5. Blake
BLAKE
What the fuck am I doing?
I try to focus on the winding road, but it’s like my gaze is constantly drawn to her.
I glance over at that cute, upturned nose with the freckles across the bridge. The pretty waves of her red hair swinging from her ponytail. The Cupid’s bow of her lips.
She’s looking at me like I’m a fucking savior. If only she knew…
No, if she knew my plans, there would be zero chance of her sitting in this car with me now.
Her father would literally be turning in his grave...
then I remember he’s been cremated, so perhaps not.
It’s strange to think of a friend—someone my age—being dead.
I don’t give my own mortality much thought, but knowing James Preston no longer exists makes me feel older in a way I don’t normally consider myself.
The drive takes us farther into the wilderness. The elevation starts to creep up, the mountains rising in the distance, and a clear blue river curving through the valley to the east. I love this place. Out here, we can be whoever we want to be. No one else is around to judge us.
“Were you ever married?” she asks, glancing at my left hand where it’s resting on the steering wheel. “To Levi’s mom, I mean… or anyone else.”
I can’t help it—her question makes me laugh again. She certainly seems overly interested in my love life. I wonder about her reasoning behind that. It feels like she’s trying to figure out if I’m single.
She pouts. “What’s so funny?”
“The idea of me being married. And no, Aspen, I most definitely am not.”
“A girlfriend, then? One who doesn’t live with the two of you.”
I purse my lips, deliberately keeping my eyes on the road. “Nope. Not one of them either.”
“Really? Huh.”
She sounds surprised—even a bit baffled.
I risk a quick look over at her. “Why do you ask?”
She turns her face toward the passenger window, as though she doesn’t want to meet my eye.
“I guess I just thought you’d be lonely, living all the way up in the mountains with only your son.”
“It does get lonely sometimes,” I admit. “But nothing is lonelier than being with the wrong person. I’ll be forty-two in a week, and that was a lesson I learned a long time ago.”
She lets out a deep sigh and twirls the end of her hair around her finger. “Yeah, I guess that’s something I’m still learning.”
I glance over at her again, and my gaze drops to her long legs. They’re pressed at the knee, her ankles primly together. I picture what they’d look like with rope bound around them. Has she gotten into that kind of thing with the jackass boyfriend? Has he tied her up while he’s fucked her?
I can’t decide if the idea makes me more horny or furious. It’s a shame she’s been touched already. I wish I’d come back into her life sooner, before the idiot boyfriend got the chance to defile her.
Fuck, my cock is rushing full of blood at the thought, and I have to shift my position to stop it from looking obvious. I force the most mundane images into my head and will my erection to go down.
If she’s living with us, there will be plenty of time for all that.