by Claire Angel
Thomas – that was his name. She seldom thought about him because she knew how much she had hurt him when she had ended their relationship that night. He had barged out of the house with an erection that she made worse by assuring him she wanted him, but not without loving him.
She jolted out of the thought when the couple in the cottage laughed again, this time throwing cushions at each other. Staring around her, a few bulbs on the pathway that led to the mansion brightened as the last rays of light in the sky dimmed above them. She planned to visit the mansion to admire the interior, but seeing the happy couple seemed to have gotten her in a foul mood.
It made her realize how lonely she was now that she wasn’t distracted by work.
It reminded her once again that Mrs. Kings might be right. Maybe what she needed was love – a man she could genuinely grow feelings for, over a vacation.
She turned on her feet and began to head back to her cottage. “Maybe the dinner that would be brought to me will end my foolish thoughts,” she whispered to herself. She had done quite well for herself without loving anyone for the past seven years.
What could possibly change now?
Chapter 5
Winter came rapidly exactly as Carlton had foreseen, and Kenneth couldn’t be happier that they had spent the past few days piling up more woods from the forest behind the house.
It didn’t snow but it was cool during the night. Dew dotted the flowers around the house whenever there was little sunlight during the afternoon but as soon as it was dark, a cold breeze filled the entire resort. The guests liked to light a fire to warm their rooms or cottages, to warm it up or add to the romantic atmosphere.
By morning on Thursday, Kenneth had gotten used to spending half of his morning drinking tea and going through reports on the guests in the resort. The three bookings Carlton had earlier mentioned were from a couple, a family of three, and a single woman who had arrived from Denver the previous evening.
Kenneth hadn’t met the woman yet. With everything Rob and Carlton had spoken about her, she seemed like someone who had traveled almost four hours on a plane for a change in scenery, and of course the serenity that his resort offered.
He finished going through the reports earlier than usual and drank the rest of his tea before stepping out of the mansion to gather more wood. Against his wish, Carlton had decided to help him with the process of fetching the wood and cutting them with axes. They had set up space close to the mountains where logs were chopped before being distributed to each cottage in a wheelbarrow by the house help.
It was an effective process. In two days, there was enough wood in each cottage to last three to four days, depending on how warm their guests wanted to keep themselves in the cold.
He doubted if any of the lodgers knew that he owned the resort, though. He stayed inside the mansion most of the time and only stepped out during the morning to fetch wood as he volunteered to do. Besides, none of them had been introduced to him formally, with Carlton handling their lodging and requests personally as the caretaker. A lot of lodgers book the resort houses online anyway, and he had ensured no page displayed who he was or how much he had invested into what had become his home.
Perhaps he enjoyed the anonymity more than he would admit. Just yesterday evening, he had wandered around the resort late in the evening. He quietly watched as each guest had fun with their loved ones and spoke and laughed from within their homes. Some of them had spent three, four, or five days in the resort and were used to the serenity around them.
Walking back to the mansion, he had seen one of the guests who seemed taken by the view of two other guests that were reeling with laughter in their cottage. Her attention was raptly on them, she hadn’t noticed him taking an adjacent route towards the mansion. He had watched her smile when the couple laughed again before he quickly hid behind a bush as she turned around and walked farther away from the mansion. Her demeanor was different this time around, almost as if the view had made her sad and angry.
Although he had briefly thought that she looked out of place wearing her long hair in rough locks and stepping out in the evening in jeans and a long coat, he forgot about her by the time he stepped into the mansion and went back to bed. The fear of having another nightmare disturbed him late into the night until he closed his eyes and slept peacefully around midnight.
He wasn’t surprised when he heard Carlton’s voice as soon as he got close to where they piled each plank fetched from the forest. They had both abandoned some of the wood they had fetched in the previous day, hoping to return to them by morning. Carlton being Carlton couldn’t wait for him to begin chopping each one.
Kenneth stopped in his steps when he realized Carlton wasn’t speaking to any of the maids in the mansion. The woman with him wasn’t draped in the typical maid clothing. She wore thick boots, tight jeans, and a jacket that was tight around her thin waist. Something about her was oddly familiar, even with her back to him.
The guest last night!
He saw half of her face as she glanced sideways to stare at the chopped logs Carlton pointed to. Carlton seemed to be explaining that there were enough to last through the week…or maybe not. She shook her head at him and stood from the rock she was sitting on. Pointing at the axe in Carlton’s hands, she pointed to the logs beside him instead.
Carlton shook his head, but she seemed to have made up her mind. Kenneth folded his arms and shook his head too, wondering if she was planning on doing what he suspected. As if she could read his mind, he watched as she tied both locks of her hair behind her and took the axe from Carlton.
Carlton stepped back, frowning as she held the axe against her shoulder and impatiently waited for him to place one of the logs in front of her. He seemed reluctant but shrugged his shoulders, doing as she asked.
“So stupid of you,” Kenneth thought to himself and then glanced at her too. “And you, crazy woman!”
With the timber placed in front of her, Kenneth expected her to rethink her action. The axe would probably drop out of her hands before she could hit the plank.
