No SUV.
John Priest was heading to eleven to do whatever it was he did in my cabin that was none of business.
So I was heading to my kitchen to finish baking.
Which was what I did.
*
Five months later, I threw open the front door, looked up at John Priest’s scary, beautiful face, and declared, “In case you’re cataloguing the goodness, my man, we have Wi-Fi!”
He said nothing but he moved to take a step in so I had no choice but to take a step back. I did this heading toward the key cabinet.
He headed to the registration book.
He also moved not speaking.
I didn’t return the favor.
“The password to get in is ‘snookums321.’ But seeing as your badass fingers might implode if you tried to type out the word ‘snookums,’ you can give it a miss tonight because tomorrow is my normal change day. I’m thinking ‘Iloverocknroll999.’ That would be ‘and’ as an ‘n’ with no hyphens or apostrophes,” I shared, nabbing the key and turning to see him bent over the book.
He said nothing. Just kept scribbling.
I moved to stand at his side. “I should also tell you that we had a little incident.”
He stayed bent over the book but his long fingers that were wrapped around my pen—fingers that were on a huge hand I hadn’t noticed until that moment was that large—went still and his eyes slid to me.
Normally, his eyes focused on me in that intense way would make me a babbling idiot in fear for the safety of my…something.
Instead, all I could think about was what he could do with hands that big. That strong. That obviously powerful.
It was doubtful his touch could be gentle.
And that was not a bad thing.
My dry spell had lasted since Grant with no hope on the horizon it would be ending.
It was becoming clear I needed to get laid.
I also needed to stop gawking at Priest, thinking about his hands, and instead keep talking.
So I did that.
“We, uh…well, I had an, um…patron who was staying. Apparently, she was in a spot of trouble and her trouble followed her here. He assaulted her in her cabin. It was kind of…well, unpleasant considering that’s unpleasant in and of itself but he then was shot dead a few days later. Not by her and not here,” I hastened to add when his scary look turned downright terrifying even if he didn’t move a single muscle, just kept staring at me. “By some other guy who had nothing to do with that guy, but apparently this woman was a magnet for trouble so once the first guy who assaulted her later kidnapped her, the second guy killed the first guy and re-kidnapped her, uh…as it were.”
As I was finishing up (lamely), Priest straightened and he did this not taking his eyes from me.
It was then I noted something I already knew but noted it in an entirely different way.
He was really tall.
And really big.
As in really.
For both.
I swallowed.
Then I kept giving him the information he needed.
“Unfortunately, she was ripe to be attacked because she didn’t turn on the outside light of her cabin. Also, the parking area was unlit. I found that upsetting so I’ve had lights installed in the lot. They’re not overly bright or anything,” I assured him quickly. “But they cut the dark. And all the units have new motion sensor lights outside. This can get a bit annoying, seeing as there are critters out there that set them off,” I admitted. “But if it gets too annoying, you can turn them off. I just thought you’d wanna know, uh…that I’ve lit the parking area. You know, just in case you need to close your curtains or something to keep out the light.”
“A woman was assaulted,” he said slowly when I finally stopped speaking.
“Uh…yeah.”
“In one of your cabins,” he continued.
“Uh…yeah,” I confirmed.
“Were you here?”
“Um…yeah.”
“How badly was she hurt?” he asked.
“Norm and Gladys told me she was beaten up but okay. They saw her the next day. She reported it to the police but Norm and Gladys were the ones who reported it to me. That was, until the police came and asked if I’d seen anything.”
“Norm and Gladys?”
I grinned at him. “You and them are in a club. My only returning customers.”
John Priest clearly did not find his membership in that particular club as exciting as I did. I knew this when his intense look turned into a scowl.
He was scary all the time.
Scowling, he was downright chilling.
Then he added his voice, which was still rumbling, but it was no longer icy. It was vibrating with something I couldn’t read, but what I could read was terrifying.
“A woman was assaulted in one of your cabins while you were here, alone, in this house.”
I decided not to repeat my confirmation and be quiet for once, mostly because it was taking a lot of effort not to pee my pants.