CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Lindsey
I HAD FINALLY heard back from my insurance agent. They were still investigating, but had released part of the money. The rest was pending the investigation. It happened to be just enough for a down payment on the house in town that I had been looking at. After contacting the agent, we went through the process of me bidding on the house and finally signed the contracts last week. Today, I was heading in to start work on my new house. I wouldn’t be able to move in until I got the place cleaned up and a few things fixed, but with a few weeks of work, I would be able to move in. That would mean finally having my freedom back. It would also mean that sleeping with John was over. He was only having sex with me because I was convenient. Once I was out of the house, he would find someone else to warm his bed at night. But I had to accept that. John had made it perfectly clear that we were only fucking and that’s all it would ever be between us. I was scrubbing the kitchen floor, trying to clean the years of grime from the hardwood floors. They were disgusting and if there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was a dirty kitchen. I came across something particularly sticky that I kneeled in and grimaced. “Gross.” I peeled my knee from the sticky spot and stood, only to freeze in place. Less than ten feet from me was a raccoon. “Nice, raccoon,” I said in a placating tone as I pulled out the kitchen chair slowly and took a tentative step up. I quickly scrambled onto the table when it looked like it might come near me. The raccoon quirked its head at me and came a little closer. I didn’t have anything to protect myself from rabid animals. What was I supposed to do? I looked over at the phone on the wall, cursing myself for not having the landline hooked up yet. I hadn’t wanted the extra expense. My cell was on the counter across the room and the raccoon was just staring at me. “Scram! Go away!” The raccoon bared its teeth to me. Maybe yelling at it wasn’t the best way to approach this. I grabbed at the cookies on the table. Maybe if I fed it, it would be satisfied and leave. I pulled open the package and tossed a few cookies to the floor. The raccoon ate them and then came closer for more. By the time I had gone through the whole package, the raccoon was practically up on the chair begging for more. I screamed as it inched closer to me, afraid that it was going to attack at any moment. “Anyone home?” I heard from the front of the house. “In the kitchen. Help!” I had no idea who was there, but I’d take all the help I could get right now. I heard the footsteps approaching, but my eyes stayed trained on the raccoon. When the door opened, a tall, handsome man stopped in the doorway, looking at me strangely. “Um, am I interrupting something?” I pointed at the raccoon that he hadn’t noticed yet. “How the hell did a raccoon get in here?” “I don’t know, but it won’t leave me alone. I tried to feed it, but now it just wants more.” “You fed it?” he asked incredulously. “Are you crazy? What were you thinking?” “I was thinking that if I fed it, it would leave me alone because it was full.” “I’m no expert, but I would guess that feeding a wild animal isn’t the best way to get rid of it.” “Are you going to help me or are you going to just stand there and laugh?” The man moved to the corner of the room where a broom was leaning against the wall. “Okay, I’m going to shoo it toward you and you’re going to open the door to let it out.” “Me? Why do I have to be the one that it comes near?” “Because I have the broom and you’re closer to the door,” he said with a wry smile. “Fine,” I grumbled as I slowly stepped down onto the chair. I started walking backwards toward the door. “Okay, now when I shoo it toward you, move out of the way and let it run out the door.” I nodded and opened the door wide for the raccoon. When he started chasing the raccoon with the broom, it darted toward me, baring its teeth. The only thing I could think about was getting as far away as possible. I darted out the door, running down the steps, but not before the creature could jump on my back and tackle me to the ground. I screamed as I rolled on the ground, fighting off the deadly beast with my bare hands. It’s claws scratched at my skin, digging in and slitting me open. I would most likely die of blood loss and if not that, an infection or rabies. Then, suddenly, the raccoon was gone and the man rolled me over onto my back. “Quick! You have to put pressure on the wounds. I could die!” The man was kneeling on his haunches and fell back in a fit of laughter. I glared at him, which only made him laugh harder. “Why are you laughing? I could have died!” “I know,” he laughed even harder. “Death by tree branch.” He doubled over, slapping his knee as tears streamed down his face. I looked around, noticing there was a tree branch laying on the ground just a few feet from me. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?” He took a deep breath to compose himself and picked up the branch. “When you ran out of the house, the branch got caught in your hair. It snapped off the tree and landed on top of you.” “No, I…I felt the raccoon,” I said in astonishment. “Its claws-” “Were the branch scratching you. You should have seen your face. It was hilarious.” “That’s not funny.” “Sweetheart, from where I was standing, it was fucking hilarious.” I stood, wiping the dirt from my body as I stormed toward the house. “I’m not your sweetheart, and it’s not nice to make fun of people.” “Hey, stop. I wasn’t making fun of you.” He grabbed onto my wrist, stopping me where I stood and grinned at me as he spun me around. “Honest, I wasn’t making fun of you. It was just funny to see you on the ground, screaming because a branch was attacking you.” I let the anger leach from my body and let out a small chuckle as his face split in a huge grin. I guess from where he was standing, it was pretty funny. “Okay, you’re right. I overreacted.” “Of course, I’m right. I’m a man.” He puffed out his chest as he laughed some more. He really was quite handsome. He had a scruffy jaw and his hair was worn in a short, fluffy kind of way that looked like maybe he missed a haircut. He wore jeans and a red, plaid shirt that showed off his muscles perfectly. Was he John? Definitely not, but he was still worth taking a second look at. “I’m Lindsey,” I said as I thrust out my hand. “Jake.” “Thank you for rescuing me, Jake.” “No problem. I’m always walking around town, looking out for damsels in