My Guarded Valentine (Hope Peak’s Valentine’s Day)

10. Mitzi

Chapter 10

Mitzi

E mbarrassment slid through me as I weaved through the store aisles. A squeaky cart pulled up behind me and I paused to secretly glance behind me. Buck stood behind me, pushing the cart. Why’d he choose the name Buck? I guess it would have fooled people. Slowly, I’d pick up food and throw it in the cart. The information that Curtis shared with me and that kiss rocked my world. My mind and heart oscillated between desire and anger. I wasn’t mad about the kiss. Holy hell, I wanted more.

I shouldn’t be mad at him, per se. But I couldn’t help but be frustrated about it because he lied to me. He’s avoided trying to help me yet. Although he was still helping me. According to Curtis, there’s a reason why he wants to stay in the mountains and get away from his guilt. Yet he’s still the CEO of O’Brien industries, so what’s really going on here? I mean the fact that I, a shitty journalist, was thinking that his brother replaced him, even though that would be a really big set up. Now I realize why Nadia gave me that face when I told her my plan. She knew I was foolish. His disappearance was completely sudden. I had gone through the last few years before he disappeared from all existence. He went from Playboy and billionaire to…I turned towards him. When he was a billionaire, he was clean-shaven, but now he was rugged with a beard and you could tell that his muscles were from actual work and not weights. As he grabbed a can from the top shelf, I watched his muscles flex in his biceps and the bottom of his T-shirt raised up. A hint of that sculpted V escaped his shirt. I squeezed my thighs together and tried to get my mind out of the gutter. He could put the guys on the reels that were thirst talkers to shame. I wonder what he would look like chopping wood?

“So, do you chop your own wood? I saw you had a fireplace, and I saw you had fire. I mean, yeah, you had a fire, and you had wood. Stupid question,” I babbled.

Buck laughed as he put the can in the cart. “Yes, I do chop my own wood. I have a shed I built out back.”

“You don’t seem to work full-time hours. Lots of time for hobbies, I guess. Is the cost of living low here?” I asked. I hoped my questions weren’t too obvious. I knew his secret now.

He paused and looked at me with a slight look of confusion. “I used to work full time. When I moved here, I took my savings and switched to part time. They don’t need me for the day to day.”

“Wow. Sounds like a good job,” I said as I grabbed a bag of chips.

Buck slid beside me, and I sucked in a deep breath. His scent wafted into my nostrils, and I closed my eyes for a moment. Fuck, he smelled nice. That kiss ran through my head and caused more flames to arise in my belly. My heart raced as he grabbed a bag of chips near me. Our hands touched and memories of his strong hands on my hips resurfaced. He turned to me with a grin on his face before he closed the space separating us. My breathing grew shallower as I looked up at him. Our lips were mere inches from each other.

“Do you need an example? I know some girls like to watch guys on the reels of men chopping wood? Do you need a demonstration? Or are you worried that I can’t take care of you if it gets colder outside?” he whispered.

“How could you take care of me?” I asked as I licked my lips. The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Oh my God. I shouldn’t have said that. Why am I flirting so much? Even if I was a more professional reporter, I shouldn’t be flirting with the guy I might write an article on? Because honestly, the closer he got to me, the more I questioned if I really wanted to do that at all. I want to keep my job, but fuck, I couldn’t deny this attraction I had to him.

“Oh trust me, I could take care of you so well.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Oh, so are you experienced?” What the fuck was going on with my head? Did I ask this guy if he was a virgin? Even though I know he wasn’t a virgin—unless all those tabloids were wrong. He was very much not a virgin. I was also very much not a virgin, either.

“It doesn’t take much experience to know how to make sure that you get all the pleasure in the world.”

I stepped back and distracted myself by looking at a box of hot chocolate on the shelf behind us. He reached past me and picked up the box of hot chocolate.

“Didn’t you say you wanted hot chocolate?” he whispered. His hot breath sent shivers down my spine.

Chuckling, Buck walked past me to the dairy section and grabbed whipped cream. He turned towards me and said, “I forgot to ask, do you like whipped cream on your hot chocolate or do you like marshmallows? I’m sure there are lots of things we can do with whipped cream.”

I couldn’t help where my mind was wandering now. Because there were a lot of things he could do with whipped cream and most of them involved my body. At this rate, with all the heavy flirting we are doing, I was going to explode. My mouth gaped open as I struggled to figure out what to reply with. It seemed I was reacting the way he wanted me to react because his grin went from sultry and flirty to smug.

“Do you have any ideas?” he asked.

His eyes darkened as he tossed the whipped cream into the cart. “I might have a few ideas,” he said.

With my body, pulsing and throbbing with need, the rest of the shopping trip felt like it was in a daze.

At the register, the teenage checker nodded towards me and then jerked his head towards the arrangement of flowers by the counter. “We got a deal on flowers if you want some for a friend. I haven’t seen you with some girls ever. So you might wanna make sure this one stays around,” he mumbled. I think he was trying to make sure I couldn’t hear, but he wasn’t that good at being quiet. Buck smiled and reached over. He grabbed a handful of flowers while the teen picked up a binder full of barcodes.

“Ring them up, Jim,” he said.

“Name’s not Jim,” the teen mumbled angrily. My eyes flicked to his name badge which definitely said Jim.

Buck pointed to the badge and ‘Jim’ looked down. He groaned and rolled his eyes. “It’s a game we sometimes play. Wrong name badge. You know my name, Buck.”

I stepped closer to Buck and poked his biceps. “Fuck,” I whispered. “You don’t have to give me anything like that. You’re gonna make the whole town think we’re dating.”

Buck sighed as he passed me the flowers while the teen rifled through the catalogue for barcodes. “I’m starting to think maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” Buck said.

My heart skipped once more. “We’re strangers.”

Buck started putting all the bags into the truck and ignored me. As he put it in the last bag, he looked at me. “Would that be so bad? Everyone started as strangers once upon a time.”

Once again, I was speechless and didn’t have a snappy reply to this. I just stared at him and gawped like an idiot. I should be mad at him for lying to me. Hell, looks like he was lying to the whole fucking town. I couldn’t help my attraction to him. Was I going to have to choose love before my career?