CHAPTER 18
Walker
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hi Walker
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hi Walker! This is Stew! Hope you’re having a great day!
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hi Walker, don’t forget to stop by the brewery this Saturday. It’s ladies’ night!
UNKNOWN NUMBER: It’s Rosie!
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Did you hear it’s ladies’ night on Saturday? Let’s go to the bar.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: This is Eli by the way.
What the fuck? I growl and shove my phone back in my pocket. Why is everyone texting me? And how the fuck did they get my number? My phone buzzes again, but I ignore it. I’ll be changing my number before I look at that thing again.
It’s like it was sold to a telemarketer or something. Combine that with the absolutely asinine text I received from Tally this morning, and I’ve had one weird fucking day.
To top it all off, last night I discovered the secret behind that incredible scent that follows Tally everywhere she goes.
Wild Honeysuckle. Her perfume.
Also, white cypress. Her lotion.
Oh, and two blue bottles that smell like heaven and hell but have no words on them. Her shampoo and conditioner.
Sharing a bathroom with the woman is going to be a test of my endurance. Last night I won the battle and didn’t touch them. Okay, I touched the shampoo just to see what it smelled like. Though I didn’t use it.
My fucking cock was rock-hard, though, and I stared it down in the shower, refusing to jack off to the woman. Once I do that, I’m done for.
The thought of her being only a few feet away in her sister’s room and my own body lying in a bed she once occupied—her bed—did nothing good for sleeping.
The only good thing to come of all of this is that, because I spent the day avoiding her, I got a ton of work done in the cottage I’m working on for my sister.
Billie won’t move into the big house—I know her well enough to realize that would be too much.
But the small cottage at the back of the farm that overlooks the wildflower meadow would be perfect.
Hardly anyone is ever back there—all the weddings take place near the tulips and daffodil beds, and Gail’s cottage is farther up the path, at least an acre away, so they wouldn’t be on top of each other.
The cottage for my sister has two bedrooms, a small kitchen that looks out onto the meadow, and even a space for a swing on the porch—something Billie has always wanted.
In total, the farm has thirteen cottages.
Seven by the daffodils, four by the tulips, and two by the wildflowers.
Though the ones by the daffodils and tulips are best suited for my business plan, the ones that overlook the wildflower meadow have the best views of both the mountains on one side and the harbor and downtown on the other.
I want my sister to have that view. She deserves the solace.
There’s still a ton of work left to do before I can focus fully on the cottages, though. The chairs for the weddings need to be dusted, and I should also check on the refrigeration system in the makeshift kitchen Peter set up for caterers to use during weddings.
That reminds me: I need to get stain for the dance floor.
Roughing a hand through my hair, I try to figure out which project I should start on first and what—if any—I can ask Tally to help with.
But what does she even know how to do? I know what Billie would say. I can practically hear her chiding tone: “Ask her what she can do. Find out what she does when she travels. Talk to her.”
A growl works up my throat. I don’t want to talk to Tally.
I don’t want to know anything else about her.
Because the more I learn, the more I like.
The more I like, the more obsessed I become.
I don’t have time to be interested. Don’t have time to be drawn into her wicked spell.
I’ve spent five years uninterested in the opposite sex unless it was for a quick lay.
A few hours of getting lost in someone. And even those encounters I can count one hand since Gina left me.
My stomach rumbles, reminding me that I haven’t eaten anything today.
With all the rain, it was easier to stay inside and work through lunch.
Now I’m paying for that because I have no idea what time Tally plans on making dinner, and I don’t want to have a snack and ruin my appetite if it’s anytime soon.
Truth be told, if not for Tally, I’d probably skip half of my meals. Growing up, I got used to not eating, conserving whatever food we did have so my sister wouldn’t go hungry. Even after we’d moved out, we didn’t have much. I went to bed hungry more often than not.
Giving Tally the credit card to buy food last night had been a strange thing.
It’s not really mine, since it’s linked to the farm’s operating account.
But seeing as we only have debt, I suppose I’ll be the one paying for it all.
If it was up to me, I’d subsist on cereal and peanut butter and jelly.
