He’d been dreaming every night about doing just that to her and now he knew he couldn’t have her. Not like that.
The upstairs area had several small rooms with beds for just this purpose, and he slammed the door on the first room he came to, relieved that it was still early enough in the evening that the bar wasn’t full enough for the entire town to know about his drunken mess.
He laid down on the soft bed, irritated that he was still thinking about the possibility of being with Violet. She was so soft, so wonderful. His mind went over every conversation they’d had in the past week, searching for some clue that he’d missed, something that should have warned him that Violet was a call girl.
But all of their conversations had been ordinary and still, he’d found each of them stimulating. He loved talking to her about her business, the way her eyes lit up when one of her crafts people came up with a new idea or when she talked about searching the Internet for display ideas. Violet made sure that her store was bright and colorful, drawing the eye of any tourist that passed by.
Hell, he’d looked into the volume of merchandise her store went through, she was more than comfortable! She should buy her building so that she didn’t have rent but…
Damn it! He couldn’t get her out of his mind!
They’d only been seeing each other for the past week, but every moment in her company had been…different.
Five thousand dollars?!
Why couldn’t he do it? That thought sunk into his brain slowly and the idea made his body react. Fast! Ah, the idea of holding her in his arms finally!
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that George was right. He’d spent more than five thousand dollars on women in the past. Easily! The women he’d brought to his bed had been lively and entertaining and, when he felt in the mood, he didn’t mind one of them thinking she’d manipulated him into buying her nice things.
What was the difference? What made cash the bad type of transaction when he’d bought jewelry and clothes for exponentially more than five thousand? Cash was simply a means to pay the piper. His lovers had expected certain things from him. He’d known the price, even if it wasn’t spelled out quite as blandly as George had done earlier today.
“Five thousand,” he said into the darkened room. “What’s five thousand?” Hell, he’d dropped five thousand on a hand of poker in Vegas last month. Okay, so he’d walked away with fifty thousand that night, but that wasn’t the point.
He’d do it, he thought to the darkness. His body instantly reacted just to the thought of finally having Violet in his arms. In his bed. Damn, but he wanted her now. Too bad he’d had too much to drink because he’d like to hop on his bike and be over there right this moment.
As he closed his eyes, he thought about all the things he would do to her. All the ways he would make love to her. He could think of five thousand ways, and he fell asleep as his mind pictured at least ten ways instantly.
Violet dropped her book onto her lap and glanced at her cell phone. Still no answer. Darn him! She’d put her neck out there and he’d ignored her! He could have at least said no! He didn’t even have the decency to reject her!
She turned off the lone light in her apartment and stomped into her bedroom, determined to put him out of her mind. She ignored the fact that she’d raced out and bought all of the ingredients for a full meat and potatoes meal, had already put together most of the apple pie she would put in the oven so that it smelled delicious when he arrived.
Maybe she’d just eat the whole thing herself!
She got ready for bed, pulling on her voluminous, flannel nightgown and snuggled into the warm sheets. Spring might be starting to show itself in the various ways here in Alaska, but it was still cold! She thought about trying to find some place that had sexy underwear, but then rejected the idea. He didn’t want her home cooked meal, so she definitely wasn’t going to waste time and money driving into Eagle Point to find pretty underwear to entice the man!
He probably didn’t even want her! Which was why he hadn’t responded to her text message. Stupid man! He didn’t know how delicious her apple pie was. He had no idea what he was missing!
Chapter 6
Violet woke to the sound of her cell phone beeping, indicating that a text message had just arrived. She pushed her hair out of the way, searching for her phone on the bedside table. Sure enough, she glanced at the screen and there it was. Her body went from sleepy to wide awake in the brief amount of time it took to realize that the message was from Creek. “What time?” was all it said.
He was coming for dinner?! Violet pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked down at the message again. Her first reaction was a zing of excitement. He was coming to dinner! And maybe she would have the courage to entice him into more than a goodnight kiss!