But neither happened.
He watched in awe as she placed her right foot firmly behind her, revealing the curve of her hips and curvy ass that he hadn’t noticed earlier before raising the axe as high as she could.
∞∞∞
Chloe saw Carlton the next morning after finishing with her breakfast. She was sitting on the front porch and eating from a bag of candy when he walked by with a smile on his face.
“Good morning, Miss Coleman,” he greeted.
“Chloe,” she smiled at him. “I think it is high time you called me Chloe.”
“Oh, well then. Good morning, Chloe,” he said with a broader smile.
“Good morning.”
She shut her laptop and stared curiously at him. “You aren’t going to the mountains, are you?”
“Oh, no,” he said. “I help to chop some wood in the morning for guests to use throughout their stay.”
“That would be a lot of wood,” she whispered, staring around her to count the number of cottages in the resort.
“Well, there are enough hands,” he remarked. He began to walk away but paused after a second thought. “You aren’t planning to take a tour to the mountains, are you?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” Chloe whispered thoughtfully. “I am quite curious to see the waterfall – there is one close by?”
“Of course, just at the tip of the mountain. I should say you wouldn’t have to worry much about not seeing it since the bonfire is tonight. It is just next to the waterfall in the mountains.”
“Splendid.” She smiled at him.
“The resort guides will gather everyone out of their cottages by sundown and escort them to the waterfall,” he continued. “There will be food, wine, and dancing. You don’t have to worry about being bored..”
Chloe laughed and shook her head. “I didn’t think that in the first place.”
“Good,” he
said and nodded to excuse himself.
Before he could take two steps from the cottage, she jolted out the chair and trotted after him.
“Where—where are you going, Miss Cole—sorry, Chloe?” he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Taking a walk,” she grinned. “I don’t intend to sit at my front porch all day when I have come to San Miguel to feed my eyes with its beauty. Maybe I will see something of interest while you chop your wood.”
“There are more enjoyable arrangements for guests to…” he stated, but she began to walk in front of him, giving him no room to continue.
He walked behind her quietly while she wondered if she was annoying him by being bothersome. The Belinda’s Resort had everything she had hoped for, and just walking around to see the mountains in the distance felt therapeutic. She wasn’t worried about anything else except what the taste of her next meal would be and if the night would get colder.
As soon as they walked a few minutes from her cottage, Carlton increased his pace to walk alongside her. She stared at his bent shoulders and the little grey hairs on his head and wondered how old he was, and if he had any family. A man like him with a constant smile on his face usually have happy memories that kept them joyful all the time. Carlton didn’t look like he worried about anything in the world, except maybe his job.
They stopped at the bank of a small pond eventually, and she watched him step towards a pile of wood to count them. Two men stepped out of a nearby cottage to join him, and he pointed to the forest in front of them while giving instructions about felling new trees.
In a matter of seconds, he seemed to have forgotten about her. She sat quietly by a rock in order to not distract him. Besides, staring at the calm pond enticed her more than listening to men discussing fetching more wood from the forest. She also distracted herself with the thought of Denver and Tia, her childhood friend.
The Secret Lounge, their treehouse, used to give her the same peace of mind that the serenity of The Belinda’s Resort provided. Chloe remembered the many times she was alone in college, wishing she was back in Arvada with Tia. They could tell each other about their day or discuss their secret crushes and fantasies – some of which would have changed since they were no longer teenagers.
Of course, they had spoken often over the phone. Tia had gone to Harvard, far away from Chloe’s university in Switzerland, and had sent many emails at first before they resorted to calling each other as often as possible. Chloe hoped Tia would return home after college, but her friend loved Massachusetts a lot. She stayed back to build a life there as a solicitor. The last time they spoke – which was more than a month ago – Tia needed her help sending an internet defrauder to jail. It turned out to be a fascinating job for Chloe since it meant she could have all the juicy details of the case before it was even reported on the news.
“Do you plan to sit there all day, Chloe?”
She had been lost in her thoughts for so long that she wasn’t aware Carlton was alone and busy chopping some of the wood. He folded the cuffs of his shirt and had loosened two buttons on his shirt. Sweat dotted his forehead as he paused to catch his breath and stare at her.
“Can I try?” she asked him, nodding towards the wood.
He seemed to think she was teasing him. He squinted his eyes at her and brushed some of the sweat from his forehead. “No, I don’t think so,” he said and then picked up his axe to cut the rest of the plank in front of him.
When he was done with that, Chloe tilted her head towards him again. “I would like to try.”
He frowned this time around, noticing her serious tone. “I think everything is done.” He pointed to the little logs he had made by chopping the large ones.
She shook her head stubbornly at him and stood to her feet. “There are those left to chop,” she insisted, pointing to the timbers beside him. There were easily more than a dozen left, and he could spend all day chopping them alone.
“Yeah, those…” he grunted, obviously at a loss on how to dissuade her.
She stepped towards him and smiled before pointing at his axe. “You don’t think a woman could actually lift an axe – is that it?”
“Oh, no. Of course not.” His cheeks flushed and she tilted her head as she gazed at him.
