(Trust) Falling For You, page 3
“That’s very diplomatic of you,” she teased. “I can see it on your face, Sam. You think my life is a mess.”
If their shared bathroom was any indication, then yes, that’s exactly what Samuel thought. But he went with diplomacy instead. “I’ve heard that chaos in the mind breeds creativity.” He’d also heard that chaos bred poor impulse control, constant lateness, and sloppiness. But Samuel could almost excuse those problems when Yolanda smiled at him. It also helped that she was brilliant at her job and an impressive educator.
“All of that was to say: I understand distractions,” she said.
“I’m usually good at staying focused…” He didn’t want to come right out and say that she was the problem. “I usually work alone in my office.”
She nodded solemnly. “So I should be more quiet?”
Samuel pressed his lips together and considered how to answer. “It’s fine.”
Yolanda raised a brow. “If you say so, Sam.” She pushed herself out of bed and padded to the bathroom. “I’ll turn in after this episode. Maybe getting to bed earlier isn’t a bad idea.”
Now Samuel felt guilty.
When she returned to her bed, Yolanda propped her laptop on her belly and continued watching her show.
“What are you watching?” he asked.
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” she answered and immediately unplugged her headphone jack so he could hear the screaming argument.
“What are they fighting about?” Samuel asked as he laid on his side and watched the screen.
Yolanda turned the laptop around. “This one,” she pointed at a white woman, “thinks she can sing but she absolutely can’t. And this one used to be her friend and now they’re not friends because she can’t sing on her former friend’s track.”
“Huh.” Samuel eased further into his blankets and rested his hand in the crook of his arm. “Why can’t she be on the song?”
Yolanda set her phone on the nightstand. “Because she kept clowning Kim about how terrible her singing was. This isn’t the first time she’s been shady about the song. Anyway, Kim got fed up with the jabs and said, ‘you can’t be on the song.’”
As she explained the rest of the women on the show, Sam’s brain shut off and his body relaxed. He got immersed into the barely-there plot and only interrupted to ask an occasional question. “Who’s she, and why does she look so sad?”
“That’s Cynthia, and she doesn’t want to get married, but she will because what else is she going to do?”
“Mmh,” he grunted. “She’s very pretty.”
“Gorgeous,” Yolanda sighed. “She’s a model.”
Samuel didn’t know how far into the episode he’d fallen asleep, but when he next awoke, the lights were off and Yolanda’s back was to him as she lay sleeping. Her snoring, and the need to pee, jerked him awake. One of those issues, he could quickly take care of in the bathroom. The other… he’d have to find his earbuds and turn on his white noise app to drown out Yolanda.
But as far as first days go, it wasn’t too bad.
Perhaps this week would turn out fine after all.
Chapter Three (Day 2: Human Knot)
The morning light was definitely an unwelcome intrusion.
If Yolanda had to guess, it was far earlier than ten am. Samuel, yanking back the curtains in what she also guessed was his passive aggressive attitude, didn’t help either. She lifted her head and watched him walk away from the window after exposing their tiny cabin to daylight.
“What time is it?” she asked in a groggy voice.
“Eight-thirty,” Samuel replied. He had already dressed himself in a pair of khaki shorts that came to the tops of his knees and a white polo shirt. Who wears white in the wilderness? A man who obsessed with maintaining order. There was no way a dude like Samuel would get a grass stain on his perfect white shirt.
Yolanda sat up in bed and checked her phone. Weren’t they supposed to meet at the main lodge at nine am? “Why didn’t you wake me up?” she asked, scrambling out of bed.
His dark brow arched as he ran a comb through his short hair, still wet from a shower. “I assumed that you had set an alarm like I did,” he said in a neutral voice.
“I don’t know why you’d assume that,” Yolanda snapped as she moved around him to get to her dresser. Today’s outfit, like all the others, would have to throw together quickly. There was barely enough time for her to take a shower. “You know I’m late to every committee meeting you chair, right?”
