The Unexpected Storm

by Lorhainne Eckhart

Neil didn’t stop or turn away—he kept coming toward her. “Candy, you can be as mad at me as you want, but you’re not going near that horse. You’re going to get hurt. Look at his eyes! He doesn’t recognize anything as safe. He’s completely filled with fear, and you don’t know what he’s been through. He’s traumatized, and you walking over to him is going to get you hurt or killed. Please stop!”

  He was almost to her, and she wanted him to touch her, to slide his hands over her bare skin and make her feel things she had only dreamed about but never experienced. She wanted him to tell her she was the most important thing to him. She wanted him to desire her and to come for her, only for her, not because of the land or the storm. Just for her.

  She stepped back away from Neil, and his expression hardened and changed into something primitive as he set her donkey down. He kept moving toward her, and she stepped back again.

  “Candy, stop. Do not take another step.”

  But she shook her head, so wrapped up in her waterfall of grief and emotions that she couldn’t comprehend what was reasonable. All she could see was a man she loved so deeply, a man she needed to hate, a man who’d taken everything from her. She stepped back again and again, and Neil’s entire expression changed to one of panic. He yelled, but the sound was slow motion as she felt herself tumbling backward. Time slowed, and she felt nothing but a rush, consumed by a blur and darkness.

  Chapter 18

  Neil couldn’t believe he had just watched and could do nothing to keep Candy from falling. She was just out of reach; two more steps and he would have had her. It tore at his heart, the way she had looked at him with such heartbreak, as if she’d emotionally hit rock bottom.

  He’d spotted the shadow behind her and told her to stop, but she wasn’t about to listen to him. He didn’t know what to say to reason with her. He had been prepared to grab her, and he panicked and yelled when he saw the hole, but she stepped back, her expression dimmed as if she were resigned to her fate. He’d never seen such loss and defeat in someone.

  All Neil could do was stand and watch her fall back into the hole. “Candy!” he roared. He dropped the rope holding the donkey and raced to where she had fallen, looking down to where she lay thirty feet below in open water. “Candy, answer me,” he shouted again and watched as her head moved side to side, but her eyes were closed, and she was covered from head to toe in mud. Then her hand moved from her head to her leg, and she cried out.

  “Candy, I need you to talk to me. Tell me what hurts, honey! Can you move?”

  She blinked and looked up at him, and he could tell she was confused. She tried to sit up. “Neil, what happened?” she asked, and she sounded really weak.

  “You fell backwards. Candy, are you hurt?”

  She didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and she set her hands on the muddy wall, her legs in the water. “I think I’m okay.” She slid up like an old woman, and he could tell she hurt more than she was saying. She would have bumps and bruises for sure even if she hadn’t broken something. She groaned and leaned against the wall, wiping the muddy water from her face.

  Neil glanced around and spotted Ambrose a foot away with the rope. “Candy, hang tight for a second, honey, and I’ll get you out of there.” Good God. All he could think about was what this woman had put him through over and over. When he got her out, he was going to put his hands on her and shake her until he put some sense into her. He grabbed the rope on Ambrose and untied him. “Okay, big guy, let’s get your mama out of that hole. I expect you to stay here.” He knew he was taking a big chance with the donkey. He only offered the horse a passing glance. The animal was hurt, Neil could tell with one look, but he couldn’t do anything for him until he got Candy out.

  He wrapped the rope around his hand and hoped it would be long enough. “Candy, I need you to look up, honey. I’m sending a rope down. It’s coming right to you. I need you to reach up and grab hold.”

  He lowered the yellow rope and watched the shadowy mud that surrounded her for anything else that was down there with her. The rope dangled just above her head. Damn it! She’d have to reach up to grab it, as it wasn’t quite long enough. “Candy, reach up. It’s above your head.”

  She blinked and moved her head slowly, and then her hand was awkwardly reaching up for the rope. She missed grabbing it a few times before she grabbed hold, and that simple effort seemed to take all her strength.

  “Candy, I know you’re tired, but I need you to hold on with both hands. Grab hold and don’t let go!”

