“Is this everything?” I surveyed the haul, but I didn’t see the main species I was looking for.
He pushed his worn navy ball cap back on his head. “I had to order four of them from Florida. Shipment got delayed. They should be here in a few days.”
“Oh.” To hide my disappointment, I pulled on some gloves and busied myself with the new arrivals.
He looked around at the orderly rows of plants and the newer seedlings I’d separated into pots. Just in the past handful of days, he’d helped me arrange the greenhouse to my liking and provided me with all the tools I’d asked for—except pruning shears. Apparently, sharp weapons were forbidden.
“Is there anything I can do for you today?” He slipped a toothpick from one side of his smile to the other.
I pointed to another list on the prep table. “I want some seeds, if that’s possible.”
“Sure.” He swiped the list and skimmed it. “These should be easy to get. The heirloom ones will require a bit more searching, but I should be able to scare some up.”
“Great.”
“Anything else?”
“Not right now.” I squinted at the row of tropical plants. “I think we may have a clogged mister, but I won’t know until this afternoon. I’ve adjusted their watering interval, and one is acting skittish.”
“Just let me know.” He stared through the glass toward the tree line. “I’ll be out in the woods a bit today, but all you have to do is let Timothy know you need me, and I can get back here in a jiffy.”
“What are you doing in the woods?” I reached past him for a smaller hand shovel.
He dropped his gaze to my ankle. “Just checking some lines. Maintenance.”
“Oh.” I grimaced.
“Sorry.” His sheepishness didn’t diminish the fact that he was out checking my prison bars to make sure they’d hold.
“Any chance you’ll turn all those monitors off?”
“None.” Sebastian’s voice cut off Gerry’s reply.
Gerry tapped the bill of his hat before turning and striding out of the greenhouse.
“Getting your creepy jollies by watching me garden again?”
“Just checking in between meetings.”
I glanced toward my tomato plants and frowned. A white spot on one of the stems I’d noticed earlier in the morning had doubled in size.
“Problem?”
I leaned down and inspected the plant. “Some sort of mold, I suspect. I’d need a microscope to know for sure.” Walking down the row, I scrutinized the other tomatoes. None of them seemed to have the infection.
He was silent as I pulled the problem plant and set it on a bare patch of table several feet from the other tomatoes. Did the seedlings still at the Trenton greenhouse have the same issue?
“You slept well last night.” I couldn’t miss the satisfaction in his voice.
“I must have been worn out from all your psychoanalysis. Emphasis on psycho.” For the past three nights, he’d held me in his arms and told me bits of information he’d picked up about me during his stalking efforts. Then he explained how each fact meant that we were perfect together while I denied it all until I fell asleep.
He laughed. “You are far more quick-witted than a simple schoolteacher should be.”
“And it’s far easier to run circles around a CEO than it should be.” I forced my lips to stay in a neutral line, though a smile threatened.
“I have half a mind to come home early today.” His playful tone spurred a mix of emotions inside. Dread wasn’t among them, and I cursed that fact.
I shook my head. “This is my time. I’m busy.”
“You wouldn’t make time for me?”
“Definitely not.” I finished my inspection and returned to the greenhouse’s new additions.
“I’m wounded.” His tone was laughing, but I couldn’t tell if he was laughing at or with me.
“Good.”
“My next meeting is about to begin.”
“In that case, my day is looking up.” I ran my fingers down the satiny leaves of a dwarf rhododendron. Despite my attempts at focusing on anything other than him, I still waited for his voice to pulse through the speakers.
He didn’t disappoint. “I suspect you’ll change your tune once I have you in my arms tonight.”
“You’re right. My tune will change to a snore.”
“I doubt that quite a bit.”
“You keep doubting, and I’ll keep plotting ways to knife you and run.”
His low growl set the air around me on fire. “I’d chase you. Catch you. I think you’d like that. For me to chase you again. But this time, instead of giving you a ride back to the house, I’d let you take your aggressions out on me. Every last bit of energy expended as you worked my cock. Out in the open, fucking like animals.”
Wicked words funneled into my ears and deeper, landing in the dark depths of my soul. I hoped he couldn’t see the heat in my face, the rush of arousal that flooded my skin.