Page 21 of Wren's Winter

“Did I get it?” he asked.

I couldn’t speak, nodding instead at him.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the cabin.”

Pulling up to the cabin, I placed a hand on the door, hesitating. Would he invite me in? Should I invite him over for dinner? How do you seduce a grown man? The entire ride up the mountain, I realized I wanted Adrian. I knew it before. Physically, he obviously affected me. But after spending those few hours with him, I knew he was right for whatever fling Summer said it should take to get over Buck.

But to actually do it? The last time I seduced a man, it was asking him to teach me how to shotgun a beer in the fraternity basement.

“Do you want to—” His phone cut him off, and he frowned at the screen before answering.

I could hear a woman’s voice on the other end but not what was being said. Adrian listened for a few minutes before saying, “Okay, let me finish up what I’m doing and I’ll be over. See you in thirty.”

He hung up, shoving his door open and climbing out. Was that his girlfriend? He wouldn’t flirt with me if he had a girlfriend, would he? Guys cheat, I knew that. And while Adrian seemed like a good man, that didn’t mean a thing if he had someone. While I was running through possibilities, Adrian was at my door, his hand out to help me down.

Having climbed out of the truck twice now, I was fairly sure I could have managed on my own, but still, I took his hand. My feet on the ground, I raised my head to look up at him. Did he have to be so tall?

And sexy, don’t forget sexy.

He was still holding my hand, and despite myself, I didn’t pull away. Might be the only skin-to-skin contact I was going to get this week. His eyes impossibly deep and sweet as he looked down at me. Heat from his hands radiated up my arm. My legs shaky as he stood so close to me. “Everything okay?” I asked.

This made him drop my hand. Running a hand over his head, he pulled his beanie off, ruffling his hair. “Yeah, I got to run back into town in a few to take care of something.”

He stomped away, as if annoyed. The tailgate made a loud noise as it slammed down. He grabbed the four bags of groceries, carrying them all in his arms. A glance at the back of his truck showed me he got all my stuff. I followed behind him to the cabin where he was hesitating on the porch.

Once the door was unlocked, he walked into the kitchen and unpacked my groceries for me. I stood back, watching. He even hung the bananas on the little banana hook instead of throwing them on the counter.

He folded the paper bags, slid them under the kitchen sink, and turned to me. “You good here?”

He was polite, but the warmth and humor from the bar was gone, replaced by a scowl.

“Yeah, totally.” I wrapped my arms around my body.

He glanced at my hands, tight on my upper arms. Frowning, he moved to the living room, rebuilding the fire in the stove in a matter of minutes.

“You should be warm enough the rest of the night. Let me know if you need help.” He glanced out the window at his truck. “I, hopefully, won’t be too long, but I don’t know.”

Giving him a fake smile, I tried to fight down the rolling in my stomach. “I’ll be good. I’m a big girl. Thank you for today. I had fun.”

His face softened. “Me too.” He hesitated, stepping closer to me. “Maybe I could stop by later?”

A genuine smile blossomed on my face. “I’d like that.”

“Hopefully, I won’t be too long.” I thought for a second he might hug me or something, but instead, he stepped back, leaving the same way he came. Unabashedly, I watched him out the window as he climbed back into his truck and drove off.

After a girl dinner of soft cheese, eggplant spread, crackers, and salami eaten over the sink, I caught up on some work. Strictly speaking, I wasn’t taking time off to be here. Since my work was all remote, as long as I got the reports submitted by the due date, they didn’t care if I got them done at three a.m. or three p.m. I replied to a few emails and read celebrity news. A supermodel was expecting a baby with her husband. The lead singer of a rock band was spotted at a concert arguing with an unknown woman. The lead actress in a TV paranormal drama was leaving her show that season. A Grammy nominated singer was spotted with a baby bump. I watched multiple videos of a lobsterman cleaning barnacles off lobsters before giving them a fish snack in their claw and throwing them back into the ocean. Played a few rounds of my fruit merge game. Anything to stop me from checking out the window for Adrian’s truck. Hours went by, and the sky grew dark.

“Knock it off,” I mumbled to myself. I wasn’t going to wait around any longer for that man. I went up the loft, opening up my suitcase, I dug through the various shirts and overabundance of clean underwear for my swimsuit. Unzipped the front pocket to see if I had stashed it in there. Nope.

I remembered I found the top and was searching for the bottoms when I got distracted by the breaking from a cult podcast I was listening to.

Crap. I left my swimsuit on the counter beside the library book I was going to bring. With no swimsuit on hand, I sat on the edge of the bed, my teeth biting into my lower lip. I could go in my underwear, but I only had one backup bra.

The hot tub was on the side of the house, only a few steps from the back door to the hot tub. Once I was in the water, there wasn’t any way of telling if I was wearing a suit or going naked. It wasn’t like I had never skinny-dipped before, and what was this trip but a reclaiming of myself? If I wanted to sit in a hot tub naked, it was my right.

My courage screwed tight. I wrapped a towel around my body and walked down the stairs to the back door. As I walked out the door, the small porch light turned on, blaring yellow bright and blanching the porch. I glanced across the way at Adrian’s house. His kitchen light was on, but no others were. His driveway was dark, with no sign of his truck. Even if he were home, I couldn’t see him, so there was no way he could see me. It would only be a few seconds of nakedness before the water covered me. I set my can of wine down on the side of the tub. No point in getting a glass out here. One hand clutched the towel around me, the other hand flipped the cover off the hot tub. Wisps of steam and the chlorinated scent filled the air. A quick test of the water proved that the water was hot enough to keep me comfortable in the freezing temperatures.

Before dropping my towel, I took one last glance across the way at Adrian’s house. Still, the house was dark. Before I lost my nerve, I flung the towel onto the small hook beside the tub and climbed down into the hot water. The heat enveloped me as the water came up to my armpits. There. I was under, and nothing could be seen, even if Adrian could see over here.

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