Page 5 of Promises on the Mountain

"What was that about?" Is all I want to know right now.

3

APRIL

Raine's voice is edged with irritation, its volume startling me as it bounces off the few stainless-steel shelves and prep tables scattered around the empty back half of the cafe.

"Just a friend checking up on me." I explain away Kay's call as nonchalantly as I can, doing my best to hide the pain from my voice.

This isn't how I want my first date with Raine to start off.

It is a date, right?

"Didn't sound like much of a friend to me."

He leans in the doorway, casually commanding the space just as easily as he does any space I've seen him in.

An image of him in my bedroom pops into my brain, totally unbidden. I feel the heat blossoming through my entire body and I rush to put the broom and dustpan back in the supply closet before he can see what he does to me.

"Kay's just--" how do I explain it without getting into the whole messy story? I'm sure this rugged mountain man isn't here for my drama, and to be honest? I'm happy to spare him. "She just has a different way of expressing her support."

"If by 'different' you mean, 'not at all,' you've pretty much nailed it. You about ready? I've got everything in the truck, ready to go. Let's get outta here and you can tell me who Mia is while we drive."

"Was," I correct. I say it absently, without even thinking about how I'm just opening a can of worms. So much for keeping my drama to myself.

"Sounds like there's a story there."

Raine's hands tighten slightly on my upper arms, his voice dropping down as if it's slunk off to someplace dark and distant.

It feels like a chasm just opened between us, even while so little space separates us physically.

"Let's git."

His hands fall away and he heads for the front door without waiting on me while I gather my things and lock up, but when I get outside, he's there with the truck already running, leaning against the side till I'm close enough to open the door for me and help me into the cab where the heater has already warmed the small space.

"Get over here." He slams his door as he climbs behind the wheel, then pats the space in the middle of the bench seat beside him, "I want my girl next to me when I drive."

His girl. The words make me giddy. I try not to read into them as I slide across the leather until I'm sitting close enough that our thighs touch.

Raine's right arm stretches behind me, wrapping around my shoulders while the truck idles in front of the cafe.

Then he's turned toward me, his left hand cupping my chin and forcing my face up to his.

Warm, firm lips press against mine. The kiss catches me so completely off guard that I gasp, giving him easy access to slick his tongue into my mouth.

I've kissed boys before, but Raine is a man, and everything about the way he takes the lead reminds me of that fact.

My arms find their way around his neck, my fingers combing through the short hair at the back of his neck. My body instinctively twists, seeking his heat and the firmness of his muscled chest against my breasts.

Raine's hand leaves my chin and runs over my throat, across my shoulder and down to grip my hip and then my thigh so firmly that his fingers might leave marks.

Just when I'm about to throw my leg over his lap and straddle him with the steering wheel at my back, he breaks away with an agonized groan.

"Fuck." His hand releases its death grip on my thigh and pats it gently. "I need to get you up to the cabin or we'll be putting on a hell of a show right here."

He turns his body back toward the steering wheel, pulling his arm off my shoulder and reaching between my knees to put the old truck in gear.

Raine drags his hand off the gear shift and up my thigh before he takes my hand out of my lap and places it squarely over his crotch, spreading his large hand over mine with enough pressure to cause me to curl my fingers around the hard length running under the zipper of his jeans.

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