”
It was a heavy question to be asking someone after only knowing them for a few days, but our relationship wasn’t normal at all. We were stuck together in this intimate setting, and I honestly thought he would answer since I’d talked so freely about my past.
“There were a lot of things going on at the time. Money wasn’t an issue, and I’d spent my life attaching my self-worth to my job. I had to clear my head, at least that was why I was here in the beginning. Then it changed.”
“How?”
“I think that’s enough for tonight. Let’s finish our books,” he said as he started to close off to me.
I heeded his warning and went back to reading my book. Getting to know Caleb was going to be much harder than I thought. Then again, I wasn’t sure why I actually cared so much. I was only there for a few more days and then I’d go back to my life in the city and he’d still be up in the mountains hiding from his life. Nothing would ever come of whatever was going on between us. Even if we managed to meet up one or two more times, there was no way to maintain a relationship if one person was hiding away in the mountains.
We both fell asleep reading our books on the couch. Being stuck in a mountain cabin was turning out to be more exhausting than I’d expected. I’d slept for a few hours when I woke up freezing and realized the fire was almost out. After putting the last logs from inside the house onto the flame I decided to head outside and do the regular wood routine.
Although it was dark out, the light from the moon lit up the entire area around the house. I could clearly see between the house and the shed and started shoveling the path clear before rotating the wood up to the porch. Even though we had plenty of wood, it was nice to have something to do. I couldn’t just sit in the house all day and night; that wasn’t my personality at all.
I loaded a couple trips of wood from the shed to the porch before I realized the shed door was open. It wasn’t just slightly opened, the thing was wide open, and I was sure some sort of animal was going to decide to use it as a shelter if it wasn’t already in there.
For a good ten minutes, I stood on the porch watching the shed to see if there was any movement. I didn’t want to go down there and find a bear or some other deadly animal hiding out.
With all the noise I had been making loading the wood onto the porch I finally decided that there was no animal in the shed. Surely it would have already tried to attack me while I was picking up wood and carrying it to the house. I looked around one last time before making my way toward the shed.
Suddenly, the beautiful moonlight seemed more like horror movie lighting, though. As I walked closer to the shed, some clouds moved in and started to cover the light from the moon. My heart raced at the change in feeling I got. I quickly reached for the shed door and pulled it tight before running up the path to the house.
Then I froze. Never in my life did I expect to see what was in front of me. I wasn’t hallucinating. This was real. He was there. He was standing at the top of the stairs with a large ax in his hand and a blank stare on his f
ace.
“Nice to see you, Jordan,” Peter said without a hint of emotion.
I ran. I turned around and ran for my life. As much as I wanted to believe this was a dream, a nightmare, I knew this was real life. Peter looked different than he had at REI just a few days before. His hair was cut short, and he was dressed in a large parka, a warm hat, and gloves. Peter was prepared for this weather. He was wearing tall winter boots, and as much as I wanted to continue to try and process how on earth he had found me, I knew this wasn’t the time to figure it out.
“Caleb, help!” I yelled as I ran to the shed and got inside. I shut the door behind me and found a piece of wood sitting next to it that worked perfectly to wedge under the knob and hold the door shut.
I grabbed everything I could and pulled it in front of the door as I tried to protect myself from Peter. As I braced for him to pound on the door and try to break it down, I was becoming increasingly nervous by his lack of attack. It was just silent outside.
The only window on the shed faced out the opposite side, and I couldn’t see Peter out that direction. I lay down on the ground and tried looking out under the door, but I couldn’t see anything out that way either.
“Caleb!” I screamed again. “Caleb!”
“He’s dead, Jordan. He can’t help you now,” I heard Peter say from the other side of the door.
“Peter, I thought you were better. I thought you were doing well.”
I had to calm myself down. Peter loved me, that’s what this was all about. If I could just stay calm, he wouldn’t hurt me. He just wanted me back, that was it. I had to stay calm; it was my only hope.
There was no way he had killed Caleb. No way. I’d only been outside for a few minutes with the wood, and the front door was still closed when I saw Peter standing there. It had to be a lie. He was just trying to get into my head. Caleb was a way better fighter than Peter. Caleb was stronger and bigger. Caleb wouldn’t have been killed easily; I knew in my heart Peter was lying to me. But I still had to see Caleb for myself to be sure. The thought of Peter going into the house and using that ax in one fateful swing at Caleb’s sleeping body was all I could think of.
“If you believed that pile of shit, then you’re stupider than I thought you were,” Peter spewed harshly. “I’ve been waiting for you to be in a quiet place like this. I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to torture you slowly and make you feel the pain you made me feel.”
“Peter, I didn’t torture you,” I argued.
“I loved you. I dedicated my life to you, and you threw me in jail, Jordan. You did indeed torture my soul, and I’m going to torture your mind and body as repayment. The only true redemption for you is to die.”
He was talking so differently than he had been at REI. It was like a demon had taken him over. This was the Peter that had nearly killed me so many years ago. This was the man who went to jail for his actions, and I was terrified of what he would do if he got hold of me.
Caleb had to be okay. If Caleb was hurt by Peter, then I surely wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. I frantically looked around the shed in hopes of finding something that I could use as a weapon. There were a lot of tools, rope, and even some stain for the wood, but nothing seemed as good as that ax. He could literally chop off one of my limbs with that thing before I could get close enough to hurt him with the hammer I grabbed for protection.
“Peter, there has to be something you want. What can I do to make you feel better?”
“Don’t even try it,” he said in a sedate voice as I felt him pushing against the door. “You can’t talk me out of this. I know what I have to do.”
