Free Simmer: Erotic Romance (Fireside Series) by Morgan Black Page B

choices, I’m an adult! And I will do as I damn well please. If you don’t want to be a part of that now would be a good time to say it.”
    He stood breathing heavily his chest rising and falling with his anger, “Cheyenne I forbid this. I won’t hear another word of you and this ranch hand.” He turned on Luke stepping towards him mere inches from his face, “As for you, you’re fired. If I ever see you on this property again I will call the police.”
    “ Daddy! That’s not fair. You can’t do this to us!”
    He turned his back on me, just as he had all these years, and said, “I just did.”
    Luke stormed out of the room before could stop him. I was tempted to chase after him but I had to say something first. “Why did you have to do that? Why do you always have to do things like this?”
    My father took off his ha t and held it over his heart, “It’s the best thing Cheyenne. For both of you. That boy has no idea how to live like us and we can’t place those expectations on him just because you want to be with him. That’s not how things work in our world.”
    I shook my head violently, “Don’t you understand that our world will never grow if we don’t let people like him in? He’s perfect for me Daddy. He’s everything I’m not and I want to be, he’s hard-working and strong and beautiful in a defiant way.”
    My father turned an d looked at me a single tear dripping from his wrinkled eyes. “I want what’s best for you Cheyenne. He just isn’t it.”
    The tears started streaming down my face and I couldn’t control my anger any longer. “I know what’s best for me. Being here isn’t it anymore. Once Luke gets his things he and I will be gone. I think you finally got what you wanted all along. Me out of this house!”
    I rushed out of the room without another word , running down the hallway I entered my bedroom and grabbed a suitcase as fast as I could. I stuffed as many belongings that could fit in the suitcase in the short amount of time I had, tossing in clothes and keepsakes from my mother. My father was yelling for me but I ignored his calls. I wouldn’t let him control me like this, I couldn’t. It was time to take charge of my own life.
    He wa s in the hallway blocking my path. As I tried to push past him he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “If you leave Cheyenne you can’t ever come back.”
    I wipe d the tears away with the back of my hand and said coldly, “I don’t intend to.”
    That was the final blow and he stepped aside and let me run past him searching frantically for Luke . I looked for any signs that he was still on the ranch. I grabbed my car keys and tossed a suitcase in the back of my SUV before tearing off without a coat across the snowy banks to the guest house.
    “ Luke!” I screamed in desperation. How much time had passed? Where were his bags? I looked in his room and saw it was clean and empty. I leaned against the door frame to his quiet bedroom and became lost. Luke and all his belongings were gone. He had left me. He believed my father was right and that he wasn’t good enough for me, which was so far from the truth I didn’t know how to handle it. I fell into a crumpled heap of my emotions on the floor allowing the waves of sadness to come over me. I had done this. I had done this to us and to myself, and now I had to live with the consequences.
    I clutch ed my fingers on the doorframe trying to hold myself together, like the building would keep me from completely falling apart. But the structure failed. I wept for the loss of a love I would never have and I couldn’t control my breathing. I could barely see some of the staff standing around whispering and pointing like I was an injured kitten. They didn’t know whether to come over and comfort me or to evade me because I was a danger to them. I don’t know how long I was on the floor when Linda came over and put a blanket around my shoulders watching as the sobs shook out of me like leaves