“You brought me here to seduce me,” I muttered.
He chuckled, “I wanted to share this with you. I knew I’d get lucky, sure, we both know you can’t resist me, but I wanted to see what you thought of the place, too. After the craziness of the last few days I thought we’d spend the night, get to know one another better. Get our relationship moving in the right direction. Let my people work on the house, on erasing what happened this morning.”
As if it could be erased. I sighed. How could I keep my armor up with scenery like this and words like that? Not to mention those bedroom eyes. He lay back on the bed and he crooked his index finger at me again.
I shook my head again and looked out the opened barn doors out at the pond.
“Your temper tantrum is over, Tia. Do I have to come get you?” he asked and I looked over at him and the look on his face made my blood run cold. He was used to getting his own way. When things didn’t go the way he wanted them to go, he took matters into his own hands. He looked angry with me. Then his expression lightened and he tilted his head at me and smiled again.
I guess I was being a bitch. He’d brought me here to a place that was special to him in order to get us away from the chaos and I was, in essence, poo pooing all over it. He was trying. And he’d only been honest with me about my Dad and I’d started taking it out on him. I got to my feet and walked over and put a knee to the bed and climbed up and sat beside him, “It’s nice here. Sorry I’m being bitchy.”
He smiled at me and my heart lightened because I could see that the day might be salvageable by the look in his eyes, “Come here,” he mouthed and opened his arms wide. I climbed over and he pulled me down beside him and held me close, cradling my head against his chest with his hand, “You were right about what you said. Let me make it all up to you. I’ll work on making it up to you for as long as it takes.”
My heart swelled, “I lied,” I said softly, “I am warming up to you. I was just…” I didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
“I know. Kiss me.”
I kissed him quickly on the lips, “The things you said were really sweet. I like it when you’re sweet.” and then put my head back on his chest. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sound of his heartbeat.
“That’s all I get?” he asked.
“Mmm,” I nuzzled in.
“Looks like I’ll have to take more, if I want it, huh?”
I shrugged, “Guess you’re not feeling sweet right now, huh? Well, if you think you can…” I looked up at his face and caught my bottom lip with my teeth.
His eyes lit up and he raised his brows, “Do you think I can’t?” His grip around me tightened.
I shrugged, “Dunno. You’d have to be pretty bold...” Goosebumps rose on my skin but I managed to hold my gaze steady.
He growled and flipped me over so that I was on my back and he was on top of me, pinning my arms over my head. He kissed me roughly, “You wanna see how bold I am?” He looked like he could barely restrain himself.
“Yeah,” I said, looking him right in the eyes. I don’t know what made me decide to start this dangerous game with him but I could feel my heart rate picking up tempo.
“You like provoking me? You like to play games, little girl?”
I shrugged innocently and blinked at him a few times, “I dunno what you mean…”
“You want me to take you,” he said and I felt moisture trickle down below.
“I was gonna get you up here, serenade you with a picnic and be Mr. Romance. You might like sweet but you don’t want sweet today. Or do you?”
I sucked in my bottom lip and shrugged, then said, “No.”
He gave me a knowing smile and then said, “You’re perfect, Athena, you know that? You were made for me. Hide and seek. I’ll give you to the count of 20. You’d better hide good because when I find you, I’m gonna fuck you so hard you won’t have any doubt in your mind about how bold I am.”
I gaped at him.
“1, 2, 3… better get moving, 4, 5, today sometime? 6…”
I gasped at the quickening pace of his counting and jumped up and took off down the stairs. The barn door was closed. I knew it’d make noise when I opened it so I did but then I ducked back in and climbed through the already opened back hatch of the jeep and got into the back seat as quietly as possible. A few seconds later I heard him leave the barn and I let out the breath I’d been holding.
Wow. This was a rush. And at the end I’d get sweet release. I could see how this could get addicting, especially with how intense I suspected he’d play. A few minutes passed and I hadn’t heard anything anywhere around me. In fact it was eerily quiet. I sat up and almost had heart failure when I realized he was standing outside the driver’s side door, staring down at me with a smile on his face. I shrieked and scampered out the passenger side and ran out of the barn.
“I’ll give you an extra 5,” he called, “1, 2…”
I bolted toward the back of the barn and when I rounded the rear I saw the field of flowers and the pond up ahead. I thought about taking a run into the field but the grass was deep and I was more than a little afraid of snakes. I didn’t know where to go, though, so I ran around the back of the barn and then up the other side thinking I’d head toward the house that was also on the property. He wasn’t behind me. My heart thudded rapidly against my chest wall. So much adrenaline!