ꗃ: 𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟 𔘓. 𝗍𝖺𝖾𝗃𝖾𝗇𝗆𝗂𝗇𝗄𝗈𝗈𝗄 ! 𓂅

18 | 安全な避難所

JENNIE STEPPED INTO THE SNOW, shivering as a wash of cold air blew over her. She crunched her way down the slight incline to the barn.

Ahead of her the terrain sloped upward, a testament to the mountain they were nestled on. Snow-capped peaks jutted skyward on the horizon. Around her the world was ablaze with white.

Her breath came out in a cloud in front of her as she mounted the last few steps to the barn door. Then she slipped inside, enjoying the warmth that greeted her.

Eight stalls lined either side of the barn. In the back, there was a large open area where stacks of hay bails stood. Jimin stepped out of one of the stalls leading a horse by the reins.

He glanced in her direction. “I’ve got her saddled for you. Come hold the reins while I ready my mount then we’ll head out.”

Jennie hurried forward and took the leather reins from Jimin.

Jimin motioned toward the back. “Take her over there and wait.”

Jennie moved to the back, her horse clopping obediently behind her. While she waited for him, she smoothed her hands over the mare’s neck. She was a beauty. Gentle looking. Her head bobbed appreciatively as Jennie stroked her mane.

A few seconds later, Jimin walked up, leading his mount behind him. “You ready?”

She nodded. As he moved ahead of her, she cast an appreciative glance over his body. Damn, the man filled out a pair of jeans like no one else. He looked exceedingly masculine in his lambskin-lined coat, cowboy hat and scuffed boots. And his ass. What could she say about a man who had an ass that begged to be touched, fondled and squeezed?

She squeezed her legs together and picked up her pace. She was a walking hormone. But who could blame her after the night she’d experienced? Her cheeks warmed to the point of discomfort when she thought of all they had done. She couldn’t wait to do it again.

“Do you need help up?” Jimin asked, his voice close to her ear.

She jumped and looked around. Hell, she hadn’t even realized they’d walked outside. Hard to notice the cold when her entire body was erupting in flames.

She flushed and turned her attention to the horse. She was short, and it was a long way up into the saddle.

She looked back at Jimin. He grinned and in one swift motion, he wrapped his Small hands around her waist and hoisted her up as easily as a sack of potatoes.

“Misty’s a good mount. She’ll follow my lead, so don’t worry about it. Just enjoy yourself,” Jimin said.

She smiled down at him. His hand lingered on her leg then he squeezed it before he walked over to mount his horse.

They picked their way through the snow around to the front of the cabin and down the drive to the road. Jimin glanced back at the cabin. It was fully ensconced on the mountain as if the brothers had carved their home right into the surface.

Snow covered the roof, and smoke drifted lazily from the stone chimney. It looked like a scene straight from a Christmas card. And it was now her home.

Her chest tightened, and she had the absurd urge to grin like a kid in a candy store. Home.

Life was a strange chain of ironies. She’d learned that quickly enough. Only in the demise of her dreams had she actually found them.
But would it work out?

A shadow of doubt marred her jubilation. She’d thought kai was the answer to her dreams. Wealthy, seemingly doting on her, protective. The stuff a girl’s dreams were made of. Or nightmares.

Was she making the same mistake again? She sure hadn’t given any more thought or care to this decision than she had the one to marry kai, and it had landed her in a kettle of hot water.

She frowned. If there had never been a kai, if she had never made such a monumental mistake, if she hadn’t desperately needed a place to run and hide, would she have been drawn to the brothers and what they offered?

She fought to try and place herself in the frame of mind she’d been in before she’d ever met kai, but found it impossible to match the woman she’d become to who she’d been.

Her head hurt. She was trying too hard to analyze her feelings. She knew what she thought she felt for the brothers, but what if she was wrong? What if her attraction to them was merely a measure of self-preservation? Gratitude for the safe haven they provided?

Fuck a duck.

It wasn’t fair to them. They wanted a woman who could love all three of them, not a woman who couldn’t think for herself, who was a weak mess, one who’d made one bad decision after another.

“If you frown any harder, you’re going to screw up that pretty face of yours forever,” Jimin said mildly.

She glanced up, guilty heat suffusing her cheeks. She hadn’t even been paying attention to him, her horse or where they were going. And he knew it.

“Sorry,” she said in a low voice. “I was just thinking.”

Jimin shrugged. “It’s why I asked if you wanted to go out for a while. You looked like you could use a break.”

He turned back around in his saddle and stared ahead, silence looming between them once more.

She sighed. He wasn’t pushy. She liked that. But then none of the brothers had pushed her hard. Taehyung could be demanding. Any fool could see that, but he hadn’t pressed her boundaries.

“It’s beautiful here,” she said, focusing her attention on Jimin.

He nodded. “No place on earth is more beautiful than the Busan.”

He loved it here. She could tell by the way his eyes scraped across the landscape. Some of the bleakness and torment he wore like a permanent tattoo disappeared, replaced by satisfaction.

“How did you all end up here?” she asked.

He shrugged again. “We grew up on a ranch. It was only natural that we’d want one of our own. And we like to hunt. So we decided to combine those factors and make our living at it.”

She thought on that a moment. The cabin they lived in was large. Though they didn’t take meals in the dining room, the room sported a table that could easily sit two dozen people. And there were several rooms she hadn’t explored yet. An uneasy thought crept into her mind.

“So when it’s hunting season, there’ll be lots of hunters in the cabin?” she asked.

He studied her for a moment as if delving into her thoughts.

“Are you worried about what they’ll think?” he asked, his tone slightly challenging.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I mean I don’t know how I’ll be presented. How do you introduce me to other people?”

“As our woman,” he said.
Her stomach turned over. On the one hand, it did funny things to her, the idea of three sexy as hell men claiming her as their woman, but on the other hand, it could be awkward as hell.