Sinners & Gin - Top Shelf

Although in all reality, where would she run to? She was barefoot and in a white fluffy robe. Not exactly running through the mountains alone attire.

I walked toward the cabin and placed her at the door so she could enter of her own free will. Although she was first in line, Aria stopped at the door and stepped to the side. “You go first and kill anything with more or fewer legs than I have, please. If it crawls, hisses, or bites, I believe it’s time it meets its maker.”

The way she put it made me smile. She wasn’t admitting to any fears, but simply asking me to prevent them, and I was surprised to find myself quite happy to do that for her. I hadn’t always been a monster. I’d had model parents who had done their best to instill manners into me. Although I definitely hadn’t been the best of their pupils in that area as of late. But some things had set in and watching out for helpless women was one of them.

The men I worked with had teased me about that fact—that I rarely partook in the women who practically threw themselves at me simply because of my money and status. I liked challenge. I liked spit and fire. I liked the give and pull. But I also did respect women. I truly did. I didn’t show it all the time, but I tried my best. It was one of the reasons I insisted that every woman working at Spiked Roses was paid exceptionally well and always treated with the highest respect. We had hired Tennessee Williams to not only supervise the staff, but to watch over and protect them.

There were more birds nested in the cabin than insects of any sort, although I ushered everything I found either out or into the next world. Then I made sure that the lock on the back door—which was directly opposite of the front door—worked and was in place before opening the front door and motioning her in. There was a thin mattress on an old bed frame that looked as if it had seen much better days and a small fireplace. It wasn’t much, but it was better than lying on the ground in a cold room.

“I’m going to go gather some firewood. I’ll be back shortly.”

Would she try to leave?

Doubtful.

But even if she ran, I would catch her.

I think we both knew that fact.

Aria

Although I didn’t like the idea of being left alone in this place for any length of time, I recognized the necessity of us finding a means of heating the cabin. We were so far up the mountain that it was freezing, and we didn’t have the proper clothing and boots to fight against the elements. We would need a fire to keep us warm and especially at night. How long would we stay here? How long would it take for this stranger to get what he wanted from my father to return me? How long would I have nothing to wear but a robe and a borrowed jacket to keep me warm?

Shivering, I tightened the man’s coat around me. I could smell him in the fabric and for some unknown reason, I inhaled deeply. I should have cast off the coat, but I was too cold.

Yes, that was the reason. The only reason. Temperature.

Liar.

I refused to consider any alternate methods of generating heat such as the one he was very likely to suggest… or maybe even take.

Luckily, he had left me with a small candle, the flame of which I guarded obsessively as I moved about the cabin trying to clean it up a bit. There was a small table that had been knocked onto its side, and I righted it and put it under the one window. There were no chairs at all, so it looked as if we were going to have to sit on the bed together to eat whatever it was he planned on feeding us while we remained here.

Would we play a fucked up version of house together in this cabin?

When I had done about all I could to make the place somewhat livable, I sat gingerly down on the very edge of the bed, hugging myself. The lack of activity quickly reminded me that my attire assured I had nothing much for warmth right now, or protection when it came to the colder weather. Alone.

I looked around. Uncertain what to do next.

Where was he? How long would he be gone?

I looked down at the dirty mattress. He was going to expect me to fall into bed with him—again. Although there hadn’t been much falling done before—but I wasn’t going to. I had already made that resolution. I couldn’t believe how far I’d gone with this man. The things I’d allowed him to do me… Just thinking about our kinky experience had my face heating up and a prickle of sensation forming between my legs. It was so unlike me, and yet at the same time, felt so natural. I always watched from afar. I never participated. But with this stranger…