“Dinner is in ten minutes,” he says before he stomps from the room and slams my door behind him.
I cover my mouth to keep the bubble of laughter inside of me because I really wasn't trying to poke him. The reason I'm here is to make his life easier for the event planning. I think I might be more than he bargained for.
Chapter Six
TIMBER
It’s been two solid weeks of hell on earth, and I don’t see an end in sight.
“Timber?” Simon’s voice is tentative and I can tell he’s standing back farther than he normally does.
“What.” I don’t even say it like a question, because I don’t want to be asked anything.
He sighs as he walks closer and grabs the plate of uneaten food beside me. “You need sleep.”
I clench my jaw because he’s right but he’s clearly stating the obvious and it’s irritating.
“Is that all you came up here to tell me?”
I stare down at Pippa in the garden pointing to people and calling out instructions on the walkie talkie in her hand. I got her that last week when I noticed her voice was hoarse from having to call out so loud all the time. I gave them to every person who comes on the property so she doesn’t have to be next to them to tell them what to do. Myself included. I reach down and touch the device next to me and turn up the volume so I can hear what she's saying. That’s another thing I didn’t like. She would go talk to people and I would be so far away I wouldn’t know what she was saying.
“I heard Miss Pippa tell you to come up here and I was checking to see if you’re all right.”
“Of course I’m all right!” I’m not all right.
Two weeks of being around her every moment of every day. Two weeks of eating meals with her and reading in the library together at night while she knits. Two weeks of memorizing every curve of her body and every fleck of gold in her eyes. Two weeks of agony and need that I have no outlet for because my body has betrayed me.
My cock is in a perpetual state of frustration with no sense of relief in sight. I’ve tried jerking off, but I can’t ever get to completion. Maybe if I could release some of this weight in my cock I wouldn’t be in so much pain. Maybe if she wasn’t so goddamn beautiful I wouldn’t pine after her like some starving puppy begging for any scrap of attention she gives me.
Why does she smile so much? Why is she so damn happy every day when she walks into the kitchen?
When I see her long tousled hair and rosy cheeks, it’s what I imagine she’d look like after I made love to her and every morning my day starts off in frustration.
“Enough,” Simon says sharply, and I turn around to look at him with wide eyes.
“What do you mean enough?”
“Do you think I’m blind?” When I raise an eyebrow at him he rolls his eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
I sigh as I push away from the window. “No,” I admit, because Simon is one of the smartest men I know.
“You will never win her over with the way you’ve been acting around her.”
“I don’t want to win her over.” I walk past him to the other side of the study and sit down at my desk. The lie hangs between us for a moment but he doesn’t call me on it.
“The party is happening in two days, and she doesn’t have a gown yet.”
“Have some dresses brought in,” I answer as I immediately click away on my keyboard looking for a personal shopper.
“Timber, this is an opportunity for you.” Simon talks to me softly as if I’m a child.
“An opportunity for what? The party is almost here which means she’s almost done and I can finally have my life back to the way it was before she walked into it.”
The words taste bitter on my tongue and I hate how they make me feel.
“You can never go back to the way things were before you saw her and the sooner you realize that the better.”
I grumble as I look past him and to the window, desperate for him to leave so I can go back over there and watch her again.
“I’ve already taken the liberty of having some options brought in for her tonight.”
“Thank you.” My voice is low, and although I should be grateful, I’m jealous he’s done something nice for her.
“I’ve asked that the gowns be presented one by one for your viewing,” he says as he turns away from me and grabs my tray of food.
“Why?” My heartbeat begins to speed up with the anticipation of seeing her model clothes for me.