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JANAE BARELY RESTRAINED herself from slamming cabinet doors as she put the groceries away. She so wanted to be an asshole and make noise for the hell of it, but she wasn’t unwise either. For now the stupid man had been pretty calm. For all she knew he could go from unbothered to outright violent in an instant. Done with the groceries she went to the bedroom on the ground level, thankful it was on the other side of the house from the office. Once inside she let go and banged everything she could, while putting up her clothes and getting organized.
Which bedroom she wanted was a mote point now. She wanted her sleeping quarters as far away from him as possible. Janae was finishing up around six when her phone rang. It was Jonathan with profuse apologies as he confirmed that Damond was the last owner who had bought into the property last spring. Reiterating the rest of them never used the place in the winter, which was why he’d suggested this time period to her in the first place.
She thanked him for getting back to her and told him it was fine, that she was sure the two of them could just share the space and hung up. For one brief moment earlier she had been tempted to use the presence of this man as an excuse to run home. But that was why she was taking this trip, to stop her procrastination on completing this project. Her lack of motivation, a first in her life at thirty-seven, was a real concern to her.
Was she burning out in her career already? Janae had compiled all her data almost a year ago, plenty of time to sort it out and write the book. Instead she had been extremely lazy before even starting, getting only two chapters of the book done before fizzling out. That’s why she was going to stay here, no matter what annoying man she had to share the cabin with. After all, it wasn’t like he could make her leave, could he?
What she’d seen of the man left no doubt he was strong enough to physically drag her from the house. She’d noticed once he was downstairs the man was at least 6’1 to her 5’6. And the bare deep brown chest she’d seen was solid and gently muscled. Janae could tell even dressed the rest of his body seemed to be in shape too. Conversely, he could simply call the police as she had threatened to do on him.
His face was good looking which in her mind made everything worse. A strong jawline framed his attractive lips, the same ones sending all the snide remarks her way. The thought of staying alone in a house with this fine brother made her nervous. Which was idiotic, since his looks should have no bearing on whether she felt comfortable. What should matter was that he was a total stranger and she was miles from anyone. But she could admit after the shock of seeing him in bed she’d felt a tingle of awareness, and when he grabbed her hand it triggered the feeling again. Attraction to the man already seemed to be messing up her focus, which she absolutely did not need.
Janae had been told that internet and cell service could be spotty, especially in bad weather. At the time it hadn’t bothered her, figuring it would be less temptation to indulge in distractions from her work. Since the bulk of her research was done, there was no great need for internet anyway. The only thing that kept her from panicking and running out the door was that her family knew where she was. Jonathan had been told Damond was here and the man was listed as an owner and had apparently scheduled with the inept Amanda like she had. So there was a mile long trail if he decided to kill her and dispose of the body in the woods. It wouldn’t keep her from being dead, but at least her killer would get caught.
There was no sense in worrying about it now. Damond had rightfully pointed out that she wasn’t going to be able to travel anywhere this evening. Janae could have made it to town and found a hotel if she had left at once, but now it was completely dark and the snow had piled up since she’d been here. Janae was stuck. Deciding she was finally hungry, Janae made her way to the kitchen to heat up a quick dinner. It had been one hell of a long day.
* * *
DAMOND HAD BEEN WRITING for the last three and a half hours. Well if you could call writing a paragraph, followed by staring off in space for twenty minutes then repeating it all writing. He wanted to blame it on the surprise trespasser but couldn’t exactly. He’d been here a week and for the most part it had been the same before the uptight professor arrived. Though her mere presence definitely wasn’t helping his concentration.
He’d managed to get two and a half chapters done since he’d arrived on Christmas day. Though he cut himself a bit of slack since he’d also done a lot of in-depth outlining. The reality was he needed to quickly get his mind back on track and fingers flying across the keyboard. He was on a tight deadline, wanting to release a minimum of two books before the year was out, and was hoping to write a third.
Tommy, a close friend of his and a part-time writer, had listened to him complain about being in a writing slump, how he needed to put out more books before his fans lost interest. His boy had suggested he do a private writing retreat so that he could focus with no distractions. That’s how his name had gotten passed along to Dave, the guy who let Tommy use his place once a couple years back.
Dave had been cool and the more they talked Damond shared that he took this craft seriously. At that point Dave suggested he buy into the timeshare. Their contract was set up for four people max and Dave was convinced this would be a great place for him to come once or even several times a year to hammer out some novels. At first he’d had doubts it would be worthwhile. But the more the man talked about how the other three rarely made use of it, Damond began to re-think the proposition.
