Page 9 of His Cabin Obsession

There’s silence after my confession. Despite everything, it actually makes it easier for me to drop my hands away from my face at last. It’s still burning, of course – I’m not sure anything less than a fire hose would stop that – but the silence allows me to focus on something else, the uncertainty.

As in, why has Aaron suddenly gone quiet when he wouldn’t stop asking me questions before I said that?

I turn around to face him, even though every muscle in my body wills me to do the exact opposite. I was trying hard to get away from him in my shame, but now I need to read his face, to see what he thinks of me.

The trouble is, as soon as I turn to look at him, he does exactly what I did a moment ago he spins on his heel and stalks away into the open room of the cabin, so I can’t see his face at all.

“Aaron?” I say, my voice trembling slightly as I call out to him. I don’t even really know what I’m asking. I just want some kind of reassurance – that he hasn’t been completely put off by me with those few.

“Sorry,” he says. He runs a hand back through his short, dark hair, leaving it a little ruffled. He grabs his coffee from where he put it on the table and finally glances at me for one moment. His expression is unreadable, a total mystery. “I shouldn’t have read your work. That was rude of me.”

Then he walks away and resumes his seat outside the cabin, on the wood table and chair set that affords a view of the forest around us and the valley below.

And even if I fell all the way down into that valley, and then found a hole in the ground and kept falling into that, it wouldn’t be far enough away.

Now Aaron knows I’m a virgin – and he probably thinks I’m some young stupid kid who he shouldn’t be talking to about sex. Let alone thinking about doing it with me.

Even though we’ve only just met, I realize I have already started to really fantasize about him – not just for my story. And the thought that it will never happen – even though I never really believed it would – plummets my heart down to my feet.

I lay down on the bed with the door shut and my notebook over my face, and wonder how I could possibly have screwed this up any worse.

Chapter Eight

Aaron

It’s just like I thought. Olivia is a virgin.

That changes everything.

Not because I’m shocked or appalled – she’s a young woman, and she can do what she likes with her body. Hell, I haven’t been interested in any other women, so it’s not as though I’m going to be comparing her to the horde of Amazonian models I spend my time with. I don’t. That’s not the point.

The point is that her first time should be special. Something to remember. And if I’m going to claim her and make her mine, I need to do it right. So right that she doesn’t even think about it. No one else will ever compare. The time for ripping each other’s clothes off and mating on tables is for later. Right now, it needs to be more thought out, more deliberate.

I need to make this as special as possible – for Olivia’s sake. My needs can come later.

I try to focus on reading my paperback, but truth be told all I can think about is Olivia. I tell myself that the best course of action would be to let her be. To hold myself back. If she wants me, she can come to me. I don’t have to make a point of seducing her.

Except, yes, I do. Even as I tell myself not to get too deep, I know that I already am. The thought of her leaving this cabin, going to college, and falling in love with some frat boy fills me with rage. The idea of his hands on her – no. I won’t allow that to happen.

Olivia is mine. I will claim her, and it has to be this week, before we’re forced to part ways.

That means I need to act, and soon. But it needs to be good – I can’t just throw something together and call it a day. So, what can I do?

I think about it for a while. I would check the time, but both my watch and my phone are inside. A glance at the sky has me guessing that it must still be early afternoon. That means I have time to pull something together, and today.

I’m known in business for being able to pull things off – unexpected things, things that my rivals would say might not be possible. I’m known for going all out to put a deal together, sparing no expense, really wooing my clients. I can’t be any different here.

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