Chapter 19

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A storm was brewing, the reports showed that it would crash through Texas in the next few hours, it was supposed to be a major weather incident, but all that happened so far was a few strong gusts of wind and rain. Natalia was no stranger to either, she was from a temperamental weather beaten island. She felt like a lot of it might have been blown a little of proportion.

She had gone to school at the crack of dawn so she wouldn't bump into Gabe. She was so early that his truck was still in his driveway. Parked offensively, twinkling in the brightening dawn of the day. She stared at it; a little sad but mostly angry and drove herself to work.

She just needed to get through this day before she had the whole weekend to recuperate. She obsessively avoided Porsha, despite the number of texts and calls she had received from her last night alongside the ones from Gabe that she had ignored. She just wanted to get in, teach her classes and go home.

At around noon, she bumped into her favourite human being in the whole world: Agnes, on her way to the canteen to grab a slice of pizza so oily it could power a small Middle Eastern economy. 

"Natalie," she said. The leggy redhead looked smug as she eyed Natalia with a vindictive little  smile.

Natalia stared back with disdain, not bothering to hide her dislike for her at all. She wanted to wipe that smug look off her face, but she was also a grown woman and it wasn't within her constitution to fight over a man. Hell would freeze over before she ever did that.

"You ran off yesterday, I'm not sure if Gabe and I did something to upset you..."

Natalia laughed, the noise sounded mirthless and distorted. She knew exactly what she had done.

"I don't know what the crack you're smoking is cut with but if you don't stop antagonising me, I will have to show you how we do things where I'm from." Natalia snarled losing her temper and bumping shoulders with Agnes roughly, sending the slimmer woman flying. And as far as she was concerned if she wanted him, she could have him.

She had one class followed by a free period after lunch so she stayed in her classroom instead of going to her office, where she would be a sitting duck for bumping into all the other people that were looking for her.

School had been closed early that day because of the storm. Natalia had gone straight home, skipping a staff meeting that had been scheduled for the end of the day, she had sent a message to Ella telling her she was feeling unwell. It wasn't far from the truth.

Avoiding Gabe, fighting the urge to strangle Agnes and not discussing things with Porsha, whilst carrying on business as usual had really taken its toll on her. She had a migraine brewing, almost as foul as the weather.

Her plan was to pop a migraine pill and crawl into bed, taking advantage of the early finish and float her way into a dreamland where her heart wasn't a little bit fractured.

She stared at her reflection in the toilet mirror, taking in her bedraggled appearance. She'd been lucky she hadn't bumped into Gabe at all today, she was not a sight for sore eyes.

She sighed deeply. "I'm such a fucking mug," she told the woman staring back at her. It was childish but she had a little cry when she had come home from the dance, she had really liked Gabe, despite their differences and despite their rocky start.

When she was around him, she felt comfortable and safe in ways that she hadn't felt for a long time. And she thought the feeling was mutual. Yes, they had never discussed what they were, it was way too early for that but she had gotten the impression that they were similar in that they didn't play games and they both had transparent intentions.

Her phone was ringing incessantly, as it had done last night too but she ignored it, choosing instead to change into her pyjamas and crawl into bed. She was going to knock out and when she woke up she wanted to have forgotten all about the night before.

When she went to bed she dreamt vividly, highly saturated images of the previous night and day playing like a film in her brain and at some point she was running and running and couldn't stop.

In her dream she was running down an endless hallway not too dissimilar to the ones at school, and she couldn't get to her destination or go back to where she had started from. Both dream Natalia and her unconscious self were beyond frustrated with there being no end in sight.

There was a loud knocking noise that wouldn't stop. It was relentless, Natalia felt her heartbeat in tune with the knocking. It kept going, getting louder and louder and she kept running and running. And soon she was running into a dark tunnel with the knocking in the background, getting more desperate with each lap.

She awoke from sleep with a jolt and a serrated gasp. Her breaths coming out jaggedly. As she waited for her brain to catch up with her racing heart, she listened and realised the knocking was real.

There was someone knocking on her door.

She shakily got up from bed, passing by her window. It was still light but the sky was greyer than she had ever seen it, the wind was howling and rain was pelting down on the windows so hard she was afraid they were gonna shatter.

She put on a robe, from the back of her door and made her way downstairs. She could feel a strong gust of wind, she walked gingerly to the living room and realised a large branch had fallen in through the sliding garden doors and had broken the glass.

There was glass, debris and water everywhere.

It was a mess.

How could she have slept through all of it;
maybe this storm was serious after all? She could feel the fear and the panic slithering up her spine. Was she even safe here?

The knocking on the door continued, reminding her why she had been downstairs in the first place.

She opened the door, finding a drenched and scowling Gabe staring back at her. He visibly relaxed from his agitated state, as his eyes carefully roamed over her.

"Yes?" she said sternly, planting a hand on her hip. Her ire rising just with the mere look at him. She couldn't speak to him right now, without recounting the multitudes of different types of prick that he was.

He breathed in and out through his nose, his nostrils flaring.

"You're alive as ever," he said through gritted teeth.

His reaction was weird, he had absolutely no reason to be angry. She was the injured party here and if Natalia bothered going to therapy instead of avoiding her glaring avoidance problems, somebody would have told her that she revelled in victimhood. Something about that feeling of self-righteous vindication was like a drug to her.

"As opposed to?"

"Seriously hurt in a ditch somewhere," he ground out, his body taut and practically vibrating with anger. He pushed his way inside, Natalia stepped out of his way quickly to avoid getting her feet jammed in the door.

