A New Day
The first rays of dawn, gray and indistinct, filtered through the small window above the twin sized bed. The light gradually grew stronger, until reds and pinks reflected on the brass headboard. Dust motes danced in the beams of sun.
Amanda shifted and stretched. The small bed wasn’t new or comfortable. The mattress was harder than a stone slab. Her pillow was lumpy and smelled of mold or mildew. Maybe both.
She’d done her best to clean up the tiny cabin the day before. One hard lesson she’d learned- it took a heck of a long time to build a fire just to heat a pot of water. Jason was also woefully low on cleaning supplies. She hoped, on what seemed like his impromptu trip into town the day before, that he had procured some.
Her gaze traveled up to the ceiling. The open beams had been covered in cobwebs. She’d done away with them first, but she realized she’d missed a couple. She shivered, hoping that no nocturnal, eight legged creatures had visited her bed in the night.
Amanda threw back the quilt. It was far too early to get up but sleep was elusive. There was a small dresser, ancient looking, the kind from the turn of the century, in the room. The mirror was faded and dappled with age spots but it was sturdy enough. She’d unpacked her clothes into it the previous afternoon.
She dressed in silence, slipping on a long black maxi skirt, a tight fitting black tank top and a huge knit sweater. It was cool in the cabin at the start of the day, with no fire going.
The rest of the cabin was just one room. A small kitchen area with a portable cabinet like what Jason had, was set up off to the side. There was a wood burning stove, but it was nothing like the one in the larger cabin. It was just the actual stove part for wood and it had a couple burners on top. No ovens. A tiny table with two handmade chairs was neatly placed in one corner and an older style sofa, the kind from the seventies, that burned yellow color, covered with a patchwork quilt, stood off to the other side of the room. A huge window let in lots of light. It made the place feel homey.
Red and gold hues streamed into the cabin. It was utterly beautiful, to look out the window and see nothing but trees and forest. The gentle sway of the wind blowing around the tiny cabin was the only source of noise other than the sweet calls of morning birds.
It was a big change from being in the city. Amanda loved the quiet and the stillness.
She’d set up her easel in one corner of the cabin, the only free corner left, closest to the window. Her paints were placed underneath, in a box. A stack of canvases rested against the gray slab walls.
She thought about trying to paint, but dismissed the idea in favor of a bath. The small tin tub for bathing was currently tucked under the kitchen table. It truly was small. She wasn’t a large human and she’d still have to fold all her limbs up just to fit in it.
The real turn off was the hand pump outside. Amanda’s arm still ached from using it the day before. To heat the water she’d have to start a fire which meant gathering wood. She didn’t have hours to waste before she’d have to get over to the other cabin to start breakfast.
She wasn’t sure when Jason wanted it. He hadn’t said. He hadn’t given her much instruction at all other than where to find things.
Just the thought of seeing him made her blood run hot. Her dreams the night before were punctuated with his face, and even worse, his body. His hands on her skin. It hadn’t even been overtly sexual. He’d been clothed from the waist down and she’d had on a sun dress. He’d ran his hand over her arm, caressing her skin with those rough palms.
She shivered violently and tried to ignore the heady, raw sensation that spooled in her belly and the dampness that gathered between her legs. She had no right to think of him that way. Not after she was fresh out of a breakup that she hadn’t even seen coming.
Phil’s final accusations ripped through her head. Infertile. Barren. Liar. Maybe the doctor was wrong. Maybe there was a problem with her. Just because they couldn’t find a reason she couldn’t conceive didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Maybe Phil was justified in kicking her out.
The thoughts stung and she didn’t want to think about it. Instead, Amanda made a decision to find the creek. It couldn’t be that hard. She could hear it in the distance, or at least, she thought she could the day before. Maybe she’d take a swim there instead of spending a ridiculous amount of time filling the tub to bathe. At the moment it seemed like the more rational option. At least the cold would make her forget all about Phil and all about the unsettling dreams that plagued her throughout the night.
The walk through the woods was exactly what Amanda needed. She’d never really understood the allure of camping, but she got it now. The soft scent of pines, the crisp Colorado morning air, the crunchy, dewy forest floor, it was all like a dream, a world she didn’t know she wanted to be a part of until that moment.
