Chapter 3
THREE
CADE
Iimpatiently pace the front deck, waiting for that tell-tale rumble of a truck engine that alerts me to my peace being destroyed.
Since moving into my cabin, I’ve managed to keep it low key.
No one but my old friends know where I am, and I’ve only let the occasional professional in when absolutely necessary.
But with the power of YouTube, I learned how to do most things on my own, so maintaining my own home is now entirely in my hands.
But maintaining my own image?
That’s in the hands of a…cowgirl.
A cowgirl with my entire future in the palm of her hand if Tobias’s plan doesn’t work.
As much as I don’t want to go back to working for the family company, I could handle being a silent partner and hiring someone else to do all the work for me. That way, I could go back to living in peace.
But if it doesn’t work, then all of this will be for nothing.
Three months. Who the hell signs an airtight three month contract and NDA?
It took a lot of probing, but I got Tobias to send me a copy of her actual contract.
Not even the pay packet would have been enough to convince me to sign what she had.
But maybe to her, thirty grand is a lot of money for three months.
What am I thinking, I know it’s a lot. Not just to her, but probably for a lot of people.
I stop my pacing and stare over the gravel driveway leading up to my cabin. The road is clear; it’s one of the few things I know how to do on my own now that I’ve been here as long as I have. So, I know she isn’t stuck somewhere on the private road.
I glance down at my watch and sigh. She isn’t even running late. Hell, she told Tobias she’d be here anywhere between two and three, and it’s only just two in the afternoon now.
But I can’t stop anxiously checking. As much as I hate this stupid plan Tobias came up with, I’m not a total jackass.
It’s not her fault she doesn’t know exactly what she signed up for.
She only thinks she’s here for the rebranding of my image from the eyes of someone who can see through the sins of my past and give me redemption.
I’m the last person who needs redemption, anyway. No, the last person who deserves it.
I sigh, gritting my teeth as I turn away from the railing surrounding my deck.
The low hum of an engine makes me turn to find a truck coming up the driveway.
It’s an old Ford make, looks like the kind of vehicle one of the other men living up here might drive, but not a girl with a college degree and the mind to agree to this.
I still as I watch her pull up in front of the cabin.
The engine shuts off and out steps a woman unlike anything I’ve seen before.
Immediately, I notice she’s a whole lot younger than I am.
That should tell me everything I need to know about her; her naivety, her intentions.
Maybe she thinks she can get more out of me than just the thirty grand offered for the three months she works.
As she takes in the cabin, I drink the rest of her in.
She might have been younger, but she’s all thick curves, even beneath the dark blue jeans and green turtleneck she wears.
Her hair is a silky deep brown, pulled up in a flowing ponytail that whips around her when she closes the door to her truck.
But when her eyes meet mine, my breath catches in my throat. A smile curves her lips, sweet and alluring. “Hey!” she calls out, lifting her hand in a wave. “I’m Lydia. Lydia Sterling.”
I swallow hard, moving to the railing. Lydia Sterling. I knew of her family, had met her father once at some fundraiser at the lodge a couple years before the fire. He’d been a gruff, no nonsense man. So why would he let his daughter accept a job like this one?
He wouldn’t, I remind myself as I watch her wave again. She didn’t tell him anything about this.
Because she signed a NDA and contract.
I shake my head, stalking from the deck to the stairs leading down to my front drive. From the corner of my eye, I notice her hand falter and lower. For a split moment, I feel a twinge of guilt for not…waving back.
No. I could slap myself. Instead of dwelling on it, I hit the gravel and start towards her. I’ll give her props for not shrinking away as I do. This Lydia Sterling lifts her chin defiantly, the look in her eyes telling me she isn’t at all afraid of me.
I don’t want her afraid; that’s the last thing I want from my so-called saviour, the girl meant to rehab my image for my investors.
But I also can’t help but be a little intrigued by her. Maybe a little too interested in the challenge she so clearly offers.
Lydia takes a step towards me, but as she does, the toe of her boot catches on a larger rock hidden amongst the gravel. Shock fills her widening eyes as she goes down.
It takes me one long stride to catch her. To wrap my arms around her, pull her against my chest, and lift her off the ground before she can hit it.
The girl sucks in a breath, a deep red flush darkening her cheeks. One of her arms goes around my shoulders almost instinctively, though for a moment, she doesn’t say anything.
And neither do I. I’m lost to the dark grey of her eyes, which swim with confusion and embarrassment. The flush spreads down her neck beneath her knit turtleneck.
I wonder how far that spreads, I think before I can stop myself.
I blink hard and drop her. The arm around my neck falls away immediately as she stumbles back.
Clearing my throat, I take a step away from her. “Ms Sterling,” I say, voice suddenly hoarse, “I’m Mr Abernathy.”
I wait for the reaction I’m used to. The shock.
The barely concealed anger. There are some in town who blame me for the fire, who think I’m just some greedy billionaire who let it happen because I refused to protect my staff.
There are others who think the reason it happened was because I fucked up somewhere in building the lodge.
For a long time, I’ve believed both.
But instead of reacting, the girl nods, wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m so sorry about that.”
“About what?” I frown. “You tripped.”
“Right into you,” she says, covering her face with her hand. “That was not the first impression I was hoping for.”
“You didn’t trip right into me,” I tell her, taking a step towards her almost subconsciously. “I moved to stop you from falling. And that would have been worse.”
She looks at me from between her fingers like she doesn’t completely believe me. Although, seeing her on her knees…
I quickly shake that thought from my head. “You’ll need to pull your truck into the garage,” I say, motioning behind me. “I might not get many visitors out here, but I still don’t want speculation.”
The girl drops her hand from her face. “Speculation?”
