It can’t be more than twenty minutes before my bladder begins to scream that it needs to be emptied.
I try not to wiggle around because these ridiculously large snow pants Brantley made me wear makes the loudest noise every time I do. After a few more minutes, I can’t help it. I squirm.
“What now?” Brantley asks, completely exasperated.
“I have to pee,” I whine.
To this, he laughs. “Look around, baby. The woods are your bathroom. Pick a spot and squat.”
Okay, he’s lost his ever lovin’ mind if he thinks I’m about to pee out here, so I tell him, “You have lost your mind if you think I’m peeing out here, in the middle of nowhere!”
“Then you’re shit out of luck, baby girl. We’ve got about an hour of daylight left. I’m sure you can hold it.”
“This is officially the worst date of my life.”
Wait, this is the only fucking date I’ve been on. I wasn’t allowed to date before Elliot, and then, when I started seeing him, it wasn’t even dating. We just hung out with our parents at charity functions for the first couple of months, then slept together. After our first time, we were engaged a month later.
I go back to looking out at the woods and am quickly distracted from my sad thoughts when my full bladder makes its presence once again known.
Okay, Eva. You can do this. Just distract yourself. My gaze sweeps over all the beautiful snow we got from the latest storm. I have a fleeting thought of wanting to build a snowman, like that cute one from Frozen. What was his name? Oh right, Olaf.
Oh man, I loved that movie. I don’t care what anyone says, that music was the shit. “Jesus Christ. Woman, please tell me you are not humming that fucking Frozen song, ‘Let it Go’?” Brantley asks incredulously.
My face heats because I wasn’t actually aware that I was humming that out loud. Still, I put on my resting bitch face. “What of it? That movie was the shit.”
His eyes widen in what I can only assume is disbelief before he throws his head back and bursts out laughing. The bob of his Adam’s apple catches my attention. Sexy. How in the actual heck is an Adam’s apple sexy? I have no clue, but I have the strongest desire to…
My thoughts get cut off when he looks at me, his eyes bright with laughter. He has to see the heat in my eyes, has to know where my thoughts were headed, because his face changes, mirroring the desire I know that’s written all over mine.
Unfortunately, I realize that if I don’t get to a bathroom soon, I will piss in his snow pants. “Can we please go? I have to pee,” I whine right before his lips meet mine, effectively ruining the mood.
He releases a sigh and hangs his head down, but not before I see the smile on his face. “I told you, city girl. The wilderness is your bathroom. At least until sundown.”
“Fine,” I hiss. I’ll piss in the damn woods, like an animal. I stand up and head to my side of the tree stand’s ladders, making sure I make as much noise as possible just to tick him off. To no avail, I might add, if his laughter is any indication.
Before stepping out onto the wooden ladder, I glance at the bottom and gulp when I see how far up we are in this tree. I hate heights. Taking a deep breath, I turn and put my feet on the first step. I take a second to flip the bird to a still smirking Brantley before I make my descent.
The fifth step down, I take breath and relax. The tenth step down, I’m singing “Let it Go” again. By the twelfth step down, I’m a goner. I miss the thirteenth and fall back with a loud scream.
“Eva!” I vaguely hear Brantley yell, but I don’t answer. I’m too busy staring at the ground I’m diving toward at full speed and praying to God that a trampoline will magically appear there before my face hits the ground.
By some miracle, one of my shoelaces and the bottom of one of my pant legs gets tangled up in a branch and I’m saved from my untimely death, but not before another much more evil branch gets caught in the back of my yoga pants and rips them down, snow pants and all, leaving me naked from the waist down, hanging upside down.
I look up or down or whatever and see that I’m wearing my red lace panties. See, my thinking process earlier was just because Brantley told me to wear something comfortable didn’t mean I couldn’t be prepared if, you know, something else happened. Now I don’t know if I should be glad or embarrassed by my underwear choice. When Brantley comes to stand in front of me with that stupid grin on his face, I choose the latter.
