Chapter Eleven-Bo
I was starting to doubt my plan to sabotage the generator when, after a couple of hours, Gloria didn’t emerge.
Finally, I got tired of waiting. Half worried I’d done something to hurt her by turning off the heat, I rushed inside, relieved when I saw she was snuggled beneath three quilts and a comforter.
Little vixen.
Creeping around like some sort of Grinch, I gathered up her cat and all his stuff and brought him over to my place. I set up his litter box and put his food on the mat on the counter, like I saw her do for him.
It was a win-win, really. That way Moose didn’t get into Frou-Frou’s Tender Vittles . When I went to head back for Gloria, the two of them were snuggled by the fireplace, already best buds.
See? It’s kismet.
Need pulsed through my body like a drumbeat. Or maybe it was more like the steady chop chop chop of my axe when I was cutting wood.
I swear, I’d never felt anything like it before.
And just like my blade when it sliced through wood, Gloria had broken down every single one of my defenses with nary a blow.
She’d awakened something inside of me that I thought was dead forever.
And as I waited for her to pack, my chest squeezed with emotion.
I have to tell her how I feel.
But I figured it could wait until I got her safely ensconced back inside my home.
Where she belongs.
“You don’t have to wait for me,” Gloria muttered from the other room before joining me.
She looks like a hot mess in mismatched pjs and one of my hoodies I must have left in the place who knew when.
My mouth went dry at the sight of her. Sure her curls were mussed, and her teeth were chattering, but goddamn, she looked good in my clothes.
Fucking gorgeous.
“Well, you can walk yourself, but what will you do if you come across a black bear or a coyote?” I asked, satisfied when she squeaked and hustled to my side.
“There are wild animals out there?”
“You’re in the mountains, Slick. Of course there are,” I chided her gently.
“Fine,” she grumbled and handed me her bag.
“Next thing you’ll tell me you need to sling my fat ass over your shoulder and carry me there.”
“Hey, your ass is perfect, and if you want me to, I’ll carry you there. Sure, no problem.”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” she replied hastily. “Sorry. I’m grumpy when I’m tired.”
“Obviously,” I replied, grinning at her.
“Well, if you could carry my suitcase that would be great. I, uh, made you something and I need to grab it off the counter.”
“You made me something?” I asked, and damn if my heart wasn’t trying to beat right out of my chest.
“Yeah. It’s no big deal. Just some fudge and edible cookie dough.”
“Thank you, Gloria,” I said, meaning every word from the bottom of my under-used heart. “And for the record, it is a very big deal to me.”
“Okay, then,” she whispered, tucking a golden curl behind her ear.
Light glowed from my phone as I held it up for her to see where she was going. I watched in awe as she walked to the kitchen and grabbed two plastic containers, one from the counter and one from the fridge.
“I was going to give this to you as a thank you?—”
“You don't have to thank me,” I said at the same time as she finished her sentence.
“—before I left.”
“Gloria,” I begin, but she is still going strong.
“No, I do have to thank you. You did me a solid, Bo. You rescued me after I nearly burned down your cabin, and I still owe you an apology for what happened after.”
“Don’t say you're sorry for that,” I growled, angry and so fucking sad I wanted to howl with it.
“I don’t mean that part,” she replied, blushing and looking away. “I mean after that. It was my fault for reacting to you reacting, and well, I'm sorry I gave you the impression I was some sort of high maintenance brat. It was just one of those things and I read too much into it way too quickly. Not your fault and not the big deal I made it out to be.”
Gloria waited a breath, but of course, I was too slow. I just stood there while she turned to the open front door with both containers in her hand.
“It’s still snowing!” She gasped and my attention temporarily diverted to the big, fluffy flakes falling outside, obscuring the lane from this cabin to mine.
Belatedly, I hurried after her, finding my voice about halfway to my front door.
“Stop,” I called out.
