Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“Something broken?” I ask.
“No. Nothing like that,” she says. “I just… that guy you were talking to…”
Despite my best efforts to stave it off, a wave of jealousy crashes down over me. It’s stupid. I know it’s stupid. I have no claim to this girl. I don’t want to have any claim to her. And yet, hearing her even reference another man sends a lightning bolt of jealousy crackling through me. I find I don’t like it any more than I liked the way Travis leered at her.
“Yeah, what about him?” I ask.
“He’s the guy from the market in town, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What was he doing here?” she asks.
“Why do you want to know?”
She clears her throat and shuffles her feet, dropping her soft brown eyes to the floor. The girl is obviously uncomfortable about something. She draws in a breath, then raises her gaze to me. Her jaw is clenched and her chin tilted up in something like defiance.
“Because if he’s here a lot, I think I need to find somewhere else to stay,” she says firmly.
“And why’s that?”
“When I was in town picking up groceries the other day, he just… he made me uncomfortable,” she admits quietly.
“How so?”
“He just… he followed me around the store and just… the way he looked at me…. it made me uncomfortable,” she says, then stands firmer. “So, if he’s a regular fixture here—”
“He’s not,” I tell her.
She visibly relaxes, and a shaky smile touches her lips. “I’m sorry. I just—”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. If he’s making you uncomfortable, I get why you wouldn’t want to be around him,” I tell her. “I was actually going to call his boss and tell him to have somebody else do my deliveries from now on. I don’t like him much either.”
“Really?”
I shake my head. “Not a bit. You don’t need to worry about him coming around again.”
“Thank you, Eli,” she says. “I appreciate that.”
“Not doing it for you,” I tell her, even though in a way I am. “I just don’t like him.”
The corners of her mouth turn upward, and there’s a glint in her eye that’s both mischievous and seductive at the same time. It’s all I can do to keep from pulling her to me and having my way with her. And that gleam in her eye tells me it might not be unwelcome. Clearing my throat, I turn away, refusing to let myself give in to those urges.
“Anyway. Thanks again,” she says with what sounds like a hint of disappointment.
“Sure thing.”
She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, but closes it again without speaking. Instead, she puts in her AirPods and then turns and jogs away. As she goes, my eyes are fixed on the way her ass bounces and sways in those tight little Spandex shorts. I feel my cock stiffening as I imagine what that would feel like in my hands. And as I’m standing here with a raging hard on and a plethora of filthy fantasies bouncing through my head, Emery glances over her shoulder at me. She catches me staring at her tight little ass and smiles.
Stepping back into my cabin, I close the door and shake my head. “Fucking hell.”
7
EMERY
After my run this morning, I showered up, got myself off thinking about Eli again, then had something to eat and spent most of the day traipsing through the woods. If I hadn’t decided to get out and enjoy some of the amazing nature here, I might well have stayed in all day thinking about the man and getting myself off … again. There’s just something about him that ignites this white hot, primal fire inside of me. Which is why I need a distraction.
Aside from getting my mind off the big, burly lumberjack of a man, I also need to distract myself from the fear of seeing Travis again. He obviously knows I lied to him about where I was staying up here. And I know some guys don’t take kindly to being lied to. I just didn’t feel comfortable telling him where I’m staying. There’s something about him I found… unsettling. The way he looked at me in the store was just creepy. So, I lied.
I just never imagined I was going to run into him here. I mean, I know the cabin is only a few miles from the store, but I never expected the guy to show up here to make a delivery. Maybe I should have. In such a small community, maybe I should have anticipated him popping up here. I probably should have. I just hope Eli ran him off for good. It does make me feel better to know Eli has the same opinion of him, so I hope that’s the end of it.
Picking my way along the trail, I’m doing my best to avoid falling into a hole or tripping over an exposed root as I take in the majesty of the forest around me. All my photography has been centered on the city—buildings and people mostly. I’ve never really had the chance to photograph nature like this. And as I watch the way the sunlight filters down through the canopy, or glistens off the rushing river, or the quiet gracefulness of the animals that fill the woods around me, I wish I had.