“True,” he muttered. “I don’t know what I expected.”
His sarcasm made her grit her teeth as she stepped around him again. This goddamn room was too small for their simmering disdain. She couldn’t stalk away with any flair. “Did you leave me any hot water?” she asked, on the way to the bathroom.
“I’m sure there’s plenty,” he said, checking his watch.
Yolanda rolled her eyes as she dumped her clothes on the toilet lid and searched for her shower soap. When she couldn’t find it, her irritation spiked again. Samuel had moved everything around since she had last visited the bathroom. He had stacked her beauty products against the left side of the counter, against the wall. He based his stacking project on size, placing the smallest jars on the top of each tower. He lined the larger bottles up like little soldiers, closer to the mirrors, insuring all product labels facing outward. Like that psycho from Sleeping with the Enemy… “Sam?” she called out.
“Yes.”
“What’s your sign?”
There was a beat of silence before he came to the door. “Excuse me?”
With her hands planted on the bathroom counter, she looked at him through the mirror. “What’s your sign?”
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “My zodiac sign?”
“Yes,” she said, pointing to her carefully organized cosmetics.
He glanced at them and frowned. “I’m a Virgo.”
Oh boy, that explained everything. “I don’t need you to do things like this,” she said. “And now I can’t find my shower wash.”
Samuel shrugged. “It’s in the shower with my products,” he said. “I was attempting to create order by placing things where they belonged. You’ll find your loofah, shampoo, and conditioner in the shower as well.” His tone suggested that his new system was obvious enough for a child to understand.
“I have my own order, thank you.”
He approached the doorway and rested his forearm against the jamb. “Does it have anything to do with when you were born?” he asked with a smirk.
Yolanda stared at his full lips tug at the corner and ran her tongue across her teeth. Don’t you let him get under your skin, girl. You’ve got six more days with him. “I’m sure it does,” she said cooly, before closing the door on him.
After a hot shower, she hoped she would have a better outlook for the day. She quickly undressed and covered her hair with a shower cap that hung neatly in a curtain ring. Oh, he’s truly thought of everything… Yolanda stuck her hand in to run the water and waited for a little steam. After a moment, she pulled the curtain aside and was about to take a step inside the tub. But before she could plant a foot, a black spot in the corner of her eye skittered along the white tiles.
Her entire body clenched in terror when she followed the movement. A silver-dollar-sized spider was running towards her direction. “Motherfucking sonofabitch!” she screamed as she jumped back. When her ass hit the counter behind her, she screamed again. “Oh my god, don’t get me!”
Yolanda had enough sense to grab the nearest towel and clutch it to her front as she fumbled for the exit. She glanced over her shoulder to see if the arachnid was stalking her, but the shower curtain obscured his whereabouts. Knowing that she didn’t have eyes on the suspect sent her into another screaming panic before pushing herself out the door and into the arms of her TB Buddy. “There’s a fucking monster in there!” she cried as she scrambled around his body. That she was naked under her towel barely registered as Yolanda clutched the back of Samuel’s shirt and hid from the Shower Creature.
“What is it?” he said, trying to keep the alarm from his own voice. He instinctively grabbed behind him as she shoved him forward.
When his warm hand connected with her bare thigh, she jumped again. “Sam!”
His hands went straight into the air when he realized his accidental grope. “Oh god, sorry,” he apologized.
She quickly re-wrapped her towel and continued shaking like a leaf. “It’s in there.”
He was hesitant to enter the bathroom, even though she was practically shoving him in that direction. “What exactly is ‘it’ that’s in the bathroom?”
“A spider tried to attack me,” she whispered, as if the awful thing could hear her conspiring in the next room.
Samuel stopped his journey to the bathroom and lowered his hands. When he glanced over his shoulder, his confused eyes landed on her and narrowed. “A spider?”
“It’s huge,” she breathed. “And it was coming right at me like it had malice in its eyes.”
