Free Reasons to Leave (Reasons #1) by Lisa J. Hobman

angry to see her when she had arrived at the camp. Accusatory even. Today, he’d been hell bent on embarrassing her with his dirty talk, but now it seemed he’d changed again. She couldn’t keep up with his moods. Mercurial didn’t even cover it.
    She wasn’t ready for a confrontation and this could easily turn into one. She had no clue what to expect.
    Turning around she came face to face in the dim light with the man she had once loved. “I can’t do this, Jason. Not now…maybe not ever . I shouldn’t have come.” She turned away once again.
    He made a grab for her. “Please…please. An hour of your time. I know I don’t deserve it, but just hear me out? Please?”
    She closed her eyes once again as the tears came. The familiarity of his voice made her chest ache. She turned to gaze up at him again. “Ten minutes…that’s all I can give you. And after tonight it’s over…for good.”
    Chewing on his lip, he nodded reluctantly, released her arm, and turned to walk toward his cabin. She followed.
    Once inside he closed the door. “Can I offer you a drink? I have wine…or beer…or I can make—”
    “Wine would be good. I think I need something strong.”
    He smiled. “I have a nice single malt?”
    “Wine, Jason, thanks.” His name falling from her lips seemed strange. It wasn’t a word she had uttered often in the last ten years, although she had thought of him daily at first. The thoughts became less frequent, but the dreams were relentless.
    She was often haunted by dreams—or nightmares—where he slipped away from her as she tried desperately to grab for him. Or where he told her he didn’t love or want her anymore, breaking her heart into a million tiny fragments. Sometimes she had dreams where he made love to her. Those were the most torturous dreams for a young woman to experience. At the age of age eighteen, he was the only man she had ever considered giving her virginity to, but it never happened. He left before she could give him that most precious gift.
    Clearly an unwanted gift at that.
    She watched as he poured two glasses of Pinot Noir from an expensive looking bottle and handed one to her. “Please…sit.” He gestured to a leather sofa, and she did as he had asked.
    Smiling, she glanced around what she could see of his home. “It’s very cosy…your cabin.”
    He returned the smile warmly. “Yes, small but perfectly formed as they say.”
    They remained in silence for a few minutes. He came to sit beside her in all his shirtless glory and took her hand. She flinched and he let go.
    “I want to start by saying how sorry I am—”
    She scrunched her face. “You’re sorry ? Oh well, that’s it then. It’s all fixed. I’ll be going now.” She cringed at the bitter sound of sarcasm falling from her own tongue, but she still put her glass on the side table and stood to leave, affronted by his audacity.
    He stood too, slamming his glass down angrily, slopping some of the contents over his hand. “No!” He walked to block the doorway. “I won’t let you leave…not yet…not until you’ve heard me out.”
    She closed her eyes and clenched her fists in front of her body. “Jason…I can’t do this. How many times do I need to say that to you? All I want to do right now is to get on a train and go back to London and forget I ever came here.”
    “I know and I understand that. Believe me, I do. This isn’t exactly easy for me either. But I think you were meant to come here. I thought… Well, at first I thought you’d come here because you’d found me, but I know now that can’t be true. Your name wasn’t on the booking form. I’m guessing you’re here to replace someone?”
    “Yes, the original teacher, Mollie, broke her ankle. I was drafted in at the end of last week. I didn’t even want to come.”
    “I thought as much.” He chuckled. “You were never one for the great outdoors. Well, unless it included a picnic down by the river in our favourite spot.