“What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I just find it mildly hilarious. All of it. Really.”
“Get it out,” he said. “Before our fresh start hits.”
“You know, there’s really nothing,” she said. “You’re right. I was foolish. I romanticized things that happened between us because I was inexperienced. Because I hadn’t been with anyone else. I did that. It was...not my best move. But I did. I got caught up in the moment. I got caught up in the fact that we had really great sex. And I thought it felt nice to be carefree for a little while. But that came back and bit me, didn’t it? It bit me really hard. And I feel... I feel small, and I feel embarrassed. And I hate the fact that my family is going to know that I...”
“What do you hate that your family’s going to know exactly? That you’re a human being? Doesn’t really make much sense to me that you were a virgin, Violet. Not when you clearly like sex as much as you do.”
She didn’t know what to think of that comment. Didn’t know what to make of it. Did she like sex a particular amount more than other people? Than other women? She hadn’t really given that any consideration. But then, she hadn’tnothad sex because she wasn’t interested in the idea, or anything like that. She just hadn’t met anyone who had made her want to do it.
“Seems like repression to me,” he said.
“Well, you’re the one who slept with me,” she said, the words like acid. “Did it feel repressed to you?”
“Hell no,” he said, growling, in a way that made her feel more satisfied than she ought to.
She looked at the clock on the truck dashboard. And she felt aggrieved that more time hadn’t passed.
She reached out and turned the radio on. It was country. Which she enjoyed, so that worked. She cranked it up, enjoying music over their conversation.
He didn’t say anything; he just kept on driving. And she found herself getting sleepy. She let her head fall back against the bench seat. And when she woke up, they were pulling onto a dirt road.
“This is it,” he said. “Four Corners Ranch. Garrett’s Watch is just to the left here. About four miles down that way is the beginning of McCloud’s Landing. Just across the way to the right is King’s Crest. And four miles down from that on the right is Sullivan’s Point.”
She yawned and tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes. “I’m never going to remember that,” she said. Except she knew she would. “I was sound asleep.”
“You were a lot sweeter when I first met you. I’m afraid I’ve already ruined you.”
“Starting over,” she said. “Thank you for the information.”
She was about to ask some more questions when they turned onto a narrow driveway that carried them back into the grove of trees. And there was a massive house that overlooked a river below. Built into the side of a mountain. All craggy and majestic.
“That’s my brother’s house. But I figure you don’t want to go there first.” He kept on driving, past the backside of the house, and then took a left turn deeper into the trees. The road narrowed, became rockier and even more impassable. And buried there in the trees was a cabin. A narrow smokestack stuck out of a shingle roof covered in moss. The roof pitched down and sloped, covering a porch that looked dangerously like it might collapse at any moment. The shutters were painted dark green, and each had a pine tree carved into them. Which she found odd. It was just such a homely little touch. Something kind of out of sync with the general...
This was it.
“It’s rustic,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said. “I feel like I wasn’t warned.”
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just home to me. Hell, my brother’s house is pretty nice. I guess you could bunk there if you get really sick of me.”
“Please tell me you have more than one bedroom.”
“I do,” he said.
Her heart was fluttering, somewhat wildly. Which was ridiculous. There was no call for that kind of nonsense. She didn’t wait for him; she got out of the truck and she stopped. The air smelled different here.
Different than it did in Copper Ridge.
It wasn’t damp with salt and ocean spray. But there was a heaviness to the air. Wood and pine. The ground was soft, soft dirt, pine needles all over. There were ferns around the bases of the trees. Fallen logs back in the timber with plants growing all along them. A shaft of light broke through the trees, spilling over the ground. Only in certain places. Everywhere else it was dark.
And she hated it. Because she didn’t hate it.
Because there was something that felt a little bit magic about it. Because there was something that felt mysterious and otherworldly, and part of another time, much like Wolf, and no matter how much she knew she should look at him and see an enemy, see somebody she hated, there was a part of her that still lived in hope. A part of her that still sparked.
He started to head toward the house and she followed, finding herself gazing down at his ass, as she had done many times back when she hadn’t been angry at him, and then hadn’t committed to starting over. She looked away resolutely. His boots were heavy on the porch, and it didn’t give way, so she followed him with a little more confidence than she felt when she just looked at it. He pushed the door open and held it for her. The expression on his face was rueful, as if he knew as well as she did that he was no gentleman, and it was just a gesture.