This earned her a genuine belly laugh, the first she’d ever heard from Samuel Morris, and it was at her expense. “Malice? In all eight eyes?”
“Sam, it was running full-speed at me!” she hissed. Did he think she enjoyed being in the position of needing his help? “I need you to go in there—as my TB Buddy—to find it and kill it.”
He stopped laughing long enough to approach the bathroom. “I value my neck for a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief,” he said in a low growl. “I’ll find him for three, but I’ll catch and kill him, for ten.”
Yolanda stopped dead in her tracks. “Are you quoting Jaws at me right now?”
Samuel glanced over his shoulder again. There was a twinkle in his eyes she’d never seen before. If she weren’t so fucking frightened, she would have been attracted by how they lit up with humor. “According to you, this isn’t like chasing bluegills and tommycocks. There’s a man-killer in there.”
Samuel Morris was never humorous. He’d never cracked a joke in all the time she’d known him. “Please, just get it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He pulled himself out of her grasp and walked into the bathroom to inspect the scene. “There he is,” he murmured as he squatted at the side of the tub.
“You see him?” she said, peaking around the door. “Are you fast enough to kill it?”
“I’m not going to kill it,” he said. “I’ll just move him outside.”
“You’re not fast enough!” she shouted.
“I am,” he said, rising from the floor. When he reached for a fist-full of toilet paper, she let out a frustrated growl. There was no telling how late they would be for breakfast. “I’m just gonna catch him loosely.”
She knew he’d never been fast enough for an assassin spider who wanted her blood. He got back down on his haunches and slowly approached the arachnid. The door obscured half of his body, and she refused to walk any closer.
She heard him grunt. “I missed,” he called out.
Yolanda squealed as she leaped onto his bed. “I knew it!”
“Calm down in there,” he said.
“Don’t tell me to be calm!”
“I’m gonna try again.”
Yolanda’s heart thudded against her ribs as she listened out. Part of her knew that he would fail, the spider would run away, and would probably lay eggs in her ear tonight. The other part of him wished him luck, because he was the only person who could save her.
“Got him!” Soon, he was on the other side of the bathroom door, rushing out of the cabin with a wad of toilet paper. When Samuel returned, he closed the door behind him and tossed the paper in a nearby waste bin. When he looked up at her, he frowned. “What are you doing up there?”
She suddenly felt foolish, standing in the center of his bed with nothing but a towel covering her body. “You really got him?”
Samuel’s eyes roamed over her body as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “He put up a fight, but I got him. You’re safe to shower, Yolanda.”
Was Samuel Morris checking her out?
As his eyes met hers, he blushed and gave a forced cough. “Need help getting down?”
She shook her head while carefully climbing from his bed. “No, I’m good. Thank you.” Yolanda couldn’t help feeling a flicker of something between them as she retreated to the bathroom. He stepped back, giving her space to move around him, but a current of electricity passed from him, hitting her in the chest. The memory of his hand grazing her bare thigh came back to her as she peeked inside the bathroom. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation at all. Were it not for the awful circumstances, she might admit that she kind of liked his large hand pressed against her skin.
“You’re safe,” he said as she peeked around the door. He returned to the brisk, business-like tone she was used to. It was almost disappointing to hear.
“Thank you,” Yolanda said, breathing hard. A spider in the shower was not the wake up she wanted, but she was glad that he was there to assist her. Had it happened while she was alone, she would have definitely gone to Julia’s cabin for all her hygiene needs.
“Yolanda?”
She paused at the doorway. “Yeah?”
The smallest smile creased the left side of his face. “What’s your sign?”
Her skin flushed. “Leo,” she croaked.
Samuel gave a thoughtful nod before turning his back to her. She watched in fascination as he began remaking his bed. Had she messed it up so badly? “Interesting…” he murmured. “Would not have guessed that.”
* * *
“Who’s ready for TB?” asked Craig and Joanne in unison.
