The One Who Watches by Jillian Cline (best business books of all time .TXT) 📕

on my arms, holding me there for a second then lowering me down the rest of the way to the ground.
Twigs dug in my palms and pressed onto my cheek. I blinked in surprise as the dark figure that I saw form in the corner of my vision loom over me. The figure bent down, took hold of my shoulder, and pushed me on my back. My breathing wasn't showing any improvement at what I saw. A boy was crouched before me. His hair fell in his face that was shoulder length and was twined with black feathers. His body was naked but for the shorts he wore. He was heavily muscled from head to toe. From the color of his skin he was either Greek or Indian. He reached out a hand that was a big as my face, to pluck out my head phones. It was then I noticed he was speaking to me. "Little bird, are you alright?" He asked. His voice heavily accented with a language I didn't know. My senses were coming back to me now; sharper than before though. The ground beneath me seemed to be sending sharp numbing pain in my body and in my head. The wind was taking its cold teeth to my open skin. I sucked it in to try and calm my heart. As I did I found his eyes. They were the color of night, shining with thousands of stars. A moan of pain escaped my lips as I tried to sit up. "Hey now, slow down. You may hurt yourself." His smile cleared the fog in my head.
"Um...Who are you?" I asked pressing the palm of my hand to my head. "People call me Raven. And you are?" His accent got heavier when he said his own name, the name that gave me shivers down my back.
Chapter Four

I sat there like an idiot. Who names their kid Raven? (Sorry for people who have the name Raven, just a matter a shock at the time)
"Little bird, are you all right?" His hand was on my back, keeping me from falling. "Um, yeah. Can you help me up?" Little bird? A guy named Raven, named after the bird who has been watching me? Saving me? Okay here are the puzzle pieces. Eyes so dark they remind me of the night; black feathers in the hair; half naked in the woods when it is cold (twilight moment!); saving me; and little bird. What is going on?
Raven stood up after making sure I wouldn’t fall over and held out his hand for me to take. I looked up at him before I took his hand. He pulled me up and I found myself inches from him. The heat of his body flowed off him in small tiny waves that warmed me from where I stood. He was tall enough that I came up to his chest. It was like he was the Hulk and I was Mary's little lamb. I just hope he doesn't eat me first. "Can you stand without leverage?" He asked brining me back from my horrible thoughts. "I-I think so." I shuddered. Nodding, he slowly took his hands away from me. He stood there as if he was waiting for me to stumble or do something to just make sure I was fine. I cleared my throat before saying, "Thanks. I would have been a blue berry if it wasn't for you." He smiled. "May I ask why you are practically naked when it is almost winter?" His laugh made my stomach do a flip-flop type of thing. "Listen to your words, little bird. I'm almost naked and it is almost winter. Almost means not completely or not sure yet. Plus I have more body heat than others."
"You know, you remind me of a movie I watch." He was still grinning at me. "And what movie would that be?" "Twilight." His face was a question mark. "Never mind. So what are you doing out in the woods?" He motioned to the ground where a bow and a nest an arrows sat. "I was hunting." I blinked. "Isn't hunting season over?" I looked back up at him and his grinning face. "Not for me." I shook my head. I learned a long time ago men play by their own rules. Not that I'm saying girls don't either but in my opinion, men are more often with it. "And what about you?" Now it was my turn to be confused. "Huh?" He laughed again. "Little bird, what are you doing in the woods when I am hunting? I could have hurt you. And you are to pretty to be hurt." I blushed. He bent down and picked up my MP3 and his stuff. He handed me my MP3 and slung his stuff over his shoulder. "Here why don't we walk back to your place, and you can tell me what you were doing here. And I only offer because one: you might be lost and it's getting dark sooner. And two: I think there are other hunters out here." I turned off my MP3 and we began walking. "Why list off? Again you just saved me from being a blue berry." I glanced at him to the ground making sure I was walking the right way. He was right it was getting darker sooner. "So you don't find it creepy a guy was hunting practically naked when it's getting dark, and out of nowhere save a little bird from being a blue berry, then asking to walk a stranger home? I don't know about you, but if I was in your place I would have darted the first chance I had." I shook my head. "You have a point, but something is telling me to trust you, or believe in some of what you say. Today is just not a good day. It's confusing, and the cold isn't helping me think." Mistake one. "You are cold? Then come closer. I promise I wouldn't do anything. I am man of my word." I do have to admit though. I was cold to the bone. Parker and Kayla did have a reason to be worried about me. I have to apologize to them when I get back to the school. With a shiver I stepped closer to him.
We didn't talk for a while. We just walked a few more paces when the sun was going down pass the trees when I shivered again. Raven noticed and said, "Come on little bird. You are cold. Come closer to me so you can stay warm." I knew I hesitated to long when his hand slipped into mine and he pulled me closer to him. He was as warm as he said he was. He switched my hand with the other so he could rap an arm around me.
"My goodness! You are frozen!" his exclamation made him hug me tighter. "How can you stand to feel that cold?" He rubbed his hand up and down my arm leaving a path of heat on my frozen skin, reminding me of Parker. "Is that better?" He asked. I let go of the hand that he held then moved to rap my arm around his waist. He fit against me great. I don't know how but he did, and the feeling of something aroused within me. What was it? As the light faded the shadows came we out to play a little. I noticed Raven was looking around us like he was waiting for someone to attack us from behind. "Yes that’s better. I was too dumb to bring a jacket. No i take that back. I was too dumb to even go for a run when it was close to dark." Mistake two. "Now little bird, you are not dumb. See if you didn't go for a run I wouldn't have met you. And trust me I like the mistake you made. These woods get pretty boring after a while. Have you ever thought things were sub post to happen?" He looked at me when he asked his question. "Of course I do. Things are apart a nature, and nature is controlling its self, so why not let it believe that it might just happen to us all the time to us." The last of the light was fading when he spoke. "Then how do you know that you going for a run and meeting me was a mistake?" I blinked. He was right, how did I know?
We walked in silence once again. It was the comfortable kind. Darkness fell upon us, cloaking us with its protection of anything that might try to harm us. The night sounded all around us. Entombing us in their wonderful sound. The touch of him was breath taking, even more than the run. Something was off about this, something not right. Who was this man really?
***
We must have walked a long time before we saw the lights of the dorms come into view. We stopped at the edge of the woods and he spoke. "Is this where you are staying?" He asked marveling at the beautiful building. "Yeah it is." I glanced around. "Can you lead me to the door? I don't think I can see out here." I glanced at him. He nodded his lips set in a grim line. "What's wrong?" I asked. He turned to look at me, his hand moving with him and was now placed on the bare of my back where my shirt had ridden up, sending tingles all over my body and making me shiver violently. And when I shiver my body jerks side to side from head to toe, the kind of shiver that make people look and ask "What was that?" that was what happened now. Raven looked deep in my eyes. "You okay? What was that?" he asked. His voice shaking a bit. I smiled at his protectiveness. "I'm fine, it was just a shiver." A smile pulled at his lips. "That is how you shiver? My you must be really cold." and with that he placed his other hand on my back on the bare skin like the other. The tips of his fingers on my spine then spread like a chine’s fan. His palms and fingers pressed lightly into my back, pulling me closer to him until my breasts pressed against his chest, my hips in line with his hips, and our stomachs also touching. My breaths came faster as he looked deeper within me, as if he were trying to see through or to my soul. I found my palms pressed gently on his chest, feeling the thrum of