I scowl when he starts to laugh. “Mind helping me out here, jerkwad?”
“No,” he shakes his head, “Not yet. Just a couple more seconds,” he manages to say between laughs.
“I’m failing to see what’s so funny here, Brantley,” I snap. He completely ignores me as he searches his pockets for what I’m hoping is a knife to cut me down.
My eyes widen in horror when I see it’s his cell phone. “Hell no! Put that phone away right now Brantley Smith or I will make you very sorry.”
Brantley turns his head and looks me in my eyes.
“Oh yeah? What’re you gonna do from up there?” he taunts.
“I’m gonna kick your ass.” I start swinging a fist blindly, just praying I connect.
I freeze when I hear the click of his cell camera going off. “Get. Me. Down,” I growl through clenched teeth.
“All right, cool your jets, Rocky.” He laughs as he undoes my shoe string and pants from the tree. When I’m released from the tree, Brantley grabs me and sets me upright on my feet. I waste no time yanking up my pants to cover my now frozen ass.
Before he can say anything else to me, I stalk off to the truck. “Take me home,” I demand.
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that, sweet butt. It was fun, and I especially loved the show you gave at the end. Gotta say I knew you had it in you, but now that I’ve seen it firsthand, baby, I’m pretty excited to see the rest,” he yells at my back.
I squeeze my eyes closed and beg for patience. If I kill him now, I’ll never find my way out of these damn woods. “Take me home, Brantley Smith,” I yell back as his truck comes into view.
“Was it the picture? I won’t show anybody. I just wanted to commemorate our first date.” Our first and last date. I keep that to myself. I’m too busy planning my revenge. Brantley Smith better watch out.
Chapter Ten
SWAY WITH ME, BABY?
“I said to take me home, Brantley. This is not the way home,” I growl from the passenger seat.
“I’ll take you home, but first I have to stop at the bar and make sure Gilbert isn’t running the place into the ground,” he mumbles. I can hear the smile in his voice, but I don’t dare look at him. I look out my window and go back to plotting my revenge.
I’ve just decided that breaking into Brantley’s house and setting up thousands of mouse traps in his bedroom while he sleeps is too risky—not for him, but for my libido—when we pull up to The Tavern, not a car in sight.
“Looks like Gilly closed the place down early. Can you take me home now?”
“No, I still gotta check and make sure everything is shut down. Come on,” he says as he opens his door.
“No, I’m staying here,” I say stubbornly. Brantley quirks his eyebrow.
“No offense, babe, but you’re a walking fucking disaster. I ain’t leaving you alone in my truck.” I scrunch my face in outrage at his offensive, but true, view of me.
“That’s not true,” I lie.
“Oh, really?” He crosses his arms in front of his chest. The action causes his already huge muscles to bulge, and I have to mentally berate myself for practically drooling over the movement.
The drooling stops when Brantley opens his big fat mouth again. “Okay, let’s see…in the last two, almost three, weeks I’ve known you, you have managed to cause me to drop an ax on my foot, you threw up on my boots, and you crashed your truck into a tree.” He ticks each event off on a finger and with each finger that goes up, my face turns a deeper shade of red. “Fifty percent of the time you can�
��t even walk ten feet without stumbling. Oh, let’s not forget I just cut you down from a tree,” he finishes with an arrogant smile.
Okay, so maybe he has a point, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. He laughs when I jump—and stumble—out of his truck and head toward The Tavern, leaving him following me.
I’m still glaring at him when he unlocks the front door and moves aside to let me enter first. As soon as I take the sight in, I feel my eyes go wide in awe. The lighting in The Tavern is dimmed and there are candles lit and scattered all over the bar.
I can hear soft music playing in the background, but can’t get my brain to come out of its stunned coma long enough to know what song it is. All of the chairs and tables have been moved to the side except for one.
There, in the center of the bar, is one wooden table covered by a red and white checkered table cloth and two wooden chairs. In the middle of the table is a long white, lit candle, a single red rose, and a bottle of wine. There are two covered plates sitting across from each other, each in front of the two chairs.
