One Night with her Bachelor(7)
She hoisted her backpack over her shoulders and maneuvered herself out of the cabin as quickly as she could. Her own footsteps echoed in her ears as she rushed across the porch and down the stairs. She’d only gotten a few steps farther, though, when he blocked her path. She slid to a halt on the loose dirt and tried to look at anything but him.
“Molly.” He steadied her with a hand on her arm. “Don’t go like this.”
She scoffed. “How should I go? With my chin held high, proud that at least I took a chance? Or maybe I should be cursing you for exercising your right to say no? Please, Gabriel. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it’s really embarrassing.”
Gabriel’s body went taut. Tension snapped in the pine-scented air between them. The only thing worse than being rejected was her body’s continued response to the closeness of his dirt-streaked, half-bare body. She pulsed in places that hadn’t pulsed in a long time.
“I need to varnish my porch and window frames.”
She blinked up at him. “Is…is that a euphemism?”
One corner of his lips quirked up. “If I want to talk about sex, I talk about sex. I don’t make shit up to pretend I’m talking about something else. And if I did, I’d be much more creative than that.”
Her brows drew together as her confusion grew worse. “So…you’re turning me down because you have a busy afternoon and can’t fit me in?”
The other corner quirked up and he was full-on smiling. “Hell no. And I’m not turning you down. Not yet, anyway. You shocked me, that’s all. I’ve never really thought of you that way, so I need time to figure out what I want to happen.” He leaned a bit closer, as if he were confiding in her. “I don’t want to humiliate myself, either. If we started going at each other and I got flashbacks of you as a five-year-old in pigtails, I’d end up as limp as overcooked spaghetti. I don’t think either of us wants that.”
She pressed her lips together to keep her smile at bay. “No. Definitely not. I want you, um…”
He cocked an eyebrow and waited.
“Hard as an axe handle?” she ventured, her blush deepening.
“Mmm, not bad but too thin. Hard as a pine tree. That works better.”
She rolled her eyes. “If you’re that big, it wouldn’t work at all.”
“Oh, it’d work. Trust me.” He gave her a wink that made longing sweep through her again. “Why don’t you stay and help me varnish my porch? Who knows—maybe we’ll start with the varnish and move on to the polishing later.”
She laughed and pushed at his shoulder. “For someone who doesn’t like euphemisms, you’re really good at them.”
“I’m good at lots of things, Molly. Stick around and I might show you.”
*
Molly’s painfully awkward seduction technique was one of the most erotic things Gabriel had ever seen.
The other was the sight of her ass swaying as she kneeled on all fours and painted his porch. He couldn’t remember seeing her in jeans before. Hell, he’d probably never seen her in pants of any description. For as long as he could remember, she’d worn dresses and skirts that made her look like every day was Sunday, and she was off to worship with the god-fearing folks who’d scorned him, Camila, and their mother.
Her jeans weren’t skintight. They didn’t cling to every curve. In fact, they looked a little baggy, like she’d borrowed them or lost weight since the last time she’d worn them. But when she crawled around in front of him—her body swaying rhythmically as she applied varnish to wood in long, seductive strokes—her ass pressed against the denim in a way that made his dick do the same to his pants.
Little Molly Dekker all grown up and looking for action. His day had gone from routine to confusing to promising in the space of twenty minutes.
Not that he could follow through on his flirtations. Scott had been the first convenient excuse his brain had settled on so he wouldn’t have to admit the truth. No way would he be getting naked today—or any day in the near future.
But that still left a lot of possibilities.
They worked alongside each other for a couple of hours. At one point Molly asked if he could turn on some music, and he shook his head. “I have a little electricity from my wind turbine, but I reserve it for essentials. I’m afraid I don’t have a sound system.”
She looked shocked. “What about a battery-operated radio?”
“Yeah, I have one of those. Hold on.” He went inside and fetched his radio from his workshop at the back of the house. When he turned it on for her, she stared at it in confusion.
“Is that talk radio?”
He laughed. “What kind of reception do you think I get out here? Right now we’re eavesdropping on the forest rangers talking over their radios.” He could hear his half brother Austin signing on for duty. “I mostly have it so I can listen to weather reports.”
And because the voices kept him company without him having to actually speak to anyone. Win-win.
She scrunched up her face, looking so cute he had to fight the urge to kiss her. “I could play music through my phone.”
“You won’t get reception here. You left civilization behind a couple miles back.”
Her jaw softened. “What happens if you get hurt or need help with something?”