Page 2 of The Runaway and the Rugged (Dusty Meadows #1)

EMELIA

Nathaniel: Good morning, beautiful. I hope you slept well. I’ve arranged for George to pick you up this morning around ten o’clock to take you to the airport for a last-minute surprise.

Nathaniel: Be sure to pack comfortable clothing and some boots if you have them.

Boots?

Nathaniel: Sunscreen too. I’d hate for that delicate skin of yours to burn.

I stared at the round of strange texts my fiancé sent me and forced down the painful lump that was forming in the back of my throat. Nathaniel wasn’t the spontaneous type, and the second my eyes read “last-minute surprise,” an onslaught of scenarios crossed my mind.

Surely this wasn’t an attempt to get me to marry him already? It’s only been a week since he popped the question and I was still recovering from the reluctant yes I had given him.

Quickly backtracking through the entirety of our relationship, I not once could recall a time when he ever made an impulse decision without me knowing about it. Everything was always planned. In advance as well as thoroughly thought-out.

Gnawing on the tip of my fingernail, I continued to stare at the screen as if by some chance the messages would disappear. And as the minutes began to pass, I knew I had no other choice but to call him.

Then tapping the call icon, I reluctantly put the phone to my ear as I rose from our bed. It only rang a few times before he answered.

“Sweetheart!” Nathaniel’s eager voice further unsettled my stomach as I paced the layout of our bedroom. “I’m assuming you're calling because you got my messages?”

Irritation ignited its way throughout my body.

“I am,” I forced down the annoyance that was clawing at me, and gave him the typical, refined version of myself that I carefully constructed over the years. “I’m just surprised and a bit confused is all.”

His polished laughter forced me to toy with the five-carat diamond around my finger. Somehow it leveled out the anger simmering beneath, but it was no alleviant for the uncertainty and doubt that had been plaguing me since the day he put it on my finger.

“Confused? That’s not exactly the reaction I was hoping for considering I love to spoil you as often as I can.”

Sighing, I couldn't argue with him there. He did love to spoil me. From lavish jewelry to the finest of fabrics to adorn my body. He thought by indulging me with gifts, he’d earn my heart. And in the beginning, it seemed to be enough.

Until it wasn’t.

“This is different, Nathaniel,” I huffed, my voice taking a turn toward fiery. “When was the last time you ever planned something spontaneous for us?”

The answer was never, but I was curious to see how he would respond.

“Sunshine…” He sighed as an inkling of annoyance began to poke through.

“I will admit that I’ve neglected you in the aspect of arranging getaways, and I fully plan on fixing that, but you have nothing to be confused or worried about.

Think of this as the start of something new for us.

” He paused. “Think of this as something only a man who is madly in love with a woman would do.”

His words did nothing to soothe my wariness. If anything, he had made it worse.

“Natha…”

“Emelia.” His assertive voice shot through the phone like a bolt, sending all my worries straight into the pit of my stomach.

Nathaniel wasn’t a violent man.

He wasn’t a mean one either, but whenever I didn’t agree with him, or questioned his actions, he’d raise his voice. And it wasn’t just the loud, forceful timbre that frightened me, it was the evident warning that laid heavy beneath his words.

As if recognizing the tone he had just used, he took a deep, resounding breath before whispering softly, “Sweetheart.”

The endearment sent a chill down my back.

“I’m going to be your husband. The one you trust above all others, yes?” He paused, waiting for an answer.

Heart hammering, I responded. “Yes.”

“Good. So, there’s no need to worry about anything.

All you need to focus on is having a bag packed and getting your cute little behind onto that airplane.

” His tone softened, but an underlying edginess warned me against pressing the issue.

“And since I have no idea when I’ll be able to meet you there, I was going to arrange for Melanie to go with you. ”

The mention of his sister had me tensing all over.

Melanie Bettencourt, the bane of my existence.

“No!” I shouted, creating a stagnant silence through the phone.

Crap.

