Page 39 of Trick or Tease

SAbrINA

T he next few days was crazy. With Halloween around the corner, everyone was flocking to the farm. The teenagers all looking for a little fun came back several times. They loved all the extras we kept adding. I felt like I was literally the one that lost my head most nights.

But it wasn’t just being busy that was making me feel like I was being pulled apart.

It was Garrett’s absence. He was at the farm but not really.

Not like he was. He wasn’t outright avoiding me but he was always just busy enough to slip away whenever I got close.

It was subtle, but I noticed. God, did I notice.

I was pretty sure I knew what the cold shoulder was about.

After I saw that appraiser chick, I got in my own head. Convinced myself Garrett was up to no good and was just using me for a piece of ass. I rejected him.

But I was over it. I had thought better of it and decided I was totally okay with him using my body. Because honestly, I was using his. I missed his body. I wanted his body. Hell, I craved the damn thing.

And now he was punishing me and wouldn’t let me have my little taste. It was cruel and unusual punishment. After all, when I had turned him down, it had been a long, busy day. A girl was allowed to have a moment. Play a little hard to get.

But Garrett was acting like I committed some horrible sin. He had cut me off.

The first time, I found him in the office, bent over some paperwork. I leaned against the doorway, watching him for a moment before clearing my throat. He looked up, his expression guarded, and I swore there was a flicker of something like maybe guilt before he smiled tightly.

“Hey,” I said, stepping inside. “Thought you might want some company.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall, then back at his papers. “Actually, I’ve got a call with Ron in a few minutes. Client stuff. You know how it is.”

I nodded, forcing a smile. “Right. Of course.”

He didn’t look at me as he gathered his things and left the room, his shoulders all tense like he was going into a high-stakes business meeting. I stood there for a moment, staring at the empty chair, wondering if I’d imagined the tension between us.

The second time, I spotted him outside near the corn maze, talking to Billy and Lucy.

I waved as I approached, but before I could get within earshot, Garrett patted Billy on the shoulder and said something that made them all laugh.

Then he glanced at me, muttered something about checking on the tractor, and walked off before I could even say hello.

Billy gave me a sympathetic look, but I pretended not to notice.

The third time was the worst.

I caught him in the barn, stacking hay bales.

His shirt was off, his skin glistening with sweat, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

He was beautiful. My panties had immediately gotten wet.

He was all lean muscle and sharp angles.

When I laid eyes on him, all I could think about was getting him on me.

“Hey,” I said, my voice husky despite myself.

He froze, then turned to face me, his expression unreadable. “Sabrina.”

I stepped closer intent on seduction. “Thought maybe we could take a break.”

He hesitated, his eyes darting to the barn door like he was planning his escape. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

“Five minutes,” I said, reaching for him.

He caught my wrist before I could touch him, his grip firm but not unkind. “Not here.”

“Why not?” I whispered, leaning in.

He took a step back, his jaw tightening. “Because.”

“Because why?”

He didn’t answer, just shook his head and grabbed his shirt from the hay bale. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

He walked out without looking back, leaving me standing there, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. I checked my breath, thinking maybe it stank. But nope. Stilly minty fucking fresh.

What was his problem?

Maybe he was doing the smart thing. Maybe he was nipping this in the bud before it got too serious. And maybe I should have been grateful. After all, I knew this wasn’t forever. He had a life in the city, a career, a future that didn’t include me. I knew that.

But knowing it didn’t make it hurt any less.

He was right to end things. He was being practical. Responsible. But I needed to try one more time. See if my theory was right.

Maybe it was just in my head. I was being overly sensitive. Seeing rejection where it didn’t exist.

I waited until about an hour before opening, when I knew everyone would be running around doing last-minute preparations. That was when I found Garrett near the entrance, checking something on his phone with that serious expression he’d been wearing all week.

“Hey,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Can you help me with something in the haunted house? The lighting is all wrong in the upstairs room.”

He looked up from his phone. I caught that flicker of something sad in his eyes before his expression went carefully neutral. “Can’t Billy help you with that?”

“He’s busy with the tractor. It’ll just take a few minutes.”

Garrett glanced at his watch, then sighed. “Fine. Give me ten minutes to finish this up.”

“Perfect. I’ll meet you up there.”

I practically sprinted to the old house, my heart hammering with anticipation and nerves. This had to work. I needed to know if what we had was real or if I had imagined the whole thing.

I rushed upstairs to our room—God, I was already thinking of it as ours—and started stripping out of my clothes.

The new lingerie set I’d bought in town yesterday was black lace with little gothic details that seemed perfect for the occasion.

I positioned myself on the air mattress, adjusting the lanterns around the room to cast flickering shadows on the walls.

The effect was both sexy and spooky, exactly what I was going for.

I heard his footsteps on the stairs and felt my pulse quicken. This was it.

When Garrett walked through the doorway, he stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes went wide, traveling over my body in a way that made heat pool in my belly.

Whatever distance he had been trying to maintain crumbled in that instant.

I could see the hunger flare in his gaze, the way his hands clenched at his sides like he was fighting not to reach for me.

“Sabrina,” he said, his voice rough. “What are you doing?”

“Fixing the lighting,” I said innocently, stretching slightly so the lace pulled taut across my breasts. “Don’t you think it looks better now?”

