The One He Dismissed Became The One He Died For novel Chapter 141

Traffic on the highway toward Blue Ridge County had backed up into an endless, crawling line.

By the time they neared the Blue Ridge Mountain exit, traffic came to a complete, agonizing standstill.

Police officers were up ahead, blocking the flow of vehicles.

"There's been a massive mudslide ahead, causing a multi-car pileup! It's a disaster zone, everyone needs to detour!"

Memories buried for over a decade violently exploded in Miles's mind.

The possibility of losing Claire forever closed over him like a suffocating, pitch-black net.

Miles threw his car door open and charged into the pouring rain.

"I'm going in on foot!"

An officer rushed to intercept him. "Calm down, sir! The area ahead is locked down. How are you going to find anyone on foot without a car?"

Miles's tone left no room for argument. "Someone incredibly important to me is out there. I have to find her."

The officer was momentarily stunned by his commanding, predatory aura.

For the first time in his meticulously controlled life, Miles lost his composure, preparing to forcibly break through the police barricade.

Just as the standoff escalated.

"Miles?"

A trembling, disbelieving voice cut through the torrential rain from behind him.

Miles stiffened, his head snapping up.

Claire was soaked to the bone and covered in mud, her tangled hair plastered against her cheeks. Her clothes were torn, revealing jagged, blood-tinged scratches on her pale skin.

She stood there staring at him, her eyes brimming with a mixture of shock and sheer vulnerability.

Time stopped for a few agonizing seconds.

Then, the usually stoic, utterly composed man sprinted toward her.

Before Claire could even process what was happening, he hauled her roughly into his arms.

Miles's arms banded around her slender waist like a vice, holding her so tightly he might have crushed her.

Her umbrella slipped from her grasp, splashing into a muddy puddle. The rain battered them both, but his body heat was a blazing inferno; Claire couldn't feel the chill of the storm at all.

"You're safe..." his voice was a raw, gravelly rasp.

She sniffled, her voice barely a whisper, choked with the emotional aftermath of surviving.

"There was a mudslide. My car smashed into the guardrail, but I was on the edge. The car is totaled, but I'm fine."

They couldn't leave the area. With the police's coordination, they retreated from the highway exit and returned to the small motel at the foot of Blue Ridge Mountain.

"Back so soon, miss? Like I told you, no one's getting out in this weather, and no one's getting in..."

The innkeeper's words hitched in his throat.

He noticed the drenched man towering behind Claire.

"Someone actually braved this storm to get in? You two really don't care about your lives, do you?"

Miles spoke in a low baritone. "We need a room, please."

With the relentless rain, the wooden floorboards on the second floor had grown damp, squeaking in protest under their weight.

The moment the door clicked shut, Miles spoke. "I'll go downstairs and borrow a first aid kit..."

Before he could finish, Claire threw her arms around him.

She pushed up onto her toes and kissed him.

Her arms looped around his neck, and her soft, rain-dampened lips pressed insistently against his without asking for permission.

The kiss was a frantic, chaotic collision of desperate relief.

The woman in his arms was still trembling, acting on pure instinct as she blindly explored and laid claim to him.

Miles's spine went rigidly straight, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

It took every last ounce of his formidable self-control to turn his head and break the contact just as she tried to deepen the kiss.

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