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He eased to the side and folded his arms behind his back.

“Um—I was saying it looked nice outside from my window.” Trucker replied. “Maybe it was because I didn’t wake up to a blaring alarm—the world looks different.”

“Ah—yeah. Things move a little different around here.”

“I like it.” Trucker nodded. “But maybe just for a little while. The city can get overwhelming at times, but I don’t know if I could do the quiet all the time.”

“The city is kind of like a habit?”

He pointed at me while nodded.

“Precisely,” he said.

“Um—” My cheeks heated.

It had been a while since I felt so shy around a boy, a man—oh my god was he a man!

But as I stood there, that one start thought in my mind like a leaf floating over an ocean, I felt it.

“Mm?” He asked, his brown eyes burning a hole through me.

My chin dipped.

Trucker stepped forward to use the tip of this right index finger to tenderly lift my chin. It took a while for my gaze to lock with his again. I gave myself permission to leave my stare to linger up his tall frame.

I allowed myself time to look at his body, from the perfection of those thick thighs, to the waist of his pants held up by a leather belt, over what I assumed were the perfect abs—those beautiful eyes.

“And you can say no if you don’t want to?—”

“Taji?”

“Would you like to go for a walk?” I asked.

Flustered.

“We could use the good weather for a tour.”

Trucker smiled—a soft smile that told me I didn’t need to be embarrassed.

He nodded.

I went for a morning walk with Trucker.

Inside my head the rational was to show him around the land—show him paths he could run as Valentina had told me he usually took a morning run—no matter the weather.

That would explain those toned legs, that very nice ass.

What I wouldn’t give to watch him run—he probably did it in slow motion.

The sun floated behind him making him look as if he was crowned by a halo.

I bed?—

But deep down, I merely wanted to spend time with him, to further flesh out what kind of a man he was. The moment he’d shaken my hand, I felt a kind of safety that stunned me.

Maybe that was the kind of man he was.

I couldn’t remember the last time a man made me feel that way—especially a man I knew nothing about.