I turn wood into things. What’s your superpower?My eyebrows shoot up when I eye the next one.
Measure twice, cut once, then force it to fit.
Images flood my mind, mostly ones of his face while he watched himself fuck into me,slowly,forcing himself to fit.
Suddenly, even with the air-conditioning, it feels hot in here. I hear Asher clear his throat from behind me and I flinch.
“You ready to see this wood, G.I. Toe?” He smirks.
Prick.
CHAPTER 25
Asher
When Wade and Nash told me to let my guard down, to do something different, I figured bringing Olivia to my home would help us both get to know each other a little better. The man I amnow,the man I want to be for our child, the man I was destined to be. But I wasn’t thinking about how I’d get to know her in return. And how easy it would be tolikeher.
“You just push it through here?” she asks now, her voice soft and clear in my barn. I’ve always watched Olivia, wondering who she was and why. And I realize that having a baby with her is dangerous in more ways than one. It gives me areasonto get to know her. It’s the logic thatalmostpushes past the worry in my gut that something bad will happen to her if I let her get too close to me. Especially when she’s in my home, my space, and she’s enticing as hell.
Running her hand carefully over the white oak sitting on my planing table, she examines the wood I chose for her cabinets. I might die a little inside if she decides to paint it. It’s from a one hundred-and-fifty-year-old tree from Johnson
County; the grain is fucking incredible and once I lacquer the finished product, it’ll really pop. I pat the machine she stands in front of and nod.
“You just push it through.”
“And this is safe for me? To be out here,” she asks.
“In my shop, yes. It’s entirely dust-free.” I point to the hose and system that sucks the dust from the space and the HEPA filter in the corner.
That satisfies her as she crouches down to check out the gadgets attached to my industrial planer. Her pert, round ass is on full display, as if she doesn’t realize how perfect she is, or how desperately I want to take a fucking bite out of her.
“We’ll run the wood through maybe four times,” I say in an attempt to steer my mind away from the enticing curves of her body. “It’s a process.”
“I’m sorta invested now,” Olivia says. “Could you maybe show me how it works?”
She eyes the blades enclosed in the center box of the massive machine, like my wood shop is the most interesting thing she’s seen in a while. I can’t imagine it is. But if it keeps her here a little longer, I’m all in.
“This thing looks like it could flatten a car.”
“Pretty close,” I admit.
It’s a Fray 800 and, at over twelve feet long, it’s a beast of a planer. When this thing fires up, it vibrates the damn floor around it. I pull a pair of clear glasses down for her.
“Safety first,” I say, placing them on her face. She flashes me a grin in response.Goddamn that’s cute.“This is a powerful machine. It would be really difficult to hurt yourself on it. Still, it’syou,so we’re going to take every precaution.”
Olivia sticks her tongue out at me, and my cock involuntarily twinges with the sight. One taste of being close to this woman after weeks of starvation and I’m a fucking teenage boy.
“I’m gonna push this piece through here.” I grip the piece of rough wood and refocus, pointing to the center where the cutter head is partially housed, protecting us from the blades.
“These tables don’t do anything? Nothing sharp?” She pats the large expanse of stainless-steel table in front of us.
I shake my head. “Nope, they’re just a resting place. They allow me to plane very big pieces of wood. This side holds it as the machine sucks it in, the other side spits it back out when it’s done. Do you understand?”
She nods like a good little pupil.EveryoneI’ve ever known looks ridiculous in safety glasses. But somehow, when Olivia puts them on, I want to hoist her up onto the table and fuck her into next week.
“Let the machine do the work. Slow hands are better than fast ones. Got it?”
“I think so,” she replies, studying my movements.
