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I was able to dry my bra and underwear with the hairdryer at least, so I do have something covering me down there.
It’s about five o’clock now and it’s still sunny out, but it’s that nice dusk of summertime that is meant for drinking on porches and talking into the night.
I wonder where Violet is and what she’s doing as I take a seat at the island in front of Cyrus. She’s smart and tough. I’m sure she’ll be okay, but I know that she must be worried. She knows that I don’t know anything about wilderness living. It will be okay. I’ll see her tomorrow. Even if I have to climb every mountain in this damn forest, even if I have to swim back up that crazy river, I’ll find her.
But tonight… tonight there’s nothing I can do.
So, I try to push my worries away and instead focus on this interesting marvel of a man in front of me. I narrow my eyes as I watch him with my chin resting on my fist.
He looks at me curiously.
“You know what I think?” I tell him.
“I’d love to know what you’re thinking.”
“I think you were born in the wrong century.”
He scoops up the chopped carrots with the big knife and drops them into the big steaming pot. “Please elaborate.”
“You should have been one of the pioneers of this country. I could see you as the first one out west, bravely taming the land. Or, I could see you as one of the first humans. A hunter-gatherer who’s head of the pack. You’d be in your element.”
“And what about you?” he asks with a sly smile. “What century do you belong in?”
“Not the past,” I say with a bad taste in my mouth. “Probably the future. When robots do everything for us and we can print unlimited shoes on our 3D printers.”
He laughs as he starts chopping up some celery.
“Where did you get that?” I ask.
“What? The celery?”
“Yeah. I didn’t see a grocery store on the way in.”
“I grew it. I have a big garden out back.”
A lightbulb clicks on.
“So, like you know how to do everything out here, don’t you?”
He rubs his bearded chin as he looks at me. “Pretty much.”
This guy is so capable. He can grow his food, trap his food, hunt his food, get around, and live self-sufficiently, as well as build his own billion-dollar business. His intelligence must be through the roof.
Or, is it? How come he chooses to live in the forest if he’s so smart? That sounds pretty dumb to me.
“Can you teach me some stuff?”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Wilderness survival stuff.”
“Sure. Lesson number one—never get in a canoe again.”
I snort out a laugh. He’s funny too…
“No, but seriously. My niece is totally into all of this wilderness stuff and I don’t even know how to put on bug spray properly.”
“Seriously?”
“I sprayed it in my eye by accident. It fucking burned.”
Those big shoulders shake again as he chuckles. I like it when I make him laugh. It lights my insides up in the best way.
“I don’t want to seem so…”
“Helpless?”
I glare at him playfully. “I was going to say inexperienced. I want to be able to teach her some things like how to start a fire with a rock or how to catch a fish with a spear.”
“You want to catch a fish with a spear?”
“Or with a net made out of leaves. I don’t know! I just don’t want to be a total idiot in front of my niece out here. That’s all.”
He looks at me for a long moment and it sends a fluttering into my chest. My breath starts to quicken as he appraises me with those smoldering brown eyes. I don’t know what this guy thinks of me. He probably thinks I’m the biggest doofus to ever walk into his forest. He probably regrets fishing me out of that lake.
But those looks he keeps giving me… that feel in the air… there’s something more to it.
It’s almost like he’s as intrigued by me as I am by him. As if he’s enjoying my company. As if the sleeping situation tonight is still in the air, yet to be decided.
There’s something lustful about that look and the way it makes me all lightheaded and shivery. And I can’t deny how erotic it felt to be naked in his shower. I had to turn the water icy cold at the end just to snap out of it.
He’s stirring something within me and it’s getting stronger the longer I’m next to him. Who knew I was into the manly man type after all?
“I can teach you some things,” he says in that deep sensual voice.
I’m wondering what those things are and if they’re going to take place in the bedroom when he turns the stove down to a simmer.