  She didn’t answer but did as he asked, reaching up and grabbing hold with her other hand. She tried to pull herself up to stand and stumbled. Neil held the rope with both hands, and he knew she didn’t have the strength to hold on. For the first time, she looked as if she’d given up.

  “Candy, I know you’re mad at me right now, but I want you to hold that rope like your life depends on it. Don’t let go. I’m going to pull you out of there.”

  “I hate you, Neil! I never want to see you again.” She cried out as she said it, and it hurt him to listen to her heart breaking.

  “Candy, you can hate me all you want, baby. I want you to come up here and try to knock my teeth out, to kick me, to fight me. I’ve never known you to back away from a fight. Come on up here and tell me what a jerk you think I am. Come on!” he yelled at her, trying to make her mad, to get the fire burning in her and her adrenaline pumping so he could get her out of there. He pulled the rope up a bit, and she used it to lift herself up. “Candy, wrap the slack around your wrist as much as you can. Your hands are going to be slippery with all the mud on them.”

  She listened and wrapped the rope two times around her wrist, but that was all there was. She looked up at him and nodded.

  “When I pull, I want you to use your feet on the wall to push yourself up. Whatever you do, don’t let go. I mean it, Candy: Don’t let go. Ready?” he yelled.

  She took a second and then another before she nodded, and Neil started pulling and pulling. Candy put her foot against the muddy wall, and it slipped, her boot falling off as she dangled.

  “Neil, I can’t get a grip! The wall’s muddy.”

  “Hang on. I’ll pull you up.” He pulled as fast as he could, and she held on. Where she got her strength from, he didn’t know, but he was so grateful, pulling with everything he had until she was coming closer. Neil dug in and fought to hold her, his arms shaking, he had to dig deep to keep going.

  “Neil, I’m slipping! I can’t hold on!” Her feet were dangling, her hands slipping on the rope, but she was so close.

  Neil let go of the rope and grabbed her with his other hand, but she was so slippery. “Candy, hold on to me. Don’t you dare let go!”

  She was so close, and he could see her dark eyes and the shadow of fear licking at her entire expression, but she was wet and muddy and so damn slippery.

  “Neil, I’m slipping!” she cried.

  Neil pulled her so hard he thought he was going to yank her shoulder from the socket, and then his arm was around her, under her arms, lifting her out and setting her on the ground. She cried, and he pulled her tightly against him, all muddy and wet and barefoot again.

  “You scared the life out of me. Don’t you ever do that to me again. Are you hurt?” He held her away and ran his hands over her while she wept.

  She started shaking her head and said, “You didn’t leave me. You didn’t leave me.” She burst into tears again.

  Chapter 19

  Candy had never been so scared in all her life as when she had opened her eyes and gazed up at the halo of light surrounding Neil, as he yelled and yelled at her. Once again, he had been there for her. It had seemed like an eternity that she lay in that sopping, muddy hole, and she felt surreal. It took her a minute to make sense of what had happened to her mind, her body, as she felt lost in a wave of disconnection.

  There was fire in his amber eyes, and his expression was a mass of worry. For a minute, she couldn’t understand what he was ask
ing and had to wipe the mud the dirty water from her face to see. Her back hurt, her side, her leg when she tried to move, and she felt the energy and will she had to keep going just leave her. Neil was yelling at her again and again, and when the rope had fallen, he willed her to grab hold. And she had done so, slowly using it to pull herself up on shaky legs. She didn’t know how he had gotten her up, as she couldn’t hold on even when she fought with everything she had left, but he had grabbed her arm, digging his fingers in and pulling her up to him. All she could do was cry, because he was the first man, ever, to come for her, to care for her, and to not let her go.

  She had realized, as she lay in that hole, that she had always been the one to take care of everything. She’d been the parent to her father. She’d looked after him, not the other way around. Even the one guy he had brought around, Kevin, had been so much like her father that he never once protected her, cared for her, or looked after her, not the way Neil had. He was still here, even after all the hurtful, cruel things she’d said. He was holding her still, curled up in his lap like a child. She gripped his shirt and buried her face in his chest.