“That seems to be what you are saying,” she interrupted, deliberately baiting him. He squinted his eyes at her again while she folded her arms and kept his gaze. “Just say it – you think women are weak, careless…”
“Oh, well,” he grunted before she could finish and tilted his axe towards her. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Chloe broke into broad smile and quickly reached over her head to tie both locks of her hair behind her, twisting them tight. Once she took the axe from him, Carlton heaved a sigh and took two steps away from her.
“Be careful,” he warned.
In response, Chloe raised the axe and rested it against her shoulder. She glanced expectantly at him afterward.
“Yeah, the timbers!” he grunted, silently chiding himself for not thinking of placing it in front of her in the first place.
She watched him quietly as he lifted one of the timbers onto a larger one in front of her and stepped away to give her room to work. “You have to place your feet…”
Chloe saw his stance earlier while he worked. She placed her right foot firmly behind her and raised the axe, targeting the middle of the timber. She flung the blade against the wood before Carlton could finish talking, and she watched as he gaped in awe when the wood broke into two pieces. The look on his face betrayed his emotions; he hadn’t expected her to be strong enough to lift the axe or cut through the wood.
“That—that was unexpected,” he muttered, folding his arms and finally smiling at her.
It wasn’t his smile or his words that caught her attention, though. A man, younger than he was, clapped his hands as he approached them. There was something mesmerizing about the man’s piercing green eyes. His body was lean and muscled and she took him in for a long moment before meeting his gaze. They stared intently into hers for a while before sweeping over the rest of her body.
She had seen men stare lustfully at her before, but the man’s gaze was different. It was as if he was staring at a diamond he had found in the middle of a pile of rocks. He wouldn’t mind staring at her all day but seemed to keep his distance as well.. He stopped a few feet from her and said, “That was impressive.”
Chloe briefly stared at his broad shoulders and arms, considering what he looked like underneath his shirt before she clenched her cheeks at him and nodded. “Thanks?” she whispered with a shy smile
A profound silence ensued between them, making Chloe suddenly anxious. Luckily, Carlton stepped between them, smiling at her. “You haven’t met Mr. Kenneth,” he said. “Allow me to do the introductions. Kenneth here owns the resort. And here is Miss Coleman… Chloe Coleman. She is a guest in the cottage by the stream.”
The rest of Carlton’s introductions fell on her deaf ears. Chloe stared at the man in front of her again, mystified by how he could own an establishment as lavish as the Belinda’s Resort. She hadn’t bothered to learn about the owners of the resort, but she could have sworn she expected someone older and less rugged as the man that stood in front of her with a smirk.
A very annoying smirk that warned her that he might just be the man to stay the hell away from.
Chapter 6
The evening was cold, just as she had expected. Chloe wanted to climb one of the mountains to have a better view of the resort. There were so many breath-taking views of the place she had anticipated before arriving. Carlton had been accommodating, too. One of these days, she might take him up on his offer to learn one or two words in Spanish. A full conversation would be wonderful, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that. She didn’t need it if she was merely vacationing here, though it could help her when she returned home.
She got back to her cottage, feeling exhausted from taking a long walk touring t
he area and enjoying the view of the waterfalls. She sank into the couch in the living room and wished a genie could appear from nowhere with hot cocoa.
No one makes hot cocoa like Kelly. She was still longing for the taste of a Kelly-made cocoa when her phone rang. She was a little disappointed it wasn't Tia. Otherwise, she would have filled her with the gist of the fantastic sights of the resorts and the stunning young billionaire that almost pierced her skin with his lustful green eyes.
"Hi, Chloe. I hope I haven't called at the wrong time?" the tone of the voice had a mix of sadness and anxiety. Mrs. Kings was a vivacious woman, so Chloe was bothered by how she sounded on the other end of the phone.
"No, of course not. Are you alright, Mrs. Kings?"
“I’m fine. I just needed someone to talk to.” Her voice was shaking, and Chloe sat up.
“You can always call me. You have concerned and surprised, considering I’m usually the sad one running to you for solace.”
“Oh, Chloe, you’re so kind. I’ve been down lately. My recalcitrant son has got me worked up…”
“Wait! Is your son in town?” Chloe queried enthusiastically.
"I wish. The last time that lunatic stepped foot in Denver was over three years ago. My son…who does that?" Mrs. Kings rhetorically asked as she sobbed on the phone, before continuing, "I'm sorry, Chloe."
"It's okay, Mrs. Kings," Chloe said with concern in her voice. She loved the kind-hearted woman. The thought of Mrs. Kings being all alone in her house without anyone to look after her was often a source of concern, but Mrs. Kings would often say, "I'm fine, Chloe, you should worry over your love life, young lady."
What sort of heartless monster would mistreat his mother? He deserves to be restrained and brutally whooped until he's right in his senses. I would personally give him a kick in the nuts.
“…there. Hello, Chloe. Are you still there?”
Carried away in deep rumination of vengeful need to discipline on Mrs. Kings' son, Chloe had lost track of the tearful voice that was still on the line.