No one has ever done anything like this for me before. I look over at him and see he’s already looking at me with caution, waiting to see if I approve. When he sees the shock in my eyes, his eyes widen slightly.
“Why?” I croak out the only word I can get past the lump in my throat.
He relaxes his body and the corner of his lips quirk. “Because you’re feisty, clumsy, and one of the most stubborn people I fucking know.” Okaaay, gonna be honest, that was not the answer I was expecting. Thankfully, before I can kick him, he continues. “You’re also sweet, kind, and passionate.”
He slowly makes his way forward and stands in front of me. “I was an ass to you when I first met you, you already know that, but what you didn’t know was, even though I acted like that, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you. Everything you did made me more attracted to you.
“I find the fact that you got all fired up about Gypsie being abused endearing. How you took one look at Apollo and connected with him—understood him, amazing. I love that, as soon as Gilbert and Ms. Cummons were in the same room together, you instantly picked up on the fact that they’ve had feelings for each other for years.
“You met my parents and within five minutes it was like you knew them your whole life. You don’t get offended by James’s outrageously inappropriate comments. In fact, you laugh right along with him. It’s all those reasons and more that I did this, sweetheart, but the newest one is because I am sincerely sorry that I laughed at you when you were hanging upside down in that tree…pant-less.”
I narrow my eyes once again when I see him choking back his laughter. “Yeah, you look sorry,” I try to say in a stern voice, but I’m unable to hold back my own smile. How could I not smile?
Brantley wraps one arm around my shoulders, pulling me to his side, and then walks us toward the table. “Come on, baby, the food’s getting cold.”
***
“He did not,” I choke out between my laughter. Brantley laughs and nods.
“I swear he did. When James is drunk, he is incapable of turning down a dare.”
We ate our delicious dinner of steak, asparagus, and baked potatoes, all of which Brantley cooked earlier, then had Ms. Cummons set up while we were in the tree.
Brantley has spent the whole meal making me laugh with stories from his childhood. I’ve spent the whole meal grinning like a fool and falling harder and harder for this man with each word he says.
Brantley wipes his mouth, then pushes his plate away. “So, tell me about you. I already know that your mom is a bitch, but that’s about it.”
I cringe inwardly. The last thing I want to do right now is rehash my pathetic life to him and ruin this night, but I know the truth will come out eventually, so I might as well get it over with.
I take a deep breath. “Well, I’m twenty-five. I have no idea where I was born, but I was raised in South Carolina. I don’t know at what age I was adopted, but it had to be pretty early in life because my only memories are those with Pearl and David Jones.
“Well, to be honest, mostly just of Pearl. She made David leave when I was three. I don’t know all the details, just that he refused to take a job that would basically mean he was gone more often than not in order to make more money. He didn’t want to be away from me that long.” I smile sadly.
“Ironic, seeing as how I haven’t seen him since the day he left. I don’t even know where he is now.” I shake my head. “Anyway, from then on it was just me and Pearl…er…mom. She hated it almost as much as I did. It was like I could never do anything right with her. I should have been taller. I shouldn’t wear my hair like this.” I tug the end of my long hair.
“Some days, I swear she hated me. I was never enough. As dramatic as it sounds, it was like her life goal was to tear me down.” I’m looking at Brantley, but I’m so lost in memories that I don’t react to the emotions playing on his face—anger and sadness.
“I remember one time we were driving home. I think I was twelve, maybe? Anyway, I had a nanny growing up, Nina. Gosh, she was like a second mom to me. Actually, most of the time, she was like my only mom. Well, Nina bought me this beautiful pink dress. I swear it was something you would see on a princess. I remember the skirt poofed out at the bottom and was just full of ruffles. The first time I put it on, I just twirled around and around in front of a mirror. I loved that dress.
