a known stranger

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Ashley awoke the next morning with a dull headache, the sorry aftermath of a restless night’s sleep. Dragging herself out of bed, she walked to the window and looked down at her unobstructed view of the woods. The woods looked particularly foreboding this morning. Or was her perception of them merely a reflection of her dark mood?

Ashley mulled this over as she stood under the stinging spray of the shower. It was true she was still upset. Whatever else she had expected to feel toward Darien, it was not the love-hate conflict that had warred within her last night in the woods. She was the level-headed one, remember? she told herself. Mercurial feelings were Sheila’s department. Pull yourself together. Think this thing out rationally!

All right, she decided, working a thick lather of suds into her hair, she would take it systematically, just like writing a program. First of all, she was twenty four, and still a virgin, so up to this point her love life was practically non-existent except for that time when Neil tried to push her into intimacy. It wasn’t that she was cool or indifferent towards men; it was just that she had never been interested in casual sex or pre-marital sex. Perhaps she had watched too many friends scrape through too many broken affairs to trust that kind of relationship. Or maybe there were just too many other things going on in her life for her to have time for meaningless relationships.

Ashley rinsed the soap out of her eyes, then stood for a moment, considering. After all this time were her normal physical needs finally catching up with her? Had she reacted last night out of a purely physical desire for sexual gratification? Maybe-but surely she didn’t want it from Darien Scott! He was the last man on earth she would look to for that kind of a relationship.

Ashley leaned back and let the full force of the water wash over her hair. So much for rationality. But then she’d never been in this situation before.

Ashley stepped out of the bath and wrapped herself in an oversized towel. There was nothing she could except maybe drive him up the wall until he gets fed up and let her go, she thought to herself.

She wrapped another towel around her head and started applying moisturizer to her face, neck and chest. Just as she was smoothing some over her arms she heard a knock on her door and Darien came in. She turned swiftly to look at him about to open her mouth and rage, she felt the knot of the towel give way, and before she could grab it, it opened and dropped to her feet. She was left naked to his swift appraisal, she turned away, grabbing the towel from her head to cover herself. He bent and retrieved the towel at her feet. He covered her with the towel, letting his hand briefly caress the top of her breast when he tucked the end of the towel in. She looked at him in shock, and looked away quickly. He muttered, “Sorry, I should not have come in like that”, and walked quickly away saying over his shoulder, “I am going out, don’t try to run away. The bush are thick in some parts and you can get lost, get bitten by a snake, suffer from hypothermia, and die.”

She stood and watched him leave through the door, and was still staring at the closed door, when she heard the front door slam, and the car being started, she ran to the window and watched him leave.

“Why don’t you put on some clothes?” as voice came crackling from somewhere in her room, she gasped, turning around looking for the source. He chuckled softly, “Ashley don’t bother trying to find for the hidden camera, I am not such a jerk to put one in your room, but it does not mean there are no cameras in the rest of the house.

“Don’t miss me too much, I will be back in a while.” And there was silence. She put on her dark grey sweatpants and blue t-shirt. She walked out of her room.

She decided to check out the cabin. It looked huge. She wondered if he had a gym and wondered where it would be, if there was one.