Page 3 of Ensnaring Him

Sure, Serenia has her own very unique type of beauty. Fuck her hair is something else. I’ve never imagined a woman with multicolored hair would be the one to sway me, but I want to delve my hands into that deep turquoise blue mass and see if the pops of burnt red that remind me of the sun shining through the fall leaves is just on the top or if that color is picked up elsewhere. I want to stare into her golden green eyes, see them light up the way they did when I mentioned the greenhouse to her.

“This is yours?” Serenia asks when I come around, helping her out of the truck, making sure there aren’t any limbs strewn around the area. She’s wearing little flip flops that won’t keep her pretty little feet safe if she stepped on them. My workers are supposed to cut them blunt, but that doesn’t always happen, and sometimes, they drop some when they’re cleaning out the trucks to take them to the wood chipper to make mulch.

“This is mine,” I tell her, motioning towards the greenhouse, fenced in yard that holds the plants that don’t require the steadytemps and sunlight regulation, along with the office building that’s set up for the landscaping business.

We go in through the backdoor of the greenhouse, and I give Chris a nod when his brow lifts in surprise towards me and then with a bit of hunger towards my girl. He’s likely eight or nine years younger than I am, and the women that come in flock to his side with his pretty boy face, but Serenia barely gives him a glance as she slips her hand into mine.

“Hey boss, thought you were going to be at the park all day,” Chris says, giving Serenia a welcoming smile, but instead of responding to it, she turns further my way. The green of her top blending in well with the leaves of plants surrounding us.

“I ran into Serenia and am going to show her around instead. Take Paul with you and get things handled for me,” I tell him, passing along the keys to the truck, a warning in my gaze as his eyes try to slip back to my girl.

“You’re the boss,” he says with a shrug before heading out to the front to grab the other guy and I move us through towards the register area to see Nina. She works part-time for me whenever she’s not home designing her new planters, and it’s worked well for both of us the last few years.

“Hey boss, who’s your friend?” Nina asks, giving Serenia a smile before looking at me in complete shock, her eyes widening even further when she notes my hand resting on Serenia’s hip. I get it. I never show interest in anyone, let alone let a woman into my personal space, or touch them in any way that could be construed as intimate.

“This is Serenia. I ran into her at the park, and she was excited to see the greenhouse. Chris and Paul are going to head back that way and do the repairs. If you need any help, call Joe. I know he’ll gladly accept the extra hours,” I explain, and she just nods, looking between me and Serenia still.

“We can do this later if it’s not…”

“Now’s perfect,” I tell my girl, stopping her offer before it’s fully out there. “My employees can handle things themselves.”

“We can,” Nina agrees, giving us another grin. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, I’m Nina since it seems the boss isn’t going to do introductions. I work the register whenever I’m not working on my pottery, so if you have any questions when he’s not here, just let me know. I may not know everything about plants, but I can give you all the details on Duncan he won’t want you to know.”

“Nina…” I warn as Serenia’s brow lifts a hint my way at that. “She’s teasing, honey. I’m a monk. Unless I’m working, going to a meeting for the Small Business Owners Association, or hanging out with my friends, I’m home taking care of the grounds and plants there.”

“It’s true,” Nina says with a laugh. “Even at the meetings for the association, he never pays attention to the women. I guess they were all a little too basic for him. He needs some color in his life that’s not from a plant though.”

“Enough,” I tell her, before glancing down into Serenia’s sweet eyes, thankful they’re still the same happy, content as they were earlier. “You ready for the tour, honey?”

“Please,” Serenia says, giving Nina a nod with a sweet smile as we walk away from her, and for the next two hours, I show off every inch of what I’ve built for my business.

“I have more guys that work just for the landscaping part of the business. They do everything from laying grass or sod, to planting trees and shrubs and flowers, to mowing and trimming. That’s actually the first part of the business I opened. We started with mowing services, then upped it to the actual landscaping work. I got tired of having to delay jobs because whatever I’d ordered hadn’t arrived on time, so then I started cultivating and growing my own out on my property. When it became a moreregular thing, I bought this space, added the greenhouse and yard.”

“It’s incredible. I’ve never seen so many varieties of flowers before. I love it,” she added with a huge smile that made my heart completely hers. “Do you still grow things out at your place?”

“I do. I have my own greenhouse there too. I grow a lot of flowers there, delphiniums, orchids, and roses of all colors and varieties. Would you like to see them too?” I ask, holding my breath for her answer, because if she says no, I’ll definitely be disappointed, but I’ll also understand.

She just met me. She has to be visiting town, because I know I’d have seen her before now is she wasn’t. It’d be one thing for me to just go over to someone’s house when we just met, but I’m six-four and a half, work a physically demanding job, so I’m in shape. Serenia is tiny in every way, likely no more than five-five. She can’t weigh but a hundred or so pounds. Her not trusting a near stranger is smart—well, as long as it’s anyone other than me that is, because I’ll never hurt her.

Adore her the rest of my life—oh yeah. Protect her and that happy smile on her lips—fuck yeah. Hurt her—not a chance in hell.

“I’d love to,” she answers me, and I can’t hold back the smile that hits, a warmth spreading through me when hers grows in return, and I tuck her in next to me, heading for my car to take her home.

Her eyes widen a hint when I open the door of my SUV, and I lift her up into it since it sits higher than the pickup. “I use the truck for work, this is my personal vehicle.”

“It’s fancy,” she says looking at the screen on the dashboard that lit up when the door opened, the car picking up the signal from the key fob.

“It’s more comfortable than the truck,” I tell her before heading around to ensure it’s not too hot inside the car. I don’t want her sweating because the leather seats stay warm with the sun shining into the car.

We talk as we head to the house, me trying to get a feel of how long she’ll be in town for, “Do you have plans for while you’re here?”

“Not really. My friends and I were able to get away from home for the week,” she says, and I hope that week isn’t almost over.

“Did you all go anywhere before here?” I question when she doesn’t elaborate.

“No, this was our first stop. We didn’t know what we were going to do yet. We were just celebrating the fact that we weren’t there,” she adds and the way she says it, makes it seem like she doesn’t want to go back—ever—and I’m more than okay with that.

“What made you choose our little town? We get a pretty decent turnout from tourists through here but it’s not one of the main spots for the younger crowd to visit.”

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