Chapter Five

When Joshua finally managed to get out of bed that day, he never felt better; in fact, he felt downright incredible. The night before he had slept like the dead with the most beautiful creature in his arms and then the morning arrived, and they had barely wanted to get out of bed at all. Despite the hard work of the previous day, he had woken up feeling refreshed and rested like he never had before. After they had slept together again that morning, she had slipped out of bed, quickly dressed and left without a word. She was truly a mysterious creature, but he adored every part of her. The sex had been mind-blowing, to say the least, and all he wanted to do was go find her and drag her back to bed.

He was ready to start his day, grateful that the day hadn’t been completely wasted. Despite the fact that they had continued romping after they awoke, it was only 8 a.m. when he started getting ready to go out to the site. He hoped that her quick departure didn’t mean that she was upset about anything. She was an incredible woman, and the last thing he wanted was for her to have any regrets about the time they spent together.

Joshua washed up in the basin that had been left out for him feeling fresher than ever. He dressed quickly in a light linen shirt and some shorts. He wanted to speak with Caroline again before he went back to work just to make sure that they were on the same page about everything. He didn’t want any misunderstandings or hurt feelings between them. He knew he would have to venture over to the old school to find her but was confident he could find it easily. From what he heard, it wasn’t too far off from the new site, especially since the schoolchildren often found their way over for a visit. He followed another path that led him to the current school, and when he laid eyes on it, his mouth dropped open. It was in worse shape than he imagined it to be. With the foundation crumbling and the roof falling in, he was appalled to think that the children spent any amount of time in there learning. If a building such as that were in New York, it would be considered condemned, and yet that was the only building they had currently to use as a school. Shaking his head in dismay, he approached a group of people that he recognized from the dinner last night. He asked them if they knew where Caroline was, and they mentioned that she was not at the site. Joshua took a quick look around and realized she wasn’t at the site at all. When he approached her giggling friends, they claimed they had no idea where she was, although judging by the look on their faces, they weren’t exactly being truthful with him. When he checked his watch, he realized that he was causing himself to be even later to the worksite, and he didn’t want to appear as if he was lazy and didn’t want to work. He would have to try to find Caroline after the work day was complete, or it was possible that he would see her at dinner when everyone collected together.

The sun was beating down on Joshua, and he was grateful that he had thought to bring a hat with him. Otherwise, he would have been in real trouble. Everyone was sweating buckets from the heat, and although they accomplished a lot of work by lunch, Joshua was downright exhausted from the heat. He found that the heat itself was more physically laboring than actually wielding the hammer. All he could think about was stepping into a cold shower and washing away the grime for the day; that, of course, would not be happening anytime soon. When the lunch bell rang, everyone else headed to the lunch table while Joshua decided to take another stab at finding Caroline at the old school. She had been all he thought about for the whole day, and he thought it was odd that he had not seen her at all. Where would she have gone if she didn’t go to her own job site that morning?

He had grabbed two bottles of water from the job site and drank both of them by the time he made it to the old school. He hoped that Caroline would be there because he had a hard time thinking of anything else but her that day. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop until he found her and spoke with her. Joshua had never been in that position before—usually, he slept with a girl and then never thought about her again, but that just wasn’t the case with Caroline. He just felt the urge to be around her all the time, or at least, know she was okay after the night and morning they had spent together. He just hoped that she was okay with things; the fact that she had left without so much as a kiss goodbye that morning had bothered him. He had to admit that he was a little more intrigued with Caroline than he was with most other girls. There was just something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. There was no doubt she was hot and quite the little sex kitten in the bedroom, but there was more to her than that. She had ambition, and she was smart as hell; he liked everything about her. When he arrived at her site, he saw her immediately, and relief filled him. She was playing outside with the children, and they were all laughing and chasing each other around.

Joshua didn’t waste any time and walked right up to her. She smiled as she saw him approaching, though he must have looked a sight. Being out in the heat and sweating, he had to hope, at least, that he didn’t stink badly.

“Joshua, I didn’t expect to see you. Welcome to the school; have you seen it yet?”

“Yes, I was here this morning. It’s quite a sight; I’m happier than ever that they decided to build a new one. That one looks rather fearsome. I feel bad for the children inside it. Are they safe?”

“Yes, for the most part. We’ve had the engineers look it over, and nothing will fall down on them anytime soon. But obviously, the sooner we get them out of there, the better. The teachers though will often come outside for lessons, unless it rains, of course.”

“I see. Do you think we could talk for a moment … alone?”

She smiled warmly and looked at the children that were swarming them. “Go back inside children; the lesson will be starting shortly. Rebecca will start things off, and I will be in soon enough.”

“Take some of these with you kids.” He handed them a mitt full of chocolates, and they squealed with delight. They ran off towards the school ripping open chocolate as they scattered. He had never seen happier kids than those ones.

Caroline laughed as she watched them run into the school. “Well, that’s one way to get them moving.” She looked up at him. “You look like you have been working hard today.”

He laughed. “Yeah, no kidding. I can’t believe the heat today. I think I’ve sweated off 10lbs today.”

“Yes, the heat takes some getting used to.”

“I just wanted to chat with you a bit, Caroline. You left so abruptly this morning that I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay with you.”

“Oh, did it bother you that I left?”

He chuckled, “No, of course not. I guess I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any regrets about what we did.”

“Why would I have any regrets Joshua? You made me feel quite good.”

He broke out into a grin, impressed with things that came out of her mouth. It was the last response he had expected, and she didn’t appear to be the least uncomfortable or awkward around him. She had a twinkle in her eye that made him want to drag her into the forest and take her right then and there. She was an absolute fox when she smiled.

“Well, that’s a relief.”

“There’s no need to be concerned at all, Joshua. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. Plus, we both needed to get to work. I was quite late by the time that I arrived. Plus, I’m not really sure what’s going on between us.”

“Well, you could never overstay your welcome. Just so that you know.”

She giggled, “Well I appreciate that.”

“In fact, I would love it if you allowed me to touch your body any time that I wanted to.”

She gasped, but then a smile formed on her face. She didn’t respond to him, but she also didn’t say no.