This time, I am all in.
Chapter9
Kelly
The drive to J.T.’s place is about fifteen minutes.
It feels like five.
Or fifty.
He takes the mountain roads like he owns them—confident, precise, barely tapping the brakes as we curve through darkness lit only by headlights and moonlight.
“Um, J.T.?”I venture, fingers gripping my purse a little tighter.
“Hmm?”he rumbles.
That sound.
Low.Gravelly.Deep enough to vibrate somewhere inside my chest.
If I didn’t already know him as a rough-and-tumble construction magnate, that voice would be the giveaway.
And, holy fuck, something in my core answers it.
In fact, I’m pretty sure my panties are a mess right now as I wade between my unrepentant desire for him and any lingering doubts I may have as to what it is we’re going here to do.
“Do you maybe want to slow down?”I ask lightly.
“What?”He glances at me, amused.
“I’d like to arrive wherever we’re going in one piece,” I say with a breathy laugh that might be skirting hysteria.
“We’re going to my place, Honey,” he replies, that slow grin spreading across his face, “I can handle this truck.I can handle these roads.Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”
The words should irritate me.
They don’t.
They make me feel—well it’s dumb, but they make me feel taken care of.
Which is dangerous.Unlike me.
I am always the one who does the caretaking.
But maybe that’s the point.
I’ve never been to J.T.’s house.
So when he turns off the main road onto a hidden driveway that snakes through trees and opens into a secluded clearing at the base of the opposite side of the mountain—my mouth actually drops open.
Did I say house?
This isn’t a house.
It’s not a cabin either.
It’s a masterpiece.
