“I know,” she said quickly. “You live far away. This is complicated. You don’t have to say it again. I just… I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
Her voice dropped a little at the end.
So did my defenses.
I walked toward her slowly, closing the distance between us one step at a time.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you either.”
Her breath hitched. Her eyes searched mine.
And for a second, all the things I wanted to say—Stay with me. Let’s figure this out. Please don’t let this be just a vacation thing—were tangled in my throat.
Instead, I touched her cheek.
She leaned into it.
And then I kissed her.
It was slower this time.
Softer.
Like we were both trying to hold something delicate.
But make no mistake—
It still burned.
When her arms wrapped around my waist and her fingers slipped beneath the hem of my shirt, I forgot what restraint even felt like.
I backed us toward the bed, only stopping when the backs of my knees hit the edge.
She smiled against my mouth. “This bed’s a lot comfier than a truck.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
She kissed me again, deep, sure, completely dizzying.
And I let go.
Again.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Fifi
The sun was already stretching across the Honey Leaf Lodge’s porch by the time I slipped out the front door with sunglasses on my head and a ridiculous amount of anticipation in my chest.
It had only been a couple of nights since we slept together, and ever since then, he’d been hanging around the lodge more, but it was coupled with awkward encounters and confused glances…mostly on my part.
It didn’t help that I couldn’t stop thinking about falling asleep tangled in the back of my truck after fighting off a territorial beaver and having sex under the stars like we were teenagers in a country music video.
But something had shifted.
Ben wasn’t just a sexy guest anymore. He was a… presence. A hum beneath my skin. Someone I found myself watching out of the corner of my eye every time he came down for breakfast.And now that he wasn’t growling at the sunshine or ignoring my jokes?
I wanted more of him.