Also Dave swore it was a quiet, private place year-round, yet very updated so it didn’t have that Misery feel to it. A place away from the hustle and bustle of Southfield had sounded nice. His city had swelled in population in the last twenty odd years, which meant more people, restaurants, businesses and nightlife. So a place where it would be just him, a computer and nature might be the thing to jumpstart his imagination. Damond sorely needed something to work, since his creative ideas seemed to have taken a vacation from him.
So he had gotten out his checkbook which was wavering on the downside and took the plunge. Feeling oddly excited to turn into the trite “hermit” writer of movies, though he would prefer not to turn insane or any of that shit. However, producing a lot of content which happened to be great stories was one thing. They also had to be stories that would sell and fatten his pockets at the end of the day. What was great to a writer vs. a reader often didn’t match up. Which was why he didn’t need the added issue of Janae to deal with.
He could already tell the woman was going to be a problem. Most women would have run from the house as soon as they saw him. Instead she’d thought it prudent to stay, wake him up, and confront him. She was the exact type of character that would be killed off in his books. On top of it all, the woman had the nerve to be bossy, telling him he was leaving. As if she wasn’t the one who just arrived. This woman was trouble.
Hell, she was probably crazy.
What woman would want to drive all the way to nowhere to spend eight damn weeks by herself in the winter? Damond was a night owl, and his creative juices flowed easier in the late evening and night than the daytime. He’d stayed up the night before until four a.m. and gotten up a bit after ten this morning. Which was why he’d been tired and taken a nap around three-thirty before being rudely awakened an hour later by Janae. Taken by surprise and still a bit sleepy he’d found the intruder amusing if slightly annoying at first. But the more he thought about it the more he was becoming irate.
This was supposed to be his writing haven away from people, noise, and damn sure from women. He didn’t think it was a coincidence that his writing had dried up at the end of his relationship a year ago. Even before that, dealing with Veronica’s drama and extreme need for attention had been a drain on his productivity. Damond had been sad to see her go, but not enough to even try getting her to stay. Now the lovely if clueless Ms. Williams was determined to be a pain in his ass, he just knew it. As if he’d conjured her up she called out his name then a knock sounded at the door, opening a second later. Sighing, Damond swiveled around from the desk.
“You have a horrible habit of opening doors, I see.”
“Sorry, when you didn’t answer I didn’t know if you were still in here or what.”
Her voice didn’t sound sorry to him, as she stepped inside leaving the door wide-open. Did she think he was going to ravish her and needed an escape route? Well at least she didn’t have a weapon in her hand this time. Damond ran his eyes over her assessing. Out of the bulky winter coat he was able to get a better look.
She was about average height and a little slimmer than he preferred in her black loose-fit jeans and knitted green sweater. Having a handful of ass and chest for a man to grab, and really that was all you needed. Now her face was pretty as a picture. But her hair was pulled back into a low tight bun making her look serious, and making it hard for him to gage her age. Her lips were a nice natural shade and had some meat on them too. Normally, Janae was enough of a looker that she should be worried about him, but in this situation he wanted nothing to do with her.
“Well, as you see I’m still here. What do you want?”
“I just wanted to check in. I’ve settled into the bedroom down here and took myself on a little tour of the rest of the house. It’s just as nice in person as all the photos.”
“Yeah I like it, glad it’s mine.”
“Anyway. Just wanted you to know I’m turning in. It’s been a long day.”
“You do that, so you can be nice and fresh for the drive home tomorrow.”
Janae ignored his pointed comment. Looked like the unconcerned man had turned testy. He might as well get used to it. They would be a thorn in each other’s side.
“I do want to be fresh, so I can get to work on my research book. I never asked earlier but what type of book are you working on?”
“Understandable, as you were too busy threatening me with the police. I write murderous thrillers.”
“Really...”
Her voice wasn’t shocked nor interested, merely dry and dismissive. Which didn’t surprise him. Many academic people were literary snobs when it came to fiction writing. Damond felt a smile returning to his face, as he stood and walked around the desk.
“You know, stalkers, psychos, characters who keep body parts as souvenirs.” He had backed her out the door. “Folks who hold their victims captive in out of the way places, much like this one. Then leisurely have their way with them for days, months and in a few cases even years. Anyway, sleep well Professor.”
Damond shut the door in her alarmed face. Let her think on that while she slept.