Chapter 2
2
MEMPHIS
D amn fucking yellow ducks. Ducks were prey, not adorable little creatures that lived on some woman’s pink fuzzy bathrobe.
But I couldn’t get those ducks off my mind as I headed back out to do my part to cull the deer population. The city council had issued an invitation to locals for that purpose, and I’d been given the go-ahead.
It helped that most of the other military vets around this town knew I was a guy who had no trouble killing when the job called for it. I wasn’t some sort of vigilante. I’d simply served on the front lines for our country’s military. As such, I’d done some things I wasn’t proud of. But I’d long ago learned to shut that out if I wanted to survive.
I came through the woods in the same area where I’d spotted the brunette just a few hours earlier. Per her request, I waited until after nine to start hunting, and I still hadn’t fired off a shot. I’d pointed, aimed, and even had my finger on the trigger when I heard her voice in my head saying, “You’re killing sweet, innocent deer?”
Fuck the woman with the yellow ducks. I wasn’t going to let her get in my head. Okay, so maybe she was already there, but I’d find a way to exorcise her if it killed me.
That didn’t seem likely, considering I could still see that beautiful woman staring down at me from the deck. I actually could see her. The trees were blocking most of my view, but every now and then, I’d get a peek of that head of hair through the limbs.
I came to a dead stop when I realized that wasn’t my head playing tricks on me. No, she was actually sitting there, holding a mug—probably sipping her morning coffee while watching me. If I could see her, could she see me?
“Kill anything yet?” she asked.
She could see me.
At the sound of her voice, my body betrayed me. My heart started beating a little faster and my dick stirred. I’d gone back home, planning to have a cup of coffee and maybe even take a quick nap before work. But instead, I’d undone my jeans to give my raging erection a little space to breathe.
I couldn’t stop thinking of those damn ducks and the hot pink pajama bottoms I glimpsed beneath the hem. There was nothing sexy about any of it, but I pictured myself stripping off those bottoms and the underwear that lay beneath.
I took off my clothes and climbed into bed, knowing exactly what I was going to do. I shoved my underwear down and grasped my cock, pumping it with all my might. I pictured myself removing the brunette’s pajama bottoms and underwear so I could get to that sweet, sweet pussy. I’d lick her until she came, making her scream my name over and over.
I came hard. My cum sprayed all over my stomach, and then I had to get up and clean it off. But once I did, I called in late to work and took a nap before grabbing my gun and heading back out again.
Sure, I’d told myself I was delaying work so I could at least get one kill off. But I knew, deep down, I’d stayed in the woods behind our houses on the off chance I might see her again. And now here I was—an orgasm, a nap, and two cups of coffee later—staring at this woman through the trees.
“No,” I said. “You’ll be happy to hear the deer population has not dropped by even one since the last time you saw me.”
Did she hear the silent “damn it” that should go at the end of that statement? I didn’t like failing on a mission, but the week was still young. I’d get up before work every single day and take out at least one deer if I had to. I just needed to get this woman off my mind first.
“Do you have a permit?” she asked.
Oh great. Was this woman from wildlife resources?
I pushed my way through the brush and stopped on the other side of the trees, which put me only ten feet or so from the railing on that deck. She sat in a chair at the edge of it. She no longer wore the duck robe. Instead, she had on jeans and a T-shirt with a long cardigan over it.
A chill remained in the air, even though it was April. It was the perfect weather for hunting, but not necessarily the best for sitting out on the deck with a cup of coffee in the morning. That had me wondering if she had only come out here to see me again.
Had I been on her mind like she’d been on mine? Had she touched herself thinking of me? Maybe she’d climbed back into bed and slid a finger beneath those pajama bottoms, touching herself while she thought of me.
I was already growing hard again. Fuck. What was this woman doing to me?
“I do,” I said. “And permission from the city. You need me to go back to the house and get my paperwork? I could send you a picture. Just give me your phone number.”
That was a sneaky way of getting her digits. She wouldn’t give them to me, of course. I was trying to make a point. Problem was, even I didn’t know what that point was supposed to be.
“North Carolina state law restricts the hours you can hunt,” she said. “I’m sure you know that, though.”
“You’re a stickler for the rules, huh?” I asked. “Good to know.”
I settled the butt of the firearm on the ground, just in case it was making her uncomfortable. I didn’t know what I meant by the rule-follower comment. Maybe that I wasn’t one to abide by rules, but I’d been in the military, so I’d pretty much proven that wrong.
“I guess you could say that,” she said. “I’m in law school. So yeah, I do have respect for the law.”
A lawyer. This woman was beautiful and smart too. I took a couple of steps toward her.
“I guess I didn’t know who I was messing with,” I said.
She shook her head. “It’s not like I have a law degree yet. I’m not going to sue you or anything. You want a cup of coffee?”
The offer surprised me. I didn’t really need more caffeine, although it could never hurt. What I wanted was to spend time with this woman, which meant aborting my mission. Not something I really wanted to do, but she would definitely be worth it.
“I assume you want me to leave the firearm down here?” I asked.
Did I even have to ask? The look on her face said more than she ever could. She did not want that firearm anywhere near her.
Still, with her permission, I set it on the back deck. I didn’t want to just leave it on the ground. I engaged the safety first too.
By then, she was already inside, having closed the door between us. I stopped, my hand on the doorknob. Should I knock? Had she even invited me in? She’d offered me a cup of coffee, but she might be planning to bring it out here where the gun was.
Fat chance of that.
I gave two knocks, then turned the handle and peeked in. “Is it okay if I come in?”
“Of course,” she said.
She was standing right there. I hadn’t planned for the kitchen to be just inside the door, but this cabin’s design was identical to mine. Besides, where the hell else would the kitchen be, except in the back of these small, two-bedroom cabins?
