“I assume you’ll want to go on some long walks tomorrow morning, to aid your contemplation and search, right?”
Frowning at the mental jumps needed to following his reasoning, Chloe simply nodded. “Probably, though not too early as it’s rather close to dawn right now. Why?”
“I’ll come by around breakfast time, lead you around. An unwary little girl could get lost in these big woods. We wouldn’t want a big bad wolf to gobble you all up, now would we?”
Chloe stepped back, so she stood fully inside the cabin.
“The only big bad wolf around these parts is you, Mr. Rutledge. I’m not afraid of you, Samuel. Neither am I one of your stupid groupie girls, desperate to fall neatly into the palm of your hand. Sure. Come by tomorrow, or rather today, around nine. We can go on a nice long walk, and then you can leave me alone for the rest of the day. Deal?”
“The rest of the day?” he repeated. Nodding, he conceded to her wishes. “We have a deal. Until later, Chloe.”
With that, he stepped back and Chloe shut the door, resisting the impulse to slam it in his face.
She’d show him! He obviously thought he could seduce her with barely a word or gesture. Well she had much bigger fish to fry this weekend. Handling one horny Rutledge man should be easy when faced with all the things she wanted to organize in her life.
Taking a lovely hot, though damnably brief shower, Chloe breathed deeply in her meditation and calming exercises. The shower more than anything else helped her relax, made it far easier for herself to slip into that sleepy, hazy state. Curling up in the soft guest bed, she left the curtains open, wanting to have the last of the moonlight glow protectively over her as she slept. She wasn’t sure what was so soothing about the moonlight tonight of all nights, but it made her feel protected and loved.
She slept deeply and dreamlessly.
Chapter Four
Friday Midmorning
Samuel leaned over the kitchen counter and tried not to leer at Chloe. In snug-fitting jeans and a brightly patterned sweater, she made a cheerful picture first thing in the morning. She was running a brush through her light brown locks, the early morning sunlight highlighting blonde tresses among the brown.
Samuel found himself captivated by the simple action of her running the brush through her hair. He squashed a slightly disappointed feeling when she pulled back the mass into a ponytail, ending the little show.
“Ready to go walk, little girl?”
Chloe rolled her eyes, causing him to grin. He could tell from her drawn out groans and overreaction that she didn’t really object to him calling her “little girl”. She would have decked him, or tried to deck him he consoled himself, if she really had a serious problem with it.
The overreaction, the rolling of her gorgeous eyes, the loud, long sighs were all indications that while she might not enjoy the nickname, she didn’t really want to admit to liking it. Even with the potential to upset her, the reaction he elicited from her every time he called her the endearment tempted him to continue.
It had been a long time since he’d sexually craved a woman whom he felt comfortable enough with to tease and taunt. It made the hunt that much more enjoyable.
This particular hunt seemed to be so unique, so tempting and exciting, he felt himself enjoying all sorts of things and thoughts he had never previously entertained.
His brain shied away from its knowledge of just how very different this particular hunt was becoming. Time enough to ponder those sort of thoughts later.
Samuel blinked. Chloe had walked over to the back door of the cabin and was standing there, waiting for him.
“Having second thoughts? Surely such a little girl as me can’t be a threat to your masculine ego?”
Samuel grinned and dropped a hasty, chaste kiss on her cheek as he walked past her out the door.
“Not at all. I fully intend to have to carry you part of the way back here. I plan to take you on a circular trail Dom and I often run through when we feel particularly energetic.”
Chloe laughed and slammed the back door behind her, throwing the lock without thinking about it.
“I can’t wait to make you eat those words! You have no idea what sort of feminine monster you’re creating here.”
Samuel laughed and led them both down a narrow, barely there trail.
“It will certainly be interesting to see whose knees give out first—won’t it?”
Enjoying his double entendre, and the blush that appeared on Chloe’s cheeks, the pair set off into the woods.
* * * * *
“That was absolutely fantastic, thank you, Samuel.”
Still unbelieving of the amount of energy she held inside that slight frame, Samuel took the keys to the cabin from her hand. Gallantly opening the door for her, he stepped aside to let her enter first.
“You’re a lot more fit than I realized, little girl. How the hell can you do a six mile hike on an empty stomach, talk the entire time and still not be out of breath by the end?”
As Chloe brushed past him he felt his cock harden even more. Samuel had grown increasingly sexually frustrated as the walk had worn on. He had assumed his physical strength would be much greater than Chloe’s. Through the long night, he had entertained any number of fantasies, all strangely revolving around Chloe getting tired and needing them both to stop for frequent rests.
He could have massaged her aching legs, or back, run his hands all over her smooth, lovely skin. Admittedly, most of his fantasies had led him to stripping her of her clothes and making passionate love to her on the grass of the forest floor, but a man needed goals!
Instead, Chloe had kept pace with him. While he had shortened his stride to
