The sun rose early the next morning casting a bright light to flood the room and land directly onto the face of a sleeping redheaded woman clad only in a white cotton bra and panties lay sprawled over the bed with the blankets covering one leg and part of her stomach. Mouth slightly open and a spot of drool in the inner corner the woman grunted and threw her arm over her eyes at the rude awakening. Catherine groaned at the sudden intrusion to her sleep and pulled the blankets over her head in an attempt to block out the light when her arm failed to do so. Her head pounded as she buried herself further into the bed, the alcohol and vomit from the previous evening leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, she wiped the drool away and cursed herself for not bringing a glass of water upstairs with her. Still feeling quite nauseous and cursing herself for drinking so much she scrunched her eyes up and willed herself back to sleep in the hopes she would wake up later feeling somewhat better. In her current state she highly doubted she would be able to function in any capacity and she certainly wasn't going to attempt walking any kind of distance, even the bathroom seemed too far. A short while later sleep overtook her again, her body relaxing once more into the bed.
A few hours later she awoke naturally, no bright lights to shock her awake this time. Blinking her eyes open she dragged the blankets from her now sweaty body with a groan and pushed herself up onto her elbows. Through sleep heavy eyes she looked around the room. Reaching to the bedside table she picked her phone up and checked the time, midday. Dropping the device onto the bed next to her she dropped back onto the soft pillows and watched the fresh snow falling outside through the open curtains. Damn, that explained the bright light this morning. In her drunken state she had forgotten to close the curtains. At least she was out in the middle of nowhere so there were no neighbours to see her stumble around in her underwear before landing in the bed. Something she was incredibly grateful for. As she lay there wondering how her life had gotten so bad that the thought of staying in bed sweaty and in yesterdays underwear was appealing to her a knock echoed through the house causing her to sit up suddenly. Who the hell would be knocking all the way out here?
Outside the dark haired man moved from the door to peer in through the window for any sign of life inside. Seeing none he sighed and turned to leave but paused at the last moment and turned back to the house, he strode up and tried the door. Finding it unlocked he stepped inside the quiet house and scanned the immediate surroundings. Deciding to just get it over with quickly so he could leave he moved into the living room with a stride that spoke of familiarity with the place. His mom had told him the guest should have arrived yesterday but he'd yet to see anyone. Perhaps they were delayed.
Kneeling in front of the fireplace he began to unload the logs from the canvas bag into the basket beside the fire. He'd brought enough to fill the basket in the bedroom upstairs but he'd already intruded enough so he stacked them alongside the ones downstairs. If they wanted to light the fire in the bedroom they'd just have to take some upstairs with them.
Catherine padded downstairs quietly, she was sure she had heard the door opening as she'd pulled on some yoga pants and a sweater. Right at this moment, as her heart pounded with the possibility of an intruder she wished she had her firearm still. Or at least wasn't in the middle of nowhere where there was nobody to hear her scream.
Hearing a sound come from the living room she paused on the bottom step, counted to ten and rounded the corner with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Who the hell are you?" She demanded. She meant for her voice to be strong and intimidating but the slight quiver spoke of her unease.
The man kneeling in front of the fire froze briefly then slowly rose to his full height. His back facing her Catherine's eyes watched as he squared his shoulders and turned to face her.
"Oh my god!" She gasped, her eyes going wide.
Sorry for the slow updates. I have got the next few chapters written in a notebook but recently I've just either been too tired after work, busy with family or just lacked motivation to do anything.