3. Sawyer
SAWYER
When I arrive at the house, I’m immediately struck by it. This thing should be on a historic registry. It’s that old and beautiful. As stunning as the property is, I’m not prepared for what I see when the front door opens.
Raven emerges holding a hand up to her face as she squints in the sunlight.
Her hair is up in some sort of messy bun that looks elegant yet casual at the same time.
She props her free hand on her hip. She’s wearing the shortest shorts and tightest tank top I’ve ever seen, every inch of her delectable curves on full display.
I know I’m gawking, but fuck if I can help it.
A frown slowly forms on her gorgeous face. “Why does your face look like that?”
I swallow thickly, doing my best to school my features. “Like what?”
“Like you’re about to shit your pants.”
“I’m not—”
“Whatever. I don’t care. Follow me.” She turns as I hustle behind her.
The interior of the house is in much worse shape than the exterior. It has a lot of charm, but it’s buried under half-finished renovations that look long abandoned.
“What’s the plan here?”
“My original plan was to turn this into a rental property, but the fire put a hold on that for now since I’m not sure how long we’ll need to stay here.
The most pressing issue is making it sensory-friendly.
I need to replace all the lighting with something dimmable so I can control the brightness, hang blackout curtains, and dampen the echo.
I don’t want to gut the hardwoods, but since it looks like someone already started that project, I need some sort of flooring so I can throw some rugs down. ”
She walks through the rooms as she speaks. “Most of the walls will need to be repainted in softer, muted colors. And Jonah needs to swing to work through his proprioceptive input.”
“What does that mean?” Her eyes narrow as if I said something offensive. “Sorry, I’m not familiar with that word. Just want to make sure I understand what you’re looking for with the space.”
Her eyelashes flutter as she blinks several times, as if deciding what insult to hurl at me.
“It’s body awareness. It’s a type of sensory input all humans have but Jonah struggles with.
Swinging helps. I had some hung in his room and one outside, but since I can’t get into our house, I had to order new ones, and these will require drilling to install, which isn’t a skill I possess. ”
Don’t make a dirty joke about drilling her, Sawyer. Don’t do it.
“Shall we head upstairs?”
I bite my lip to hold in my perverted retort and gesture for her to lead the way.
Raven climbs the stairs quickly as though she couldn’t care less if I can keep up, and I hustle behind her, trying my best not to stare at her ass. Try and fail. It’s a really nice ass.
“Only one of the rooms up here has carpet, so that’s Jonah’s room, but the rest will need to have it installed. But his room is the only one without bathroom access, so I’d like to knock out this wall and add an entrance for him here.”
“Should be easy enough as long as there’s nothing hidden in the walls that could cause any issues.”
“Like what? Mold? Do you think there could be mold in here?” Panic creeps into her voice.
“In a house this old? I was thinking more like… ghosts. They don’t usually like you changing the layout of their haunts.”
She turns to me slowly as if she can’t believe her ears. My smile is beaming when she locks eyes with me. I’m pretty proud of that one. I love a good dad joke.
“Please tell me you’re not one of those people who believe in magic or ghosts.”
“Honestly, I was just joking, but I absolutely believe in ghosts.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m serious. Life is energy. Where do you think all that energy goes when we die? Who says it can’t float around for a bit? Think about it. It would explain some of the power surges people attribute to ghosts, fluctuations in temperature, even ESP.”
“I think you mean EVP, electronic voice phenomenon. All of that can be explained by science.”
“Maybe, but there’s a lot that science can’t explain. I’ve fallen down some rabbit holes. Plus, there was this one time when I was a kid, a friend dared me to go into his attic, and I saw something in a rocking chair that definitely wasn’t a person.”
“This is ridiculous. I can’t believe I’m entertaining this. If you’re that gullible, I know a prince who’d like to talk to you about an inheritance.”
I chuckle. Fuck, I like getting under her skin. “You know, you really shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. They might hear you, and the last thing we need is a ghost boo-hooing.”
She bites her lips as if she’s trying to contain something. At this point it could be a witty retort or a laugh, and I’d welcome either if it meant I could get an honest reaction out of her.
She pushes past me, and her hand presses against my chest as she leaves the room.
Ghosts may not be real, but the spark I feel at her touch definitely is.
I hold my breath so her intoxicating scent doesn’t permeate my nostrils again.
I’m forty-six; I should not be tenting my pants at the mere whiff or touch of this woman.
