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Chapter 1
Julie AKA Constance
The bandages were making me fidget with the inability to move certain ways without being uncomfortable. I had to stay overnight in the hospital for evaluation and monitoring as a precaution against potential complications.
Sitting in my study trying to do work with Cameron in the kitchen assessing the situation wasn’t easy. He was the one to stay with me by my bed holding my hand. It was actually a shock to wake up to see him sleeping next to me in the chair at an awkward angle with one leg curled under him.
Bethany was a little shaken and decided to stay at a hotel for the next couple of days. The fire department had ruled it an accident. It was apparently a grease fire that got out of control. The only thing I remembered was a flash of fire coming from the oven when I opened it. I probably would’ve been fried to a crisp had it not been for the initial blast which knocked me backward, propelling me away from the stove.
I recalled in distorted images leaving my feet and going over the counter which provided me with a modicum of shelter. Bethany had dragged me outside and ensured I wasn’t on fire, but I got a little nauseous when she described the curling smoke from the skin on my arms.
A little restlessness was typical after a trauma. Roaming the halls at night unable to get the rest I needed made me sleep-deprived and susceptible to his advances.
Coming out of my office and finding him half-naked from the waist up in the kitchen, I stood there acutely aware of his physical dominance. He didn’t know I was there hiding in the shadows away from his prying eyes.
Mesmerized by the sweat droplets clinging to his skin running in a direct line for the waistband of his tight jeans had me at a loss for words. Those muscles had been a subject of my fantasies for too long. Succumbing to a moment of weakness would be preferable over the pain underneath the bandages which dogged me at every movement. At least it would distract me.
“I don’t like somebody looking over my shoulder," he said. “It’s a good thing the fire was contained to the kitchen. It’s mostly cosmetic but I will need you to make some hard decisions,” he hinted with a smirk on his face.
“What gave me away?” I asked with my barely covered body in a tight white robe coming out into the light.
“I know your perfume. You had me worried sick in the hospital watching over you. That wasn’t very nice. Please, don’t put me through that again,” he pleaded with the muscles in his forearms flexing every time he pounded a nail.
“It wasn’t like I intentionally set the place on fire. The one thing I remember most of all is how terrified I was after the fact. I was lucky I wasn’t blinded by the blaze,” I said with a glance to where the stove used to be with only a charred reminder of what had happened.
“I’ve done my best to clean things up. The new stove should be arriving shortly this afternoon. It has all the bells and whistles including being able to clean itself. The other stove will be picked up with the regular garbage collection. I took it upon myself to look it over but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” he replied with his body turning to show me the ripple of his abdominal region.
Those muscles were accentuated by the sweat that had accumulated along those ridges. The air conditioning had been affected by the fire. The house had become stifling even with the windows open. There was a nice cross breeze tickling the back of my neck. It did nothing to stem the fire in my loins.
That sexual insistence was begging to jump into his arms for a moment. I wanted my screams to be the only thing he would be able to hear for the next 20-minutes. It was wrong to keep him in the dark about my real identity. It was strictly by luck he didn’t overhear anything at the hospital.
The fire was less than twelve hours ago, and you wouldn’t know it from looking at the scene. Cameron had used his carpentry knowledge to bring things quickly back to code. Some of the cabinets had needed to be replaced. He did a remarkable job of matching the style with the ones I already had.
“I’m just glad that you weren’t here when it happened. I owe my life to Bethany. Her quick actions prevented things from getting worse. She was my rock. She was able to call 911 and pull me from the fire at the same time,” I praised my best friend.
“I came home to find you lying on the ground lifeless. The burns will heal but there will always be emotional scars. This is something I know from personal experience. The one thing being in the military taught me was to cherish the small things in life," he said with a deep breath.
His lungs expanded and his chest became that much more formidable in my eyes. Standing in front of me with no shirt on was making things a little unbearable. He wasn’t trying to make a move and was purposely staying a few feet away. He probably was afraid he would to hurt me, but I would have welcomed the distraction of the pleasure inflicted..
“You don’t talk much about your time in the military. I’m guessing there is a good reason for that. We all have baggage in one form or another. Things we don’t want those around us to know about. I carry resentment from the past. It’s not healthy and I’m trying to purge those feelings in a constructive way,” I mentioned without going into detail that he was the cause for everything that had gone wrong in my life.
He was also the reason why I was waking up in the morning sticking to the sheets. That feeling of overwhelming forbidden lust was in the air every time I looked at him.
Talking about his military past was my way of taking the heat out of the interaction between us. There was a level of concern for my sexual sanity hanging by a thread.
“I don’t mean to make you nervous. You’re shaking like a leaf. I made you some herbal tea. I found a package of it in one of the cupboards that had to be replaced. It somehow survived the blaze," he offered with his hand briefly touching me when he gave me the teacup.
It would have dropped from my hands had it not been for my quick reflexes.
“I’m still a little rattled from the experience. They can fix the physical wounds, but it goes deeper than that. I think you already know what I’m trying to say,” I said with bated breath followed by the tip of my tongue circling the shape of my mouth.
“Emotional trauma is the worst. There was one very painful moment in my life. I’m reluctant to speak about it, but maybe you can learn something from my experience. It might be good to get it off my chest after all these years. He appeared to debate with himself to see if he was going to share what kept him up at night.
His body of work was impressive. The way he moved seamlessly around the kitchen multitasking was hard for me to pull myself away from. He was able to speak candidly and perform his duties simultaneously.
I jumped when he ripped a piece of the counter off with his bare hands. It crumbled into pieces due to the shock of the heat. He wasn’t messing around.
“It’s nice to have a strong and capable man around. I do know my limitations. There’s no shame in that,” I said with my leg visibly trembling with the robe slightly parted to give him a better view of my muscular and supple thighs.