“What? Why? It’s freezing— oh my God —is it a bear?” she whispered, looking back at me with her pale eyebrows raised.
“What? No. Just stop for a second. Look, I am the one who fucked up the other day. It’s been a while for me, Slick, and you threw me a curve ball. But I didn’t mean to upset you or to make you think I in any way regretted what happened between us. I just—I suck at talking to women.”
“You don’t have to say things like that to me, Bo. It’s over?—”
“No, I do have to say this because clearly you are not understanding me. I guess I am more out of practice than I thought,” I grumbled.
“Can we talk about this inside? My nose is frozen.”
“Yeah. Shit. Come here,” I growled, and since she suggested it earlier, I bent down and wrap my free arm around her ass and lift her over my shoulder.
“Bo!” she squeaked, but I just kept my palm against her plush bottom and half-jogged the rest of the way.
“Here we are.”
I placed her back on her feet and opened the door, hustling her sweet ass inside.
We spent the next few minutes shaking snow off our hair, taking off our boots, and hanging up her borrowed sweatshirt and my damp flannel.
“Let’s warm up by the fire,” I whispered, and held out my hand.
Gloria paused, her sweet face scrunching up curiously. She looked at my proffered appendage for a good, long moment before accepting it.
I exhaled, not even realizing I’d been holding my breath.
Once seated, I grab a blanket from the basket by the sofa and wrap it around her shoulders, rubbing my hands up and down her arms.
She hardly waited a minute before she picked up right where we left off outside.
“How long?” she whispered, and I knew exactly what she meant.
I didn’t pretend to not understand her. This was too important a talk for any miscommunication.
“Since I moved here.”
“When was that?”
“Five years,” I tell her honestly.
“Oh.”
She looked surprised, but it was only the truth. Before I moved to the mountain, I’d known plenty of women. But the thrill of having sex with people I didn’t care about beyond common courtesy had worn off long before then.
Truthfully, before her, I hadn’t been interested in anyone for a very long time.
“Yep, and because I'm just that smooth, I freaked out right after you blew my mind.”
“I blew your mind?”
“Damn straight you did, with all your soft curves and that sassy mouth. Those velvet eyes and the way you kissed me. It wasn't anything about you that made me panic, Slick.”
“Are you sure? You don't have to say that. I mean, I'm not a kid and I know what I look like?—”
“That’s twice tonight and I swear if you talk down on yourself again, I’m gonna have to punish you.”
“Punish me?”
At first, I thought maybe I’d fucked up. But heat swam in her dark eyes as she asked the question. That look went straight to my cock, just knowing she was getting turned on by my dirty talk.
“That’s right, Baby. You call yourself anything other than perfect, and I’m gonna turn you over my knee and spank that pretty ass of yours till it’s all warm and red.”
I watched her eyes widen and her throat work to swallow her soft moan, but I heard it. And fuck me, my cock got hard just thinking about it.
“Y-you want to spank me?”
“I want to do everything to you.”
“But you couldn’t get out of the room fast enough after we had sex!” she blurted.
“I told you, that was my freak out. I fucked up. And I am so sorry if I hurt you. But it had nothing to do with anything about you, Gloria. In case you didn’t already know it, I think you are fucking perfect, Baby.”
“You do?”
“I do,” I whispered.
I was hypnotized by the shadow and light cast by the fireplace, dancing across her sweetheart of a face and making her look like a fucking angel.
Images of me saying I do in another setting flashed through my mind, and I knew right then I wanted to make that happen.
Oh, it was too soon. I was too brash.
Too bold.
Too damn unworthy of her.
But none of that seemed to matter. I was going to keep this woman.
In all the ways that mattered, I was connected to her. Yes, it might appear fast, but the way I felt about her could only be real. Gloria was my soulmate. She made me feel alive after being alone for so long. I had some shit to make up for, and I would.
But she was already mine.
To have and to hold.
In sickness and in health
To love and to cherish.
She just didn’t know it yet.