Despite living on a private ranch, I can’t have too much security. I turn off the security alarm I had specially put in when I moved here from Denver.
As I swing her around and step further into the cabin, I tease her mouth with mine. I’m not quite kissing her, not quite tasting her.
“You’re gorgeous,” I say into her lips.
She surprises me by circling her arms around me in a fierce hug. “So are you.”
And she still doesn’t know who I am. As we reach the living room, I let her down to the floor, already feeling the absence of her warm body as she steps forward and looks around.
“How long have you lived here?” Mia asks as I take her coat.
“A year and a half.” When my contract was up in Denver, I just wanted to go home, and Montana was willing to sign me whereas New Orleans wasn’t. I was going to retire a couple of years ago, but I realized I wasn’t quite ready. So, I signed on with the Kings for a new adventure.
But I don’t tell Mia any of that. I’m enjoying the feeling of her being with me just for me far too much to bring up anything about my career.
“I adore log cabins,” she says. “And this one’s so homey.”
She’s wandering around my living room, peering out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the open fields just visible by the moon.
“Beautiful,” she murmurs.
I come up behind her and bury my nose in her neck. “I agree.”
She inhales sharply. “Declan?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m kind of in the mood to forget about everything but right now.”
She turns to face me, and I lock eyes with her. “We’re on the same page, darling.”
She smiles, and for the first time, I notice the weariness in her eyes. I want to ask her what’s wrong, but I don’t want to ruin the moment.
So I don’t.
In retrospect, I probably should have asked her. At least, then I’d know exactly who she was and why we were destined to meet up again.
Instead, I cup her face in my hands.
She shivers when I touch her. And that reaction gets me so rock hard I swallow a groan.
“What do you want, Mia?”
Her pink lips part as she says in a shaky voice, “Take me to bed.”
* * *
Mia
Declan smirks in that ridiculously sexy, confident way I’ve learned he does a lot. “Not yet.”
“Why—” My question’s swallowed up by his mouth descending on mine.
“First,” he says as he pulls my bottom lip between his teeth. “I want to kiss the shit out of you.”
His mouth covers mine again, but completely this time, and I let out a gasp. He swallows my cries as he gently probes the seam of my lips with his tongue. I open for him eagerly, and his tongue swipes inside my mouth until I moan again.
God, this is the best kiss I’ve ever had. My legs are trembling, and I hang onto his forest green flannel shirt for balance. His gray eyes flash with green flecks as we stare at each other.
