Silas

I’m at the cabin, reaching to pull open the door, before I realize she isn’t following me anymore.

“There a problem?” I ask.

I swear I’ve been the perfect fucking gentleman all day. Gave her the goddamn useless ring, opened her door, even made sure I grabbed a few bottles of wine for her at the grocery store. I’m committed to not pissing her off the first day we’re married.

But damn, she cried the whole plane ride, though she tried to hide it. And now she’s standing here, frozen. It may be a few years since I’ve had a woman, but shit, I don’t remember them acting like this.

“Where are we?” Everly asks.

“At my place.” I try not to sound annoyed, but I know my words are short. Going for the nice, new husband approach, I add, “Well, our place.”

“I don’t understand,” she says. “I was told you were….”

“That I was what?” I shake my head, not clear as to what she’s getting at.

“Rich? Like … with the pre-nup and everything, it seemed like you were … and Monique said her clients had fortunes … not ….” She points to the cabin, deflated. “This.”

“This is about money?” I shake my head, instantly pissed.

Maybe I read sweet, sexy, genuine Everly all wrong. Maybe she’s as bad as those city girls who want spa days and personal shoppers. I thought she was something else. I thought she was the woman for me.

“Not money, exactly, but … Silas, this is a rustic cabin. Not the home of a millionaire.” She waves her hands as if literally trying to clear the air. “Not that I need a millionaire. Or ever even wanted one. But I did think I just married one.”

I walk toward her, wanting her to know exactly who I am and who I’m not. Money doesn’t define me, and I sure as hell don’t need a wife who thinks it does.

“I don’t know what Monique told you, but this is my house. I live on this land, and I will die on this land. And I need my wife to understand that.”

She swallows, and I use my finger to draw her chin up so she looks me in the eyes.

“If this house isn’t going to work for you, you damn well need to tell me.”

“Why?” she asks. “Would you move somewhere else?”

I snort. “Did you not hear what I just said? I plan to live and die here. We stayed at a hotel last night because we had too. But don’t expect that to be something you get very often. I go to Anchorage maybe once a month, tops.”

“But Monique….” Everly bites her lip, seemingly overwhelmed.

Shit, this girl hasn’t even walked inside. I could about kill Monique right now. I explicitly said I needed a wife who understood what it meant to live in the backwoods, in a cabin. It’s isolated as fuck, and that isn’t changing.

“Silas, I can’t live here. It’s the middle of nowhere.”

“That’s the point, sweetheart.”

I turn away from her. I’m not the sort of man who’s going to convince her to stay, but shit … I’m not taking her back to Anchorage any time soon. I just left that bullshit city, and I need to set traps and get some fishing done. Plant a garden—something I expected her to help with.

If she wants to leave, I can take her back in a week, but I’m sure as hell not changing my plans for anyone.

Before stepping into the cabin, I grab some bags of groceries from the cart. My irritation at Everly grows as I stomp into my cabin and hang my rifle on the wall, then set the bags of food on the kitchen counter.

I live off the grid because I want to, not because I’m some hobo. Fuck, there’s electricity to warm the water, to run the refrigerator and stove. Solar panels, inverters, batteries, and a diesel generator keep me from living like Travis and his mom in their place three miles away. Now there’s a real backwoods family.

Me? I want to live in the mountains and carve my own path, but I’ll admit it’s easier to start this life up with a saving account. Plenty of folks have to work harder and longer to get enough money saved to move out here to the woods.

But for Everly not to know what she was getting herself into fucking riles me up. Monique clearly kept some things from her. The last thing I want is a woman who doesn’t want to live this sort of extreme life.

I finish putting up the food I bought, and I’m about to go for a second load when I turn and see Everly standing in the doorway, her rolling suitcase beside her, ready to take her first tentative step inside.

“You planning on coming in?” I ask. “Because no one is forcing you to be here.”

“I don’t know what I’m planning on doing, Silas,” she says, her voice high and put-out.

“I don’t want some woman here against her will.”

“Yeah, I heard you.” She shakes her head. “Even if I asked, I don’t think you’d get in that plane and take me anywhere tonight.”

She purses her lips, looking around the one-room cabin, still not taking a single step inside.

“You’re right about one thing,” I tell her, stepping toward the doorway. “I’m not leaving this property for a solid week.”

She smirks, as if realizing she really has nowhere to go right now. Shaking her head as if she can’t believe this is her life.

And I get it—if she really had no idea I lived like this, I’d be pretty fucking pissed, too. But it isn’t my fault Monique pulled a fast one on her. I’m not changing who I am and where I live for Everly. But I also have no intention of making her life a living hell. There are a few things I want too much to consider that.

Namely: her.

“Then I’m your prisoner?” she says. “Right?”

“You can call it what you want,” I say, standing right in front of her, blocking her entrance. “But I’m pretty damn sure I’ll be calling you my wife.”

I know she wants me. She licks her lips, and if I could rip off her dress I’d see her clenching her pretty little pussy as it pants in desire.

Oh, I’ll see that soon enough.

“Then right now I’ll call you my husband,” she gasps, as if surprising herself at how badly she wants me to take control.

I pick her up. Her arms grab hold of my neck. She doesn’t want to let go any more than I do.

“Damn straight you will,” I tell her, my voice low as I look in her deep green eyes. “But first, I need to carry my bride over the fucking threshold.”

I bring her inside, not bothering to kick the door closed. The sun is out and the woods are wild and Everly is mine.

This is my land, and this is my cabin, and I will take my wife any time I please.