When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing hard. Her eyes were dazed, her lips swollen, and the sight of her like that—flushed and wanting—nearly undid me.
“Tucker,” she whispered.
I tilted my head back, eyes closed, trying to think past the want still coursing through me.
We stood there, her hands still gripping my shirt. The rest of the world had disappeared—Joe’s garage, the parking lot, everything. It was just us and this moment and the truth hanging between us.
I wanted her. God, how I wanted her.
But I knew I couldn’t have her. For so many reasons. Starting with the fact that I wasn’t a man who could love her like she deserved.
I took a step back, forcing myself to let her go before I did something stupid. Kiss her again. Pull her into my truck and take her back to my cabin and—
“Go back to work, Emily.”
She blinked, still looking dazed. “What?”
“Go. Before I change my mind about letting you leave.”
Color flooded her cheeks, and I saw the moment she understood. It didn’t help my control when the same heat coursing through me flared in her eyes.
“This isn’t over,” she said quietly.
“No,” I agreed. “It’s not.”
She climbed into her car, started the engine. I watched her pull out of the lot and stood there in the parking lot trying to process what had just happened.
I’d kissed Emily Carr. Twice now. This time, I had grabbed her and kissed her in broad daylight where anyone driving by could have seen.
And she’d kissed me back. Again.
She’d pulled me closer instead of pushing me away and made those sounds that would haunt my dreams.
I climbed into my truck and sat there, hands gripping the wheel, trying to get my body under control. Trying to think past the want.
This was dangerous. Being near her, tasting her. It was making me want things I’d given up on. It was making me feel things I’d thought were dead.
Making me hope.
And hope was the most dangerous thing of all I man like me could have. It broke down the walls I’d put firmly in place between me and the world. Between women like Emily. Sweet, innocent and so damn sexy my body ached every time I thought of her.
But as I drove back up the mountain, back to my empty cabin, all I could think about was the way she’d looked at me after that kiss.
Like I’d rocked her world.
Like maybe, just maybe, I was worth the risk.
CHAPTER FIVE
Emily
The pie was still warm when I set it on the passenger seat, tucked in like precious cargo. I tried to convince myself I wasn’t completely out of my mind.
“This is fine,” I muttered, starting the car. “This is a perfectly normal thing to do. Just taking a pie to thank someone for helping with your car. People do this all the time.”
Except people didn’t usually take pies to mountain men who’d kissed them senseless on the side of the road or in a parking lot in broad daylight.
My hands had shaken through the rest of my shift yesterday to the point where Mandy had asked if I was coming down with something. I’d blamed low blood sugar and hidden in the supply closet for five minutes trying to get my heart rate under control.
