Beholden by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

Author:Dr. Rebecca Sharp
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Carmel Cove Series, Book One
Publisher: Dr. Rebecca Sharp
Published: 2020-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

Eli

“Laurel!”

I shoved toward her as she rushed into the living room, streaks of smoke escaping from the latched door.

Larry hadn’t had the chimney cleaned in years. I’d offered countless times, but he always refused, saying I had more important things I could be doing other than chimney sweep.

“Laurel, don’t touch—” I warned angrily as she reached for the door, futile words as her shriek cut them off.

Her hand jerked back in pain, bringing the burning wrought iron door with them and a huge billow of black smoke.

Cursing under my breath, my arm came up to shield my face as I reached blindly for Laurel. Just as I grabbed her shoulder, her small, soot-covered form reeled back into my chest, her frame shaking as she coughed and hacked into her elbow, her softness quaking against me.

“Christ, Laurel,” I grunted, gripping the silken flesh of her arms and spinning her behind me. I didn’t want her anywhere near that thing; if it was going to harm anyone, it was going to be me. “Stay back.”

As she kept coughing, I held my elbow over my mouth as I quickly unlatched the windows facing toward the ocean to let in clean air and take out some of the floating ash. Waving my arm in front of the still spitting fireplace, it took only a few more seconds before enough had cleared for me to see what was going on.

“I thought—” a cough that sounded like it was bringing her lung with it, interrupted her, “—it had died down earlier… before I went outside.”

Grunting, I reached for the poker and began prodding inside the soot-covered space. It looked like the rush of air inside had finally stifled whatever embers had caused this mess.

“Fireplace hasn’t been used in years,” I said, my throat hoarse and scratchy from breathing in the smoky particles. “And I don’t know when the chimney was last cleaned.” Making sure there was no sign of burning life inside, I hung the poker back up with a heavy exhale. “Looks like you trapped just enough hot embers inside to reignite.”

“Oh God…” She trailed off with a low, rough voice. “Could I have…”

My jaw clenched. If she hadn’t opened the door, the smoke and debris could’ve built up enough pressure to make something explode or burst into flames—but when I turned and took a good look at her now that I knew everything was safe, there was no way I was going to tell her that.

“It’s fine, Laurel,” I said gruffly, poking through the embers one more time as the night breeze sucked out most of the smoke from the room. “Everything is fine.”

Propping the iron rod back on its stand, I faced her. She was still looking in horror at the small, blackened fireplace, imagining just how badly this could’ve gone.

With a low growl, I grabbed a handful of tissues off the coffee table and stood in front of her, blocking her view of the fireplace and forcing those ocean eyes back on me.

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