Page 20 of Silver Brewer

Take me, I scream inside my head. Bend me over your knee.

But instead, he instantly releases me, taking a step back.

“I think you’re ready.” He walks around me, ignoring how I’ve pressed into him. No reaction. Last night must have meant nothing to him because he hasn’t mentioned it, and he doesn’t appear even remotely affected by me today. I don’t know what I expected, though. I don’t know what I want from him.

You shouldn’t want anything from him. You need his land.

My heart clenches as I watch him reach for the ax on the dirt. When he holds it shaft out, I tug it from him with more force than I intend and narrowly miss nicking the pad of his hand. My eyes lift to his, and he raises one eyebrow. He must know what he’s done to me, though. I’m a hot mess.

“Take all the negative energy you hold for micro-penis and sister bitch and toss that ax.”

He rushes back a step or two as I aim with extended arms and lift to the angle he suggested. I reach behind my head and then pitch forward, tossing the ax with all the strength and anger and regret.

I hit the tree, but the ax doesn’t stick.

“Goddammit.”

Giant retrieves the two axes we’ve been using and comes back to me. “Each try is one step closer to the goal. Don’t give up.”

Without meeting his eyes, I focus on the trunk once again.

Giving up isn’t in my nature.

+ + +

My arms ache from my many attempts. I lost count somewhere after the thirty-seventh throw. Giant has the patience of a saint and the willpower of one as well. His near kisses and brisk touches are my driving force to continue throwing the ax long after the burn begins in my shoulders. He thinks Hudson and Dayna spur me onward, but I’ve long since let go of them. Bitterness weighed me down at first. Overhearing Hudson telling someone—my sister—he couldn’t wait to see her soon, and then discovering they’d rented a room at a hotel to meet up was a sour pill to swallow.

I was so lonely, my sister told me. Was I supposed to sympathize with her? Was her after-divorce loneliness heavier than the weight I bore in a relationship with an unemotional man? The very man she decided would end her bout of being alone.

Four years I wasted on Hudson. Four years thinking we would get better. Moving in. Getting engaged. Making plans. Discussing marriage. I missed all the signs in my quest for happily ever after in a relationship that left me complacent and not content. Hudson is in finance, a business closely linked to real estate acquisitions and mergers. He also is a Rockford, and his family owns one of the largest privately held financial institutions in Chicago. He is Midwest royalty, and I was a blind fool.

Marrying me would have secured his family to Mullen, which would have pleased my uncle. When I broke everything off, Hudson wasted no time moving on to my sister. Or perhaps he’d already moved on to her after he broke all emotions within me? They’ll be a match made in hell and definitely deserve one another. Both perfectionists. Both filled with pettiness. They are better suited than Hudson and I ever would have been. Still. It hurt to find him cheating on me, dissolving all his promises for a roll in the sheets with my sister.

Dayna and I had never been close. As the middle child, I was closer to my brother, Owen, even though he was years younger than me. I wipe away thoughts of him and focus my energy on Dayna. In two weeks, she’ll be getting married, and I’m the maid of honor. What a fucking farce.

Put on your brave face and show them what you’re made of, Marcus told me when my sister asked me. Awkwardly, the invitation came during a family dinner. Not only do I lack negotiation skills, but my ability to think on the spot struggles, and so I said yes. A whirlwind of dress shopping, engagement parties, and wedding plans followed, and my dislike of Dayna has grown deeper with each step of the process. As for Hudson, I’ve long since surpassed feeling hatred for him. I just want the wedding over with so I don’t have to speak to either of them again.

Of course, that will be impossible as Dayna works for Mullen Realty with me, and she’s probably figuring out what else she can steal out from under me while I’m here throwing axes.

I hit my mark. The ax sticks for eight out of ten consecutive throws.

“You did it,” Giant says encouragingly from my side, and his voice draws me back to my surroundings.

I turn to him with a huge smile on my face.

“I did it.”

I survived almost a year of in-my-face Dayna and Hudson, and it’s almost over.

Giant grips my bare shoulders and rubs. “You’re so tense, but it’s the muscle strain. You worked hard. Just relax.” His thumbs dig into the nape of my neck.

Relax.

If only he knew how hard I want to relax with him.

9

Lightning does strike twice