Chapter 1
He roughly pushed me up against the wall, kissing almost viciously at my neck like he’d never be able to again. He hiked my right leg up on his hip, grinding closer to me and making my head tip back as a moan escaped my lips.
“Charlie,” I panted. He felt like he had eight hands, the way they grazed my body, setting every nerve on fire. “Charlie,”
“Baby Doll, I missed you,” He grinned, taking my face in one of his hands, kissing me passionately on the lips.
“It’s only been a week,” I said, with barely enough air left in my lungs to let go of the words as he started kissing me again.
“I know, it’s been too long,” He growled close to my ear, making my knee want to buckle. “Baby Doll, I can’t wait to show you what I missed about you,” His lips so close to my ear, sending tingles out all over my skin, making me yelp when his lips gently nibbled at my ear.
And suddenly my eyes were open, staring at the wall across from my bed. I blinked a few times, wondering where I was before I realized I had just suddenly woken up, having had to leave the steamy dream of a gorgeous man I’d never met in the other realm.
I stretched, rolling onto my back to look at the badly painted ceiling.
It’d been at least two weeks now that I’d been dreaming of Charlie. I only knew that was his name because it’d come up at least once every time I had a dream about him. I didn’t know if he was real, I figured probably not. But the dreams were always... good, to say the least.
Charlie, for all his fictional worth, was the perfect lover. I’d never had a dream of him where he left me unsatisfied. Maybe unfinished because of where I’d woken up in the middle from, but the dreams were so... vivid.
His touch was soft enough to show you he meant no harm, but rough enough to send goosebumps out over my entire body with one swipe of a callused finger. He was dominating, but not domineering. He would pleasantly put me in my place and he brought me to trembling orgasms within minutes.
I was single, but if Charlie had been real, I couldn’t see a reason I would want to be. Every dream I’d had about Charlie so far was X rated, but it always involved a moment of softness where he left the façade he kept for the real world fade away because, it felt to me, that he genuinely wanted to be there in that moment with me.
What an overactive imagination I had anymore. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable, but it was almost unfair. My own brain being so unkind to imagine this well built, dirty, handy man that just loved to pleasure me, but making him absolutely 100% a product of my own imaginings was almost unbearable.
My alarm went off, even though my eyes had been wide awake for what felt like fifteen minutes. I rolled out of bed, bumbling to the bathroom through the dirty cabin. I glanced out the window before I got to the bathroom, the sun was high in the sky considering it was only seven.
Upon leaving the bathroom, I tried to remember why I had set my alarm for so early. Another glance out the cabin window reminded me as my eyes connected with the grass. I had to be at work at nine this morning instead of my normal eleven start time.
I had stayed up far too late last night to be anywhere near awake just yet.
I moved to the couch, pulling my emotional support blanket over me. The cat perked up and purred, sending a smile to my face before she moved over to park herself on the side of me not leaning on the couch arm.
She was a completely black cat, minus the tuft of fur on her chest that was showing her old age. At nearly eighteen years old, the small black cat was the only steady thing I’d ever had in my life. She had survived all my romantic relationships with me, every bully in high school, every time work had needed me to stay three hours late to get a stack of papers done.
I scratched at her black fur and heard her loudly purring, moving her head closer to my hand to get the better scratches.
My mind wandered back to Charlie and how horrid and painful my brain was being to me, making up this literal dream of a man only for him to simply be a figment I’d created in a drunken stupor one night.
I sighed to myself, trying to push away the thought. I’d been living in Montana for little over a month; every one that frequented the bar had already been in at least once and Charlie had never even crossed the threshold.
If nothing else, I suppose it was rather enjoyable to think about. Why did it have to be real? Men ruined everything they touched in real life; I could have this one piece of freedom that he wouldn’t be able to ruin if he were real.
Upon inspection of the clock once more, I decided to get dressed and head to work a little earlier than planned so I could make myself a coffee before I was actually supposed to be ‘clocked in’. Tying my shoes, I scratched behind the cat’s ears once more before leaving her in the cabin and moving toward the bar.
Work was two parts bar, one part restaurant. When my parents had bought it almost a year ago, it had been strictly a bar that served Red Baron frozen pizza and hamburgers. My mom, however, being the excellent cook she was, turned it toward the food more.
She made an entire menu based around food she’d already cooked for us on a regular basis and people flocked. They had tried more to pull away from the bar front of it, but we lived in a Village for God’s sake, there was less than fifty people that lived here year-round. The rest either lived somewhere and used the village for a vacation/get away or they traveled from somewhere else, just passing through.
The back door slammed loudly shut behind me, getting drug by the wind before I could stop it from slamming. Despite the fact we didn’t officially open until nine, Jack, Bill, Ross, and Andy all sat at the bar with already plated food.
“Mornin’!” Jack said, smiling brightly. Such a morning person.
The rest of the guys nodded to me and I nodded back to all of them with a half-smile I was hoping loosely translated to ‘please let me get coffee before we actually start talking’.
“You’re awfully springy this morning.” My dad commented as I made my way to the espresso machine.
“Per the usual.” I commented, feeling pure exhaustion take over my body.
He moved away from me, heading into the kitchen to talk to mom. I glanced over my shoulder at the guys at the bar top. They were all relatively good-looking men. Not good-looking like Charlie was, but good enough looking. I couldn’t stop my brain.
Albeit, three of the four were taken. Andy was the only one who actively wasn’t dating someone. Jack and his girlfriend, Gwen, lived maybe ten minutes from the bar. Ross and his girlfriend, Amber, lived in Great Falls, about two hours away. Ross only came up here when they had a project to work on. And Bill’s girlfriend, Jenna, lived in Alberta, so long distance was definitely a word for it. But she came down and visited when she could.
The coffee maker sputtered, telling me my iced espresso was ready. I took the drink to the kitchen to add creamer.
Except for Tim finishing off another bottle of Fireball, nothing interesting happened the rest of the day. I closed the till while mom and dad finished dishes. It took about an hour after we locked the door that the three of us could leave.
Walking back to my cabin left me feeling a little empty. Of course I had the cat to come home too, but I wanted to press up against a warm body and cuddle into somebody else. I was tired of the quiet, I was tired of the empty.
I sighed, deciding I shouldn’t dwell on it. I pulled my blanket over my lap and put on some Netflix, hoping to keep my mind off the idea that I was lonely in this one room cabin.
