“I hate anyone looking at you like you’re something they can just take,” I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous level.
“Why? It’s just an arrangement, remember? Six months. Legal signatures. Why do you care if some local guy thinks I’m pretty?”
I pulled the truck over. We were halfway up the mountain, surrounded by nothing but the forest. I killed the engine and turned to face her. The cab was too small or she was too close.
“It’s not just an arrangement,” I rasped, my gaze dropping to her mouth. “Not when I can’t sleep because I’m listening to you breathe through the wall. Not when I’m spending my days trying to find ways to see you smile. And definitely not when I want to break the hand of any man who thinks he has the right to stand in your space.”
“So youarejealous.”
I leaned in, my hand reaching out to cup the back of her neck. My thumb traced the line of her jaw, and I felt her shiver—a deep, visceral reaction that fed the fire in my gut.
“I’m not jealous, Maddie,” I whispered, my lips inches from hers. I could smell the vanilla on her skin, mixed with the cool mountain air. “I’m territorial. There’s a difference. Jealousy is wanting something someone else has. Territorial is making sure everyone knows that what’s mine stays mine.”
“And am I yours, Thorne?” she breathed, her hand coming up to rest on my chest, right over my thudding heart.
“The law says you are. My name is on that paper next to yours.” I slid my hand into her hair, tangling my fingers in the dark strands I found absolutely fascinating. “But looking at you right now? Watching you wear my shirts? Knowing you’re sleeping in my bed. Alone.”
Maddie didn’t pull away. She leaned into me, her chest brushing mine, her eyes dark with a heat that matched my own. “Then prove it, Mountain Man. Prove I’m yours.”
I almost did.
I almost took her right there in the cab of the truck. My hand was already sliding from her neck down the curve of her shoulder, already calculating the distance between my mouth and the pulse point at her throat. Her breath had changed — shorter, faster — and her fingers had curled into my shirt like she was anchoring herself to something. One more inch and I’d have had my mouth on her neck and my hands on those curves.
But I forced myself to pull back. I wasn’t going to let our first time be in the front seat of a truck like a couple of teenagers. She deserved more. I wanted more.
And I couldn’t tell her any of what I was feeling. Not yet. I started the truck, my breathing ragged.
We were close. So close to the breaking point. And I knew that once we crossed it, there was no going back to roommates. Or marriage in name only.
CHAPTER SIX
Maddie
I woke up to a silence so heavy it felt like the forest had settled on top of me. No sirens, no trash trucks, just the haunting, beautiful nothingness of Lone Mountain.
I checked my phone—it was nine in the morning. Thorne, the human personification of a mountain, had likely been up since dawn doing rugged, manly things. I stayed under the covers for a moment, staring at the rough-hewn timber beams above me. My mind, traitorous as always, went straight to the day before at the hardware store. And the ride home afterwards.
The look in his eyes had said he wanted me. Wanted to take me right there in the front seat of his truck.
Then, he’d done that damn thing where he pulled away, his feelings hibernating like a bear in the winter.
I wanted his hand in my hair, his mouth crushing mine. I wanted it again. Scratch that. Iachedfor it again.
I knew I couldn’t stay in bed here wishing that life was different. I knew things happened in their own time.
And if Thorne and I were going to happen, I’d have to be patient.
But, hopefully, just a little while longer.
I grabbed a pair of jeans, clean underwear and a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt. It might say spring on the calendar, but Lone Mountain had yet to catch up temperature wise.
I shivered as I pulled on the flannel shirt I now called my own, heading to the bathroom. Wearing it felt like being hugged by him. The thought sent a low, humming heat through my lower belly.Get it together, Maddie.
I rolled up the sleeves thinking of ways to entertain myself and maybe make another of his walls start to crumble.
And just like on the path a few days ago, I wasn’t watching where I was going.
Oof.
