Run: Beginnings Read Online Free PDF Page A

beauty. Eric’s head was just a few inches shy of brushing the doorway. He stood like an unmovable boulder straight out of the Canadian wilderness—tall, strong, carved tough by nature. He wore a soft worn plaid shirt with a thick shearling coat. His shirt was opened just enough for Natalie to get a glimpse of the dark hair tufting his chest. Natalie gulped seeing that. How did her pants shrink in the last two seconds?
                  A warm smile brushed across Eric’s face. “I hope my attire is suitable for madam,” he teased with a quirked brow and glimmering eye. He had clearly noticed her gaping at him
                  Natalie blushed. “Yes, of course! Come on in, please,” she said, opening the door wide. With Eric came a blast of the cold fall air. It was only the end of September yet this was the coldest weather Natalie had ever experienced in her sheltered city life. She wondered how she’d ever survive winter and the snow.
                  Eric stood in the middle of the large family room with his back to Natalie, surveying the damage. The bones of the house were lovely. The wood trim was intricate and the rooms large and spacious. There were even some stain-glassed windows in the upstairs rooms. But the house hadn’t been maintained as it should’ve. The roof was a mess with large patches of missing shingles. The floors were scuffed and warped. The windows and walls had been erected before proper insulation had become standard, letting all the coldness of the outside to seep in. All this had led to most of the doors warping from the weather. Her bedroom door barely shut.
                  Eric gave a low whistle. “You know, I told Doc Cadwell he needed to reno this house several times. But the old man was just too involved in medicine to see anything else beyond his clinic.” Eric looked up at the ceiling, squinting his eyes to evaluate something beyond Natalie’s understanding. “I never realized how much work really was needed.”
                  Natalie shrugged. “Well, that’s why I just want to do the bare minimum for now. It’s too cold to be doing all the major rehab now. The snow will be falling soon and it’ll never get done in time. I just want to do what I can so I don’t completely freeze during winter.”
                  Eric turned around and looked down at Natalie. His whole body seemed to exude a raw heat that instinctually drew Natalie in. There was something different about this man. It wasn’t just his height or his devilish charm. All of those things Eric seemed to use to throw Natalie off from something deeper within him. She could feel an energy, primal and potent, pulsing within him. What was it? What was he hiding?
                  But she was startled out of her reverie as Eric’s large thumb swiped across her cheek. He looked down at his thumb then to Natalie’s wide eyed surprise, he put it into his mouth and licked it. “Mmm,” he said. “Is that gravy?”
                  Natalie nodded, biting her lip to try not to laugh at how eager his expression had become. “Yes,” she said shrugging her shoulder towards the kitchen. “I thought you might be hungry and to thank you for helping, I made dinner. The roast is warming right now in the oven.”
                  Eric grinned and clapped his hands together. “Well! With motivation like that, I’d better get started. Let me bring in my tools.”
    ***
                  For the better part of two hours, Eric helped piece back together the house that Natalie now owned. She couldn’t believe the amount of work he was doing on her behalf. He had even promised to help her get started on the bigger projects in spring and to bring in some good construction workers he knew to help. For the first time in weeks, Natalie felt like she could relax a bit of the tension in her shoulders. She didn’t have to do