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Duncan

I have no idea what I’m doing. I just knew the moment I laid eyes on this sweet girl that I wasn’t letting her go. Deep down, I know I can’t. That if I do, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.

I’ve never felt like this with anyone before. Shit, I’m thirty-six years old and still a virgin. I had no intention of that being the case but over the years, women just didn’t speak to me. Neither did men so I figured I just wasn’t interested in sex for some odd reason.

I put all my focus into my business once I finished college, wanting to be even further away from the major cities than I managed by going to school in Raleigh, North Carolina compared to Philadelphia where I grew up. Sure, Raleigh itself is smaller, but add in the surrounding metro area and it felt just as big. That wasn’t what I wanted, so I headed even further south. I landed here, certain I wasn’t going to stay for long, but somehow I could never force myself to leave. Now, ten years later, I know it’s so I was here to meet Serenia.

I’m hoping based on the fact that she’s sitting next to me right now, that it means she’s feeling the same thing I am, because if not…I don’t know how I’ll get through the days without her. I want to wrap her up even tighter than I had her earlier and never let go. For once, business wasn’t what was most important. Getting the new shrubs and trees planted wasn’t my priority. Getting to her, to learn who she was and how to make her mine was the only thing on my mind.

I pull into the parking lot of the greenhouse, parking back behind the building where the rest of the trucks we own are situated. The guys use them for jobs for our landscaping services or to make deliveries for larger orders or items, including the huge planters I let one of the local artists sell from my shop. Nina is the only woman that I’ve ever had regular contact with, but even with her, I’ve felt nothing. Unlike with Serenia.

Sure, Serenia has her own very unique type of beauty. Fuck her hair is something else. I’ve never imagined a woman with multicolored hair would be the one to sway me, but I want to delve my hands into that deep turquoise blue mass and see if the pops of burnt red that remind me of the sun shining through the fall leaves is just on the top or if that color is picked up elsewhere. I want to stare into her golden green eyes, see them light up the way they did when I mentioned the greenhouse to her.

“This is yours?” Serenia asks when I come around, helping her out of the truck, making sure there aren’t any limbs strewn around the area. She’s wearing little flip flops that won’t keep her pretty little feet safe if she stepped on them. My workers are supposed to cut them blunt, but that doesn’t always happen, and sometimes, they drop some when they’re cleaning out the trucks to take them to the wood chipper to make mulch.

“This is mine,” I tell her, motioning towards the greenhouse, fenced in yard that holds the plants that don’t require the steady temps and sunlight regulation, along with the office building that’s set up for the landscaping business.

We go in through the backdoor of the greenhouse, and I give Chris a nod when his brow lifts in surprise towards me and then with a bit of hunger towards my girl. He’s likely eight or nine years younger than I am, and the women that come in flock to his side with his pretty boy face, but Serenia barely gives him a glance as she slips her hand into mine.

“Hey boss, thought you were going to be at the park all day,” Chris says, giving Serenia a welcoming smile, but instead of responding to it, she turns further my way. The green of her top blending in well with the leaves of plants surrounding us.

“I ran into Serenia and am going to show her around instead. Take Paul with you and get things handled for me,” I tell him, passing along the keys to the truck, a warning in my gaze as his eyes try to slip back to my girl.

“You’re the boss,” he says with a shrug before heading out to the front to grab the other guy and I move us through towards the register area to see Nina. She works part-time for me whenever she’s not home designing her new planters, and it’s worked well for both of us the last few years.

“Hey boss, who’s your friend?” Nina asks, giving Serenia a smile before looking at me in complete shock, her eyes widening even further when she notes my hand resting on Serenia’s hip. I get it. I never show interest in anyone, let alone let a woman into my personal space, or touch them in any way that could be construed as intimate.

“This is Serenia. I ran into her at the park, and she was excited to see the greenhouse. Chris and Paul are going to head back that way and do the repairs. If you need any help, call Joe. I know he’ll gladly accept the extra hours,” I explain, and she just nods, looking between me and Serenia still.

“We can do this later if it’s not…”

“Now’s perfect,” I tell my girl, stopping her offer before it’s fully out there. “My employees can handle things themselves.”

“We can,” Nina agrees, giving us another grin. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, I’m Nina since it seems the boss isn’t going to do introductions. I work the register whenever I’m not working on my pottery, so if you have any questions when he’s not here, just let me know. I may not know everything about plants, but I can give you all the details on Duncan he won’t want you to know.”

“Nina…” I warn as Serenia’s brow lifts a hint my way at that. “She’s teasing, honey. I’m a monk. Unless I’m working, going to a meeting for the Small Business Owners Association, or hanging out with my friends, I’m home taking care of the grounds and plants there.”

“It’s true,” Nina says with a laugh. “Even at the meetings for the association, he never pays attention to the women. I guess they were all a little too basic for him. He needs some color in his life that’s not from a plant though.”

“Enough,” I tell her, before glancing down into Serenia’s sweet eyes, thankful they’re still the same happy, content as they were earlier. “You ready for the tour, honey?”

“Please,” Serenia says, giving Nina a nod with a sweet smile as we walk away from her, and for the next two hours, I show off every inch of what I’ve built for my business.

“I have more guys that work just for the landscaping part of the business. They do everything from laying grass or sod, to planting trees and shrubs and flowers, to mowing and trimming. That’s actually the first part of the business I opened. We started with mowing services, then upped it to the actual landscaping work. I got tired of having to delay jobs because whatever I’d ordered hadn’t arrived on time, so then I started cultivating and growing my own out on my property. When it became a more regular thing, I bought this space, added the greenhouse and yard.”

