There he was. My grizzly bear of a mountain man. The only man who had ever held my heart.
“I’d love to ride your cock until sunrise,” I said, stepping inside. “But tonight I’d rathertalkto you. If you’re open to that.”
He was standing with his back to me, facing the window, and the storm that had rolled in while we were eating was putting on a full show beyond the glass.
Lightning split the sky in jagged flashes, illuminating the tree line and the dark, rolling hills beyond.
The thunder that followed rumbled through my bones.
The old farmhouse creaked and settled around us like it was leaning into the weather, perfectly at home in it.
Zane stood there, still in his work clothes, his broad shoulders carrying a tension I could see from across the room.
He was hurting, and he was scared and he had absolutelynointention of letting me see either of those things if he could help it.
But I’d come too far and waited too long to let him off that easily.
I crossed the room and settled onto his bed as if I belonged there, leaning against the headboard.
“I’ve been in love with you for years, Zane.”
He spun around so fast I nearly startled.
His eyes were wild, something raw and unguarded moving through them that he hadn’t let me see before now.
“Youleft.” His voice came out ragged. “You left me. You left thiswholedamn town behind.”
“You can’t put that on me.” I held his gaze steadily, even though my heart was hammering. “You never once asked me out on a single date. Not in three years of talking to me.”
He barked out a laugh. “Because Iknewyou were leaving. I didn’t want to be the guy who kept you from living your dreams, Mallory.”
The words hit me somewhere soft and deep, and I felt the full weight of what he’d just admitted settle over the room.
Zane had wanted me.
He’d wanted me, and he’d stepped back on purpose.
Quietly, without a word, because he thought that was the right thing to do. Because that wasexactlythe kind of man Zane Thompson was, and it broke my heart a little even as it filled it up.
We’d lost so much time together. But there was still a lot of it left. Years and years were still out in front of us.
Years of children screeching as they ran across the house, floorboards thudding under bare feet.
Years of quiet days and stormy nights like this one.
Years of summers, when the air was so humid, the days were only good for cold iced tea out on that front porch of his.
Years of winters, snuggling together under the covers, whispering secrets to each other.
“What if my dreams have changed?” I asked quietly.
His brow pulled together, ripples of emotion flashing across his face, and then the fight seemed to go out of him all at once.
He came and sat on the edge of the bed beside me, his muscular back rounding as he planted his elbows on his knees and dropped his gaze to the floor.
He looked like a man who’d been carrying something heavy for a very long time and had finally run out of places to set it down.
“Don’t tease me,” he said, his voice barely above a murmur. “Don’t play with my heart, Mallory. I’m serious.”