I nod once, pulling my keys from my back pocket. I punch the garage button, which opens the automatic rolling door. “Yes. Speculation. About you.”
She clears her throat, the embarrassment quickly disappearing as she straightens herself. “Mr Abernathy, I totally respect that. But this is Willow Ridge, and you won’t find anyone interested in speculating about you.”
My jaw clenches as I stare at her. “Excuse me?”
She doesn’t back down, and I’m not entirely sure why that has my belly twisting the way it does—or my heart warming despite the ice that’s been wedged in there for years.
“You’re Cade Abernathy, infamous in ways you clearly don’t want to be.
But you need to be seen in order to return to your life in New York.
You need respect, a good image, and to be more than just your past. Right? ”
My breath comes out harshly as I take one last step towards her. She doesn’t back down, but I don’t think I want her to. I should want her to fold, to tell Tobias she doesn’t think she can do this job, and I want her to leave.
But you don’t. The closer I am to her, the more I breathe her in. She smells of honey and lavender, and somehow it has my heart beating faster—harder. My skin prickles with an awareness I can’t explain. Or maybe I don’t want to understand the effect she’s having on me.
I’ll admit, I liked my fair share of women before everything went down.
Liked having one on each arm, liked having them warm my bed.
I’d been a playboy and that’d certainly put my aunt in more precarious positions than she’d like to admit.
Hell, it’d gotten me in trouble more times than I can remember.
This feeling, though, is something else. Something I know better than to mess with.
My jaw ticks with frustration as I shake my head. “Take the truck into the garage,” I growl. “You’ll thank me later for it.”
Lydia opens her mouth like she wants to respond, but I don’t give her the chance. Something about her little growl of frustration goes right to my dick, though.
As I start climbing the stairs up to the deck, she slams her truck door shut. The engine starts, gurgling for a moment, and I can’t help but stop as I watch her drive into my garage alongside my truck.
When was the last time that thing saw a mechanic? Probably a decade ago. I shake my head again, get up to the deck, and hit the button to close the garage.
I hear the cowgirl shout something, but I’m entering the house before I catch more than just ‘hey’.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, I stop in the open plan living, dining, and kitchen.
As much as I like to pretend I’ve given up the comforts of the modern world, my cabin doesn’t really reflect it.
Not with the giant windows overlooking the mountain, or the comfortable space I’ve carved out for myself, or the expensive generator that’ll keep the power on here when the snow really hits.
The light above the stairs leading down into the garage turns on, and I’m reminded once again about her, especially as she starts stomping up the stairs, cursing under her breath.
I cross my arms when she appears, anger and frustration burning in her dark eyes. “What the hell was that about?” she asks, slamming her bags down without stopping. “What the hell is your problem?”
Amusement swells within me as she stomps towards me. “You,” I reply, “are my problem, cowgirl.”
She comes to a stop in front of me, cheeks flushed. “Cowgirl?” she scoffs, hands going to her hips. “I’m not a cowgirl, you jackass.”
Maybe getting her to quit will be easier than expected if telling her to park in the garage is all it takes. But the way she calls me jackass has my lips twitching with a smirk.
I haven’t had someone this open with cursing me out since…well, never. Not a single person other than my aunt or my closest friends. Those who worked for my aunt never would have dared, and not even the women I’d dated before would have tried.
I’ve fired people for a whole lot less.
But her? For some reason, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.
The challenge is too fucking nice, and that’s something I hate to admit.
After a moment, she throws her hands up in frustration. “Why am I here, then? If you’re just going to be…a jackass?”
I snort, shaking my head. “You signed the contract, cowgirl.”
She points a finger into my chest. “Yes, I did,” she hisses. “A contract that’s supposed to make you desirable to your board, future investors, and this town for some reason. And now I’m starting to see why you had to hire me because you are so freaking frustrating!”
“I didn’t hire you,” I growl, pushing against her finger and entering her space. Once again, all I can smell is honey and lavender, and it’s too fucking overwhelming it makes my heart clench. “My lawyer did. He seems to think you can change me. But we both know you’re not capable of that.”
The flush of her cheeks deepens, and once again I can’t help but admire how it snakes down her turtleneck. “The problem,” she snaps, matching my step so we’re flush against one another, “is that you’re the one incapable of change.”
I can feel every part of her; the swells of her breasts as they press against my lower chest, her soft stomach against my hardening cock.
“Maybe I don’t want—or need—to change.”
Lydia raises a brow. “Clearly you do,” she replies swiftly, dropping her hand. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been hired. I wouldn’t have had my resume picked because I’m the one most likely to give you an image boost. I’m not naive, I have a pretty good idea why out of everyone else I was chosen.”
Finally, she takes a step back. I should be relieved to have her out of my space, but I miss her immediately. And it should make me anxious to know she’s not as blind as Tobias thinks she is.
She gives me a once over, eyes narrowed. “I will not let some asshole billionaire be the reason I lose a damned good job opportunity.”
She has no idea how badly my aunt needs her influence, and I still can’t figure out why. Why this girl? Why now?
I blink hard at her, any words I might have had lost as she turns on her heel and struts to her forgotten bags. “Now,” she says, glancing over her shoulder at me, a challenge playing in her stormy eyes. “Are you going to show me to my room?”
My teeth grind together, but what else can I do? She’s just shown me she has no intention of running away. Her stake in this working is a lot higher than the money Tobias offered her. And I’m not quite sure how to feel about that.
I’m not sure how I feel at all about the curvy young cowgirl tapping her foot waiting for me to show her to the unofficial guest room.
And now, I’m not sure about this lie Tobias wants me to spin. Because it’s a lie that could hurt her more than I actually want it to. Especially if what my aunt planned could do more damage than I ever did to this town.