Chapter 16 Nap Time #2
I stop before I finish the animal I’m making.
“This isn’t for control,” I say, but I’m not about to tell her folding paper into animals is a habit I picked up long ago.
Way back when my father’s secrets were unraveling, when the life we lived growing up imploded, when I needed something to keep me busy so I didn’t punch the asshole every time I saw him.
It calmed me down, and then it became a daily practice.
“What’s it for?”
I pause. “Relaxation,” I admit as I finish the creation. Then I hand her a small paper fox.
A smile shifts her pretty mouth. “It’s cute.”
“Keep it,” I grumble.
She tilts her head, assessing my offer, then says, “Thank you.” She sets it down next to her mug, turns the mug, releases a breath.
“I don’t like having my picture taken. By random people.
Not that I do. Not that it happens to me now,” she says, emphasis on the now, like a correction. Which means there was a then.
Questions pound my mind. Who took her picture then? Who made her feel uncomfortable then? And where can I find them and hurt them?
“But I think that’s one of the things that bugged me about yesterday,” she says, a vulnerable admission.
“When the photog thought you were Haven?”
“Yes.” She sounds sad but also distressed.
Instinctively, I reach for her. Like I’m going to squeeze her shoulder or brush a strand of hair from her cheek. Something comforting. But I pull back, instead asking, “Why don’t you like having your picture taken? Because you can’t control the photo?”
“It’s not that I’m image-conscious. It’s just…well, I grew up here. Everyone knows me. Everyone knew my family.”
Knew. Past tense. My heart squeezes in sympathy. When I researched the farm, I learned the bare details of her past. Her parents died when she was in high school. That has to be what she means.
“You’re cautious then about…image?”
She turns her mug in a circle. The drink’s likely getting cold.
“Sounds vain, but it’s not that. It’s just I’m trying to make something of this farm I inherited from my parents.
Trying to make it a success. So, in a way, every time I go out of the house, I need to make sure I’m representing Lavender Bliss Farms too, you know what I mean? ”
That makes perfect sense but still doesn’t give me the entire picture. “I do.”
“But it’s fine,” she says, waving a hand like she can make the whole conversation vanish. “I should get back to work soon anyway.”
I could press, but she’s said enough for now. Invited me in some. I nod, taking a final sip of my coffee. “Let’s get you home. Don’t we have boulders to lift today or something?”
“Exactly,” she says, finishing her drink, then setting down the mug. As she does, she turns her face to one side, then the other, stretching her neck again.
If that’s not an opening, I don’t know what is.
“Let me help,” I say, and before she has a chance to protest, I drag my chair closer to hers and curl a hand under her hair and around her neck.
“Ohhhh,” she moans at the first touch.
A kernel of pride spreads in me from her reaction. I dig my thumb into her flesh, sliding it up and down the column of her soft neck. Kneading. Trying to help her release some of the tension.
She drops her head forward, giving me more room, savoring it even. “Is this part of keeping me safe?”
“Yes. When your neck doesn’t hurt, you’re less ornery,” I deadpan.
“I’m not ornery.”
I scoff. “Then what even is ornery if not you?”
“Not me. More like you.”
I dig a thumb into the base of her neck, and she unleashes another moan. “Ripley, you’re fiery and feisty, and you keep me on my toes.”
“Good,” she says, then draws a deep breath and relaxes into my hand as I run my fingers along her neck and under her hair.
This close, it’s hard not to think about kissing her.
Hard not to think about all the other ways I want to touch her given how intimate this is—from the sounds she makes to how close we are.
So close she could turn her face, tip her chin, and wait for a kiss. One I desperately want to give her.
Those lips. Those beautiful, lush lips.
Eventually, I let go. She gathers her phone and the paper fox, then we leave.
When we reach the sidewalk in front of the tourist shop, she glances at the time on her phone. “Should we race? See if I can ditch you on two wheels?”
“You can’t.”
“Let me try.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I bet I can.”
“Just like you thought you’d best me at yoga?”
“Hey, yoga’s not a competition,” she says.
“Spoken by the woman who tried to turn it into one,” I retort.
She flashes me a please say yes smile. “It’ll be fun. Like bungee-jumping fun.”
“Bungee jumping is not fun.”
“It’s so fun,” she says, and I’m ready to counter her when I catch sight of a group of people with one person acting as the leader—likely one of the tour groups frequenting Darling Springs lately—at the end of the block, lifting their phones our way.
No one’s rushing Ripley. Still, I go on high alert, but I don’t want to alarm her. “Hold on,” I say, then I grab a Such a Darling Town cap from the rack of sunglasses and hats next to us and turn to Ripley. “This would look good on you.”
I put it on her head without a second of hesitation. She flinches, and if flinches could be good, this one sure qualifies. It comes with a hitch in her breath. A parting of her lips.
I inhale, try to center myself and focus on the job—obscuring her.
I grab the shades too. “This could be your new disguise.” I move her ever so slightly to the right so her back is to the tour group.
The look on her face says she understands, and that she wants to be blocked from view.
Just to be sure, I take my time adjusting the hat and the shades.
My hands are on her face, cupping her cheeks the way I did at the bar the night I kissed her—like I’d go mad if I didn’t taste her lips. That was how I felt then. Now, on the street, early in the morning, that madness returns.
It winds through me, an insistent buzz. A thrum of desire. The deep and potent need to kiss those pretty pink lips, to hold her face, to devour her kisses.
Then, to strip her down to nothing and…control her.
Like I think she wants.
I swallow my rough desires, stealing a glance at the group. They’re dispersing.
“Do I look like me?” she asks.
What? Oh, right. The disguise. “It’s harder to tell,” I rasp out.
But I bet it’s not hard to tell where my mind went. I bet it’s written in my eyes.
That’s what I ought to be looking out for—this lust. The more I want her, the harder it’ll be to do my job without distraction.
Yet, I’m still here, adjusting the cap, touching her hair, wondering if she’d like it if I ran my fingers through it, then curled a fist around and tugged. The image sends a jolt of heat through me. Like a warning.
“We should go,” I say.
She stares at me like I’m an oddity.
“Well, we should.”
She points to the hat and the glasses. “Did you want me to get these?”
Oh. Shit. Right. “Yes. Good idea.”
I’ve got to get my focus back. I take her into the store and buy them, vowing to fight off all distractions for the rest of the day.
This is going to be the hardest job of my life.