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“I’m finishing the work you have left on the farm,” he says and I stare at him. “You sit back and rest and let me handle it.”
“Rev, I can’t let you do that. Your back’s goan ache so much, your poor knees...”
He must be exhausted from wandering from door to door but he shakes his head as if he doesn’t want to hear any protests, and I almost let out a whimper at his virility. His jaw flexes and he takes off his cloak and puts it on a hanger before turning to me again.
“Don’t go run any errands,” he rasps. “I want you where I can see you.”
I’m about to answer him but he’s already out the door and my heart flutters in my chest. How can he be so commanding, so sure of himself, so full of...authority? A male like him must’ve been taking orders all his life but he speaks like he’s the one giving the orders.
As a simple girl with a simple mind, it makes my thoughts spin but my body’s responding. It navigates toward him, searches for him even when he’s not in the room and I gravitate toward his cloak. Burying my nose in it, I inhale the scent and a moan escapes my lips.
What an exotic fragrance, like ice from the depths of a dark, underwater cave and my lids flutter. I bury my whole face in the fabric and it’s as soft as the butter I churn every weekend. How can his cloak be so soft? It’s nothing like the fabric ever worn by me or my family. There’s a label on the collar but I don’t recognize the name and I can’t pronounce it. Though, I can recognize it’s not exactly the kind of cloak a drifter would wear...
But so what? a voice says in the back of my mind. Even if he wasn’t who he says he is, you’d still wanna keep him.
He’s good to me and that’s all that matters.
4.
Revenge
When I’m done at the farm it’s already late in the evening. Entering the house, I’m struck by a strange feeling. I belong here. A mobster on a farm and yeah, this isn’t my normal kind of environment but its Addie’s and I’m meant to be wherever she is.
I find her in the living room, drowsing off in front of the unlit fireplace with an orange cat in her lap. The cat hisses at me, jumps down and scrams and Addie blinks. She twitches when she sees me looking down at her and she scurries.
“Fell asleep on accident...,” she murmurs but I’m glad she did. It was obvious she needed a break. Blinking, she glances at the little clock above the fireplace and she gasps, “You been out working this whole time? Rev, you shouldn’t have!”
She calms when I brush her cheek with my knuckles and she swallows. “It was the least I could do,” I rasp, “you’ve shown me great kindness, lamb. You’ve done this thing before?”
“Done what?” she breathes and her face shines like honey from a lamp’s golden light.
“Welcomed a man like you did me, fed him, looked after him...”
Addie nods and I tense. “I was raised to be hospitable. Go out of my way to make sure people feel welcome.”
Dragging a pained breath, I turn around because it infuriates me to think of any other men she doted on and fussed over and it pisses me off so hard, I want to break something but then I feel her hand on my back.
“I never let them inside the house. They ate and slept in the barn,” she whispers, “no lines were ever crossed. Promise.” Easing, I give a slow nod and she walks around me. “You must be tired,” she murmurs but I’m not. I’m notorious for my stamina, for my energy reserves that my brothers joke are my only good trait. “I know I am.”
Then I guess we’re going to bed and I follow Addie as she leads me upstairs to a dark hallway and she doesn’t bother turning on the light as if she feels right at home with me. Biting her lip she says, “I’ll let you have Beau’s room, unless you’d like another?”
“I want to sleep in yours. With you in your bed,” I rasp and she gasps, swiftly turning around.
“Rev! If my brother was here, he’d kick your butt for talking that way.”
Her brother borrowed money from me and I came here to kick his ass, for not paying me back but now I’m just gonna settle for his pretty sister instead.
“You don’t like a dirty mouth on a man, lamb?” I ask and she shakes her head.
“We wash dirty mouths with soap around here,” she whispers and the corners of my mouth twitch. I’ll teach her to like it, talk dirty in her ear until she starts asking for it. She lifts her chin. “I may just be a milkmaid but I was taught not to cave for gentlemen.”
“I’m no gentleman,” I remind her and her eyes widen.
My brows rise in surprise when she shrugs herself, then takes my hand and leads me into my new bedroom and she murmurs something about needing emotional support and that she hasn’t been in here in a long time.
There’s a bed by the wall and a clothes chest and Addie opens it up, rummaging through it on her knees. “You goan need something to sleep in,” she murmurs, taking out a pair of pajamas and she hands them to me.
“Need to give you an extra blanket,” Addie mutters, “it goan be cold cause of the thunder tonight.” She shivers. “I doan like thunder. Do you?”
