8. Asher

CHAPTER 8

ASHER

There’s no fuckin’way I’m going to be able to resist her. That’s what’s going through my head as I walk up the stairs to my bedroom. I barely get into my room and I have my sweatpants and underwear down my thighs and my hand wrapped around my girth. Precum is already oozing from my hard tip, and I know it won’t take long to find my release.

Talking to Madelyn and being this close to her is playing havoc on my whole system. There’s no way I can walk around the orchard with a hard-on all damn day, and I try to convince myself that this is the responsible thing to do, but I know I’m doing it purely for my own satisfaction.

I start to stroke myself from root to tip as I think about Madelyn. I have no trouble at all picturing her long red hair wrapped around my hand or how her long legs would feel wrapped around my waist.

I close my eyes and lean my head against the closed door. Images from this morning in her tiny T-shirt as she stretched to reach for a mug play over in my mind. It doesn’t take any time before I’m exploding in my hand. I keep jacking, thinking if I get it all out then it will cure me of these thoughts that I know I shouldn’t be having about my new employee. When I’ve completely exerted myself, I slump over and hope I can get past this and move on about my day without more thoughts of her.

I get cleaned up and ready for the day. I take my time in the home office, catching up on emails and returning phone calls. When I walk out to the orchard, I keep repeating to myself: She’s fourteen years younger than me. She’s an employee. She’s rich and she doesn’t belong here. She’ll make it a week, tops.

By the time I get heavily into the orchard, I realize that without even thinking about it, I’m going straight to where I know Madelyn will be working. I tell myself that I have a responsibility to make sure she’s doing things safely, but I’m a fool. I know exactly why I’m looking for her.

When I see her, I grab a pruning saw off the tool cart set up near her. If I’m going to make sure she’s doing things right, I might as well work.

I stop at the tree next to her and get to work. She breaks the silence first. “So you always come out here and work in the fields, or is it just because you want to make sure I’m not destroying your peach trees?”

I keep working with my eyes on the tree. “No, after yesterday, I figured out you know what you’re doing.”

“Well, well, well, is that a compliment, Mr. Wild?”

I grunt instead of answering.

She stops and turns, resting her hand holding the pruning shears on her hip. “Seriously, what are you doing out here?”

I keep working. “Last I checked, this was my farm. I thought I could go anywhere.”

She stands there for a few seconds before she gets back to work. We work together in silence for awhile, but it’s fine because it’s a comfortable silence. When I catch myself staring at her, I turn another direction and work at an angle so that she’s not in my sight.

She starts to talk. First, it’s random facts about peach trees. And then she starts talking about the different soils and approaches to keeping it healthy. I try to keep my guard up and stay aloof, but the more she talks, the more I start to open up to her. By lunchtime, she has me laughing openly, and I’m getting strange looks from the other workers.

“Are you going in for lunch?”

She pulls a protein bar from the zippered pouch at her waist. “I’m going to eat this. I have an extra. Do you want it?”

I tilt my head to look at her. “You know you can take a lunch break, right? Everyone does.”

She unwraps the bar and takes a bite. After chewing and swallowing, she covers her mouth when she talks. “I know, but since I ate a big breakfast, I wouldn’t be able to eat more than a protein bar anyway. This is plenty. But you’re a big guy. You should probably get something to eat. We don’t want you fainting in the Georgia heat.”

I look up at the sky and back at her. “It’s March. It’s not hot.”

She laughs. “Maybe to you. For someone from the North, it’s hot.”

Shit. I didn’t think of that. “Do you have water?”

She points to a sports bottle over on the cart. “Yep.”

I hold my hand out. “Yeah, I’ll take the bar.”

She hands it to me, and I make sure not to let our hands touch. I know I’m tempting fate standing close to her; I don’t need to add to it by touching her too.

As we’re eating the protein bars, she looks at me skeptically. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Uh, sure, what’s up?”

I swear if she asks me to take her right here, right now, I won’t be able to tell her no. I won’t want to.

“Well, when I was touring yesterday with Beau, I saw some land on the backside of the property… across the river.”

I nod, unable to stop the way I tense up. That property brings up a lot of memories that I try not to think about.

She notices it because she holds a hand up. “You don’t have to tell me. I was just curious.”

I clear my throat. “Yeah, it’s our land. Well, sort of. It was never able to be cultivated for the trees, and before our parents’ death, they were trying to donate it to the town to use as a park.” I take a deep breath. “But it’s been held up by developers, and so it’s just been sitting there.”

She lowers her eyes to the ground and then back to me. Her eyes search mine and have so much care in them, I swear I can feel it. “I’m sorry about your parents. I read about them when I was researching the Wild Peach. They seem like they were wonderful people.”

“Yeah, they were the best. We didn’t travel and have all the new things growing up, but we never went a day without knowing we were loved.”

She blinks and hesitates. “When did they…?”

Her voice trails off, and I tell her quietly. “They were killed in a car accident 20 years ago.”