He swallowed hard, his eyes dropping to my mouth. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” I rose to my knees on the mattress, reaching for him. “I’ve missed you.”

When my fingers touched his chest, he shuddered. For a moment, his resolve seemed to crack completely. He pulled me against him, his mouth crashing down on mine with desperate hunger. I moaned into the kiss, my body singing with relief. This was what I had been craving, what I’d been missing.

His hands roamed over my skin, reacquainting themselves with every curve. When he cupped my breast through the lace, I arched into his touch, already breathless with want.

“God, I’ve missed this,” he groaned against my neck, his teeth grazing my pulse point. “Missed you.”

“Then don’t stop,” I whispered, my fingers working at the buttons of his shirt. “Please don’t stop.”

For a few glorious minutes, it felt like everything was back to normal. He kissed me like he was starving, his hands moving over my body with a familiarity I missed. I could feel how much he wanted me, could see it in the way his pupils dilated when I arched beneath him.

But then, just as suddenly as it had started, he pulled away.

“I can’t,” he said, stepping back from the mattress. His breathing was ragged, his hair mussed from my fingers. “I have to—I have things to do. You should get dressed.”

I stared at him in shock, my body still humming with arousal and sudden, sharp hurt. “What?”

“This was a mistake,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “We open in an hour. People are going to start arriving.”

“So?” My voice came out smaller than I intended. “Since when do you care about that?”

He was already backing toward the door, his expression shuttered. “Just… get dressed, okay? I’ll see you downstairs.”

Then he was gone, leaving me alone on the air mattress in my ridiculous lingerie, feeling more exposed and humiliated than I’d ever felt in my life.

I sat there for a long moment, trying to process what had just happened. He wanted me. I knew he did. I had seen it in his eyes, felt it in his touch. But he still walked away.

The hurt quickly morphed into anger. White-hot, righteous anger that had me scrambling for my clothes with shaking hands. How dare he? How dare he kiss me like that and then just leave? Like I was some kind of inconvenience he didn’t have time for?

I yanked my jeans on so hard I nearly ripped the zipper. My hands were trembling as I pulled my sweater over my head, and I realized I was close to tears. But I’d be damned if I was going to cry over Garrett Hogan.

If he wanted to play games, fine. If he wanted to pretend like nothing had ever happened between us, I could do that too. But I was done chasing after him like some lovesick teenager.

I was done, period.

Later that night, I was sitting in the office with Lucy and Granny Mae, counting money and feeling like we had struck gold. The cash box was overflowing, and we kept having to recount because none of us could believe the numbers.

“Ten grand just from today,” Lucy whispered.

Granny finished counting the money from her little food stand.

“I made just over a thousand.” She started cackling, slapping her knee like she’d heard the best joke of her life.

“I sold every last piece of candy I brought! Every peppermint stick, every caramel apple, every damn thing. Folks were buying three and four pieces at a time.”

“That’s amazing, Granny,” Lucy said, beaming. “You’ll definitely have your Christmas money now.”

“Christmas money, hell,” Granny said, still laughing. “I got enough here to buy presents for the whole damn county!”

I had a feeling of satisfaction so deep it made my chest warm. We had done this. We had actually pulled it off. What started as Billy’s crazy idea to expand the pumpkin chunking had turned into something real, something successful.

“And tomorrow’s Halloween,” I said, hardly able to contain my excitement. “If today was any indication, we’re going to make a killing.”

Lucy nodded enthusiastically. “The weather’s supposed to be perfect too. Not too cold, no rain in the forecast.”

“We might need to make another trip to the bank,” I said, gesturing at all the cash spread across the desk. “I don’t feel comfortable keeping this much money in the house.”

“Good thinking,” Granny said, carefully folding her earnings into her ancient leather purse. “Though I gotta say, it’s a nice problem to have.”

My mind was already racing ahead to tomorrow night. We would have to make sure we had enough supplies, enough staff, enough everything. But for the first time since we started planning this whole venture, I felt confident we could handle whatever came our way.

“I should go tell Garrett the good news,” I said, standing up and stretching. “He’s been working so hard on all the business stuff. He’ll want to know how well we did.”

Yes, I was pissed at him for earlier, but I had a feeling success was an aphrodisiac for him. Money and success. I wanted to show him we weren’t a bunch of country bumpkins that didn’t know how to make money.

I bounded up the stairs to Garrett’s childhood room, practically bursting with the need to share this moment with him. Despite everything weird that had been happening between us, this was still something we had built together. He deserved to know how successful it was.

I knocked on his door, but there was no answer.

When he didn’t answer, I turned the handle and opened the door. “Garrett?”

He wasn’t in there. I noticed something on his bed. Something I had no business looking at. I was snooping and it was wrong. But I was only human.

I walked closer and saw the envelope along with a thick stack of papers. It was half under his pillow, like he was hiding it.

Why would he be hiding paperwork under his pillow? Would the paperwork fairy leave a quarter under his pillow?

I shouldn’t look. That whole lawyer privilege thing. But I couldn’t resist reading the words atop the page. Contract for Sale.

I snatched the paperwork and started to read. Line by horrifying line sent heat running through my veins.

Not the sexual tension kind of heat.

Rage.

I was so fucking pissed.