316 Rose Rd (A Cherry Falls Romance)

She watches as my hands move over her ankle, and I am sure that I hear her let out a little gasp when my fingers brush the sole of her foot.

"Ticklish?” I ask.

She shakes her head. "Not really," she replies. I can see a little flush to her cheeks. I know that she is enjoying my touch, maybe even as much as I am enjoying touching her. And I know that the two of us are entering some dangerous territory right now.

"You live here alone?" she asks, looking around my cabin. It's not much, but it’s mine, and I’m glad that I don’t have to share an apartment with shitty roommates again as long as I live. I nod.

"Yeah, I do," I reply.

"I don’t know if I could live up here all by myself," she remarks. "So far from the rest of the world..."

"You get used to it," I reply. "And besides, I never much liked the rest of the world to begin with."

She laughs, and I begin to wrap a supportive bandage around her ankle to make sure she doesn’t roll on it again. I slide my hand up her calf, supporting her carefully as I do so. I know that I could be done already, but as soon as I am finished, then I am going to have no more reason to keep touching her and I am not sure that I am anything close to ready for that.

"You’re so lucky to be on your own," she sighs, looking around. "You don’t have to worry about what anyone else thinks."

"You don’t strike me as the kind of girl who cares much about what other people think of her," I remark, and she pulls a face at me.

"I wish," she replies. "I have a lot of eyes on me. And I know that if I do anything wrong, they’re going to be there to judge."

"You really didn’t hear anything out there in the showers?" I ask her, and she pauses for a moment. I can tell that she is considering coming out with the truth, and I press a little further.

"I thought it might have been one of those cougars," I remark, casually, even though I know that the sound I heard when I had been passing by had been anything but animal.

"Need to make sure there isn’t anything prowling around here that might do someone damage," I continue, and I flick my eyes up to meet hers again. She bites her lip.

"It wasn’t a cougar," she admits. "I know that much."

"Oh, yeah?" I ask her. She nods.

"I thought you might have been in trouble in there, the noises you were making," I go on, sitting back on my haunches and looking up at her. I’m distinctly aware of the fact that it would take so little for me to see all of her in this moment – I could just tug at the towel she has wrapped around her, and let it fall to the floor for good.

"I... guess I was, in some ways," she replies, and she can’t keep the little smile off her face as she speaks.

"Oh, yeah?” I press, returning her grin.

"Can I be honest with you?" she asks, and I nod.

"Of course you can."

"I – uh, I wasn’t in pain or anything," she confesses. "I was trying to... I was, well, I was trying..."

I can see that she is going to have a hard time coming out and saying what is on her mind right now. She’s a preacher’s daughter, if Grant’s recon is right, and I have no doubt that she has spent most of her life trying to forget that anything impure could exist in her pretty little head. But she closes her eyes for a moment, gathers herself, and then looks at me once more.

"I was trying to make myself... you know," she finishes up.

"Come?" I fill in for her. She parts her lips slightly at the sound of that word coming out of my mouth, but she doesn’t seem to mind it so much.

She nods. "Yeah, come," she replies. "I’ve never... I mean, I came out here because I wanted to get away from all the pressure I’ve been putting on myself. I wanted to give myself a break for a change, make it so that I didn’t have to worry about doing this or that, and I could just focus on my pleasure."

She looks away from me, and I can see the excitement shining in her eyes. I know that she has never spoken this out loud to anyone before, and it thrills me to know that she’s telling it to me. Because it means that she believes I have reason to know.

"I guess my sexy noises need a little work," she remarks with a little giggle, tucking a loose strand of her wet hair back behind her ear and meeting my gaze once more. "Given that you thought I was a cougar."