“And then there’s these.” She gestures to a pair of stained-glass windows at the end of the hallway.
I rub my eyes, trying to make sure they’re not playing tricks on me. “Are those…”
“Dick windows.”
Clutching my side, I wheeze through my laughter. “Oh fuck, that’s funny.”
She pins me with an icy glare. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s kinda funny.” I step closer to the windows, marveling at the craftsmanship. “You can’t get rid of these. They look original to the house.”
“I can’t have my kids in a house with dick windows.
Luckily they haven’t noticed them yet, but as soon as Jonah does, there will be no shutting him up about it.
And if I decide to make this a rental once we move back home, no one is going to want to stay in a house with giant stained-glass penises.
And they’re red too. The shadows they cast in the late afternoon are obscene. ”
Laughter spills out of me. “Fuck, I need to see that.”
“No one needs to see that.”
“You’d be surprised at what people are into these days. There are rentals all over these mountains with red rooms. These would be perfectly at home in one of those places.”
Her eyebrow lifts, and I can’t tell if she’s confused, turned on, or about to yell at me.
“You do know what a red room is?”
She huffs. “Of course I know what a red room is.”
“Color me intrigued. Tell me more.” I love watching her stoic persona slowly crack, either in exasperation or interest.
“I’m not elaborating. This is hardly an appropriate conversation for me to be having with my potential contractor.”
“You started it with the dick windows.”
Her jaw drops. I like flustering her. A little too much. I cross my hands in front of my growing bulge.
“You’re staring at those windows an awful lot. Are you envious of how big they are?”
“I was just admiring the craftsmanship. They look a little on the average side to me, honestly. So back to the sex dungeon. How dirty are we going with this thing on a scale of vanilla to ‘Choke me, daddy’?”
Raven swallows, choking on her saliva as she pounds her chest several times. “There’s no way I’m letting you build—”
“They’re fairly common in mountain rentals.
Couples want to get away and live out their fantasies.
You could do that here. Leave the dick windows and really play into the theme.
” I walk into the nearby bedroom, gesturing with my hands to help her see my vision.
“Install some swings, add a bed with restraints, stock the room with one-time-use toys. Just be sure to hire a good cleaner to hose things down after each guest.”
When I glance back, there’s heat in her eyes. What naughty things is she picturing? My eyes travel lower as I take her in.
She snaps her fingers in front of my face, pulling me out of my leering.
“Eyes up here, buddy. I’m not building a sex dungeon.
I don’t even know if I want to keep this as a rental or sell it, but I’m absolutely not adding a red room to the house I’m sharing with my kids.
Those aren’t the kinds of swings I need you to install. ”
“Wow. Didn’t take you for a prude.”
She cocks a hip. “Excuse me?”
“There’s nothing wrong with sexual exploration or a healthy sex life.
Adults are allowed to explore their desires and fulfill their needs, regardless of whether or not they have kids.
And there’re these things called locks. I could install one on the door of your red room for you.
And I’d be happy to help you pick out furniture for that room. If you need help.”
“I… that’s not what I meant. I’m not kink-shaming anyone.” There’s a smirk on her face that tells me she’s hiding something, and I’m suddenly dying to know what it is. “I bet you’re the type of guy who thinks you’re God’s gift to women, when in reality every partner you’ve ever had was faking it.”
“You want to test that theory?”
“Oh, I bet you’d love that.”
“Absofuckinglutely.” I make a show of giving her body a slow perusal. The little huffs coming out of her mouth are fucking adorable, as it’s clear she wasn’t expecting my brutal honesty. “Black cat got your tongue? I think the only thing I like more than your barbs is your shocked silence.”
She cocks a hand on her hip, and her brows pinch in frustration.
“I don’t have time to deal with this. As you can see, there’s a lot I need done.
Some of it’s more pressing than others so I can make this a safe space for Jonah.
Do you think you can handle that? Can you get your horniness under control long enough to help my autistic kid? ”
I wince at her words. I’m a fucking asshole, and she’s proving just how inept I am at dealing with the opposite sex. “Yeah, I think I can manage.”
“Great, now follow me, and we can go through everything else I’d like done.”
I follow her through the rest of the house, stealing glances at her as she talks through her ideas. This woman intrigues me more than anyone has in a long time. I like that she knows what she wants and gives me shit. It makes me curious if she’s bossy in the bedroom too.