Even harder for him had been following Chloe’s conversation. She neatly sidestepped all his sexual innuendos, making him feel like a gauche thirteen-year-old again. She also diverted each and every personal topic of conversation he initiated.
Instead, she rambled on about her schoolchildren, the home economics class she had taught the previous semester, and the numerous other jobs she had held down over the last few years.
He had found himself disturbingly entranced with her humor and witty outlook on life. She freely laughed at herself and some of her clumsier antics, joked about her inability to sustain interest in a single job, and basically chattered on, blithely unaware of the reaction his body had to her nearness and scent.
Subtlety being his middle name, Samuel had tried to delve deeper into Chloe and her views, hoping to find a reason for his fierce attraction to her. He understood why he was physically aware of her, but he couldn’t put his finger on the deeper attraction she held for him.
Irritatingly, the closest to personal conversation she had shared had been after his comment of how varied her jobs had been. She insisted Mary’s opinion of her never having found where her passion lay was partially correct, but also the fact she had never taken a job diverse and interesting enough to hold her attention.
This rang true to his mind, as Chloe was a bubbly, full-of-life girl. It stood to reason that she would need a job that was dynamic, so she would be constantly challenged and surprised.
Yet, still he hungered for more knowledge of her—and not just in a sexual sense.
The more sexually aware of this amazing woman he became, the more frustrated he felt at her refusal to speak to him on more than a casual basis. It was as if she were holding him at arm’s length.
As she possibly should.
Samuel had no idea of what he wanted from her. He didn’t want to mate and settle down, yet the more time he spent in her presence, the more appeal that heretofore disgusting thought had.
Samuel gently shut the door behind him as he followed Chloe into Dom and Mary’s small cabin. He honestly admitted to himself he was one confused puppy. He didn’t want to settle down, yet he craved Chloe with a fierceness he wouldn’t be able to suppress for long.
However, instead of chasing him and throwing herself at him like every other woman he had known, she was holding him at arm’s length and insisting on the most casual and platonic of relationships.
None of his brothers had ever warned him women were such contrary creatures! He had quietly, and at the most annoyingly interesting times not-so-quietly, laughed at each of his brothers, in turn, when they had fallen hard and fast for their respective women.
He had fully supported them, while relishing the role of being able to jeer and tease each of them. The thought of turning to them now for help in sorting himself out was enough to make him turn an interesting shade of green.
“I suppose since I demolished all your weak-little-woman fantasies and made a positive step forward for your understanding of feminism at its best, the least I could do is cook you up some brunch, huh? It’s a tad late to call it breakfast.”
Samuel tried not to drool at the picture Chloe made in front of him. In a midriff T-shirt, jeans and hiking boots, she looked fresh and clean, despite the taxing hike they had just taken. A few stray wisps of hair escaped her ponytail, but otherwise she looked fresh from the shower.
“I never held weak-little-woman fantasies about you. On the contrary, I have little use for weak women. They tend to have insufficient stamina for a man of my tastes.”
Chloe opened the fridge and began removing items, stacking them in partial disarray on the counter. She merely harrumphed her assent, refusing to rise to his sexual bait again.
Samuel felt surprised at the amount of food piling up on the counter. Bacon, eggs, hash browns, sausages, tomatoes…just like the sorcerer’s apprentice the food kept on coming.
With her head stuck in the fridge, Samuel admired her ass. While Dominic was generally held to be the ass-man of the family, Samuel had to admit in this case he could see his brother’s affinity for a luscious ass.
“You really didn’t expect me to keep pace with you, did you?”
Samuel pulled his mind from the gutter and tried to concentrate on Chloe’s conversation.
“You have to admit, it’s not everyday one comes across a woman not only willing, but able to go on long hikes in the forest not long after the crack of dawn. It’s not generally held to be a female accomplishment.”
Slamming the fridge shut, Chloe rolled her eyes.
“Oh please. It mightn’t be important to your little groupies, but some modern women enjoy being fit. Going to the gym is a great pastime many women enjoy nowadays. Trust me, if you go to the gym long enough, no matter how lazy you are, you soon become fit, whether you want to or not.”
Samuel laughed. “Speaking from personal experience?”
“Absolutely. I am the Queen of sitting on the bicycle machines and either reading or watching the latest soap. Who needs all those silly weight-lifting machines anyway? Too much like hard work for me.”
Samuel sat at the bench and watched as Chloe started cracking eggs and laying strips of bacon into the pan. She had unknowingly given him more information in that one scornful sentence than in the long hike they had just taken.
Yet watching her crack eggs into the pan and begin to lay out bacon strips seemed like such a homey scene, Samuel didn’t know if the flutter in his stomach was arousal or panic.
What the hell was he doing? He certainly couldn’t
