I opened the back door, and it was caught by the wind and slammed against the side of the house.
“I’m coming, darlings,” I called out. It was only a few steps to where the plants were, but it felt like I was walking into a hurricane, the force of the wind was so great. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining.
I picked up the tray holding them and hurried back inside. Sitting them on the table, I examined the damage. Thankfully, it was minimal. They were bent over, not broken. “There’s my babies.”
They were pepper plants, but I had no idea what kind. Hopefully, nothing very hot. I did not do spice.
Well, not all spice.
I touched my lips where Cord had kissed me yesterday. It had been hot and wild and something I would always remember. My body was still humming a little bit.
Of course, he’d ignored me all day.
But that was to be expected from a broody mountain man.
He’d also handed me a sandwich at noon without saying a word and disappeared before I could thank him.
I had no fantasy about him declaring his undying love for me just because he’d kissed me.
Now, him taking me to bed… still an unrealistic goal. Afterall, I was the curvy girl with bossy tendencies who’d knocked over half his greenhouse. He was the kind of man who could have any woman he wanted and probably knew it.
And his size. That’s what really turned me on. He was literally a mountain of a man. When he’d pressed me against the greenhouse, all those muscles surrounding me… My panties had gotten just a little wet.
A lot wet.
If he’d suggested we go inside and continue, scandalizing every rose in the greenhouse, I would have been all in.
I took the jar of homemade fertilizer one of the guys had given me and sprinkled some on the traumatized plants. “You deserve a little treat.”
I touched their leaves softly. They were alive and appeared to be thriving under my care and I took it as a good sign. Maybe I had a green thumb after all. Maybe, I’d never had the chance to explore that part of me.
Which brought up the entire reason I was in Lone Mountain. On his mountain. Living just a stone throw away from my big, burly boss.
To find myself. Who was Poppy when she wasn’t caring for anyone else? That feeling of dread and gloom that had traveled with me was gone. It had been since almost the very first day. Iknew it had something to do with Cord. He made me feel safe. And protected.
And wanted, that little voice inside me said, giggling. Remember how much he wanted you?
And did I. I still felt the hard length of him against my stomach as his mouth took mine. Man, could that man kiss. Talk about still waters.
It had been the kind of kiss that made you reassess every kiss you’d ever had before it and find them all deeply inadequate.
Deciding sleep wasn’t going to come back anytime soon, I walked to the window by the door, pulling back the curtains. The wind was still blowing the tree limbs, and if I wasn’t mistaken it had started to rain.
As I looked, a light came from the left, from Cord’s cabin. Not the steady warm square of a window I saw every evening, but a fastmoving light.
Was he headed toward the greenhouses? In this?
I stood there for approximately four seconds being sensible about it. And then I wasn’t. I grabbed a hoodie and pulled it on, then my shoes. The heavy work boots I’d bought to keep up with the mountain life.
I didn’t think about it, didn’t reason it through. I just shoved my feet in and went out the door into the dark and the wind. It hit me full in the face, cold and mean, carrying the smell of rain.
Cord was already down at the greenhouses by the time I reached the path fork. He disappeared around the corner of the second greenhouse. I stopped when I saw it.
One of the large roof panels had been torn off, leaving the plants exposed.
“Cord.”
He was in the center of the chaos, mud-streaked and swearing, shoving some of the heavy tables out of the way, away from the leak.
