Chapter 17
When I saw how mad Aubrey was about the remark I made, I said I was sorry, but I couldn’t own up to why. I was out of line, teasing her for the way she was reacting to us having sex. We acted on our attraction, and it annoyed me that she would be so out of sorts about it that she’d give me an icy and aloof silent treatment. I didn’t deserve it.
I wasn’t sure what to do next or how to view her, but I felt like she owed me something more than a cold shoulder. Her distance irks me, and when I get a call from Caleb with his report that he and Lauren won’t be back with Marian until the next morning, I cringe at the idea of being alone with a testy Aubrey all that much longer. Road closures prevent my friend from returning straight away, and it peeves me more than it might have otherwise.
I’m not in the mood to talk to her even though I realize my attempt at saying sorry fell flat. I do that often with her. I blurt things out too quickly, I don’t censor my honesty, or I fail to express myself well enough. She has me twisted in knots. Kissing her made me feel something I’ve never experienced before. Something that felt a lot like kismet, like fate. Sleeping with her was something else entirely. I’ve been intimate with more than several women, but I’ve never felt this insatiable yearning like I do for Aubrey.
The worst burn is how she so clearly views our night together as a huge mistake. I don’t regret a single second of feeling her come apart for me, and it’s salt on the wound that she’s not feeling the same.
I’m beyond grumpy, and I don’t plan to do a thing about improving my mood. I stalk around picking up more sticks and debris from the front yard, hoping that the simple action of moving around and not being idle will help me vent my frustration. I can’t bottle it up forever.
Hayes pulls in with a second truck following after him. I’m slightly impressed that he’s so punctual, but when he scans the place, I have a hunch he came running because he wants a look at Aubrey.
The men are here to clean up the huge tree, and with chainsaws in hand, they head out to the back. I’m used to dealing with contractors. I’ve flipped and renovated more buildings than this mountain local could only dream about. I’m clear and firm when I tell him about what I need. While I’m standing in for Caleb, I intend to do my best in seeing to the work that needs done.
“Keep the wood,” I say. “No need to arrange for a chipper. Marian will want to stack it and dry it out for firewood for the winter.”
“Hey,” one crew member shouts out as he gases his saw. “I’ll chop them logs for an extra fee, too.”
I shake my head. “No, I only want it cut into logs. Caleb will split it all.”
“The fancy, rich guy?” another crew member jokes.
I refrain from glaring at him. In their eyes, I’m the same, just another so-called fancy, rich guy.
Hayes laughs slightly, though, amused, and he gives me a look. I stare him down, daring him to make a joke about my friend—or me. Envying another for their wealth isn’t cool, and using the fancy label to belittle us is annoying.
He smirks, turning to relay the instructions and tasks to his men, in case they didn’t already hear me the first time. I don’t like this man. I don’t care for the way he’s needlessly repeating instructions, as though he needs to be seen as the one in charge. I don’t care for the way he’s quick to join in on making fun of my best friend, either.
Something rubs me the wrong way about this guy, and I won’t lower my guard around him.
“Got it?” I ask.
“Sure, sure.” Hayes grins too smugly.
“I’ll be around in case you need me.”
I walk off, but I don’t miss his chuckle. “I won’t need you. I want her.”
I halt mid-step and look ahead. Pausing to catch sight of Aubrey, the only person here he could’ve been referring to, I try to calm down and steady my breaths. I am aware he’s got his eye on her, but I do not like the tone he said that in. Like a stalker. Like a perv. Like a man who’s gunning for an easy lay and isn’t shy about it.
I can’t stand predatory men.
Aubrey is ignorant of my concerns. She continues sweeping on the front porch, clearing the smaller debris that blew up there from the storm. In a loose t-shirt and short shorts, she’s dressed to deal with the humidity that returned. I wasn’t aware mountains were ever muggy, but I recall Caleb’s comment about the weather being funky this summer. After the storm, maybe something wacky is going on with the air pressure. The heat came back, and I’m not loving it. Sweat has dripped down my back all day, and I figure this crew will need frequent water breaks as they deal with the big tree that missed the house.
“Dude,” Hayes says to one of his men. “I don’t think she’s even wearing a bra.”
The other crew member chuckles.
I see red. I fume, letting my anger fill me as I consider how crude this guy is. Aubrey probably isn’t the first woman he’s treated like this, but now that I’ve heard him directly, I want to pummel my fists on his smug face.
