Untouched A Cedar Cove Novella

my breath, heart pounding in my chest from the near miss. Damn, that could have been bad. A head-on collision, in this weather? We’re lucky nobody drove off into the bay, or worse still, wound up with their brains splattered over the windshield from impact.
    I shut off the engine and climb down, checking to see if the other car is OK. It’s come to a stop askew on the side of the highway, so I turn back to check out my damage. My truck is buried hood-deep in a sandbank. It doesn’t look too bad—the sand cushioned the impact, but now, there’s no way I’m getting it out without a tow truck. All this, and I should have been at work an hour ago.
    A flash of motion catches my eye: a girl is hurrying away from the other car, away from me, like she doesn’t even care she just nearly ran us both off the road.
    I feel a flash of anger and start after her. “Hey!” I call through the rain. She doesn’t turn, or even slow down, so I break into a jog after her. “Hey, wait up!”
    I grab her arm and pull her around, her arm slight and soft under my grip.
    “What?” She yanks back like she’s been burned. “What the fuck do you…?” Her words die on her lips as she stares up at me.
    I stare back – taking in the soft pink of those lips, and then, slowly, everything else.
    She’s young, eighteen or nineteen maybe, but radiating this fierce energy, like she’s wound way too tight. Her face is pale, heart-shaped and framed with tangled curls of dyed-black hair, but it’s her eyes that seem to sear right through me: thick-lashed jewels that lock fast on mine, not even blinking.
    Suddenly the pounding in my head stops. Everything stops. It’s like she can see through me, like she sees everything I am.
    I can’t look away.
    The moment spins out for an eternity, everything else just fading away, like we’re caught in the eye of a storm. My chest tightens with a feeling I don’t recognize, some kind of recognition.
    But that’s crazy. I’ve never met this girl before.
    Sense finally breaks through my weird daze and I drag my eyes away. It’s like breaking a circuit: whatever weird sensation just flooded through me disappears. Now I’m just stuck on the edge of the rainy highway, feeling like a total dumbass.
    “Where are you going?” I demand, still holding onto her arm. “You can’t just walk away from this!”
    She pulls away, looking confused.
    “Are you listening?” I bark again, still on edge. What the hell just happened? I’m not the guy who drifts off like that—especially not over a girl. Maybe the near-miss shook me up more than I figured.
    Yeah, that must be it. Almost dying. Not the way she was looking at me, like we’d known each other our whole lives.
    I wait for a response, but the girl still doesn’t speak. Concern suddenly ripples through me. “Wait, are you hurt?” I ask anxiously, moving closer again. “Did you hit your head?”
    I reach for her face, trying to be gentle as I cup her jaw and slowly turn her head from side to side, checking for a bruise or cut. Her skin is soft under my touch, and when her eyes meet mine again, something blazes between us, like a shock of electricity that wakes every nerve in my body and sets them screaming with one thought.
    Fuck, she’s beautiful.
    The girl wrenches away from me, and something slams shut over her expression. Guarded, like she can’t get away fast enough.
    “I’m fine,” she snaps, putting a few steps between us.
    In a rush, I realize what a mess I must seem to her: last night’s clothes, probably reeking of beer and smoke and hell, sex too. No wonder she’s repulsed.
    “Then you’re lucky I don’t kill you myself right now.” I try and get my head together. “What the hell was that back there?” I demand. Anger. Yeah, that’s what I need. I advance on her, glaring. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t drive fast in a storm?”
    I expect an apology, maybe even some tears, but instead, the girl’s face blazes with fury. “First of all, I wasn’t driving,” she yells back at me. I step back in surprise. “And second, it was an accident! Our tire blew, it happens. How is any of this my fault?”
    She scowls and folds her arms, pulling her T-shirt tight across her chest. The fabric is damp now from the rain, and it clings to the shape of her small breasts. I can see the lacy outline of her bra under the thin shirt, and the faint peak of her nipples.
    Lust spirals through me.
    I can’t stop my gaze from drifting