The Hermit Ch 02

"Lily. Lily Montgomery."

Lily heard the most delectable male voice lulling her out of sleep. Was she dreaming? If so she didn't want to wake up, not if it meant that that voice would go away.

"Sweet Lily, please wake up. Breakfast is being prepared."

She felt hands stroking her arms and shoulders which were, she supposed, exposed. It felt so delicious being touched by those warm, big hands that her fear of the dream being ruined became an increasingly traumatic thought.

"No!" Lily said with a pout.

The voice chuckled, a deep and spine-tingling sound.

"And why not Ms. Lily?" The voice asked.

She frowned and then answered, "Because if I do, you'll disappear."

The hands stroking her arms stilled and then left. Lily was about to protest when fingers began to stroke her cheek.

"Open your eyes Lily, you must be starving, and I'm not going anywhere."

Lily did as she was told and was relieved to see the smiling, kind and beautiful eyes of Noah. The night's events came back to her in a rush bringing with it a dull ache in her nether regions.

She rubbed her eyes and smiled up at him. "You're really real." She said.

Noah smiled and bent down to kiss her but Lily turned on her side, covering her mouth with the sheet.

"No!" She cried. "I have morning breath and you're all fresh and clean and nice-smelling!" She began to giggle at her admission but it was true. She probably looked like hell and he looked like Mr. December.

Lily noticed that Noah was quiet. She looked over her shoulder at him and her breath caught at the expression on his face. He looked like he wanted to devour her. Why? She thought.

A cold shiver hit the backs of her legs and she realized her folly. In turning on her side she had lifted off the remainder of the sheet exposing her naked form from the nape of her neck all the way down to her heels. She cursed herself for clearly hogging the sheet during the night.

The look on Noah's face froze her. She knew she should cover herself but she couldn't move under his gaze. A part of her was petrified by his look of unfiltered lust and a part of her relished in the fact that she was making him feel that way.

Noah cleared his throat and shook his head slightly before turning his back to her.

"Um... the shower is tiny but it has hot and cold water. I hope you don't mind my soap; it's maybe not as flowery as you might like. Help yourself to anything you want in there. I hung up a shirt of mine and some boxers that you can wear seeing as your clothes are not quite dry yet. There's toothpaste, an extra toothbrush. Uh, I think that's it. When you're done come join me over there for breakfast." He said as he pointed to a small table in the corner.

Noah walked away making sure to keep his back turned away from her.

Lily gathered up the sheet and wrapped herself in it as she made her way to the bathroom.

Once inside she closed the door and leaned against it. What had she gotten herself into really? She thought. She didn't even know this man and yet here she was, talking to him like they were newlyweds, acting as if she were some wanton, experienced vixen when she didn't even know where to begin with a man like that!

Lily shook her head and smiled. Life could be so interesting sometimes. She frowned though as she remembered her car, the wolves and the fact that she would have had a hell of a time trying to get her vehicle towed from its snowy and rugged path. She felt a pain in her chest at the thought of leaving her 'forest man' and heading back to the real world, where men were too busy on their IPADs and other devices to really pay attention to her the way Noah had in the past however-many hours.

With a reluctant sigh she dropped her sheet and proceeded to take a shower.

When Lily came out of the shower she was met with a smiling Noah.

"Well, you certainly took a while! I hope you left me some hot water!"

Lily felt bad, she really had lost herself in the surprisingly powerful and hot spray.

Noah must have seen the look on her face because he placated her immediately.

"I'm just joking Lily there's plenty to go around." He said with a chuckle.

They made their way to the breakfast table and began to dig in to fresh fruit, hot coffee, eggs, bacon and toast.

Noah watched as Lily ate everything in sight, stopping every now and then to make little humming noises whenever something particularly tickled her fancy.

Lily looked up from her gastronomic delight to observe Noah observing her. Oh God! She thought, she must look like a glutton.

"Ewerything's jutht stho dewitchious!" She tried to explain with her mouth still full.

Noah laughed then. She was surely a delight. "It's all good Lily, although I don't think I did anything that fabulous, I thank you for the compliment."

Lily blushed and swallowed what was in her mouth.

Noah cleared his throat and began to tell her what the plan would be so that she could rejoin her life. Lily listened with a hint of sadness in her heart.

"I'm going to go to your car and get your phone and hopefully, a charger?"

Lily nodded her head, "Yeah, I keep one in my purse."

Noah continued, "I do have a phone here but I assume you have certain people you need to call to let them know what happened and where you are. I bet people are missing you."

Lily looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "Well, today's Saturday and I'm not expected at work. I live alone so it's not like I have a roommate and my parents don't live in the same state."

Lily wanted to sink into the floor at her admission. She made herself sound like such a loser. She had to remedy that.

"I mean, I usually go out with friends at night or on Sundays we try to do something chill, but it's usually last minute and luckily I didn't make any plans for this weekend in particular."

Oh God Lily, she thought, stop rambling, you're making it worse.

Suddenly Lily realized that Noah probably wanted her out of his cabin. Of course! She thought. Here she was sounding like she wanted to stay and hang out with her handsome stranger, when he was ever-so-politely making it clear that she had overstayed her welcome. The thought made a lump form in her throat but she fought what she knew was an irrational feeling. He was a stranger and so was she.

"In any case, I should probably be getting out of your hair I mean, you've been so kind to me and I am really grateful." Lily said.

Noah just stared at her, his expression unreadable.

"I'll go wash up the dishes and wait for you while you get my stuff from the car."

Lily got up swiftly and started to clear the table. Noah never moved, just watched her silently as she made an effort to make herself busy.

Lily had just turned the kitchen tap on when she heard Noah close the front door and watched from her tiny window as he walked along a path only he seemed to know.

When he was out of sight, she let the few tears fall down her cheeks.

Well Lily, she thought, at least you can say you had just a little bit of something special, but now it's time to get real and go back to your life. "If you can even call it that," she muttered bitterly.