“Then what is?” I patted the cushion next to me. “Sit down and talk to me.”
Having him so close was risky. I hadn’t been alone with him for weeks. And despite his overreaction to being stranded withme for the night, my attraction to the gruff and growly park ranger had been growing out of control.
Ever since that night at dinner when I’d seen a softer side, I’d been watching him. His walls were thick and tall, pretty much impossible to breech. But every once in a while, I caught a glimpse of the kindhearted man inside. Like the way he drove Janice back and forth to the office for a week when her car was in the shop. And a few days ago, he carried a girl three miles on the trail when she scraped up her knee and couldn’t hike out herself.
He projected this grumpy, prickly porcupine image, but the more I got to see past it, the more I wanted to know.
Jace slumped down onto the loveseat next to me. He’d taken off his rain gear when we entered the cabin, though the scent of the outdoors still clung to him.
I shifted, settling into the corner so I could turn to face him. “I agree, this isn’t ideal, but isn’t sitting inside a dry cabin better than hiking in the rain?”
He rolled his shoulders before meeting my gaze. “I shouldn’t be here.”
My breath hitched at the look in his eyes. Full of heat and simmering with need, his eyes reflected everything I was feeling inside. My voice came out on a whisper. “Why not?”
He didn’t answer, just kept staring into my eyes, like he could see the space deep down inside me. Where I was most vulnerable. Where I was most scared. Where I wanted him just as much as that look on his face said he wanted me.
Time stood still. We might have stared at each other for seconds or sat there for fifteen minutes. I had no awareness of anything but Jace. Then he reached up and tucked a wet strand of hair behind my ear. My body came online at his touch. I turned my head into his palm and soaked in the feeling of his hand on my skin.
“Delaney…” My name on his lips was half plea, half growl.
I wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but once our lips touched, it didn’t matter. The only thing that did was the rush of sensations that rolled over me the second he claimed my mouth with his.
That kiss explained everything… the need he’d tried to hold back, the war he’d waged within himself, and the feelings he was ready to let loose. I gave in with reckless abandonment, not caring about the consequences. Our tongues tangled and my core ignited. I couldn’t get enough.
It wasn’t just all heat. There was something else going on underneath. When his hand slid to the back of my neck, it wasn’t about control, it was about closeness. About him letting me in. And when I clutched at his shirt, I realized I trusted him in a way I hadn’t trusted anyone in years. I didn’t just want him. I wanted everything that came along with it. I wanted there to be an “us.”
Jace pulled back first, resting his forehead against mine. “We’re crossing a line here. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“What do you want, Jace?” I ran my hand over his beard while I waited for his answer.
He closed his eyes for a long beat like he’d already made his decision and wanted to let me down easy. Always in control, always keeping his feelings in check, that was the District Park Ranger Ramsey I’d come to know, the side of him he let the public see.
But I’d seen past that now.
The little glimpses he’d shown me all along had added up to paint a completely different picture of Jace Ramsey from his uptight public persona. That was the side of him I craved, and it looked like I was about to lose sight of it forever.
His hand slid away from my face. He opened his eyes and just looked at me, regret already replacing the heat that had been there just seconds before. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked.
“Does it matter?”
He wanted me. The first man I had feelings for in longer than I could remember, wanted me. And I’d be lying to myself in the fib of a lifetime if I tried to pretend that I didn’t want him too.
“It matters to me.” I needed to know if it was duty or lack of desire behind his decision.
He cradled his head in his hands. “A little bit of both. I can’t get involved with someone who works for me. Can you imagine what everyone in town would say? And I won’t toss a wrench in the life I’ve built for my kids. They’ve been through too much already.”
“What about what you want?” I set my palm on his chest, right over his heart. Everyone said he was a hard ass, but I knew now that was just his way of holding everything together. The pain in his voice tore at my heartstrings. It sounded like the walls I thought he’d constructed for protection were more like a prison.
He lifted his head and met my gaze. Fire blazed deep in the depths of his eyes. “I want to go back to the way things were before you. Before the sunshine inside you chased all the clouds away and I forgot what it was like to live in the dark.”
The ache that spread through my chest made it impossible to speak.
“We can’t go back.” And I didn’t want to.
“That’s the problem. I want this. I want you. Too damn much, Delaney.”