distress.” “Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind for the next animal that wanders into my house.” I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off my face as I stared at him. It was nice to have a man actually be nice to me and not because I had just given him a blow job. I could feel my cheeks redden as I thought about being down on my knees in front of John, and ducked my head as I pressed my fingers over my shoulder where the branch scraped me. “Uh, I should probably get this cleaned-” I stopped talking as I looked down at my fingers that were covered in blood. “I, uh…” My vision started to go fuzzy and my jaw went slack as I looked up at Jake. The last thing I thought was that I hoped he caught me so I didn’t fall on my face. When I opened my eyes, Jake was leaning over me, his hand resting on my cheek. “Are you okay?” “Yeah,” I said weakly, still feeling like I would fall over at any moment. That’s when I realized that I couldn’t fall over because I was already laying down. Looking around, it became clear that I had been passed out for at least a few minutes. I was inside, lying on the floor of the living room “Did you hit your head when you fell?” he asked, feeling around at the back of my head. “No, it was the blood. I’m a little squeamish. You’re lucky I didn’t throw up on you.” “Well, how about I bandage that up for you, so you don’t pass out again.” “Sounds like a plan.” I sat up and gratefully took his hand that he offered, getting to my feet. “Uh, I don’t think I have anything here for cleaning this,” I said when I looked around the deserted house. “You know, I think I have some stuff in my truck. Just sit tight.” He was out the door in seconds and back in just a few minutes later, carrying an emergency kit. “Alright, turn around and let’s check out the damage.” I turned my back to him and shifted my hair out of the way. It had come loose from its ponytail when the tree branch got caught in it. I felt him pull my shirt away and then felt the brush of his warm fingers against my skin. I wanted to say that it gave me tingles, but sadly, there was nothing. “I think you’re going to have to, uh…” He cleared his throat, making me turn and give him a quizzical look. He pointed at my shirt and started stuttering as he spoke. “Your shirt, blouse, thing is sticking to the blood and…I swear I won’t look, but I can’t clean it up with your shirt sticking to your boobs. Breasts! Back!” I really tried hard not to laugh, but he was so cute, fidgeting and stumbling around. It was strange because he looked so handsome and confident, but right now, he looked like he had swallowed his tongue. In fact, that was actually what turned me off when I first met Ice. His arrogance oozed out of his pores. It was refreshing and strangely disconcerting that this man seemed so timid. I pulled my shirt over my head as I turned around and wrapped my hair back up in my pony o. “You should really be more careful of tree branches,” he mumbled as the first bite of cool liquid hit my skin. “Yeah, that and raccoons roaming my house.” “You’re lucky I was around.” “Why were you around?” I asked, realizing I still didn’t know how I was lucky enough to have him stumble across me. “Funny story,” he said, clearing his throat again. He seemed to do that a lot when he was nervous. “I’m new in town and I work as a carpenter. I was asking around town if anyone needed help and someone told me that this house was just purchased and was going to be fixed up.” “Yeah, I’m turning it into a bed and breakfast.” “Well, if you need some help, I can definitely-” “What the fuck is going on here?” I heard John’s angry voice coming from the doorway, but I couldn’t see him with the way I was sitting. I felt Jake’s hand still on my back. I quickly snatched my shirt up and yanked it on over my head, ignoring the fact that Jake’s hand was just resting against my skin. “John, what are you doing here?” I asked as I spun around, stepping in front of Jake. “I came by to see if you needed some help, but I see you’ve already got a handyman around the house.” “John, this is Jake. He actually is a handyman and he was coming to see if I needed any work done.” “I can see that,” he bit out. “You want to pull your shirt down the rest of the way?” I looked down and saw that my belly was still exposed because my shirt was stuck on my breast. Damn boobs always got in the way of everything. I yanked my shirt the rest of the way down and fixed my hair. For some reason, I wasn’t sure what I wanted John to think was going on. “Jake was just helping with the raccoon that was trying to eat me for lunch and then a tree branch tackled me to the ground and I was bleeding.” “And then she passed out, so-” John cut him off when he stormed over to me and spun me around, yanking my shirt open in the back so that he could see. “What the fuck did you do?” “Tree branch,” I said stupidly. “Yeah, I got that part. Why do you look like you were fighting with it?” “Well, it got stuck in my hair and I thought it was the raccoon. It could have happened to anyone.” “But it didn’t,” he said tersely. “I got it from here, Al. You can hit the road.” “It’s Jake,” Jake said without a bit of anger. He was obviously a bigger man than Ice. Well, not literally. John was built like he had muscles on top of muscles. “Whatever. I’ll take care of her.” Jake nodded and then turned back to me, slipping a card into my hand. “That’s my number. Give me a call if you want help on the house.” I could sense the anger coming off John in waves, but I didn’t understand why. I was just a fuck buddy to him. I was nothing. He had no right to be upset that another man had his hands on me, even if it was purely platonic. “Did you hit your head?” he asked gruffly. “No.” He placed a bandage on my back and then his fingers drifted down my spine, sending tingles through every nerve in my body. “You need to be more careful. Those cuts are pretty nasty.” “It could have been worse.” “How’s that?” “It could have been the raccoon attacking me.” “Yeah, you’re going to have to explain that one to me.” “Some other time,” I said as I turned around. “I have a lot of work to do today and I’ve wasted enough time.” He grabbed my arm as I started to walk away. “I don’t like that he saw you naked.” “He didn’t. I had my shirt off so he could clean up my back. That’s hardly naked.” “Close enough. He touched what’s mine.” I cocked my head to the side as I looked at him. “But I’m not really yours, am I?” He didn’t say anything and I took that as my answer, walking away before that conversation could get out of hand.