Turning quickly, grit my teeth and stalk right back up to him. Hayes is broad-shouldered, but I’ve got him in height. I bet it pisses him off to have to look up to meet my glare. He puffs out his chest and smirks again.
“What did you say?”
He scoffs. “You heard me.”
My businesslike and assertive demeanor snaps. I prefer to be quiet, but I have no qualms speaking up in a moment like this. “I didn’t call you here to talk about her like that.”
He crosses his arms. “Yeah. You called me here to cut up this tree.”
“Then do it. And shut up.”
“You can’t tell me what I can say.” He steps closer, trying to get in my face, but because he’s so short, the effort falls flat. “In fact, if you don’t like it, I’ll leave and let your delicate hands get dirty cleaning it up.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’d turn down work just out of spite? Because I’m calling you out on being disrespectful?”
He grins. “You ain’t my boss. Caleb is.”
I straighten my back, standing taller to loom over him. “And I’m acting in his stead.”
Hayes rolls his eyes. “I’m not disrespecting anyone. It’s not against the law to appreciate the fine view of a piece of ass I’d like to sample.”
I saw red before, but now my fists tremble from how hard I clench them.
“What, you got a claim on her or something?” he jeers.
I lurch forward, physically struggling with the overpowering need to hit him and put him in his place. I’m not crazy about violence, and I avoid it when I can. Something about this jerk brings out a bloodthirsty side of me.
I seethe. “She’s not some object to leer at.”
“Like you don’t.” He shoves at me, but I don’t budge.
“What I do isn’t your concern.” I don’t stoop to his level and shove him back. I won’t go there. “If you even look like you or your men are talking about her again, you will regret it.”
Hayes scowls and tries to get in my face again. “Are you threatening me?”
“Interpret it as you see fit. Don’t try me.”
He growls and shakes his head. “I’m not going to stand here and listen to some bullshit threat from a weak-ass city boy.”
“Then don’t stand here. Get moving and clean up the fucking tree like you’re told.”
He snarls, muttering curses I don’t care to understand.
Just before we lose it and launch into a physical fight, Aubrey calls out from the porch. “Hey! Dalton? What’s going on?”
She had to have seen it all as Hayes got in my face, or tried to. I don’t doubt that she heard us mouthing off. Hayes was shouting, and I wasn’t in the mood to be talked over like that. Our voices had to have carried far to reach her on the porch since no saws were running yet.
“Nothing,” I call back to her without breaking eye contact with Hayes. It’s a stare-down I won’t lose.
“Dalton?”
I don’t turn at her voice.
“Dalton!” She’s using that voice again. “Come inside.”
I turn then, only because she spoke to me in that firm tone of authority. She used it when I cut my finger, and I told her to leave me be. It’s strict, but not in the way a drill sergeant might bark out orders. I note a sense of impatience with it, like she’s not in the mood to accept anyone’s bullshit. It’s probably how she handles a rowdy and unruly class.
For whatever reason, that specific tone gets to me. First, it ticks me off. No one likes to be told what to do, and it’s that simple form of rebelliousness that makes me want to talk back to her. But more than that, I feel incredibly turned on at the same time. Meeting a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to make it happen is sexy as hell. She’s not a dominant woman, but that tone suggests she’s sassy and has the backbone to support her attitude when she needs to let it out.
I glare back at Hayes, giving him a nonverbal warning with the sternness of my expression. I mean it. If he tries to stir up any more trouble, he will regret it. Mark my words.
I walk away, though, heading inside to speak with Aubrey.
As I leave the crude contractor, I hear him laughing with his men again. “She sure has you on a short leash, rich boy.”
One man pipes up around chuckles. “Hey, man. I’d let that chick put me on a leash anytime.”
I stomp up the steps, battling with the fury that rises within me from their words. I’m so furious I want to rip the world apart, but instead, I take the calmer option of going to her and seeing what she wants to say about all of this.
I was itching for her to reach out to me, to initiate talking to me. All day I was eager to hear her voice, but not like this. Not if she thinks she’s going to use that sassy, strict, and somehow sexy voice to talk me out of caring about what those men—any men—say about her in a predatory way like that.
She’s made it clear that she considers sleeping with me was a mistake. She’s not mine to protect, but I refuse to stop now.