Page 45 of Mountains Divide Us

“Everything’s fine, but Abey ain’t feelin’ good. I need to spell her.”

“Spell her?”

“I need to take over for a while. Carey’s wife and kids caught a chill or somethin’, too, probably from the weather, so he’s on nursin’ duty. He’ll be in and out today, so there’s likely to be some accidents on the highway I’ll need to see to.”

“Oh. I hope they aren’t bad accidents.”

He pushed a strand of hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind my ear. His breath was minty fresh.

“No coffee?”

“Hm?”

“You don’t smell like coffee,” I said.

“Never drink the stuff.”

“Me either. Not very often anyway.”

He laughed as he moved away from me and stood from the bed, walking to his dresser. “Then why’d you ask?”

I shrugged one shoulder, rolling over quickly, reaching for my glasses on the bedside table so I could see him properly.

Wrapping a brown leather-banded watch on his wrist, he checked the time and then grabbed some kind of deputy holster thing from an armchair in the corner. There was a black metal gun in the holster, and he slung it over his waistband, threading the strap through his belt loops and fastening and adjusting it so the gun was right where he wanted it on his hip.

I shivered. It was a serious-looking gun, but it wasn’t the reason my body was reacting. Watching Frank dress and get ready for work was damn sexy. I could only imagine what I looked like. It definitely wouldn’t be categorized as sexy. I knew that much as I puffed my cheeks and blew more hair out of my eyeline.

“So,” he said, watching me watching him.

“I don’t want to go home.” It was cold at Gramps’s house. And lonely. And if I stayed, I could pretend a little longer. “Can I stay here? Is that weird? I could keep Grum company. The library will stay closed all day. If the roads are bad tomorrow, I might not even open it then.”

The look on Frank’s face changed. The twinkle was back in his eyes, and he stalked toward me, trapping me between his arms on the bed, pressing me to lie back. “Girl, you could stay in my bed for the rest of time, and I wouldn’t kick up a fuss.” He kissed me. Or maybe it was more like he scorched me with his lips and tongue. I didn’t even care about my morning breath. Finally, he pulled back, licking my kiss off his lips. “But the roads have been cleared already. Schools are open.”

“Well, that totally sucks. I had this dream of lazing about all day in pajamas, reading and sipping hot tea.”

He growled low in the back of his throat, grinding his hard cock through his uniform pants between my bare thighs. I moaned and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer and kissing the ever-loving crap out of him too.

Looping his arms behind my back, he rolled me on top of him.

“Careful! What if your gun goes off?”

“Safety’s on,” he said, but he unbuckled the holster and slid it out from under his hips. As soon as he’d set it on the bedside table, he thrust upward, pressing me down with his hands on my hips, and I rolled against him. “I, on the other hand, have no such capability. We better cut this out, or you’re gonna make me come in my uniform. I’m still hard from last night.”

Scraping my teeth over my bottom lip, I looked down at the body part he was really talking about, then flicked my eyes back up to his. “I could… take care of that for you.”

His eyebrows rose, and he shook his head once. “No.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FRANK

“No?” The nervous smile on her lips dropped like a rock in the river. “Why not?”

I pushed harder, burrowing my dick between her thighs, trying to make contact with her clit through my work pants. I was hoping her scent would stay with me all day, like she’d marked me.

Her eyes rolled shut when I hit my mark, and I pressed harder. “Trust me, Samantha, there’s nothin’ I want more, but not before I make love to you.”

“What?” She froze, then pushed with her hands flat on my chest and sat up. “Why not? That’s ridiculous.”

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