Like my brothers, I want to find my own world.
I swallow hard, realising Cade could be that. “Am I losing my mind thinking there’s a…chance, here?” I ask quietly, stomach dipping with nerves.
Slowly, he shakes his head. “I meant what I said last night, Lydia. You’re mine.”
A shiver rolls down my spine, chest constricting with the weight of his words. “Alright, caveman.”
“I don’t think you realise how badly I mean that.” He shakes his head as he grabs my waist. “And it should terrify you—both of us—but I mean it.”
He’s not wrong—it should terrify me. It should have me packing my bags and running, snowstorm be damned. I came here to work and escape everything back home, but instead I might have walked into the very thing I’d been trying to escape.
“When I saw you naked,” he continues, eyes darkening, “I thought you were the most stunning woman I’d ever seen.”
I roll my eyes. “Bullshit.”
“No.” He shakes his head softly and brings our bodies close together, as if to prove his point. The bulge in his pants hardens against my stomach. “I wondered how well you would look pregnant with my child.”Those words have me sucking in a breath. “And now, I wonder what it’ll look like to really call you mine.”
“Cade…” I whisper, but the look in his eyes stops me.
“You don’t have to say anything,” he says. “Not yet. There’s a lot I need to figure out to give you the future you deserve, Lydia. If youwanta future with me.”
Those words have my heart racing harder, thundering against my ribs. No one has ever wanted a future with me. No one has ever made me feel like this kind of future was even possible.
“I think I do want this future with you,” I reply quietly, watching the range of emotions that flicker across his features; shock, relief, and then pure happiness as his lips claim mine.
I melt into his embrace, moaning against his lips. This kiss feels different to our others, full of promise and hope. It strips away the fear that’s been building in my chest, the uncertainty over every choice I’ve made since coming here. It washes away all the doubt that’s been hanging in the back of my mind.
It’s a kiss that tells me we’ll withstand the worst type of storm. It’s the kind of kiss Ma used to tell me stories about when I was a girl wishing for true love.
It’s the kind of kiss that could absolutely destroy me or give me the future I’ve always dreamed of.
A future with my mountain man.
NINE
CADE
Istill taste Lydia on my lips as I enter my office. The room used to go completely unused, set up only out of necessity, not out of actual desire to do anything.
Her words repeat over and over in my head as I collapse into my desk chair and open my laptop. It takes a moment to boot, but I open a drawer of files by me and pull out everything Tobias had sent me recently—and a few from years ago.
After the fire, he and our few best friends offered to buy the land the lodge sat on from me. August, a developer, said he could rebuild it. Callahan, the business manager from hell, said he could reshape it into something worthwhile. And Damien, the money man, said he’d fund the rest. Tobias just had to draw up the papers.
I put it off. The lodge had beenmyidea. My escape from responsibilities. A way to piss off my aunt while also giving me freedom. She’d seen it as an investment in my ability to one day take over for her. But I’d seen it as the wings I needed to be free.
When I notice I have signal again, I send Tobias a quick message.
ME:
are you still interested in buying the lodge?
I don’t expect him to respond, but a bubble pops up immediately.
TOBY:
are you serious?
It has the old, unused group chat exploding.
