The cabins started appearing along the trail, each with its own front porch. I hated to admit it, but they were charming. I found the second fork, took it, and spotted the six hanging on a door.
“Okay. I finally found my cabin. Did you warn me about this heat?”
When I went to push my key into the lock, the door just opened. I pushed it wide, a wave of cool air washing over me. Thank goodness the cabins were air-conditioned. Besides books and coffee, air conditioning was my favorite thing. Especially in Texas.
I stopped just inside the cabin, the door still open behind me as I took in the room. My suitcase tipped over with a dull thud. My phone slid dangerously down my shoulder, almost clattering to the floor before I caught it. I could still hear Paige’s voice.
“I’m going to have to call you back,” I whispered, ending the call.
There was a man inside the cabin.
He was totally over-the-top-handsome by anyone’s definition of the word. Dark hair ruffled by a towel, a strong jaw dusted with dark stubble, and heavy drops of water trailing down his broad chest.
And he was wearing nothing but a towel. A towel totally inadequate for the job it had been assigned. It was resting low on his hips like it knew it was outmatched by gravity and was just slowly giving in. It was two seconds away from dropping and giving me a full-frontal anatomy lesson.
I could tell he was everything I actively avoided in the male species. He had God’s gift to women written all over his face along with a sexy smirk.
Instead of scrambling for something to cover up with, or a freaking pair of jeans, or doing literally anything a normal person would do when a stranger burst into their room, he just stood there rubbing his hand over a set of abs that had to absolutely be painted on somehow.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from following the movement of his hand. Fingers dragged over the hard, carved ridges, following the v-line down, down, until coming to rest right where the terrycloth towel was putting up its valiant fight.
Stop looking, Jamie,I scolded myself.
But I couldn’t. I knew I should turn around, walk out of the cabin and march straight back to the check-in desk.
But I didn’t.
My common sense was quickly outvoted by my girlie parts.
He caught me staring. The smirk widened into a slow, devastating grin. “Like the view, darlin’?”
I snapped my gaze back up to his face, pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose with more force than was necessary. Idrew myself up to my full, five-foot five curvy height, refusing to let him see how thoroughly he’d wiped away my common sense.
Then I heard Paige’s voice, in my head, immediate and unhelpful.What you need is a cowboy rubbing your clit.
I took another long look and thought, sign me up if it’s this one.
“Well,” he said, his voice that perfect Texas drawl that was neither rehearsed nor pretend. “I wasn’t expecting company.”
His gaze roamed over me. Took in my sensible beige blouse, my practical librarian glasses, and the overly expensive boots that I knew made me look like someone playing dress up. They were so not me.
Another thing I could blame Paige for.
His eyes were an amber color I’d never seen before. Whiskey colored and full of their own secrets. His perusal was not a quick, polite skim. It was a look. The slow, unhurried kind that started at my face and took its time on the way down, and didn’t pretend otherwise.
Every nerve ending I owned stood at full attention. So did my nipples. I felt them harden under my blouse and resisted the urge to cross my arms.
“The door wasn’t locked,” I snapped, channeling my best you-owe-late-fees librarian tone.
He nodded in agreement. “That wouldn’t have been very neighborly now, would it?”
“This is obviously not my cabin.”
“Is that a fact?” His gaze dropped again, dragging a slow, heated path over my buttoned-up blouse, down the curve of my hips, all the way to my stiff new boots, and back up to my mouth. Where it lingered.
The towel slipped a quarter of an inch.
He gave a grin. The kind of grin that probably had women dropping their panties at his feet like an offering. And oh, how he knew it. It was right there in the easy arrogance of his smile.
