Thankful For Him: An Instalove Possessive Holiday Romance Read online

  My Misty.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Misty

  I hear Zak’s voice getting louder and know my Dad well enough.

  He knows something’s up.

  It wouldn’t take a genius to sense the electricity between Zak and me now, especially when we’re consciously trying to keep our hands off each other.

  But Zak and I agreed, we aren’t going to let this spoil Thanksgiving, I don’t think Dad will take the news too well and his reaction so far proves that.

  I’m a little surprised at Zak though, but I didn’t hear everything my Dad said to him.

  My Dad can be a little hard sometimes, especially when he feels like he’s been left out.

  Once they’re at each other’s throats though, I can’t take it. I butt in and make up some story about whatever movie Zak and I were supposed to have watched, but something inside me feels done.

  I’m twenty-two, not two, and what I do, and who I do it with is my business.

  I can’t help but feel angry and upset with both my Dad and even Zak a little too, and I storm outside.

  Into the storm that seems to be building up again.

  I’ve only got a robe on and some flats, but I don’t care. A part of me wishes I’d gone out front instead and taken the car, but I’m so wound up.

  Passing the outhouse, I grab a raincoat from the back of the door, no point getting totally soaked. And pulling the hood up over my head I start to make my way down the track toward the lake.

  A roll of thunder overhead and the sky lighting up blocks out what I think sounds like my Dad calling for me, but I can’t be sure.

  I don’t care right now. If two men twice my age can’t even act half their own, then I’ll leave them to sort it out between them.

  I do want Zak though, but I don’t want drama. And every step I take starts to remind me how much I don’t feel like sitting through a whole big dinner and then a whole evening without even being able to touch him, talk to him properly.

  And what happens when it’s time for bed?

  Ah, Jesus! We’re supposed to be here for the whole week!

  I groan out loud, and even that’s muted by another thunderclap as the sky darkens and it really starts to come down.

  Making a sound through my lips, I grit my teeth, determined not to go back to the house.

  No. Not yet.

  I’m too upset right now and just want to be left alone.

  “Misty!” I turn back for a moment, sure it’s my Dad calling, but the rain’s so hard now I could be imagining it.

  Damn, if this path isn’t slippery, and where’s the rail?

  I let out a cry as I skid down a muddy slope. My anger quickly turns to worry and then fear once I realize I have no idea where I am exactly, least of all which way it is back to the house.

  Plus, when I even try to stop and turn around to climb back up, I only slip back down again.

  My hands are both suddenly on the ground and my ass is in the air, getting soaked as the wind howls up the muddy hillside, throwing my jacket over my head.

  Okay, this is serious now. I need a little help here… a lot of help really.

  I call out to Dad, hoping it was his voice I heard and he’s just over the ridge I can make out. I’m sure the house is just past that. I haven’t been gone that long.

  But I can’t say with certainty how long I’ve been sliding down this hill either.

  “Dad! Zak?” My shouts are drowned out by more thunder and wind. The rain is really cold now and I feel my teeth starting to chatter.

  Oh, Zak, why didn’t I just stay there with you? You know what to do, you always do. I should’ve-

  I feel the whole side of the hill I’m on start to move, without me doing anything.

  I drop onto my belly, hugging the ground, screaming for Zak now.

  It can’t be, it must be some optical illusion from all this rain.

  But once I feel the liquid mud in my face, and my hands melting through it, I understand.

  I’m in big trouble.

  I scream and scream, for Zak and then Dad, finally for anybody to help.

  The rain and mud, mixed with the wind on the jacket which has tangled itself around me blocks out anything.

  In the end, I just slide down, down the hillside and I can only hope a tree, rock, or branch will stop me before I reach the edge of the little cliff I know is just before the lake.

  I manage to untangle the stupid rain coat from my body, still calling out when I have breath, and look back to where I think the house should be.

  “Zak!” I cry again, really just sobbing now. I’ve never felt so hopeless in my whole life and I just know this can’t end well.

  How much rain must have poured on this hillside over the past week? I’ll never know. One thing’s for sure, it’s washing down into the lake and it’s sure as hell taking me with it.

  Before I manage to turn onto my rump, I look up one last time, shouting with all my might for the one thing, the only thing I know I want right now.

  Zak.

  As if by some miracle, I make out his huge form on the ridge above, both his hands to his mouth, as he calls down to me.

  I’m worried for a second he won’t see me, and try to call out again, but it’s too late.

  I feel myself going over the last ledge before the lake, watch it race towards me.

  The normally crystal clear lake is a muddy brown and seems so far.

  Until I feel the ledge disappear from under me, ending up weightless for a few moments before the freezing water swallows me whole.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Zak

  “I’m going too,” I tell Mark defiantly, almost stepping on his heel as he makes for the back door before he spins on it, grabbing my throat.

  “Look, Zak! I’m not fucking blind, okay? I know when someone’s making eyes at my daughter, and I know when she’s covering for him.”

  My eyes relax, so does my body. Because I know he’s right. I can’t lie about it to him a second longer.

  But at the same time, he hasn’t asked me anything directly, so I’m not breaking my promise to Misty either.

