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ELIZA
There was always someone in the shower early in the morning at the bunkhouse, so it was easier to take a quick dip in the river. It was cold and helped me wake up, as well as get clean. As much as women were blamed for taking their time in the bathroom, I had to believe the men here were far worse.
I heard a sound behind me, and when I looked back, I saw Eddie staring at me. It would have been funny, if it wasn’t so unnerving. I told him to turn around so that I could get out. I felt like my whole body was on fire. I was so nervous, and his attention was too much.
When I turned to see if he had done as I asked, I still found him staring. “What’s your deal? Turn around.”
“What happened to your back?”
I turned to face him head-on and covered my chest with my hands, keeping my torso under the water. It was not something that I wanted to talk about, but when he asked again, this time with concern on his face and something that looked like protection, I felt like he deserved an answer.
“I told you that I hate the Bransom Country pack. Did you really think I didn’t have a reason?”
“Those scars are not new, not all of them.”
“What makes you such an expert on scars?” I asked him.
“I’ve taken care of rescue horses that have been tortured,” he explained. “Your scars are in different states of healing, some are years old, some from only a few months ago. What did they do to you?”
I shrugged, because talking about it made me uncomfortable. “Please don’t make me relive it again.”
He nodded solemnly in reply.
“Thank you.” I needed that understanding, even if he was bursting at the seams to find out more.
“So, why are you out here washing up? There is a shower in the bunkhouse.”
“I’ll tell you once you’ve turned around. I need a little privacy.”
A red blush colored his face, making him even more handsome.
Calvin and Eddie looked a lot alike, though Eddie stayed clean-shaven. It was nice how muscular they both were, and it made for damn good eye candy. Both of them could take my breath away when they smiled at me, and it tinged both of their faces with a little bit of mischief and fun. Both of them made my heart skip a beat and my mind run rampant.
I sighed. “You’re really not going to turn around?”
“If I have to.”
“You have to,” I told him.
He finally did, begrudgingly, but he was still so close. Even if he couldn’t see me, he could hear me, and that seemed just as bad.
“If the guys aren’t cleaning up after themselves, let me know. Everybody has to do it. Before I got my own place, I stayed there too. I know how bad it can get. But what if someone else would have come out here and seen you like that?”
“I suspect they would have been more of a gentleman and turned around,” I said back flippantly as I got out of the water and wrapped a towel around me.
He was right, though. What if someone else came up here that wasn’t as much of a man that I could trust? There were quite a few people working on Mystic Falls Ranch. Just because I had my eye on Calvin and Eddie, didn’t mean other people didn’t have their eye on me. I’d already had to turn down polite and not-so-polite men.
“The guys are always in the bathroom in the morning and you can hardly get in there. I just come out here out of necessity. It’s not like I chose this place.”
“This isn’t the best plan. You are attracting quite a bit of attention already. I would very strongly suggest that you reconsider your options and find a better solution.”
“Sure. I’ll do that.”
He was too quiet on our walk back. “What’s wrong,” I asked him when we got to the bunkhouse.
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine somebody doing that to you. It just makes me hate them more.”
I agreed with the sentiment. “I would undoubtedly be the worst spy.”