“Peter, you just got out of jail. You don’t want to go back there do you?”
“Shut up!” he yelled and then threw the ax at the door.
The tip of the instrument peeked through the wood of the door. It was stuck there, and I contemplated making a run for the house. If he didn’t have his ax, then maybe I could make it into the cabin and wake Caleb up. But what if Caleb wasn’t sleeping at all? What if Peter had murdered him? Then I’d be running into a house and trapped there with Caleb’s body while I waited for Peter to kill me too.
I stayed put. Frozen in fear I watched as the ax disappeared from the door after some grunting and tugging on Peter’s part. I had to wake Caleb up. He had to be alive. That was the only option for me. Caleb was going to save me; I knew it.
“Come out right now, or I’ll just chop this door down,” Peter said in his eerily calm voice.
“No.”
He didn’t actually think I was going to just walk out there on his comment; I knew he didn’t. My time with Peter had been a world ago. I wasn’t the same girl who just did what he wanted me to do. I was stronger than I’d ever been with Peter. I was mentally and physically stronger than Peter could even imagine.
“Jordan, I’m not going to tell you again. Come out of there.”
“No!” I yelled back. “Caleb. Help me, Caleb!” I continued to scream.
The distance of the shed from the house was far enough that I was sure Caleb wouldn’t hear me unless he actually was outside. He had to wake up. Caleb had to wake up and worry where I was.
A loud thud radiated through the shed as the ax hit the door again. It was in a different spot than the last time, but it had made its way slightly further into the door. I could see a good quarter of an inch from the ax blade. It was only a matter of time before Peter made his way in there.
My stomach churned, and vomit came close to coming up as I stood in fear. My hands were shaking, and my eyes were unable to focus from the fear; this wasn’t how I wanted to die. I had a long life ahead of me. I was going to get married someday. I was going to be a mother someday. No way was I going to die on this mountain at the hands of Peter.
The fear started to become drowned out by my determination to live. I grabbed one of the cans that were filled with wood stain and started to hit it with my hammer as I screamed for Caleb.
“Caleb. Wake up!” I made as much noise as I possibly could as Peter continued to try and tear down the door to the shed. “Caleb. Help! Help!”
Terror, like I felt at that moment, wasn’t something I wanted to feel ever again. Helplessness, powerlessness, it was all so overwhelming. I just had to wake Caleb up. Caleb would save me. He was okay in that house—I just knew it. Or at least, I wanted him to be okay.
Luckily for me, Peter was horrible at swinging the ax. He continued to swing and hit a new spot each time. The ax was so heavy that it got stuck in the door, and he had to yank it back out after twenty or thirty seconds of pulling on the thing. When he finally hit one of the same holes from an early swing, the ax made a much larger hole in the door. Large enough that I knew I had to make a new plan. I couldn’t just wait for Peter to get into the shed and kill me.
Since I didn’t know if Caleb was alive or not, I had to plan for the possibility that he wasn’t going to save me. I had to save myself. Then it dawned on me—Caleb had a gun in the house. I remembered seeing it hanging up by the door. It was a rifle, and although Caleb didn’t seem like the sort who was into hunting, he probably needed it to make sure he could stay safe if a large bear came at him.
I was going to get into the house. There were a few problems with this plan, but the biggest was that Peter was standing in the middle of the path back to the cabin and currently swinging a large ax at the only door of the shed. I’d have to figure out a different way into the house, or at least some way to distract Peter long enough for me to make my way to the house.
Then it happened. He swung the ax into the door, and it wasn’t coming out as fast as it had in previous attempts. I quickly turned toward the small window and decided to get out of the shed. Peter was grunting and pulling on the ax so loudly that I didn’t think he’d hear me climbing out the back window.
It was a risky move. At any moment, Peter could decide to walk around the shed, and then I’d be exposed to him. My only hope was that he still t
hought I was inside there, and he was going to continue trying to break the door down. I wasn’t the sort of girl who made risky moves. My entire life had been me pretty much trying not to rock the boat or upset anyone. I picked the safe option, or at least the option I believed to be safe at the time. But not now, this time I was going for it. This time I was going to take a risk and save myself from whatever it was that Peter had planned.
From the back of the shed, I saw the ladder that Caleb had put against the back of the house. It seemed like ages ago that I’d been staring out the bedroom window looking at Caleb as he worked on the roof.
I heard another loud thud from the ax and knew it was my opportunity to make a run for it. Peter was going to see me run past, but I just had to make it to the house. If I could make it to the front door, I could grab the gun, and I’d take care of Peter for good.
Guns were never my thing. I actually hated them, but if my life was in danger, I was going to do whatever was necessary. The snow was deep as I moved around to the side of the shed and focused on the front porch. Running wasn’t exactly what I was going to do, more like walking quickly with my legs moving high and deep in the snow.
Go, go, go.
I glanced over at Peter as I moved past him; he was still trying to get the ax free. I made it past him a few feet and thought I was in the clear as I approached the steps to the cabin. Then I felt it. Pain. Unexplainable pain as my body fell to the ground, and I screamed out.
“No!”
As I fell to the ground I turned to look at Peter. He was standing over me with his ax in his hand, blood dripping off it. My blood. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t sure if he had cut my foot off or what level of damage had been done; all I knew was the pain in my lower legs was so excruciating that I started to shake as I screamed out.
Then something fell from the porch right on top of Peter. I was dizzy, and my vision was going in and out as I tried to figure out what had happened. It was Caleb; Caleb had leaped from the porch, over the railing, and on top of Peter. He was alive! It was such a relief to know that Caleb was alive, and he was there to take over.
Accidentally His Page 15