My Little Farm Girl(31)

They were too close for it not to matter and who knows what lies Marion had been telling her if any? I needed to dispel any notions she might have that the brief fling I’d had with the other woman was anything more than that.

As I spoke I ran the thumb of one hand sensually back and forth across the soft inner skin of her wrist, right above her pulse. Her breathing became shallow and she fidgeted a bit on my lap before settling down again.

“I don’t know, I can’t think of any right now except…no never mind.” I let it go for now since her face had gone red as a cherry again.

We sat there for a while not saying anything, just enjoying being close. When my cock started his shit I thought it prudent to get her out of harm’s way.

“I think you should head on up to bed sweetheart, it’s getting late and you’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

“Are we still doing that?”

“Of course.” I wasn’t sure why she would think that we weren’t but I left it at that. I walked her to the door of her room, and instead of the kiss I wanted to give her, I settled for a kiss to her forehead and a squeeze of her hand before turning and heading for my office. It was going to be a long night.





Chapter 8





GABRIELLA





I didn’t breathe until the door closed behind me. My heart felt as though it had been in my throat all evening.

I looked around the room he’d given me. It was beautiful, with its green and gold color scheme and the wicker furniture that stood out amidst all the splashes of color.

Very grown up I thought, as I walked around the room touching the little knick knacks on the bureau before going over to the windows that looked out over the park.

It was a cool night coming onto the end of September, summer was gasping for its last breath and the scent of fall was in the air.

I went back over the day’s events as I gazed out of the window at nothing. I’d been so excited when I got back to the editing room. I couldn’t wait to share my good news with Robyn and some of the other girls that had befriended me in the past week.

As soon as I got back I knew something was wrong, everyone was acting as if they were on pins and needles and the usually bustling place seemed to be on a slower pace.

I’d been about to ask one of the girls what had happened, when aunt Marion came out of her office and saw me.

“You, get in here now.” I felt a little embarrassed about being spoken to like that in front of a roomful of strangers, but with my head down I went after her.

She was probably just having another one of her spells I thought. But I was too excited to let that bother me. Callan was back and he hadn’t forgotten me. I almost smiled as I remembered our time together.





“Where did you go?”

Like an idiot I told her, thinking she would be excited for me; I forgot to call him Mr. O’Rourke I think, and maybe that’s what set her off. “I told you not to call him that.”

“But he said it was okay.” For some reason I felt very resentful towards her attitude where Callan was concerned. She’d dropped hints to me before about their relationship, but I wasn’t sure what to believe any more.

Surely if he were in love with her as she implied he would’ve called her while he was away, and he hadn’t. I know because like a fool each evening before I was sent off to bed, I’d hover near the phone on the off chance that he did call and I would get to at least hear his voice.

I felt guilty for my feelings, but couldn’t seem to help them. He was so perfect, at least in my dreams he was. That wild burnish copper hair and those eyes that had seemed to look right into my deepest self.

No one had ever looked at me the way he had that night. Had ever made my heart beat out of control. I knew I had a stupid crush on him and that there was no way he’d ever return my feelings, but none of that stopped me from seeing his face in my dreams, or wishing…

When the calls never came I put it out of my mind. Maybe he called her on her cell phone, though I never saw her on it in the evenings or heard its shrill ringtone after she’d ordered me to bed while she paced the apartment back and forth until all hours of the night.

Her odd behavior had only worked to convince me more and more that she was like aunt Nettie, and I’d begun to feel sorry for her.

So it was easy to overlook her nasty remarks about my hair and my body or the clothes I wore. I promised myself that I would go shopping with my first paycheck and buy some things that wouldn’t as she said ‘shame her’.

But then today happened and I was back to being confused. I wasn’t expecting the slap across the face and was too stunned to react for the first few seconds.