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Oh, Sugar, you are pushing me today.“Maria… you be careful playing that game,” I nodded to her hand. I shut my mouth and forced myself to walk away before I did something stupid, like pull her over my knee and spank her plump little ass.
She’s going to have to make the first move if we do this again,I told myself. I’d thought about it constantly over the past few weeks. If Maria stayed, and she wanted more from me, if she wanted to give us a chance, I would be more than happy to reciprocate. But it had to be on her. I refused to be that person who took advantage of her and roped her into something she didn’t truly want, or that made her situation worse.
She grinned and tossed her hair over her shoulder, and turned back to her pamphlets.
Damn it, woman.She was trying to force my hand.
If there was one thing I could have changed, looking back, that would have been the moment. I should have taken her face in my hands and kissed her senseless, and told her exactly how I felt about her, taken her to my bed, and made sure she believed me beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Because the very next day, I lost her.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The following afternoon, Andrew was keeping the boys entertained while I was sewing some buttons back onto his work shirts when the phone rang.
“Hello! Hello! Hello!” Jacob started chiming, although it sounded more like screaming than actual words. Still, I could tell he was trying.
Andrew chuckled once as he stood to answer it. “Hello Mark… No, really?... Hm… Hm…” More grunts and affirmativesounds followed over the next fifteen minutes. “Okay. I’ll head down to the bank... Yes. Let’s do it.”
He hung up and hurried down the hall to his room. He came back a minute later looking phenomenal in a pair of black dress slacks and a white button-down shirt. He pulled his hair into a fast braid as he said, “I have to run to the bank.”
“Alright,” I said, concerned at his eagerness. “Is everything okay?”
“You know that little church we visit sometimes?”
“Sure.”
Words poured from Andrew, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. “If you keep going down that road, all the way up the mountain, it opens into a valley. Right in the middle is a luxury hotel. Incredible architecture. At least a hundred years old. Well maintained.” He tied up his braid and grabbed his wallet and keys. “The owners are sick and want to retire, so they’re trying to sell. The only buyer right now is a company that wants to level it, and build a manufacturing plant. It’s right on the edge of Mark Sullivan’s land, where Jonah and I hunt, and Mark’s been wanting to sell for a while, but he won’t sell to the manufacturers. They want to clear part of the forest, and it’ll destroy the ecosystem of the surrounding ten miles of wildlife if they do that.”
“So you’re going to buy it?” I said, standing up to look at him straight on. I don’t think I’d ever heard so many words come out of his mouth at once.
“You bet I am… I’m going to buyboth,” he said, taking a step towards me, gesturing vaguely. “It’s stunning, Maria. We can turn it into something beautiful. A bed and breakfast, or a resort, or a museum, or something. The business has the capital, and I know the owners will sell to me instead if I get there fast enough with a good offer. Mark and I can work together to get a grant and preserve the surrounding wildlife.”
We can turn it into something beautiful.Those words kept running over and over in my head, and I wanted to dance at the sound of them. Because I was part of his vision for his future.
I took another step towards him and leaned in, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Good luck.”
He froze and stared at me, his dark eyes holding something ominous in them. A low growl seemed to reverberate through his chest and my stomach clenched at the sound.
“Of all the damn worst timing, woman…” he took a step back, flipping his keys in his hand. He lifted a finger and pointed at me. “I’ll deal with you when I get back.” He turned and left, shutting the door firmly and jogging out to his truck.
I bit my lip. My whole body tingled, and he hadn’t even touched me.
“When do you think daddy will be back, boys?” I asked quietly. “Hopefully during nap time.”
I spent the next few hours on cloud nine, imagining my fate when Andrew returned. What was the process for going to the bank and buying a hotel and a forest, I wondered. How long did that take?
Around four in the afternoon there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see two police officers, standing shoulder to shoulder, taking up the entire landing outside.My hackles rose.
“Mrs. Greenwood?” one of them asked.
I liked the sound of that more than I liked to admit. I swallowed. “Uh… no, but I live here with Andrew.”
“Is he around?”
“He’s working. Can I help you?”
One of the officers looked over my shoulder into the apartment, the other looked down at a notepad. “Can you tell us where he was on March third and fourth?”