  “What the hell were you doing? I told you to stop, and did you listen to me? Dammit, Candy, you could have been killed. Do you have any idea how I’d feel then?” He was yelling at her again, holding her to him as if he had no intention of letting her go.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so confused, Neil. You came for me again even though this is all yours now. I can’t do this anymore. I’ve lost it all.”

  He pressed his hands against both her cheeks and held them, making her look at him, but her stomach hollowed out as she stared in shock at the tears glossing over his eyes. “I don’t give a damn about this place. Don’t you get it? It’s you I want, always has been. You need to stop this, Candy. I can’t keep chasing after you and having you running away from me, thinking I’m a devil who’s done horrible things. You don’t seem to believe me, so I’m not taking any part of this. I’m walking away from it, but I’m not walking away from you.”

  Candy wasn’t sure what he was talking about. For a second, she felt such loss, until she realized he wanted her. “You want me? Just me?”

  “I want you, but not this place. I’m walking away from it, Candy, but I want you walking away with me.”

  She watched the determination in his face, and then it sunk in: He wanted her. Just her. “What about my place, then?” She couldn’t understand, from all the years of him wanting this place, her place, how he could just walk away? It didn’t make any sense.

  “Let someone else have it, Candy. Don’t you think this place has come between us and caused enough grief in your life, in ours? I want to be happy. Don’t you?” His face was inches from hers, and she studied him, seeing the passion that oozed from him.

  The horse screamed behind Neil and started yanking, trying to break free of the tangled branches he was stuck in.

  “Neil, my horse, he’s hurt.”

  Neil slid her off his lap. “Stay here. Don’t get up. I’ll get your horse.” He grabbed Ambrose, who was jumping around, and tied the rope back around him. “Can you hold him?”

  “Of course.” Her arms ached, every part of her. She held the rope and pulled the donkey in her arms. “Come here, Ambrose.”

  She was shaking as she set her hand on the coarse gray fur of the little donkey, and she watched Neil hold his hand out and walk slowly and confidently toward her horse, talking in a reassuring tone she hadn’t heard before. The fact was that she didn’t know whether Neil knew anything about horses, and she watched him approach her Azteca as if he’d worked with horses all his life. He got hold of Sables’ halter and pulled off several branches pinning him in. He jumped and tried to break free, but Neil held him and talked to him, comforting him, and then petted his forehead, talking softly in the same voice he’d used with her. Sable lowered his head and stopped fighting him, standing there, but she could see how freaked out the horse was. He was trembling, and she could also see that he might go off like a rocket if the wind, a branch, or anything touched him the wrong way.

  “Candy, honey, I need you to promise me you’ll keep Ambrose really still, and I don’t want you moving at all. Can you promise me that right now?” He was talking so calmly to her as he kept his attention on the horse, holding the halter so tightly that the horse stopped fighting him.

  “I promise I won’t move. Be careful, Neil. Is he hurt?” she asked.

  “He’s got a lot of cuts all over him, but when I move this branch, he’ll be able to get out. I have no lead rope, so he’s going to take off. I want you to get up slowly, Candy, and stand over by the tree behind you, and keep Ambrose there. Can you do that?”

  She’d crawl if she had to, and her legs trembled as she scrambled in the sopping wet skirt stuck to her legs, the mud clinging to her. She barely had the strength to stand, but she did it, her body aching in spots it hadn’t before.

  “Candy, you okay?” he asked very calmly.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. We’re at the tree.”

  Neil moved the last branch, and the horse jumped out. Neil didn’t try to hold him as the horse, her horse, raced away into the trees and out of sight. Neil jogged over to her and slid his arm around her waist, lifting her in his arms. “I’m taking you home now, Candy.”

  “Neil, what about my horses?” She looped her arms around his neck and held on to him.