“Nina did my hair in these long, tight curls and put a pink ribbon in it. I felt like a princess. Pearl and I were on our way to another social event. I was sitting in the front seat and I flipped down the visor mirror to look at my hair one more time before we arrived. Out of nowhere, Pearl reached over and snapped the mirror closed and looked at me. Her eyes were just so full of venom when she said, ‘I don’t know why you keep looking at yourself. You’re not the prettiest thing to walk this earth.’ It wasn’t the first mean thing she said to me, hell, it wasn’t even the meanest thing she said to me.
“I usually didn’t let it get to me. Just brushed it off and told myself that she didn’t really mean it, that she loved me and just had a hard time showing it, but that was the first time I didn’t brush it off, that was the first time I actually believed her.
“From then on, it was always Pearl tearing me down and me trying to win her approval. I did what she wanted me to, dressed how she wanted me to. The only thing I did that she didn’t approve of was hang out with Charlotte. I wouldn’t let her take her away. No matter how hard she fought for it, and boy did she fight me on it.
“It’s the only reason why I agreed to marry Elliot, because Pearl wanted me to.” I stop talking when I feel a change in the air. Seconds later, I realize I just blurted out something I never intended to say at all.
When I look at Brantley, I can sense the tension rolling off him in waves. “You were engaged?” he asks quietly.
I nod, then add nonchalantly, “Mmhm. I thought I told you that?”
“No. I’m pretty sure I would remember something like that, babe,” he says. Yeah, I’m not going to be able to cute my way out of this one.
“Hey, don’t go getting all mad at me, Mr. Smith. It’s not like we’ve known each other very long, and in the short time, we didn’t really hit it off. I wasn’t about to just tell you every sad detail of my life,” I argue in my defense.
I know I’ve won this battle when I see him relax. “You’re right. So, why didn’t you and him work out?” he asks. I smirk at the venom in his voice when he says him. Kind of cute, seeing him all jealous.
“Elliot. His name is Elliot and—”
“Elliot?” Brantley laughs. “What kind of preppy name is that?”
“Shut up! I didn’t date him for his name. I dated him because I thought he was a nice guy.”
“You thought he was nice? What made you think otherwise?”
“Well, Brantley, it became obvious that he wasn’t the nice guy I thought he was when I walked into our condo and looked at our couch to see
him screwing one of my friends on it.” I smile a very mocking smile.
“Asshole,” Brantley spits out.
“That he was.”
“Not just him, Eva. Both of them. Your mom and preppy are assholes. You’re beautiful, and I may not know your mom well, but from what you’ve told me, I can tell you she’s fucking jealous. You got this light in you, baby. When you’re around people, it draws them to you, because just being around you and that fucking light makes them feel better. I’m speaking from experience, babe. That light is fucking addictive.”
My insides melt, but I don’t get a chance to respond before Brantley is out of his seat and pulling me out of mine. When he stands me up in front of him, he uses his pointer finger to push some of my bangs out of my eye before he cups both sides of my neck. I can feel him running his thumb in small but soft lines up and down my throat.
“It sucks that Pearl hid the truth about Robert from you, and it really fucking sucks that it took him dying for you to learn the truth, but I can honestly say that you strutting your fine ass in this bar has been the best thing to happen to me in so fucking long, Eva. So, right now, I’m gonna kiss you, then I’m going to take your hand and lead you over to the dance floor so I can hold you while we dance. Then, if you say yes, I’m going to take you home and spend the rest of the night proving to you just how beautiful you are.”
“Okay,” I whisper,
“Okay,” Brantley whispers back.
He places a soft kiss on my lips, then takes my hand and leads me out onto the dance floor. When we get to the center of the wooden makeshift dance floor, Brantley gives me another soft kiss on the tip of my nose before going back behind the bar to mess with his radio.
Seconds later, Billy Currington’s “Let Me Down Easy” starts playing over the bar’s speakers. Butterflies once again take flight in my stomach when Brantley makes his way over to me with a heart-stopping smile.
My knees go weak and I giggle when he takes my hand and says softly, “Sway with me, baby?”
Love Untamed Page 7