Chloe swallowed, easily picturing in her mind Samuel doing just that. It certainly had a devastating effect on her heartbeat.
“Well, that is one solution. I hadn’t quite gotten that far in the fantasy, but your input is noted and will be attended to later. I was thinking more along the lines of teasing you until you came under the water. I’m sure it would be a novel experience for most men.”
Samuel stood up. “I’d much rather the novel experience of coming inside you, little girl.”
Frowning, Chloe stood up. “I’m not sure—”
Samuel leaned forward and pressed one finger across her lips, silencing her.
“Let’s not go there tonight. It’s late now. What say you come over to my cabin for dinner tomorrow? We can go on a dusk walk, work up an appetite and I’ll cook you some dinner. We can move onto the medium cards, the ones with green borders.”
Chloe looked at the box of cards. She certainly had no intention of chickening out now. She had survived tonight intact, heart-whole and with a strong sense of self-confidence she had never really felt around this man.
Sure, she was horny as hell and relieved she had the forethought to pack spare batteries for her vibrator, but she hadn’t cast herself at his feet begging to be fucked. One must look on the bright side here.
Maybe she had blown the whole situation out of proportion in her mind. Being with Samuel and keeping her heart away from him hadn’t been quite as hard as she had feared.
“Okay. I’ll probably be itching for a walk by then anyway.”
“Head on over anytime after five. We can go for another walk down into the forest.”
Nodding, Chloe stood up and followed him to the door. She held herself still when he bent down to give her a kiss.
Even the chaste goodbye kiss made her toes curl, made the hair on her nape stand up. She resisted the impulse to touch her lips when his finally left hers. With a wave and a quick backward glance, Samuel was quickly swallowed up by the night. Chloe shut and locked the door, wondering at the wisdom of a short-term fling with the man.
It had been far too long since she had indulged in anything other than her vibrator. A real flesh-and-blood man in her bed would be a welcome change. Yet she was wary, as Mary had insisted on having only one night with Dominic. They had somehow fallen in love during that one night. Even though they were very happily married, Chloe had always wanted to retain her independence, something that too often disappeared when one became heavily involved with a man.
The thought of falling in love with a man like Samuel, the most confirmed bachelor probably in the entire state, was a scary proposition. Men like Samuel Rutledge did not fall in love; they had lustful affairs and then moved on, leaving a trail of broken hearts.
Yet what harm could a few nights do? The little demon in her head whispered. She lived on the other end of the state; she had her own home, her own life, far, far away from here. It wasn’t as if a few nights of incredible sex would shatter her heart, she tried to convince herself. She was a big girl now.
Showering and changing into the old T-shirt and flannel pajama pants she slept in, Chloe mulled over the pros and cons of sleeping with Samuel.
As she lay her head down on the pillow, still wrestling with her desires, she finally decided to go for it. It wasn’t as if the man could cast a spell over her, or ensnare her and bind her to him with pure sex alone. She would never live with, or marry a man who wasn’t one hundred percent devoted to her and in love with her.
As there was little doubt Samuel would ever be either of those, then there wasn’t really any risk, was there?
The silence in her head might have worried her if she hadn’t been so tired. Her little voices weren’t arguing with her, yet, nor were they agreeing with her. Chloe’s physical cravings had finally silenced them all.
Chloe slept dreamlessly yet again.
Chapter Nine
Saturday Morning
Chloe sat in the dirt in her oldest paint-stained pair of jeans and a torn T-shirt. Digging in Mary’s woefully unkempt vegetable patch, she happily weeded as she thought.
The two main issues buzzing in her head were vastly different, yet both were knotty problems and seemed incredibly hard to work through.
For the moment, however, she was ignoring her decision to seduce Samuel tonight. Instead, she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, where she wanted to head. Not quite the same squirm-worthy thoughts, but she reminded herself the whole reason for her wanting the peaceful solitude of the cabin was to work out what she wanted for the next few years in her life.
Talking to the vegetables as she fiercely pulled weeds was proving far more soothing and helpful than driving around the too well-known local blocks, or sitting back at home on her bed or in her favorite chair, mulling over her options had ever been.
“Stop procrastinating girl, and work this out,” she muttered as she pulled yet another weed out and placed it on the heap that soon would be transferred to the compost pile.
“Teaching had been fun,” she acknowledged to herself and the scattered vegetables, “but it was only subbing, so even then I still simply played at it. The real question is, do I want to spend years and years getting my degree? It would be better to try teaching younger kids, maybe even the elementary classes, but I’d still require official training even in that.”
Mulling this over and weighing the pleasure the thought brought her, she nodded her head. As she often did while alone and contemplating deeply, she began to talk to herself.
“Yeah, teaching brought me a lot of satisfaction. Maybe I
