Page 10 of Rough Daddy
"This is it."
She gets out, stepping carefully on the uneven gravel. Pulls out her phone, holds it up, frowning at the screen. "No signal."
"Spotty up here. You’ll get texts through, a little delayed usually but you’ll get them. But the reception’s not steady enough for a phone call. Need satellite if you want to talk to the outside world."
Her face goes pale. "Satellite?"
"Got one inside. For emergencies."
I start unloading suitcases, watching her take in the place. The isolation. The silence. Nothing like her world.
My cabin isn't roughing it. My brothers and I all helped each other when it came to building, and we all had ideas of what we wanted.
When it came to my place, I was the minimalist in the group. I never saw myself here with anyone else, so two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, living room.
There was an old one-room cabin on the property when we divided up the land and I cleaned that up. I’m the farthest up the mountain of all the brothers, too, so the guest cabin gets some use now and then for poker nights, that sort of thing. Once for a party for my brothers’ wives who needed a secret spot for their shenanigans.
That didn’t go as planned for them.
"It's..." she starts.
"Not what you're used to." A flutter of unfamiliar insecurity moves in my chest.
"I was going to say perfect."
Perfect.
“You can have the guest house. It’s got everything you’ll need. And privacy.”
Not that I want to give you fucking privacy. I want to sit you right back on the hood of my truck so we can have a mutual masturbation session out here under the Wildfire blue sky.
Because I can’t touch you.
Fear punches me in the gut.
I work on unloading the truck while she plays with her phone, then takes a little stroll over to the side of the cabin, looking over the drop-off behind.
“You weren’t kidding about heights.”
I grunt, dropping the last of her bags on the porch. "Few rules while you're here."
She stands straight, head cocked, that new black hair framing her creamy pale face. "Rules?"
"My mountain. My rules." I unlock the door and push it open, watching her pupils dilate just a fraction. "No wandering off alone. These woods'll swallow a little thing like you whole."
She nods, following me inside without playing twenty-fucking-questions.
"No driving anywhere. I have a pole barn full of cars, but don’t think about it. These roads aren't for city princesses who can't handle a car wash, and I don’t even want to get started on your choice of footwear."
“A barn full of cars?” Her eyes light up, before she catches herself and clears her throat, a little pink rising on her cheekbones. “I mean, can I see them?”
I nod. “Sure. But like I was saying, no driving.”
"I can handle—"
"No arguments, either." She’s all silk and perfume and curves that belong in my hands, and I want to cage her against the wall and stuff the throbbing thickness in my groin in every fucking hole God gave her. "You promise to do as I say, and I promise to keep you safe. Deal?"
She swallows audibly. "I'm tougher than I look."