Samuel cringed at their enthusiasm and phrasing. He couldn’t blame Yolanda’s snorted laugh. But he was already on edge since the spider incident caused them to be late for breakfast. Seeing his TB Buddy fly out of the bathroom wearing only a towel, did something unexpected to him. She moved too fast for him to divert his gaze, so he definitely caught a glimpse of her ass as she darted around him. When he touched her bare leg, a quick zing of arousal hit his belly and sent a shiver down his back. To Samuel’s disappointment, her skin was just as soft as he’d imagined…
Now the participants would partner with their TB Buddies for “an indoor, low-stakes TB Activity” that would help buddies get to know one another. Calling the activity “low-stakes” implied that higher-stakes were on the horizon, which made him nervous. How should he perform? He wasn’t neurotic enough to believe Craig and Joanne had gold stars to pass out, but he was conditioned to strive towards perfection. He looked at his TB Buddy and wondered how that would actually pan out. Yolanda, who had quickly dressed in a pair of denim cut-offs and a black and yellow t-shirt that read “GIVE BEES A CHANCE,” looked comfortable enough.
After breakfast, their boss shuttled everyone to another part of the main lodge, a yoga studio with mirrors affixed to the walls. While Dean Craig and Joanne spoke about the exciting week ahead of them, Yolanda busied herself in front of a mirror, adjusting the curls piled atop her head and checking her lipstick. If she worried about her appearance, Samuel thought she looked fine. Well, not just fine… Yolanda was beautiful. Even though it made them late, he especially liked those little swoopy things she did with her eye makeup. It made her look cat-like and mysterious.
“Get with your TB Buddy and take a seat on the floor,” Joanne said. “If you’re able to, I’d like you to face your buddy, legs criss-cross applesauce. When we’re all situated, give me a hearty ‘TB!’”
While he wanted to be a willing participant, Samuel refused to shout TB.
But Yolanda was already on the floor, crossing her legs and looking at him expectantly. When he followed her to the floor, she shouted, “We’ve got TB!”
“That’s the spirit, Fox Cabin!” Joanne called out as someone near the back of the room, possibly Julia, cackled.
Yolanda raised a brow and threw him a smirk.
Okay, so his Buddy was a little competitive…
“Before we get started with our game, ‘Winner/Loser,’ we’re just gonna take one minute to maintain steady eye contact with our buddies,” Craig announced. “It’s going to be awkward, but it’s going to help you get comfortable with a person you probably don’t know that well, yeah?”
Yolanda’s smirk faded. “What?”
“Everyone get comfortable,” Craig said. “I’m starting the timer… now!”
Samuel glanced around the room to see if everyone else was falling for this shit. The other TB Buddies went silent and faced each other, leaving him to face his own Buddy. Could he really spend the longest minute of his life staring into her eyes? When he met her gaze, he saw that she was just as uncomfortable. “We don’t have to—”
She shook her head. “No, I plan on winning every single TB Activity this week. Stare into my eyes, Sam.”
Samuel relaxed his shoulders and shook out his arms as he settled into the staring contest. As he tried steadying his breath, he took time to appreciate how dark Yolanda’s eyes were. The brown hue bordered on black and was almost hypnotic. Her eyes were a comforting darkness that he could get lost in.
Whoa, that’s weird.
Instead of getting lost, he focused his attention on the details around the windows to her soul. The tiny wrinkles at the corners of her eyes smoothed over when she wasn’t grimacing at him. She had a tiny mole on the outside of her left eye, just below the cat-eye swoop. It made her look very sophisticated. He let his eyes drop to her cute, pert nose before settling on her mouth. She wore a deep wine lipstick that complemented her smooth nut-brown skin perfectly.
“Eyes back up here,” she whispered.
Samuel returned to her eyes. “Sorry, I got distracted.”
“Mmh.”
He sighed, returning to her intense gaze.
“All right, guys,” Craig said. “Minute’s up! How did that feel?”
