Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Only, an old deal made by my grandfather secured the land under very specific parameters, beholden to my neighbors to the south. An independent executor monitors my use of the land, and so long as it doesn’t break any of the original conditions, I get to stay there on an indefinite lease.
It’s an ancient agreement, but it’s ironclad. I don’t own the land, or have any claim to it, but nobody can kick me out unless certain terms are not kept. Ironically, those neighbors that own the land itself are her grandparents. I don’t like to be beholden to anyone, but there’s no fucking way I’m ever leaving that land or the reindeer that are under my charge.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Donald looks sheepish and I don’t hold grudges. Well, except one.
The knots that started down low are moving through my guts, knowing even if I was able to somehow get the young beauty in my clutches, she would never want to stay. Not with me.
I’m nearly seven feet of thick, gritty unpleasantness, both in looks and nature. She’s perfection embodied. Five feet of softness and smiles. Five feet of baby-making fantasy. Five feet of sweetness that would be torn apart by the beast between my legs that no woman has been able to take before.
Not that I tried too many times, or had that many opportunities.
“Oh, hey…” Donald starts again, and my teeth clench. “You know what else I heard?”
“What?” Phil answers as my muscles tighten and he gives me a ‘calm down’ sort of look. I’m not much on human interaction, but I tolerate these little moments of normalcy in town a couple times of month, otherwise I’d be a complete recluse.
“Your friend, Davis Vredenberg—” The sound of that name sends my blood flooding south and my heart dents the inside of my chest wall because that’s her last name as well. “Heard he’s in town as usual with his little sister in tow, but get this, he’s married. Brought his new wife along. You’re probably the only one from our graduating class that’s not married now. All you do is work on your cars and play with your reindeer.”
“He’s not my fucking friend,” I seethe. He was an asshole in school and has been trying every underhanded way he knows to get me off the land where I live for years now.
But, all of that is secondary.
The vein on my forehead is thumping.
She’s here. In town. Somewhere.
I don’t give a shit about her shitty brother Davis who went to school with us. He and his parents moved down state just after we graduated. He comes back every year trying to sucker someone in town into one of his get rich schemes. His parents had Heather a year or so after they moved away, but never brought her back here. Some feud with her mother’s parents, my neighbors.
Wasn’t until they’re parents were killed, Davis saw dollar signs and started coming back every Christmas to spend time with his grandparents who live on the property adjacent to mine. They’re loaded and pushing ninety, so I’m sure Davis is counting down the days until he gets to see just exactly what is in their will.
The only redeeming quality he has, is that he stepped in to raise Heather after the car accident when she was thirteen.
Over those years, I’ve shared restrained, pained, short exchanges of words with her at the parades in town, when I had my reindeer there for events. She’s sweet perfection. Grown now into something that turns my calm, base nature into a rabid beast.
“Holy shit.” I hear Phil’s voice but it’s distant as my mind drifts, thinking of Heather’s blue eyes, wondering if I’ll be able to keep myself from throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her off when I see her, knowing she’s just scraped up on her eighteenth birthday. “Okay, listen, Dodge…”
My eyes snap to Phil who’s looking worried.
“Listen to what?” I grumble.
“Dude.” Now it’s Donald to my left. I look over and see him swallow hard before his eyes give him away, flicking to the hallway that leads to the back door of the bar.
And flames feel like they engulf me.
“Fuck,” I grunt, but I can’t breathe. Her red hair is loose around her shoulders as she walks behind her brother and what must be his shiny new wife.
She can’t hold a candle to my girl. Heather is glowing brighter than the Christmas tree in the corner of the bar. She smiles and waves at someone across the room and I stand bolt upright, ready to go smash the face of the guy I see waving back.
My pulse is rushing through my ears, drowning out both Phil and Donald’s pleas as her brother Davis turns his head my way and gives me a shitty nod. He was the quarterback, asshole, shit-eating suck up in high school. Behind the scenes, he was a shit human, a bully, and on more than one occasion I gave him a dose of his own medicine.