She shakes her head side to side. “I’m so sorry, Asher.”

“Thank you. I still miss them, but yeah, the park has sat there for—”

She interrupts me and exclaims. “For twenty years? It’s been empty for twenty years?”

I nod. “Yep. Crazy, right? We tried, but there’s nothing we can do but wait. In the meantime, we do the upkeep on the property. Mom and Dad would want us to do that.”

She starts to walk toward me, and I brace myself. I’m sure she’s coming to hug me, and when she gets a foot away, my phone rings and effectively stops her. I pull it from my pocket. “I gotta take this.”

She nods. “Sure.”

I walk away from where she’s standing and answer the phone.

It’s Bruce, one of our neighbors, asking if he can borrow one of our tractors. He’s going on about all the service and maintenance he’s had to do on his, and while he talks, I’m looking around the orchard. A few of the guys are working a few rows over, but they keep looking toward Madelyn. It’s obvious they’re working their way closer to her.

Madelyn is clueless and is leaning on the tree reaching for a limb to prune. She’s focused on what she’s doing, and I’m focused on the one man that is staring at her as if he has a right to.

“Asher. Did you hear me?”

I completely forgot I was on the phone. “Yeah, Bruce. You can use the tractor, come get it. I gotta go.”

I hang up the phone and stuff it into my pocket. I stomp over to where the men are working and block their view of Madelyn. “Rick, you need me to find you somewhere else to work?”

He shakes his head. “No sir. I was just…”

I lean in. “She is an employee of the Wild Peach. She deserves your respect, and I need you to keep your eyes on the trees and the peaches… that’s all. Have you got that?”

The other men have moved away, acting as if they have no idea what’s going on here. But Rick is nodding his head. “Yes, sir. I got it.”

I tell him, “Get to work.”

I take two steps away before stopping. “Pass it on, too, Rick. If people like working here, they’ll keep their eyes and hands off of her.”

Rick is a good ten feet away. “I got it, boss. I’ll tell them.”

I curse under my breath and look at Madelyn, who is staring at me with her mouth hanging open. I’m not sure what’s come over me, but I’m usually a patient guy. I don’t yell, but it seems that jealousy brings it out of me.

I make my way back over to Madelyn and pick up the pruning shears. “What?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing.”

I shrug. “He was staring at your ass,” I explain to her as if it makes perfect sense for me to jump all over the guy for it.

I can see the glint of a challenge in her eye. “Oh yeah, well, I’m pretty sure you’ve been checking out my ass all morning too.”

I grit my teeth. I can’t even deny it. I’ve been half hard the whole time. It seems my idea that jacking off would cure that little problem was wrong. “Shit, I’m sorry, Madelyn. You should be able to work and do your job without assholes leering at you. I’m sorry.”

She smiles. “It doesn’t bother me when you do it. I like having your eyes on me.”

So of course my eyes travel down her body, and she knows I’m doing it because she sticks her ass out a little bit. I’m about to say fuck it and walk over to her when Beau hollers at me from the entrance of the orchard. I’m not sure if I should feel like I’m being saved or if I’m upset that this conversation is over. “I’ll be back,” I tell Madelyn.

I meet Beau halfway. He gives me an update on the irrigation system, and I let him know about our neighbor borrowing a tractor. By the time I make it back to Madelyn, the moment from earlier is lost.

We work side by the side the remainder of the day and walk back toward the house.

“What do you want for dinner?” I ask her.

She skips to keep up with me, and I slow down. She smiles when she realizes what I’m doing. “Well, you don’t have to keep cooking for me. I saw a lasagna in the freezer. How about if I put that in the oven?”

I shrug. “I can do it.”

She grabs on to my arm, and we both stop walking. “I don’t mind. You shouldn’t have to do it all.”

There’s a big part of me that appreciates her willingness to take on things and just jump in. When you’re so used to just doing it all, it’s sort of nice to have one less thing to think about. “Okay, sounds good.”

We walk the rest of the way to the house. Both of us have our hands swinging back and forth between us, and I feel like a teenager or something the way I’m wishing they would touch. What the hell is wrong with me?

When we get to the house, she stops next to me.

“Okay, well, I’m going to get that lasagna.”

I pull a twig from her hair while staring into her eyes. “Okay.”

She doesn’t move, though. The chemistry between us is palpable, and all I would have to do is lean toward her just a little and I would be able to touch her. I’m about to do just that until she giggles and shakes her head, backing away from me. “Well, I guess I’ll get started.”

I stay rooted in my spot as she walks through the house into the kitchen. From this angle, I can see her working, and if I don’t walk away now, I’m not sure I’ll be able to. I point toward the stairs. “I’m going to go up and shower.”

She holds up the box. “It says it will take fifty minutes in the oven.”

I nod. “Okay, I’ll be back.”

I take the stairs two at a time and consider the fact that I have fifty minutes. That’s perfect time for me to calm my nerves and shower before dinner. I need to prepare myself for spending more time with Madelyn anyway.