Page 14 of Mountain Men Heroes

She sealed her lips and her expression turned frozen.

Six

Confounding woman. “What will it take to get through to you?” He pulled back and scrubbed a hand over his face. Why did he care after all these damn years, anyway? Didn’t he get the message by now?

“You’re making me crazy with your fucking scent, the way your cheeks flush and your eyes light up every time I stand close. I can’t think straight.” Wearing patience ate at his resolve and he tore a hand through his hair. She didn’t want him. More so, she didn’t want any part of his family all because of her damn father’s poison.

A muscle ticked in his jaw and he turned away so she couldn’t see the war she created inside him.

“Is that a bad thing?”

The possessive need to show her what she still meant to him climbed out of the tightly locked box he’d sealed it away in five years ago.

“Depends,” he husked. By the way her eyebrow twitched, he could tell she expected more of an answer. When he didn’t give it, she produced a skinny flashlight and turned on her heel.

A growl of annoyance slipped before he could catch himself.

“We both know why we can’t happen.” White light filled the four-foot circumference of the small entryway. All stone on one side with a wall of ice and snow on the other. The similarities to their current situation didn’t slip by him.

“Besides the stated obvious? I think you find being with a Savage—rugged mountain men with calloused hands and pilot license—isn’t good enough for the posh and refined Morgan bloodline.” He caught a flash of regret but pushed on anyway. “Wouldn’t want to sully the royal family and all.”

True Esmeralda style, her cheeks filled with a bright red blush and her lower lip tucked sideways when she got angry. He missed that little detail.

Drake cocked a brow and crossed his arms over the expanse of his chest.

His little snow bunny looked lovely all ticked off. Good. Maybe that would cut through her denial. Bare-ass naked wasn’t how he pictured having this discussion, but he could see a few benefits of lowering her defenses. And riling her up. Feeling warmer and a little stifled anyway he toed off his boots and stripped out of his bulky outer winter wear.

“What the heck are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

“Like you’re a fucking lunatic.”

Yeah, but her eyes never left his body and that pretty, warm blush on her cheeks made the nip in the air worth it.

“Look at you all flustered. Like what you see, sweetheart?” he teased just to get her going.

“Sweet Jesus, you’re fucking gorgeous,” she said before clamping her hand over her mouth. “Damn it, Drake. You’re a damn…”

He cocked a grin.

She stopped midsentence, but that smile of hers did all the talking for her, despite trying to hide it from him.

He dragged off his undershirt and opened his pants to reveal just how much she affected him. “Drake?” She simply stated with a question in her tone. But there was an underlying air of curiosity that had him groaning.

His cock was heavy and thick between his legs and he stroked the length through the barrier of his pants as she worked her throat with what looked like a very dry swallow.

He grinned. “I’m a what, Esme? It seems the only way to get you to stop and see is to give you something to look at. So, here I am.”

She raised angry eyes on him but he didn’t believe it for a second. Not with how she licked her lips.

Drake prowled closer and her light followed his movements, falling lower each step he took.

The low lighting didn’t bother him, but he knew she struggled to see. Or she really was trying hard not to look down the length of his body despite her raking the light over him from head to toe more than once.

Both options would explain the deep creases of concentration between her eyes and the immense waves of anxiety rolling off her with enough power to choke him.

“We don’t have time for that,” she tried but failed when he cupped her face.

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