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We follow him as he pulls and pulls, and then round a corner and end up in the harbor parking lot.
I gasp when I see the black Chevy Impala, and then curse myself for being so childish, gasping like a little girl just because I see his car.
But then he steps from it, dressed more appropriately for the weather this time, his jacket a deep blue, and zipped up to his chin. He’s got a light black silver peppered beard, I realize, just a smattering that I didn’t notice before. He glances up and his face tightens when he sees me. His lips do that twitching thing again, that half-smile, smirk, thing.
“Can you take Lava for a sec, hon?” Jackie says, handing me the leash.
“Sure,” I murmur, distracted as Markus and I gaze at each other.
“Thanks,” she says. “Oh, for God’s sake.”
She’s taken out her phone and is now gaping at it in the most ludicrously exaggerated way possible, her eyebrows piqued theatrically.
“No rest for the wicked, I guess. Would you mind waiting here? I need to run into the office quickly.”
“Jackie, don’t you …”
But she’s already gone, turning to mouth You’re beautiful at me. My chest lightens under the praise even as I realize that Markus is approaching, moving with that animal calm, as though nothing in this world could ever come close to perturbing him.
“Hey, boy,” he says, kneeling down to let Lava leap up onto his chest, nuzzling him, yapping happily.Chapter FiveMarkusI try to focus all of my attention on Lava, the dog grinning as he leaps up at me. I run my hand over his coat, freshly washed since yesterday, and tell myself that my need to grab this woman by her curvy hips and take her in the back of my Chevy isn’t roaring loudly in my ears.
Eventually, Lava calms down and I stand, looking over at Millie. She’s wearing a long jacket today, with gloves, jeans, and boots … All things, basically, which should make it more difficult for my manhood to flood with tension at the sight of her.
She’s covered up, for fuck’s sake, and yet my eyes track her curves beneath the winter clothing. Her face is gloriously beautiful, her eyes wide and bright, her lips pursed, her cheeks full and red from the cold. Her hair spills out from a winter hat, dark locks of it, begging for me to run my hands through to see how soft it is.
“He likes you,” Millie says, breaking the silence.
“I’m glad,” I murmur.
“Oh, really?” she says.
I spot the shyness flitting across her features, replaced by sassiness a moment later.
I get the feeling that if I were to spend a few days with this woman, I’d learn her every tic, her every gesture, fascinated each second by all the ways this woman could surprise me.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” I ask.
“Um, well, you don’t seem to care that the rest of the town thinks you’re this big grumpy grouch.”
I can’t help but smirk, at her teasing tone.
“Does that include you, Millie?” I growl, unable to stop myself.
One half of me roars to leave this town, to run before it’s too late, to be the wanderer I’ve always been.
But another part knows that it’s already too late for that.
A real man doesn’t abandon the mother of his children … even if she doesn’t know how important she is yet.
These are the same crazy thoughts that have been spinning around my head all day, a vortex of obsession I can’t quit, which I’m not even sure I want to quit.
Millie considers my question, biting her bottom lip in a way that sends insistent pressure down my length, the base throbbing, my balls icy stones that are begging for a release.
“You weren’t exactly friendly yesterday, storming off like that.”
I stalk closer, glad that Lava is there for an excuse. The pooch lets me pet him, tilting his head regally, allowing me to smooth my hands over his head and ears.
“Maybe I’m just old fashioned,” I rumble. “Maybe I don’t think a man and a woman ought to be alone unless they intend to do something about it.”
I look up just in time to see the shock running through her before she wipes it away with another sassy expression, eyebrows raised, her smirk mirroring my own.
“So I guess that means you don’t want to …”
She trails off, her shyness winning out.
But I can finish the sentence in my mind all too easily.
You don’t want to do anything intimate with me.
But that’s a damn lie.
She’s the only woman my seed has ever roared for, my heart has ever hammered for, my world has ever turned upside down for.
“What are you doing down here, anyway?” she says, quickly changing the subject.
“I was going to walk the harbor.”
“Why?”
I stare at her for a moment, my body thrumming with unspent energy, despite the extra workout I put in this morning, despite the early morning run through the forest, snow and pine leaves crackling beneath my feet.