“It’s incredible. I’ve never seen so many varieties of flowers before. I love it,” she added with a huge smile that made my heart completely hers. “Do you still grow things out at your place?”

“I do. I have my own greenhouse there too. I grow a lot of flowers there, delphiniums, orchids, and roses of all colors and varieties. Would you like to see them too?” I ask, holding my breath for her answer, because if she says no, I’ll definitely be disappointed, but I’ll also understand.

She just met me. She has to be visiting town, because I know I’d have seen her before now is she wasn’t. It’d be one thing for me to just go over to someone’s house when we just met, but I’m six-four and a half, work a physically demanding job, so I’m in shape. Serenia is tiny in every way, likely no more than five-five. She can’t weigh but a hundred or so pounds. Her not trusting a near stranger is smart—well, as long as it’s anyone other than me that is, because I’ll never hurt her.

Adore her the rest of my life—oh yeah. Protect her and that happy smile on her lips—fuck yeah. Hurt her—not a chance in hell.

“I’d love to,” she answers me, and I can’t hold back the smile that hits, a warmth spreading through me when hers grows in return, and I tuck her in next to me, heading for my car to take her home.

Her eyes widen a hint when I open the door of my SUV, and I lift her up into it since it sits higher than the pickup. “I use the truck for work, this is my personal vehicle.”

“It’s fancy,” she says looking at the screen on the dashboard that lit up when the door opened, the car picking up the signal from the key fob.

“It’s more comfortable than the truck,” I tell her before heading around to ensure it’s not too hot inside the car. I don’t want her sweating because the leather seats stay warm with the sun shining into the car.

We talk as we head to the house, me trying to get a feel of how long she’ll be in town for, “Do you have plans for while you’re here?”

“Not really. My friends and I were able to get away from home for the week,” she says, and I hope that week isn’t almost over.

“Did you all go anywhere before here?” I question when she doesn’t elaborate.

“No, this was our first stop. We didn’t know what we were going to do yet. We were just celebrating the fact that we weren’t there,” she adds and the way she says it, makes it seem like she doesn’t want to go back—ever—and I’m more than okay with that.

“What made you choose our little town? We get a pretty decent turnout from tourists through here but it’s not one of the main spots for the younger crowd to visit.”

“We were just drawn here I guess. It wasn’t too far to get to, but far enough away from home that we’d be able to do what we wanted,” Serenia says, her tone once again telling me even more than her words, although they’re pretty telling themselves.

“I get that,” I offer, giving her hand a little squeeze as I turn onto my driveway. Serenia lets out a little gasp as she takes in the house. It’s not quite as large as my friend Dylan’s is, but I don’t have quite the fortune he does. He’s owned several restaurants over the years, settled here about eight years ago and we became friends quickly when we met. Our other good friend is Dane, who moved here about seven years ago. He owns a café where he sells his own coffee brand, but his real passion is roasting coffee beans to create specialty brews. He has his own place that’s similar in size to mine, but with less extra land.

My property is large. I’ve expanded it a couple times since I first bought the house. That was just before Dylan moved to town, and I renovated it, plus added on the greenhouse, and built a large dock for the lake as well as an entertainment area that houses a grill, a separate seating space, tables, and even has a little gazebo for when the sun’s a bit too much.

I don’t really know why I built that part so large since it’s usually just Dylan, Dane, and me here when we can manage it. Then again, seeing the awe on Serenia’s face as we pull around the side of the house to park, I think it’s another of those things that was for her. If her friends stick around town, and then meet someone, they’ll likely come over, which means another two to four others here. I won’t hold my breath for Dylan or Dane meeting women—then again, I’m sure they’d be thinking the same thing about me and here I am with Serenia, so who knows.

“This is all yours?” Serenia asks when I walk us up onto the back porch to show off the outside and greenhouse before I do something crazy like pulling her inside and up to my bedroom right this moment.

“Just waiting for the woman of my dreams to share it with,” I tell her, looking straight into her eyes so she knows I mean her.

“What if the woman of your dreams was a little…different?” she says, making my brow tick up a bit not understanding what she means, or the slight seriousness of her tone.

“Different how? Doesn’t want to conform to society standards by getting a job, or having ‘normal’ hair, or wearing makeup?” I suggest, not really sure what else there could possibly be.

“There’s that, yeah,” she states, and I draw her up against me tighter, sliding my hand under the edge of the bag she’s been carrying, and I’m a bit surprised by its weight as I set it down on the table next to us on the covered back porch.

“You are absolutely stunning, honey. If you want to dye your hair every color in the rainbow, I won’t care as long as it makes you happy. What Nina said earlier is true. I’ve never met a woman that’s interested me before you. Your hair color isn’t going to bother me one little bit. If you hate wearing makeup, I’m not going to argue over it, or if you love it and buy tons of it and just aren’t wearing any today, then hey, I’ll make sure you have my card to go buy it.”

“Card?” Serenia says, her brows scrunching a bit more as I brush the red pieces of hair from her face.

“My debit card,” I expand but her brows are still furled and that makes mine lift a bit in return. “It’s a card with a strip or chip that contains the bank account information that you use instead of checks.” Her expression still doesn’t relax, and it makes me second guess her meaning of different now. “Fuck…how old are you, honey?” I question, swearing she has to be over eighteen but needing to hear it, confirm it.

“Twenty-one,” she answers calming the immense worry running through me, but the questions still remain. Who doesn’t know what a debit card is, let alone a bank account?

“You don’t have a bank account though?” I guess it’s possible she’s from some sort of secular type group that don’t believe in banks, but I thought even the stricter Amish and Mennonites used them these days. Her outfit definitely doesn’t shout religious follower—as in the ones that cover themselves head to toe—to me. Not with the tank top and shorts showing off her long legs to me at least.