  I look to the door, which the wind has blown open, Misty pulled it shut hard enough to bang, but the bolt is old, like the rest of this place.

  A huge thunderclap shakes the whole place and that wind has an edge to it neither of us likes. The light from the windows gets real dark, real quick and in seconds we can both hear the sheets of freezing rain lashing against the house.

  The thought of Misty out there in it, in just her robe and some shoes, is enough to call Mark to attention.

  “I’m going out there,” I tell him firmly but calmly. “And I’m going to get Misty and bring her back in here, alright… buddy?”

  I growl the last word, pushing him back from me, watching him make a face as he tries to hide his back pain all over again.

  Whatever wonder woman tippy-toes Barbie did last night, it’s worn off. I feel for Mark, I do.

  But Misty’s out there and I don’t like the look or sound of this weather that’s blown in so quickly.

  In all the excitement we had, I never once thought to check a radio for a weather report.

  Who knows what could happen next.

  “Zak!” Mark gasps as I push past him.

  I turn back to look at him. “I’m sorry, Zak,” he says, meaning it. A tear in his eye that isn’t back pain.

  I know it isn’t.

  It’s the pain of twenty plus years of friendship, twenty plus years of being a father too, flashing before his mind’s eye.

  But I haven’t got time for reminiscing right now. I’ve got a bad feeling and my girl’s smack dab in the middle of it.

  Out there.

  Before I head out, I slip on a pair of Mark’s old boots by the door. He has a couple of pairs there and to my surprise, we still have the same fit.

  Maybe not the same taste in boots, mind. But the same fit.

  Peering o
ut through the rain I can’t see her, but I know there’s only one way she could have possibly gone.

  By the time I reach the outhouse I see the door swinging in the wind and looking up at the sky I realize it’s no regular storm blowing in.

  The lake house and the outhouse, like the top end of the rest of the hillside, is built into solid rock. The whole landscape is like a series of steps that are cliffs and ledges, leading right down to the lake.

  Now, I haven’t been up here for a long time, but I can see at a glance that a lot of trees and shrubs have disappeared from the rear of the house, leaving the whole topsoil of the hillside vulnerable.

  This unseasonable drenching has eroded some of the soil, I see, when I reach the ledge below the outhouse.

  I think I see someone down further and I call out, but I can’t be sure it’s her.

  I should never have let her go. Dammit Mark, why did you have to-?

  But I can’t blame him either. I’m probably more defensive of Misty now than he’ll ever be. He was just being her Dad, I get that now.

  But it doesn’t help me and it doesn’t help her.

  “Misty!” I shout out again, but it’s useless, the wind is howling now and the rain is literally peeling sheets off the hillside. All the groundwater looks like it’s bubbled up and mixed with the torrent, making a slurry of used to be solid ground.

  I know it’s the only way she went, and before I can take a breath and commit to sliding down to find her, I feel Mark’s hand on my shoulder again.

  “Jesus, Zak! Go find my little girl!”

  He doesn’t have to tell me twice, but I grip his arm in mine before heading down, watching him stand helpless with his copper can, his face contorted in pain and fear for Misty.

  There’s a third ledge before the last, from memory. As I scuttle down the hillside, the darkness from the sky above seems to touch the lake itself, almost blacking out anything I can see in front of me, but I make it down to the ledge.

  That’s where I hear her screams.

  It’s my name she’s crying out too. Nobody else’s. And I wouldn’t want anyone going after her but me.

  I watch for a split second, hoping she’s seen me before she starts to get sucked away with the rest of the muddy hillside, down towards the last ledge before the lake.

  There’s nothing else for it, and without even thinking I slide right down after her.

  Half walking, half skidding on a torrent of filth that’s up to my knees, I growl in agony as rocks and debris smash against my legs, but I’m determined to stay upright.

  I need to keep sight of Misty.

  It’s like slow motion, but it happens so fast. I see her getting closer, sliding on her back, and then she’s gone.

  The edge takes her and I know the only place left is the lake or a rocky bottom.

  Either way, I prepare myself for whatever happens next.

  The edge slides out from under my feet and I see the water, dirty and foaming below.

  There’s a shape I try to make out before it’s gone.

  I know it’s her and in mid-air I point myself forward, diving towards her before I feel the icy blast and deafening roar of the underwater world fill my ears.

  I know I’ll find her, I just know it.

  The same force that brought us together has to keep us together, and in a matter of seconds, before I reach the bottom of the lake’s edge, I feel her at my fingertips.

  I’ve never grabbed at anything so hard in my life, and once I feel her thick chest under my forearm, I use my feet to push us both up from the bottom.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Misty

  I remember the chilling blast of the icy water, feeling my body tilt at an odd angle before everything goes black.

  Calling out for Zak one last time, I’m not sure if it’s me actually screaming or just a thought. Maybe my final thought?

  Zak.

  The memory of his touch, how he felt inside me with his strong hands running over me.

  The memory fights with the darkness until the darkness wins, but I’m sure I feel Zak’s strong, powerful arm under my chest, lifting us up into the sky.

