It was easier to keep urges suppressed when there wasn’t another soul for miles.
I wasn’t a hermit.
I interacted with people at the office, in meetings here in northern Wisconsin, around the country, and around the world. I traveled and played nice, always with the plan to make it back here to face my demons alone.
Few people entered my bubble though I did have help.
Mrs. Mayhand, a widowed woman I’d known for a long time, came to the house once a week while I wasn’t home and filled my refrigerator and freezer with a week’s worth of easy-to-warm meals. Her daughter, Margaret Curry, drove Mrs. Mayhand, and while her mother cooked, Margaret cleaned the unlocked rooms. Jonathon, Margaret’s husband, cared for the landscaping near the house. This time of year that meant he plowed my lane and driveway. During the spring, summer, and autumn, he tended to the lawns and other landscaping. Farther away, beyond the main house and the nearby structures, the surrounding acres were left to nature.
If a tree fell, it remained a habitat to house chipmunks, mice, snakes, and insects. Pine needles and leaves fell in the autumn and created nutrition for the undergrowth. Saplings sprang to life wherever their roots held them. Wolves, foxes, and deer were some of the more prominent mammals that called my land home.
I preferred them to the two-legged kind.
There were few people I trusted enough to allow them inside my bubble.
As I peered down at Julia by my side and as we passed the locked door of another suite, I couldn’t come up with a reason why I’d chosen to trust her and invite her into a place where so few had been welcome. I didn’t know Julia McGrath and yet as we briefly touched only moments ago, it was as it had been upon seeing her car, as if a gravitational pull existed between the two of us, two masses in motion lured toward one another.
My negative energy was attracted to Julia’s positive energy and—I believed—vice versa. In physics, our speed would increase, drawing us closer, faster and faster until neither of us could slow the progression. Ultimately, we’d collide, the cosmic blast decimating everything within its pull.
Julia and I came to a stop at the final door as I turned the doorknob and pushed inward.
A smile came to my face as I peered around. When this plan to keep Julia began to take shape in my thoughts, one of the calls I made was to Margaret, asking her to make a special trip to my home to freshen this room. She seemed so surprised that I might have a guest that she assured me she would get it done. I didn’t think about the fact that I was asking her to travel up my twisty lane following a snowstorm.
Margaret didn’t complain.
Now, seeing the glistening wood of the tables in the sitting room and the open curtains throughout the suite, I knew she’d done as she promised.
“It’s beautiful,” Julia said.
I walked to the window in the sitting room beyond the fireplace. Pushing the drapery to the side, I stared out at the frozen bay. “You can see the bay from here and from the balcony in the bedroom.”
Julia ran her hand over the leather loveseat near the fireplace. “This looks new.”
“Not new, just not used.”
I followed a few steps behind as she went from room to room, stopping at the doorway to the bathroom as she examined the updated amenities, the marble tile and glistening chrome. I also stopped at the entry of the bedroom, watching as she roamed around, peering into the closet and out onto the balcony. “Have you changed your mind?” I asked, wanting her to say yes and saying a silent prayer to an unknown entity that she’d say no.
Julia took a deep breath.
As she did, the way her pert breasts pushed against her white blouse and the muscles in her neck strained, creating that sexy V near her collarbone, caught my attention. I scanned lower, to where her black slacks accentuated her trim waist.
My thoughts went back to the night when I’d undressed her unconscious body.
Today she was a strong and capable woman.
That night, she’d been a fragile bird in need of care.
That night, it took all my willpower to not peer beneath the bra and panties.
In doing so, I’d shown Julia the restraint I’d lacked with others. This beautiful angel deserved better than a man like me. She’d said that she was twenty-four. That made me nearly two decades her senior, and yet, as that night progressed, the unthinkable occurred. Julia came back to life, a vibrant beacon calling to me and inviting me into her orbit. Now that I was here, I didn’t want to break free.
Contemplating my question, Julia paced, stepping upon the floors and rugs in her high heels as if she were bred to move in a graceful manner. Given what I now know of her family, she had been.
Julia McGrath had been placed on this earth to secure her, her family’s, and Wade’s future.
Instead of doing that, she was here in my home with a man capable of destroying her and her family’s business.
I heard the warning bells.