Though I can’t do that while I’m living with Tally and it feels odd that, after just one meal from her, I’m already starving, when for so long I was used to that hungry feeling.
I could text the woman to ask what time dinner will be since she gave me her number, but I have no intention of looking at that phone again tonight.
I’m too caught up in my own thoughts and don’t notice the light beneath the door, or the humming that’s coming from behind it, until I’ve pushed it open. It soon becomes apparent that my room is not empty.
Miles of smooth, silky skin that I’ll be dreaming of for the rest of my days stretches before me.
As if I have no control over my damn self, my eyes trail up Tally’s leg to follow her hand as she rubs lotion up her thigh.
But then, unlike her palm, my eyes don’t dart back down to her ankles.
Instead, my gaze keeps going up, to the curve of her hip, the rounded angle of her ass, past her stomach, and up to the most perfect set of tits I’ve ever seen.
To pink, hard nipples that leave my mouth watering.
Completely slack-jawed, I don’t make a sound.
I just continue to watch until Tally’s amber eyes lock with mine and she starts screaming.
“Ah hell, woman, you’re giving me a headache,” I say as I spin around and cover my eyes. Though I’ll never unsee that flawless image. Every inch of Tally’s perfection is seared into the wrinkles of my brain. I will be dreaming day and night about that woman for a long fucking time.
Fuck. Me.
“Didn’t you get my text?!” she yells.
“Obviously not, since I just walked in here.” I glance over my shoulder. “Unless it was an invitation to come in. In which case, I still didn’t see it and wouldn’t have come in if I had.”
“Right. Because it’s so awful to see this.” Tally snorts as she walks over to me and flourishes a hand up and down her body as I choke on my own tongue. I expected the woman to be in a towel. But no, she’s naked as the day she was born. And fuck, does she look good.
I snap my eyes to above her chin, knowing that if I spend even a millisecond looking down, I’ll get lost in the space between her thighs. One thing is for certain: I don’t need to know what Tally’s pussy looks like.
Liquid pools in my cheeks and I swallow. “Could you get a towel or something?”
Tally swings the door open, and her hips sway as she tosses a wink over her shoulder, sashaying out of my room with zero shame. “Or something,” she calls out.
I slam the door shut and glare at the space she occupied only seconds ago. When she was so close I could have tasted the sweet scent of her skin. Had I taken one step closer, her tits would have brushed against my chest. Would she have liked that? Is that why she was here?
I groan as I dig my knuckles into my eyes before pulling off my sweatshirt and undoing my belt, pushing my pants down in an angry thrust. I stalk past my bed and picture her toes up on my comforter while she lathered her skin.
The lotion is still there, cap up, fucking taunting me. No, I growl to myself. Not happening.
Unable to help myself, I reach for the bottle and bring it up to my nose, breathing in her intoxicating scent. “Tally Darling, what kind of game are you playing?”
As I head into the bathroom, I’m not proud of the grunt that slips from my throat when I see her panties right beside the shower.
Yellow. That color fucking haunts me. I know how perfect it looks against her pale skin. How beautiful she must have looked in these. How they rested against her mouthwatering cunt.
I will not pick them up.
I will not jack off to her.
I will—
Fuck.
I glare down at my cock, which stands at attention. I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want Tally Darling. This is a disaster.
She’s too young. Too much of a pain in the ass. Too off-fucking-limits.
She drives me fucking crazy and doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say.
And she felt so damn good when I wrapped her in my arms the other night.
My breath comes out tortured as I bend down to grab her damp panties, gripping them in my fist. With my other hand I reach in and turn on the shower. It’s damp and warm already from Tally, who was just in here. Naked.
A strangled whimper comes from my throat as I lose all fucking dignity and pull her panties up to my nose and inhale.
My other hand grips my cock and I squeeze. Once. Just fucking once. That’s all this will ever be. One time. To get her out of my system. Come all over this damn shower like a dog claiming his favorite tree. And then I’ll put her out of my mind.
I step beneath the hot water, panties still in hand, and throw my head back as I start to jack myself.
With every stroke, I picture Tally.
Her tits. Her pussy. Those damn lips that have me half smiling before she even says a word. Her smart mouth that I want to fuck. Lick. Kiss.