Page 187 of Mountain Men Heroes

She laughed. “What exactly did that entail?”

Damned if I was going to tell her about Mac’s smack talk. She’d probably blush from now until next Tuesday. I shook my head. “Nothing. But he did want to know if you’d given any more thought about the job. Told me to remind you about the tuition reimbursement. You can get your degree online while you work.”

“Get my degree online?”

Something in her voice caught my attention. I twisted to look at her for a couple of seconds before focusing back on the road.

“Did I misunderstand what Mac offered?” I did my best to keep things neutral.

“He just said I could get some college credits that way. I figured I’d transfer them over to my college when I start there in the spring.”

My heart stopped. “Syn City College?”

“Yeah. They offered me a partial scholarship while I work to sell my jewelry. I deferred enrollment until spring so I could save a little more.”

“You’re still planning on going to school in the city?” I erased all expressions and fought to keep the anger out of my voice. Never knew the skills I’d learned in hostage negotiating would come in handy in conversations with my woman.

“I-I don’t know. It’s what I’ve been planning for as long as I can remember.” Her voice grew quiet and my heart ached.

She’d been planning on school for as long as I’d been planning on claiming her and making her mine. For the first time since I had her under me yesterday, I started to think this might not be the done deal I thought it was. Plans for our future together had been foremost in my mind for a while now.

But apparently, Trinity’s plans didn’t match mine.

I stared out the windshield as steely determination set in. No more waiting. There’s no way Trinity was leaving this mountain and leaving me behind. She was mine.

Now I just had to make that clear to her.

Trinity

Iwill not freak out. I will not freak out. No matter how many times I repeated those words over in my head, I couldn’t seem to take my own advice.

“Easy, sweetheart.” Sawyer dropped his arm over my shoulder as he led me from his truck to the front door of a log cabin tucked into a cluster of large trees.

I glanced around and was pleasantly surprised to note the other homes here were tucked in their own spots along a single-track road. My breath started coming a little easier.

“I don’t know what I expected.” I shook my head at my silliness and internally acknowledged my lie. I knew exactly what I expected—a clump of houses built right on top of each other with hordes of Sawyer’s relatives waiting to greet us. “This is really beautiful.”

And it was. The luxury cabin had a long front porch with several rocking chairs on one side of the front door and a small table and chairs taking up the other side. I raised an eyebrow at the pots of flowers hanging from the porch roof. I shot a look Sawyer’s way.

He followed my gaze and grinned. “My mom. They were a welcome home present.”

I nodded and went back to my inspection as Sawyer guided me through the front door. I stopped dead when we stepped into the great room. I didn’t know where to look first.

One of the main focal points was an enormous stone fireplace. A mix of worn leather chairs and plush brown sofas were placed around it, a ginormous big screen television over the mantle.

The TV made me smile. That would have been the only thing I’d been right about had someone asked me what I thought Sawyer’s place looked like.

One entire wall was composed of floor-to-ceiling windows. The view from anywhere in the room was breathtaking—tall spruce trees with mountains in the distance, green as far as the eye could see.

At the other side of the room, a long farmhouse table and enough chairs to seat an army divided the room in half. Beyond that, I could see a fully updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a center island with a cooktop and four stools tucked under the counter, long marble countertops, and warm pine cabinets.

Just the sight of that kitchen made me want to start cooking, something I loved to do. The fact I worked long hours and my little kitchenette didn’t allow me to do more than heat two pots on the stove kept me from doing it too often. Not to mention cooking for one could get depressing.

“What do you think?”

I twisted to find Sawyer leaning on the back of the couch, his arms crossed over his chest. His pose was casual, but something about his careful watchfulness made me feel like a mouse about to get pounced on by a cat.

Looking at him one would never know the man’s family was worth millions and if the rumors were true, so was he. But I didn’t care about that. I just saw the man. Scars, dark eyes, dirty desires and all.

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