Shelter by Tara Shuler Read Free Book Online

where he’d be. There was a faint golden glow coming from the windows. I approached the door with consternation swelling within me, but I summoned the courage to knock gently.
    “Go away,” he answered, his voice uneven.
    “Kai, please,” I called to him.
    “Leave me alone!” he shouted.
    I sighed.
    “Kai,” I said again, “please let me in.”
    “No!” he yelled through the closed door. “I need to be alone!”
    I opened my mouth to protest, but I didn’t think it would do any good. Still, I couldn’t leave him. I pressed my back against the outer wall of the shed and slid down to the ground. I landed with a thud, and I pulled my legs up against me and hugged them close – trying to comfort myself.
    Why was he pushing me away? Had I done something wrong? I just couldn’t understand it. But I knew I couldn’t leave him.
     

Chapter Four
Understanding
     
    I awoke with a start. Kai was standing over me. Apparently, I had fallen asleep outside the shed. The ground was cold and damp underneath me, and I was shivering. Kai looked at me like I was a maniac or something.
    I stared up at him weakly, pulling myself to a sitting position. He must have thought I was some kind of stalker or something – lying there on the ground in the dark. After a moment, he sat down on the ground beside me. He sighed long and hard, and he hung his head.
    “I’m sorry, Alice,” he said sincerely.
    “No,” I said. “I’m sorry. You asked to be left alone, but I just couldn’t go. I should have respected your wishes.”
    He looked startled.
    “Why did you stay?” he asked gently.
    “I… I don’t know,” I stammered. “I was worried about you, and I just couldn’t leave until I knew you were okay.”
    “Why?” he wanted to know.
    “Why what?” I inquired.
    “Why were you worried about me?” he asked.
    “What kind of a question is that?” I demanded.
    “You just met me a few hours ago,” he explained. “Why would you care enough about some worthless idiot you just met to sleep on the cold, hard ground like this?”
    I wondered just how long I’d been asleep, but it wasn’t yet daybreak, so it couldn’t have been more than three or four hours.
    “Worthless idiot?” I gasped. “What makes you say a thing like that?”
    “It’s the truth,” he stated, fiddling with a blade of grass.
    “No!” I gushed. “No! It’s not the truth!”
    “How do you know?” he asked, still starting intently at his blade of grass.
    “Kai, look at me,” I urged. He shook his head, his gaze still transfixed on the grass. “Please,” I pleaded with him.
    Slowly, he turned his head to look at me. I caught his beautiful blue eyes and I looked deep within them. I reached over with my right hand and placed it on his arm.
    “Kai, you are so incredible, I can’t even describe it,” I blurted out. I didn’t know if I should be gushing like some silly schoolgirl to a guy I’d only just met, but I couldn’t stop myself. “When I’m with you, I feel whole – alive,” I told him. “I know we just met, but you’ve made me feel things I never thought I could. You’ve shown me things I would never have seen without you – glorious things. The sea in the moonlight, the joy of playing the piano for someone besides myself, what it’s like to be kissed...”
    I stopped and turned my eyes downward. Perhaps I’d said too much. I really didn’t know if I should be telling him he was my first kiss. Honestly, that was embarrassing.
    “ I was your first kiss?” he asked very quietly – almost in a whisper.
    I nodded, looking down at the ground. My hand still lingered on his arm, and suddenly he took it and placed it over his heart, then rested his hand over mine. I could feel it pounding deep inside his chest. My own heart was pounding just as hard and just as fast. I felt like it was going to leap from my chest.
    “You were mine, too,” he confessed.
    “Really?” I asked.
    I found it difficult to believe that such an