Chapter Eight
Cheryl
Her fingers hurt and her eyes felt bleary, but she forced herself to type out the last few sentences of the status report. Hitting Save, she pushed the chair back and stood, groaning slightly at the aches and pains that assaulted her body after sitting for too long.
Looking around, she wondered where Rowe was. One of his massages would be more than welcome just then. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen him since they’d finished dinner. He’d excused himself and disappeared somewhere. At the time Cheryl had figured he wanted to shower or something, and that he’d be back shortly. Now that he hadn’t been around in a few hours, she found herself wishing he were there.
You miss him.
Shit. She totally did. Having him around had been nice, someone she could talk to and be herself with. There was no way she was going to tell him that of course. His ego didn’t need the extra inflation. Not when it already had his good looks, strength, and charming personality. Cheryl felt if she paid him a compliment his head might explode.
Besides all that, she needed to keep things professional between them. True, he wasn’t one of the farmhands, but she didn’t want to let things develop between them. It would be a distraction from her work, and she couldn’t handle that right now. The last thing she needed was to get distracted by things such as the reaction from her body when he held her, or how her lips still burned with the memory of his kiss.
She wanted him. It was clear to see, and Cheryl had a hard time blaming herself for it. He was six and a half feet of sexual stimulation who had made it clear he was interested in hopping in bed with her at a minimum. At any time she could make an advance on him and get laid if the urge grew too great, she knew that. The trouble was in what would happen after though.
This job was a big deal for her, and she couldn’t go falling in love with someone and let it pull her away from the work. Though she was sure her parents would be more than happy to hear about that. It might at least get them talking to her again.
She sighed at the reminder of her father’s disappointment when she’d told him she’d taken the reassignment from a desk job to this. It wasn’t “proper” for her to do this sort of work. This was a man’s job, and she was a woman.
“Go to school, you said. Get a good job, you said.” She snorted. “Well I did that, Father, and it’s all your fault. You encouraged me to always strive to be better. What more could you expect?”
An office job would have done little more than drive her insane if she’d kept it for much longer. Besides, this paid the bills and then some, and because of her expensive college education, Cheryl had a lot of bills. She needed this job, and needed it badly. Once she was more established and had a few projects under her belt—successful projects—then she could turn her mind toward the idea of a relationship and perhaps even settling down. Not before.
Sorry Rowe. If you even had any romantic interest in me, instead of just physical.
Weird.
An idea occurred to her. Scurrying toward the back door, she stopped just outside of the mudroom, pushing herself up against the wall. Taking slow, calming breaths, she waited as Rowe came inside and took off his boots. The big man walked right out into the main hall without hesitation.
“BOO!” she shouted, raising her hands in the air.
Rowe left the ground as he spun midair, his eyes practically glowing bright green. The instant they registered her he calmed, but his momentum couldn’t be stopped and he was forced to reach behind to use the wall to stop himself.
“Got you!” she crowed happily, doing a little dance. “I fucking got you.”
“You remember that I never did anything on purpose, right? Imagine if I started trying to scare you.”
Cheryl was too busy dancing and repeating that she’d got him to care.
“I’m glad you’re happy.”
Something in his voice made her look up. “You’re not mad, are you?”
“No.”
“Okay, then what is it? What’s bothering you?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” she called. “You’ve been gone for hours, which is unlike you, and now you’re acting all weird. Where did you go?”
He hemmed and hawed over his answer, but finally caved after she put her hands on her hips, indicating he had better just fess up.
“I went to go check out the northern forest edge, where the wolves and bear fighting was reported.”
“You did? Alone?”
“Yeah.” He scratched the back of his head, careful not to mess up the perfectly styled hair on top.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me,” she warned.
“I’m not. I literally found nothing. No blood, no dead animals or parts of them.” Rowe looked displeased.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gone at night, then. Or alone!” she admonished, wagging a finger in his face. “That was dangerous. They could have come back and killed you. Then who would annoy me?”
That got a smile from him finally, but it was short-lived. Whatever it was that was going on it was seriously bothering him.
“How was your evening?”
Now he was trying to change the topic. Cheryl thought about pushing further, but decided against it. Rowe was the only person she could consider a friend, or peer, and the last thing she wanted to do was get on his bad side. Then there would be no one to talk to.
“It was fine,” she said, letting it go. “Done now, just finished actually, and could go for a snack.”
“Food sounds good.” He started heading toward the kitchen.
“Are you hangry? Is that why you’re acting so weird?”
Rowe lifted his hands, palms up. “Maybe. Possibly. Probably.”
Men. So predictable.
Doing her best to contain her irritation, she followed him into the kitchen. Her snack could wait; she needed to make him some food so he would eat and calm the hell down.
At no point did it occur to her that she didn’t need to make him anything.