  I feel a smile on my lips and then the sky gets dark, everything gets dark again until it feels like I’m going to be sick.

  A bubble is rising up in me from somewhere, out of the darkness.

  I try to open my eyes, but there’s only a milky film where the world should be.

  One thing’s for sure, I wasn’t dreaming about those hands.

  Those thick, strong, and powerful, magic hands of Zak’s.

  He’s tipped me on my side, and the bubble bursts, some of the water flushed from my body which is replaced by the most welcome, most painful stab of freezing air as I can finally feel myself breathe again.

  “I got you, Misty,” I hear Zak puffing through the haze, squeezing my whole body again until the last of the water’s out. “By God, I’ve got you baby, and I’m not ever letting go, not ever again.”

  My hands reach for his face and once I find it I know I’ll never let go again either. Not now, not ever.

  I don’t even have to try and say it, because once Zak sees I can breathe again, that I’m safe, his mouth is over mine giving me the best revival, the only life I need.

  His kiss mixing with mine.

  “Oh, Zak!” I gasp, and looking up again, finally able to see, his eyes are so close to mine that I finally feel safe again.

  Close enough for us to read each other’s thoughts without words, to know I’m okay and that he’s saved me. That he’ll always be there to save me.

  “Let’s get you home,” he says, his own teeth chattering with the cold as I recognize the heat in my own body starting to turn to ice before growing red hot yet again.

  “Zak?” I ask him, frightened now, only having small fragments of memory and not knowing how we’ll even get all the way back up the hill.

  “I got you. I got you,” is all he says.

  It’s all he has to say as he clutches me tighter.

  I feel his solid steps biting into the shore, then over boulders, and finally up the muddy slope, with his eyes looking down at me the whole time until I finally succumb to blackness again before we even reach the top.

  The low murmur of Zak’s voice, followed by the pop of the fire makes me wake with a start.

  Familiar, strong hands squeeze me gently under a thick blanket that smells like my favorite man.

  “Easy, Misty. Easy. It’s alright,” I hear Zak whisper gently, falling back into him, a feeling I want to last forever.

  Better than the last fall I took, that’s for sure.

  My body against his again. The hard muscles of his body perfectly cupping the softness of every one of my curves.

  Like a perfect puzzle, finally solved.

  It’s my Dad’s voice which startles me fully awake though.

  My eyes open wide now, I can make him out, sitting by the fire, that copper cane resting under his hands. His face looks like he’s seen a ghost.

  I press one hand to Zak’s under the blanket, then sit up on my elbow, not sure if any of this is real.

  “It’s alright. Misty,” Dad says softly, his voice cracking with emotion, his eyes red. I know he’s been crying.

  “I get it. I know about you and Zak,” he says with some restraint, his eyes darting to Zak though, telling us both he might know but he’s far from happy about it.

  He sighs loudly, then winces. His back, it’s no better really.

  “Zak saved your life today,” he continues, looking from me to Zak with a softer gaze. “And that’s the most thankful I’ve ever been for anything in my whole life. Bringing you back to me, after I saw you go over that ledge…”

  Zak squeezes me again. “Your Dad and I went after you, to try and bring you back after you ran out. We were acting like a couple of kids,” he says, and I can feel him looking over to Dad again, but Dad seems far away now.

  “Your Dad was behind me, tryin
g to keep up when that hillside gave way, that mud sucked you away like-”

  His voice freezes, and I feel his powerful body shivering behind mine.

  It looks like I’m not the only one with a tale to tell.

  “Zak did save your life honey, but I didn’t think he’d be the one who also wanted to take it away from me,” Dad says, without too much bitterness but his voice certainly has an edge to it.

  I want to say something, but I feel so weak, so tired. I just want to lay back in Zak’s arms.

  If Dad knows, and he’s not throwing a fit over it, then that’s good enough for me for now.

  I’m alive, and for the first time in my life, I want to stay that way with the man I love. The man I hope will ask me to spend the rest of mine with him and him alone from now on.

  The old kitchen time rings and if I’m not mistaken, the sound of a turkey timer pops in tune with the logs in the fireplace.

  I almost want to try and sit up again, but Dad’s voice assures me I have plenty of time for a nap yet before we have to worry about Thanksgiving dinner.

  “I gave all my thanks already,” I hear him murmur, Zak chuckles behind me, rocking me as I drift back to sleep.

  “Oh, hush Mark, you just didn’t want to get your boots dirty is all. Guess I did that for ya.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Zak

  We both let Misty sleep and I grab a hot shower before changing into something soft and warm, not wanting to go outside again for the rest of the week if I can help it.

  Mark’s done a stellar job in bringing together what Misty and I started. I know he wanted to show off a bit with his cooking skills anyway, and he relishes the chance to set the table and lay everything out just how he likes it. Even though he’s a little slower than usual, at least he’s up and about.

  “I’ve set your place, at the head of the table,” Mark casually mentions.

  “You don’t have to-” I start, but his hand claps my shoulder again. “No, Zak. I do. And just so you know, it’s forgiven but not forgotten, okay?” he adds.

  I know what he means.

  Thanks for rescuing my daughter, but no thanks to taking her away from me.