Because pretending was so much easier.
Morning was only a few hours away. We couldn’t hold it off forever. And with it there would be the mess and consequences that reality would bring.
But for now, wrapped in Preston’s arms, with the puppy asleep in front of the dying fire, I let myself close my eyes and hold onto the feeling he’d given me.
Just a little longer.
Chapter Seventeen
Preston
Iwoke up with the morning song of the birds in the trees outside. It was early, the dawn just starting to streak through the window. My body was stiff and cramped, but there was no way I was going to move. Not an inch.
Not with Jess still in my arms.
Her chest rose and fell in the gentle rhythm of sleep. She was curled up against me, her hair spilling over the arm I had wrapped around her. I mentally cursed myself for falling asleep at all and missing even one second of this night with her.
The fire in the old wood stove had burned itself down to embers in the night, but Summit was still stretched out in front of it, content with whatever warmth it was still providing. The cabin was quiet in that perfect pre-dawn way right before the world woke up.
I wanted to stay in this moment forever. But even letting myself think about the way I wished our night wouldn’t end was trouble, and I knew it.
Jess wasn’t mine. She’d needed a night of forgetting, and I’d given it to her. That was it.
Nothing more.
Bullshit.
Every moment of the night before replayed in my head, whether I wanted it to or not. And it wasn’t just the sex. Although that was impossible to ignore. It was the way she’d looked at me afterward. So completely open and unguarded.
And that was the part that mattered. And exactly why I couldn’t pretend that any of this was simple.
I’d spent a lifetime wanting Jess Anderson and convincing myself I hated her because I could never have her. But now that I had…it was more than just a one-night stand.
At least for me.
But she’d not just ended a relationship—she’d run from it moments before she was meant to walk down the aisle. That was not a small thing. No matter how wrong it had been with Trevor and every single reason why she never should have been with him, let alone entertained the idea of being his wife, it still couldn’t be ignored.
She’d been about to step into a life with that man. Never mind their financial entanglements. Any way you looked at it, it wasn’t something you walked away from cleanly.
And you certainly didn’t jump into something new only hours later.
And that’s exactly why I needed to get up and move on.
I moved back carefully, easing my arm out from under her in an effort not to wake her. She made a small sound and shifted backward, pinning me into the wall. My chest tightened at how natural it all felt.
I stayed where I was, letting her sleep for a few more minutes. Every instinct in me wanted to pull her closer and tell her how I really felt about her and how those feelings had only exploded to life in the last few hours with her.
But that would be beyond selfish. And at least for now, it couldn’t be about what I wanted.
I wanted her.
But that wasn’t enough. Not now.
I sucked in a breath, steeling myself before pushing myself up and jumping from the bed in one, almost smooth motion. The cot jostled and squeaked behind me, but I didn’t look back as I crossed the floor and found my jeans. It wasn’t until I tugged them on that I turned to look at her.
Jess had her head propped up on one hand, the sleeping bag pulled up over her chest, her hair wild and untamed. She looked like sex, desire, and temptation all rolled into one.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice laced with sleep. Her lips curled up into a small smile.