“Cream?” she asked. “Sugar?”
A sputtering sound told me she had one of those single-cup coffeemakers. Mine was the old-school kind of coffee pot with a carafe and cheap grounds I bought at the grocery store on my weekly trip to town.
“Black is fine,” I said. “Don’t need nothing fancy.”
Creamer was hardly fancy. Way to show how backwoods I was. She might be surprised to learn that I’d traveled the world and seen things she’d never imagined. But in the process, I’d learned to survive on the bare minimum. Food was for fuel. Coffee was for fuel too. My only vice was a beer at the end of a long, hard day.
She turned toward me, and for the first time, I got an up-close look at her. Her eyes were a light greenish-blue color—at least, that’s what I saw when she stepped within inches of me to hand me a coffee cup. Then she stepped back and leaned against the counter, propping one socked foot on top of the other.
She’d taken off her shoes when she came inside. Should I have done the same?
“So, how did you get nominated to kill all the deer in town?” she asked.
“Not all of them,” I said. “And I volunteered. I’m not the only one. Several of us are doing it.”
I cringed inwardly as the words came out of my mouth. They made me sound cold, heartless. That wasn’t me. I volunteered because it was a duty—something that needed to be done.
It was a dirty job, but it didn’t seem all that dirty to me. I had a way of dehumanizing humans when they were the enemy. The same went for sweet little deer. I hadn’t even thought of them that way until she said it. They were more like rodents that needed to be removed.
“They leave piles of poop everywhere,” she said.
Those words pulled me out of my thoughts. I’d started to take a sip of coffee, but the second it touched my lips, I knew it was too hot, so I’d lowered the cup again, and now I was just staring at her.
“Poop?” I asked.
“Piles of deer crap, or whatever you want to call it. A couple of neighbors in the last cabin where I stayed were fighting because one was sure the other’s dog was pooping in her yard. Someone had to point out to her that it was deer poop.” She laughed. “I guess the woman didn’t realize wildlife doesn’t care about common courtesy.”
I attempted another sip of my coffee. If I was careful, I could get just enough in to not scald my throat. I didn’t want to blow on it. That’d be a pussy move.
“Deer overpopulation’s a real problem,” I said. “There was a twenty-minute presentation on it at the last city council meeting.”
Her eyebrows raised, and I swore I saw her checking out my body. Her gaze lowered just a fraction of a second before rising back to my face.
Did she find me attractive? I sure as hell found her attractive. She wore jeans that did very little to conceal her beautiful curves. And those lips—full, pink, and ready to be kissed. What would she do if I set down this coffee mug and grabbed her, pulling her against me?
“They bring ticks,” she said. “And ticks have diseases.”
“And they eat all the plants,” I added. “Of course, the biggest issue is that they run out in front of cars. It causes deaths every year. Human deaths.”
I clarified that last part in case she thought I was talking about the deer. She probably could piece that together, though.
“In Seduction Summit?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Everywhere. They had statistics for North Carolina. They didn’t break it down by city. I’m guessing Seduction Summit has never had a death because of deer. We would have definitely heard about that.”
“Front page news,” she said. “Well, if we had a newspaper, it would be.”
She grabbed her coffee mug and walked back toward the coffeemaker. I was disappointed for a moment, sure she was going to stay over there, but instead, she picked up her coffee mug and returned, resuming her position only a few inches from where she’d stood seconds earlier.
“You’re former military, aren’t you?” she asked.
I had been taking a sip from my coffee—it was now cool enough to drink without scalding myself—but I lowered my mug and stared at her. “How can you tell?”
My arm bore a gigantic Marine Corps emblem, but she couldn’t see that under my T-shirt. My hair once again bore the military haircut—as of yesterday. When I first moved up here, I’d let my beard grow out and neglected my hair. For a solid seven months, I’d skipped haircuts. Finally, yesterday, I’d taken care of it myself using some basic scissors and a trimmer. Then I’d shaved, and for the first time in seven months, felt truly like myself.
She shrugged. “Something about you. Am I right?”
“Marines,” I said with a nod. “A lot of the guys around here are Army. A couple are Navy, but I think I’m the only Marine. My high school buddy told me about this place, and I moved up here a few years ago.”
Was I telling the woman my life story? She didn’t want to hear all that. I never opened up to anyone, but oddly, this woman I’d just met had me wanting to bare all. I wouldn’t do it, of course. I never let anybody get that close to me.
But I wanted to know everything about her. And if I stood here long enough, sipping this surprisingly good coffee, maybe I’d get the information I wanted.
“You said you were living in another cabin?” I asked. “You just moved here?”
“This is a rental cabin. I guess you know that.”
Yeah, I knew that all too well. I’d seen different people come and go, but truth be told, I didn’t really care who lived here…or didn’t, as the case may be. Not until I saw this woman.
“My boss built these cabins,” she said. “I work part time for him. He owns the show cabin you see as you’re coming up the mountain.”
Oh yeah, couldn’t miss that. Custom Log Cabins, the sign in front of it read. I figured that was the guy who’d built the cabin where I now lived.
“My apartment was a roach motel, so my boss hooked me up with a friend who owns a bunch of these cabins and rents them to vacationers,” she said. “He liked the idea of having someone stay in them when they were unoccupied. I can make sure nobody’s stolen anything and keep it aired out. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay here for a couple of months, though.”
Hopefully was right. I loved the idea of her sticking around for a while. She probably wasn’t any good for me, but I’d be damned if I could look away from that beautiful face.
I’d moved up here to be alone. No plans to get involved with a woman. But the thought of never seeing this woman again was doing something to me. I didn’t like needing someone else, but I had no idea what to do about it.