Extenuating Circumstances

Chapter 2

(Chloe's POV:)

Groaning I flipped over in my bed so that my face touched the cool sheets. 

My aggressive actions caused the sheets to tangle with my legs and it felt like I was cocooned.

I felt warmth on my face, no doubt from the sunlight that was streaming into the room. I probably forgot to close the shades yesterday night, although I don't recall the last time I opened them.  

Sighing I pulled the pillow by the headboard over my head and breathed. Inhaling was odd since the pillow around me prevented fresh air from getting in and the fact that I had pressed my nose and mouth into the sheets like a leech, amplified and dulled everything. 

My sheets smelled different and I could barely hear anything. I was starting to grow anxious with that combination of senses, but I was too tired to move.  I haven't changed my laundry detergent recently so the subtle scent of pine and something else, something masculine, was disorienting.

I felt myself being lulled back to sleep and no longer focused on the oddities I noticed since I woke up today.

When I felt something cold touch my forearm, that was exposed in my current position, I catapulted out of the bed to the left. 

Blindly reaching behind me for the baseball bat that I always kept by my nightstand and turning towards the intruder, I gasped in shock and nearly doubled over when I saw a hooded figure standing in the dark doorway, of what I only now realized was not my room. 

Backing up towards the wall behind me, I glanced around the room quickly and analyzed the quickest and easiest way out of here. 

I turned my head back to the door, only to see the guy that was standing there gone, and to find him sitting at the foot of the bed I had no doubtedly spent the night in. I looked down at myself and noticed that I was still wearing last night's clothes, which means no one touched me and when I looked back up the mystery man was pulling down his hood. 

"Listen, I'm not sure what's going on right now but I want you to tell me where the hell I am, who the hell you are, and what the hell I'm doing here," I uttered in one breath, nearly gasping at the end as I'd begun to run out of oxygen towards the second pronunciation of hell.

I watched him as he turned to face me with an amused smirk playing at the corner of his mouth and traced over the outlines of his very nice face.

 He was beautiful. 

Dark brown curly hair piled carelessly on top of his head, a forehead creased - no doubt in confusion because of this situation-, defined eyebrows sat on top of captivating grey eyes, a perfectly straight nose that led to the cupid's bow resting above his immaculately sculpted lips and a jawline that rivaled that of Chris Pine's. 

All in all, he was beautiful and by now watching me after noticing my blatant staring. 

He met my eyes and beckoned for me to sit in the chair situated in front of the window to the left of the wall that I was leaning against.

Cautiously I walked over and sat without glancing away from him. 

I leaned back in the chair and crossed my legs in front of me, observing how his eyes followed that movement as he stayed statue still.

Typically, I would have never stayed around this long. In fact, I would never have even waited for an answer to my question, but I was curious and - not only into my current situation - but into him. 

Into the mysterious stranger, who I by now assumed to be the owner of this apartment, whose bed I was probably sleeping in, and who made me feel comfortable enough to wait around for his answer. 

Today, after nearly 2 years, I had made my first mistake, and it started with laying my eyes on him.  

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