Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“Good point.”
Rose opened the gate with a pointed cough. “If you’re done shit-talking me, can we get on with it?”
There was something strangely captivating about watching Rose in her element. It was obvious that this place meant a great deal to her—it was more than her just being the chairman, but a real, true love that came from somewhere I couldn’t quite understand.
It wasn’t as though I’d never understood where she was coming from in her opposition against my decision, but now the vehemence of it all make a little more sense.
It was as if this place were a part of her, and by closing it down and selling it off, I was tearing away a piece of what made her, her.
But that didn’t change my position, no matter how a flicker of guilt kept on creeping into my consciousness.
The Hanbury estate had been haemorrhaging money during the last five years of my grandfather’s life, and he’d left me nothing short of a complete disaster to fix. The separation of company and estate meant I couldn’t just fix it, even if I had the funds available to me. There was also only so much of my own money I could funnel into the estate for the necessary maintenance, but this place…
The money from the developers was too good to be true. It would not only plug a hole in the estate’s finances, but fix several other leaks, too.
I sighed as I gazed around at the plots. It was quieter now that evening was falling. Those with young children had come and gone after school hours, and with temperatures still dropping as the sun set, many older people had also left. There were but a few stragglers left tending to a few things, and none of them were paying us any mind.
Rose opened the roof of the coop and counted the chickens inside, then bent over on her tiptoes until she was almost toppling over into it. “Tortilla, stop stealing the bread rolls. Give them back to Pancake.”
That was a sentence I never thought I’d hear.
“Thank you.” With a huff, she closed the roof down, made sure the box attached to the side was securely locked, and bent down to do something to the weird stake behind her.
“What’s that?”
An ear-piercing screech came out of it, and I jumped.
Rose grinned. “It’s a motion-activated fox deterrent. I don’t know how well it works, but I haven’t seen one of the little buggers on the camera since I bought it, so…” She trailed off and shrugged. “Is it that bad?”
“It’s the most godawful noise I’ve ever heard. Can’t you hear it?”
“Nope.” She wiped her hands off on her dress and gave the coop another glance over. “Although, it does somewhat please me that you can hear it and hate it. Maybe I should buy another.”
“What would you do with another one of those?” I held open the gate for her.
She swept through it. “Pull it out whenever I see you so it squeals at you. Like an anti-Oliver deterrent.”
I snorted, locking the gate. “If you want me to avoid you, perhaps you should stop wearing things in front of me that turn me on.”
She smacked me in the shoulder. “Your horniness, your problem.”
I knew she’d say that. “I didn’t say it was a problem. In fact, I’d rather you did keep wearing things I like.”
“Please send me a list of your likes and dislikes at your earliest convenience,” she replied. “So I can make sure I never wear something you like again.”
“As you wish. But if I tell you I like anything you wear, will you run around naked?”
She tilted her head to the side as if she were considering it. “I would, but something tells me you’ve got an answer along the lines of how you like me naked, too, so it doesn’t matter.”
I faked a heavy sigh. “You read my mind.”
She opened the gate to her plot, shaking her head slightly. “You know, if anyone heard this conversation, they’d think something was going on between us.”
I watched as she walked over to her shed and opened the door, then joined her there and leant against the doorframe, folding my arms. “Can you really say there’s nothing going on, princess?”
She jerked around, shooting me a sharp look with those gorgeous hazel eyes of hers. “There isn’t anything going on between us. That one night was just that, and the other day was… an accident.”
“An accident.” My lips pulled to one side. “Yes, yes. It was quite the accident how you squeezed around my cock and told me to fuck you until you hated me again.”
Her hand darted out, and she yanked me into the shed before slamming the door shut behind me and pressing me against it. “Can you not?” She clapped her hand over my mouth, peering up at me. “What if someone hears you? What little credibility I have left will be absolutely destroyed if anyone knows what I’ve done with you.”