Page 13 of Tempted By the Mountain man

“River, I—” But I’m cut off by the soft snores against my ear. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, and if the dead weight of his embrace is any indication, he’s out cold.

I look to Marty, who hops onto the bed, but the dog doesn’t have any answers. He snuggles into the other side of me, sandwiching me between them. As though declaring me part of the pack.

So…this is awkward. But, it’s also nice.

Too nice.

But what if I leave and the nightmares come back?

“I’m not going to get used to this,” I say to a sleepy Marty, fighting a yawn of my own. I make another vow—this one to slip out of the room before River wakes so he never has to know I’m here—and allow my eyes to fall closed.

8

JADE

I tiptoe through the front door of the guest cabin, relieved that it’s finally quiet. But also well aware that it’s nearly dawn and Josh might be preparing for a morning run. I close the door, praying he doesn’t find me sneaking back from the main house. There are not enough tacos in the world to bribe him from not telling Natasha.

But as it turns out, Natasha already knows.

“Where were you?” she asks, arms folded across her chest. She looks eerie standing in the dusky living room in her pajamas. Her high ponytail is loose and off to one side, but I’m not about to point it out. We both know how that happened.

“I forgot something. At the house,” I say, turning away and pretending to make sure the door is fully closed.

“Right. Is that why you’re still wearing last night’s clothes?”

“How would you know what I was wearing? You were a little preoccupied after I showered.”

Natasha smiles, not an ounce of her ashamed. “Sorry. Book research called. And I know what you were wearing because I was in reverse cowgirl with a perfect view out the window. I saw you sneak back to the house. The dark house.”

“It’s not what you think, Tash. Really.”

I’m not prepared for the look of disappointment on her face. “Why not?”

“Because I’m not trying to earn a reputation as a woman who sleeps with her boss.”

“This isn’t the same thing as Skeezy Seymour, and you know it.”

She’s right. River didn’t come on to me then tell everyone it was the other way around when I rejected him.

River didn’t even know I was in his bed.

“If I do a good job—which, thanks to Grandma Charlotte eagerly waiting by her phone this week, I think I am doing—River might give me a good recommendation for whatever job comes next. Considering teaching is now out of the realm of possibility without literally moving away, I need all the help I can get.”

“I bet if you give that man a good enough blow job, he’ll write you any recommendation you want.”

I’m thankful the lights are still off, because my bestie would not let me live down the blush I can feel burning up my chest and neck. She’s accused me of being full-on flustered. Which, I am.

If only she knew that less than ten minutes ago, River’s very impressive erection was pressed into my lower back, she would chew me out for abandoning a perfectly good cock in need—a direct quote from one of her books.

Sneaking out of River’s bed was not only hard logistically, but also emotionally. It broke my heart to see him in pain last night. To know that I have the ability to soothe him is not something I know how to process. But the guilt I feel for leaving him is overshadowed by the fear that he actually has no idea he pulled me into his bed in the first place.

I’ve had enough awkward encounters with that unfairly sexy mountain man to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

“You know it’s okay if you want to, right?”

“Okay if I want to give him a blow job?”

“Well, that too.” Natasha’s mischievous smile is illuminated by the sliver of sunlight that slices through the front window. “It’s obvious there’s attraction between you two.”