“What I mean is, with her busy schedule, I’m sure she already has plans for the day.” The last thing I wanted to do was spend the day with Satan's spawn. “I could invite Clarke, I'm sure she’s not too busy.”

He scoffed.

“Well, of course she isn’t, all she does is ride around on motorcycles all day,” he mocked, while I was now tempted to ask the last time he’d ridden a motorcycle.

The answer was never.

“If she’s available, then that’s fine,” he answered reluctantly. “If you need anything, call me. I love you, sweetheart.”

I mumbled an “I love you” back, but he quickly ended the call before he heard it.

Once I was off the phone with Nathaniel, I immediately dialed Clarke. Thankfully in only a few rings, she answered.

“Emelia’s best friend speaking,” Clarke’s warm, throaty voice purred through the phone, immediately enveloping me in a blanket of comfort.

“Please tell me you aren’t busy right now.”

In the background I could hear the evident sound of tires squealing on pavement, followed by the deep, growling roar of an engine running.

“Shit,” she grumbled. “Give me a second to get away from this asshole, hold on.”

Immediately, the mention of ‘this asshole’ piqued my interest. I knew it wasn’t just some stranger driving recklessly, because normally Clarke was the one leaving the burnouts.

“Clarke Burns, are you with who I think you’re with?” I teased, knowing damn well I was right before she could weasel her way out with a lie.

“What! No, of course not!” She scoffed. “I’m definitely not with… him.”

As soon as the lie had fallen past her lips, I knew she regretted it.

“Shit, okay. You’re right, I am, but for a good reason!” she defended as I had already come to my own conclusion as to why she was with him.

“If this good reason involves his dick, then it’s definitely not a good reason.”

Her ex was the definition of a scumbag. I'm talking bottom of the barrel, with too many red flags to count, type of man that would never be good enough for my best friend.

Her daredevil antics and volatile temper often foreshadowed her true nature: a woman with a heart of gold and a compassionate soul, and oftentimes the men she dated felt intimated by her.

As they should.

“Glad you think so highly of me…” she mumbled teasingly. “You should know, I wouldn’t let that thing near me again even if he were the last man on earth.”

I was seconds away from responding, but my surprise was short-lived when she added, “His tongue, though, he offered that up pretty quickly when I told him sex was off the table.”

An uncontrolled laugh tumbled from my mouth. “Please tell me you didn’t…”

“Emelia,” she said, feigning exasperation. “I haven’t had sex in weeks weeks!” she emphasized playfully. “I needed something to hold me over and Hunter was my only logical option.”

Groaning, I couldn’t help but shake my head.

“Hunter and logical are two words that should never appear in the same sentence.”

Clarke snorted. “Desperation can make people do crazy things, Emelia. But don’t worry, Hunter is heading off for California in a few days. So, I think I’m just going to take this as his parting gift to me.”

I replicated Clarke’s snort.

That’s one way to justify it.

“Enough about me and my poor decision-making, what’s going on? It’s not like you to call me in the middle of the day.”

Thrown back into reality of why I rang her in the first place, I fiddled with the band around my finger again.

“I need you to go with me somewhere,” I all but blurted out.

“Okay.” She laughed. “Where do you need to go?”

“On a short trip to wherever Nathaniel is sending us?” I winced as a pause of silence greeted me.

“Where is he sending you?” Her voice took on a more concerned angle as I struggled to continue talking.

"That's the thing, I have no idea. It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise…” She seemed less than interested in entertaining the idea. “And you want me to go with you?”

“Yes, he was going to have his sister go with me, but I said I would ask you instead.” I laced my words with a hopeful glint, strongly anticipating a reluctant yes.

A long string of silence stretched over the phone as if she were contemplating her options carefully. She disliked Nathaniel with a strong passion, but when it came to his villainous sister, her hatred burned even stronger.

“Fine!” She sighed grudgingly. “But this asshole better be sending us somewhere nice, like a beach!”

With a relieved smile, we made plans to meet in less than an hour.

I only hoped that Clarke was right about it being a beach.