He paced, running his hand through his wet hair. "Why did you think it was appropriate for you to stop answering calls and texts in the middle of a storm?"

"Don't take that tone with me, I'm a grown woman..."

"You don't even know what you've done, do you?" he chuckled, incredulously. "You worried us...me to death, everyone is sheltering at school until the storm is over and you left before it was announced."

"Oh." Some of her anger and vim died down. "Well, as you can see I'm fine now."

"Really?" he challenged.

"Yes." she sniffed, defiant.

"There's an enormous tree branch in your living room..." He flicked her hallway light button on and off, "And the power's out." He raised an eyebrow daring her to contradict him.

He grabbed her arm, above her elbow, firmly and yanked her to him. Her sleep-warm body collided with his wet clothing.

She yelped, instinctively, "Gabe!"

He paid her no mind as he marched her through the door, onto her porch.

"Let go of me, you have no right...I'm not even wearing shoes right now!"

"Shut up!" He growled, letting go of her arm but not giving her a moment's respite before he picked her up into his arms in a fireman's hold, with little effort and walked over to his house.

"I'll scream, if you don't let me go."

"Go ahead, do your worst."

Her worst trait was not backing down from a dare. So she opened her mouth, gulping a deep breath in preparation to let out a shocker of a scream, but his lips were on hers quicker than she could make any noise. Her scream turning into a whimper in her throat.

She clutched his shoulders, pushing him away only half-heartedly, the simultaneous wonderful familiarity and novelty of his lips against hers rendered her stupid and putty-like in his arms. He kissed her with an almost bruising force. Her lips would be swollen but pleasurably so.

She managed to slide down his body, to her feet at his doorway as he fumbled in his pocket for his keys. He didn't speak to her, his glare communicating volumes. Anger, exasperation...attraction.

She went inside, wordlessly. She didn't dare speak lest she was at the receiving end of another punishing kiss. She wasn't afraid of him per se, she was afraid of herself.

He pulled her into a hug, when they were inside. Cradling her head under his chin, covering her body with his in a shielding frame. He breathed in her scent, his hands touching every inch of her body, urgently, possessively. She had never seen him like this; wired and functioning on pure emotion.

"If there is anything you need from your house? I'll go get it now, you can pick something out from my closet and make yourself comfortable." His tone was softer and gentler but it left little room for negotiation.

"Just my phone," she answered quietly. "It's on my bedside table."

"Ah, it's suddenly very important to you," he said it to himself but she was meant to hear it. She didn't comment, refusing to take the bait.

He walked out of the door to hers and Natalia trudged up the stairs to what she assumed was his room.

Natalia felt exhausted, the adrenaline of waking up from a semi immersive nightmare, finding her living room wrecked and finding a livid Gabe on her doorstep was wearing off. The medication she took for her migraine always made her drowsy, and even drowsier yet when taken on an empty stomach. She had no appetite but she felt depleted.

She riffled through his sparse but neat closet and changed into an almost threadbare university T-shirt and a pair of boxers. The waistband was loose but her wide hips and thighs stretched out the legs of the boxers, the T-shirt hung off her frame slightly. She was pleased, despite the situation, to note that it was too big for her.

She washed her bare legs and feet in the shower, dirty from being pelted with the grimey rain and walking barefoot down the street. Her formerly straight hair was a frizzy mess, she tied it into a loose bun out of the way, her bonnet had come off whilst she had been sleeping.

She could already hear Gabe's footsteps downstairs, and she went down to join him. He was standing in the laundry room next to the kitchen, he had peeled off his wet outer clothes and was shirtless. His back rippled with corded muscles, as he took off his trousers next, leaving him in perfectly fitted boxers over his taut arse.

She almost choked on air and saliva when he turned around, nonchalantly, making no indications of whether he had known she was standing there all this time or not.

If she thought that his back was impressive, his sculpted chest and abs were nothing short of intensive works of art. Why did this man wear clothes? Or was it better that he wore clothes, Natalia couldn't decide; as she gave up any pretense of not staring. Especially at the sinful stretch of muscle forming his Adonis belt and the enticing trail of dark hair that led into his boxers.

Natalia averted her eyes from staring at his package, that was much too lewd for her. She could see him smiling, arrogantly as he bent down again to stuff his discarded wet clothing in the washing machine.

She had brought down her wet clothing too, with the same idea. He nodded towards the machine, and she stepped forward to do the same.

With her heart beating overtime, she found herself strangely close to him. Almost as if an invisible magnet was forcing them closer to each other, the innocent action quickly turning into something else. She felt like a stalked prey under his blazing gaze.

He palmed her cheek when she had straightened up to her full height. His touch was cold on her hot skin, and she leaned into his touch. His eyes roved over her body, pausing on the hard nubs of pushing against her borrowed T-shirt.

She was in dangerous territory now. "I hope you don't think this changes, anything," she told him, wetting her dry lips. His eyes followed the action. If she couldn't have physical distance, she was going to have an emotional one by all means.

"Mmm," he said, taking his touch away from her, she missed it immediately. "Grilled cheese and soup for dinner?"

"I don't care." Her stomach growling belied her assertion.

He grinned knowingly at her, before leaving presumably, hopefully to put some clothes on. The respite from him was more than welcome.

Natalia wasn't sure she would survive the next couple of hours. As foul as the storm raging outside was, there was an even bigger one raging inside.

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