But Iwasn’ta reckless man.
And I hadn’t slept with a woman since Michelle, not from lack of opportunity. But because I hadn’t wanted to.
The thought of letting someone that close again had been enough to kill any desire I might have felt.
But Rachel was different.
Rachel made me want things I’d convinced myself I didn’t need.
Maybe that’s okay, though.
She wouldn’t be here long. A few more days, a week at most, and she’d be gone, back to her life in Arizona while I stayed here on this mountain where I belonged. Maybe the smart thing to do was to get this need for her out of my system, knowing she wouldn’t be sticking around long term.
Even as I thought it, my chest grew uncomfortably tight.
Damn it. Part of me wanted tokeepher, and it wasn’t just my dick talking. For some reason my heart was involved too.
I didn’t understand where those emotions were coming from. I barely knew this woman. She represented everything I distrusted about the corporate world.
But she was also kind. I’d seen it in the way she’d treated the homeowners today, patient and thorough, never condescending even when they didn’t understand the process. She’d knelt in the mud to examine foundation damage at the Harrison place, ruining her fancy slacks without a single complaint. And she’d accepted Mrs. Patterson’s cookies with genuine warmth, not the fake politeness I’d expected from someone like her. She’d evenseemed to like those simple cookies made by an old country woman. Not something from a fancy big-city bakery.
It proved Rachel could be satisfied with simple things.
I thought about my dad again, and the way he’d looked at my mom across the breakfast table every morning like she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. My mom had been destroyed by her grief after he died. She’d seemed to shrink into herself, like part of her had been buried alongside him.
Maybe that was why I’d been keeping women at a distance. Because I’d seen what love could do to a person when it was ripped away, and some part of me had decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Michelle would probably agree with that assessment.
But watching Rachel, as she moved with careful precision, her brow furrowed in concentration, I wondered if maybe I could open to love now.
Fuck. That was probably just my dick talking.
Rachel kneeled to examine some siding damage near the foundation, and her hair came loose from her bun, dark strands falling across her cheek. She made a frustrated sound and tried to tuck it behind her ear, but it fell forward again almost immediately.
I moved before I could think better of it.
My fingers brushed her cheek as I caught the strand of hair, tucking it gently behind her ear. Her skin was soft beneath my knuckles, and she inhaled sharply at the contact, her whole body going still.
I let my hand linger for just a moment, my thumb tracing the curve of her cheekbone before I forced myself to pull away.
She stood up and met my eyes with a questioning look.
“Sorry,” I said, though I wasn’t. “It was in your way.”
Rachel’s eyes were locked on mine, dark and wide and wanting.
We stayed there for a long moment, close enough that I could see the flutter of her pulse at the base of her throat. Then she turned back to her tablet with hands that weren’t quite steady, and I followed her inside.
The hallway in Mrs. Andretti’s cabin was narrow, the ceiling low enough that I had to duck slightly to avoid the exposed beams. Rachel was examining water damage near the back bedroom, her tablet held up to document the staining on the ceiling.
“Did you do the work on that beam?” she asked, not looking at me. “It looks like the structural integrity is compromised.”
I stepped in close behind her, close enough that my chest nearly touched her back as I looked up at the beam in question. It had been on my list to replace as soon as I got a piece of lumber that would work. But I lied, “Looks solid to me. The staining is surface level, probably just from the leak before I patched the roof last year.”
“I don’t think so, Clayton. You can see right here where—”, Rachel tilted her head, and suddenly we were face to face, inches apart, and I saw the want there, naked and undeniable. I swear sparks flew in the air around us.
Her breath caught. Mine did too.