  “I’m worried about you, and the horse will be fine for now. He’s out. I’ll come back and get him and look for the others, but you’re not coming back here.” He tossed her a bit in his arms to get a better grip on her, holding her a little more tightly to him as he gripped the rope tied to Ambrose.

  “Neil, I can walk. I’m too heavy for you.”

  “No, you’re not walking, and you’re not fine.” He pulled her closer, and she loved the feel of his strong arms, at the same time feeling ashamed of how she had acted.

  “Neil, I’m sorry.” She rested her head on his shoulder and didn’t miss the way his jaw hardened and how rigidly he held himself.

  “I told you to stop apologizing. For the first time ever, you have me wanting to shake you, and never before in my life has a woman scared the life out of me the way you have.”

  She snuggled closer into him, all sopping and muddy. She could feel it in every crack and crevice of her, and she shivered. He pressed a kiss into her muddy hair, and she, for the first time ever, just let him care for her.

  Chapter 20

  Neil pulled off all the shutters from the windows and tossed them on the ground to allow some light into the house. They had a generator in the shed in back, which he fired up after they got back with enough gasoline, he figured, to run it for the next week, if he didn’t get carried away. And that was the million-dollar question: How long would it be until power was restored to the area? Weeks, maybe.

  He’d carried Candy most of the way back, alternating from carrying her in his arms to having her ride piggyback. Even then, she rested her head against him. He was worried her fall had hurt her more than she was saying. It had taken him almost an hour to reach the SUV, and by the time they got back to the house, he was exhausted and she was a mess, from the crying she’d done to the mud drying on every part of her. She was weak and shaking.

  There was water on the floor in the grand entry, puddles here and there at the foot of the stairs. With the rain gone, there was no more water coming in, thankfully. Candy was weaving beside him, holding his hand. He yanked one of the Queen Anne chairs over. “Here, sit down. I need to check some things in the house, and then I’ll get you in a bath and fix you something to eat.” He touched her cheek, which was covered with every manner of dried mud and dirt, and she leaned into his hand with remorse and sadness. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.”

  She met his gaze, and her eyes started watering again. “Neil, I’m so sorry I said those horrible things....”

  What hurt the most was how confused she looked, but he knew he was getting through t
o her. It didn’t help that he still wanted to kick her father’s ass for playing with her head the way he had. He didn’t ever want anyone to hurt her again.

  Ambrose started chewing on one of the large potted plants against the wall. “Whoa, don’t you start eating that.” He picked him up and moved him back into the closet, pulling out all the shoes stuffed in the bottom. He shut the door and then went for a bowl of water and a towel, setting it in there with the donkey.

  “Neil, is Ambrose going to be okay in there?” She hadn’t moved. She was actually, for the first time, listening to him.

  “He’ll be far more comfortable and secure in there.”

  She nodded and then appeared to be thinking. “Neil, there’s no more goats’ milk for him. What are we going to do?”

  He took her hands in his as he knelt down in front of her. “Candy, he’s going to be fine. He’s got fresh water. I’ll feed him some carrots later and then get him out to graze again. He will be okay.” He tried to reassure her, but the fact was that he was far more worried about her than he was about Ambrose. Unlike her, the donkey was doing fine.

  “Come on.” He lifted her, and she went easily, linking her arms around his neck, leaning her head against his shoulder.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked as she gazed up at him.

  “To my room, where I’m going to bathe you and put you to bed.”

  He carried her up the stairs and was surprised how intact the hallway leading to his room appeared to be: the woodwork, the tiled floor, the artwork up and down the hallway. They walked past the five doors leading to the guestrooms and his parents’ room and headed toward Neil’s room, a set of suites at the west side of the house, overlooking the pool and gardens in back. His room was dark, as shutters still covered the second-floor windows. Neil flicked on the light and didn’t miss Candy’s sharp breath.

  It was a nice room, with a four-poster bed, a fireplace with two leather chairs in front, a dark oak armoire, a chest of drawers, and a heavy green carpet in the middle of the room. It was tasteful and comfortable, and Candy was shaking again. “This is your bedroom? It’s nice.”