“Pfft, that garbage ain’t the truth. You’re just writing fairy tales then.” I step closer to her, looking down at her.
She lifts her face to mine and doesn’t bat an eye. “Excuse me?”
“If you’re writing romances without any sex in them, that’s not real life, is it? In real life,” I edge a bit closer to her, “when a couple meets, when they have that instant tension between them, they find ways to release it… naked,” I murmur.
“Well, that’s true.” Her voice softens and her eyes grow wider. “But that’s not…” She trails off as she seems to really look at me for the first time. “That’s not what proper women want. We crave romance, the thrill of the chase, we want to be treated like queens. Not that you’d know the first thing about that, I’m sure.”
“Ha! She’s got ya there.” Owen finally stops working on the tree and jumps into our conversation. He bursts the bubble this woman and I were surrounded in. We both jump and I suddenly feel like I’m standing too close to her. We both take a step back and turn our attention to him.
“Whatever.” I shake my head.
“Hi, I’m Owen.” He pulls his glove off with his teeth and holds out his hand.
“Mary.” She keeps her mitten on and shakes it.
“You must be the lady renting our cabin.” He’s smiling too wide. It looks painful. Clearly, he’s very happy with how this is all working out.
“Yeah, that’s right.” Mary visibly relaxes a little. The tension eases from her face. I liked it better when she was worked up. I bet, with inspiration, that she’s wild in bed. Those uptight women always just need the right man to unleash their feral side.
“Your renter wants us to keep the noise down.” I interrupt the little tea party these two seem to be having. All smiles and niceties. Makes me want to gag. “She’d appreciate it if we could chop these trees down a little quieter,” I mock her.
She gives me a sharp look from the corner of her eye but doesn’t turn toward me. Instead, she pretends she didn’t hear me and focuses on Owen. “It’s just that, when my agent rented this cabin, she specifically asked for a quiet place so I could concentrate on my job,” she explains.
“Yeah, she needs silence to write those filthy romance books that women read with one hand under the covers,” I chime in.
Mary’s cheeks burn bright. Her hands fly to her hips and she turns toward me, apparently unable to ignore me anymore. “I already told you that I don’t write sex scenes, now will you please stop being so crude.” She talks to me like a teacher scolding a student.
I can’t help but chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” she demands.
“Nothing, hey, it’s all good.” I wink at her. I force myself not to laugh when the red splashed on her face deepens and she haughtily looks away.
“Well, the thing is,” Owen runs his hand down the back of his neck, “uh, your agent or whoever booked the cabin, they didn’t say anything about needing quiet out here. And we’ve got our own work to get done too,” he tries to explain.
“Are you saying you won’t keep it down then?” she answers so coldly I’m surprised ice crystals didn’t form on her cherry lips.
“It’s not like we really can,” he answers with a shrug. “We’ve got our own deadline and there’s no quiet way to chop down trees.”
“Fine, I can see coming here was a huge mistake. I won’t bother unpacking then, I’ll just go. But you better believe that my agent will be demanding a full refund and you will be getting a stinging review from me!”
Mary turns on her toe and stomps off through the snow as Owen and I watch her go. I know she’s not doing it on purpose, but her big, beautiful ass sways back and forth as she marches back up the hill. She starts to slip on some ice and Owen tries to rush to her side and help her, but she waves him off angrily and keeps on trucking up the snowy path.
He comes back down by me and punches my arm.
“What the hell, man?” I push his shoulder.
“Why do you gotta be like that, man? You can see that she’s all tense and worked up, why you making it worse?” He squints at me.
“Oh, so some city girl prude throws a tantrum and I’m supposed to tiptoe around my own damned property so she doesn’t get upset? Come on. Owen, I told you renting the cabin was a bad idea. Now look what you dragged in here.” I toss my hand up toward the yellow coat nearing the top of the hill.
“Listen, man, if you treat our renters like that, you’ll destroy my vacation rental empire,” he moans.