She found the creek. Or rather, it found her. She’d found a path right off to the side of the cabin and followed it. Eventually the woods gave way to a clearing. The creek glistened in the early morning sunlight, pristine and inviting.
Amanda was about to step out of the woods when a ripple appeared at the top of the creek. She was shocked and stumbled back when a dark object burst through the surface.
She whirled, thinking it was some kind of wild animal, maybe even a bear. She took cover behind the thickest, tallest tree and eventually peaked around.
She let out a small sigh of relief when she realized it was only Jason swimming, not a bear at all. That relief quickly turned to something else, something far more dangerous than any bear. A tight heat built in her chest and closed up her throat as she watched, covertly, hidden behind the tree.
Jason’s strong arms stroked the surface. He cut through the water deftly, beautifully, as though he was some sea creature born to it. If he was cold, he didn’t show it. He swam the length of the creek, almost out of sight, then turned and she watched him make his way back.
I should leave. This isn’t right.
She was about to turn and go, she truly was, when Jason stopped. He turned towards the woods. She pressed her back against the tree trunk for a second, but then he glanced away. She watched in utter rapt fascination as his feet found the bottom and he waded towards the shore.
Water sluiced off his hair and beaded in silvery trails over powerful muscles. His shoulders rippled with power, his pecs and his chest… god, he might have been carved from one of those mountains in the distance. He looked as stately and ancient as any of the old trees in his woods. The sun or the water’s cold turned his bronzed skin a shade of pink. Water clung to the smattering of dark hair that covered his pecs. It trailed off and resumed lower, under his chiseled abs, just below his navel.
It wasn’t even the defined muscles, the godlike physique or the immediate, intense, hard wave of lust that washed over her that drew and held her stare.
It was the tattoos. They were everywhere. Scrolling black ink covered both arms, the designs impossible to make out from the distance, but they looked to be skillfully done sleeves. There was something written across his chest, but he turned then, and she couldn’t read it.
He kept on walking towards the shore and Amanda whipped her head around. She flattened herself against the tree, hoping like hell he wouldn’t see her standing there ogling him. She didn’t want to see anything else either. Okay, that’s a damn lie. She did want to see it all, every single part of his beautiful, masculine strength, but it wasn’t right. She had definitely crossed the line as it was.
“If you’re going to have a swim, you might as well come do it. I’m finished now.”
Shit. The hot heat of embarrassment stung Amanda’s cheeks. Had he known she was there the entire time and said nothing? She felt like a creep, worse since he’d caught her.
She slowly emerged from behind the tree, taking care not to look in his direction in case he was still naked. “I wasn’t planning on swimming.”
“What’s the towel in your hand for then?”
Her eyes whipped towards his voice and she sighed with relief when she noted the gray towel wrapped around his waist. It covered only the most vital parts. The rest, his incredible chest, was no less destructive for her to stare at. Destructive in the way her chest imploded, the way tight heat coiled in her stomach and spread lower, so much lower, to gather heavily between her thighs.
“I… alright, maybe I was going to try it,” Amanda admitted sheepishly. She felt like a four year old caught sneaking treats when her mother had specifically told her no. It was worse because those ice blue eyes were trained on her face and she could literally feel herself grow redder by the second.
“You got a little more than you bargained for, obviously.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I… I really wasn’t trying to stare.”
He shrugged, like there wasn’t anything to see at all. “If you want to swim, I’d hurry. It’s pretty damn cold. I’ll give you a break this morning, considering it’s your first morning, and start the fire. You’ll be back in an hour to cook breakfast?”
“Yes,” Amanda stammered, vastly relieved that he was just letting her off the hook like that. This was not at all how she wanted to start out her first day.
Jason nodded. He grabbed up clothing she hadn’t even noticed and walked off past her, up the path. Barefoot. Through the woods.
She carefully did not stare after him. Her body burned, heating her from the inside out until she could barely stand it. She stared longingly towards the pristine waters of the creek. No matter how cold it was, it couldn’t be cold enough to wash away the fires of shame and the worse, the hard sting of desire that she had no right at all to feel.