Page 3 of Saved By the Mountain Man

I grabbed a small lamp from the table, holding it over my head and moved toward the door. When it opened, I held my breath, every muscle tensed. The door creaked open, and I swung, but a thick arm shot out and caught the lamp.

“What the fuck?” a gruff voice asked, and he yanked the lamp out of my hands. He lifted it above his head instead.

Damn it, I was in trouble.

But the man in front of me wasn’t Jethro. It wasn’t any of his lackeys, either.

I swallowed hard, staring at the dark hair, the hazel eyes that stared down at me, and the past slammed into me like a freight train.

“Tanner?” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

“Rae?” His voice was rough, disbelieving.

No one had called me Rae in a long, long time.

I’d leftRaebehind when I’d left the world where Tanner had been my everything and started over in a new life.

Not since the night he’d disappeared out of my life, leaving me behind without any answers, without a way to contact him, without any reason, and my heart had shattered into a million pieces. I’d been McKenna to everyone since then. I hated being called McKenna, but being called Rae had hurt too fucking much when he’d been the only one who could say my name and give me goose bumps.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

His deep voice shivered over my skin.

The cabin suddenly felt suffocating, the walls closing in as Tanner stepped further inside. He was a large man, and I tookan involuntary step back, wrapping my arms around myself like I could physically keep my shit together.

My mind spun, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. How was it possible that I’d fled back into the past?

“I could ask you the same question,” I snapped, my voice a lot steadier than I felt.

He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes scanned the room, landing on my duffel bag with a suspicious glint.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said finally, his tone as sharp as a blade.

“Neither should you,” I clapped back.

“This isn’t your territory, Rae. You have a new life somewhere else, and you should get back to it.”

I was suddenly furious.

“What the fuck would you know about my life now?”

Tanner finally set the lamp down where it belonged. He knew this cabin, it seemed.

“It’s dangerous for you to be here, Rae,” Tanner said again. “I want you to leave.”

There it was. The words that really mattered. It wasn’t about safety. It was about that, after all this time, I was still not good enough for him.

“If you don’t want me around, thenyoucan leave,” I said hotly. “You’re pretty good at that.”

Tanner narrowed his eyes. Damn it, those hazel eyes that drew me in, the high cheekbones, the perfectly square jaw. I still remembered how his hair had felt between my fingers when I tangled them in it. I still remembered how it felt to kiss him and how his stubble would scrape my chin.

His eyes were hard now. They didn’t look at me with love the way they used to.

All that was left was the hard, powerful shell, the cold warrior Tanner could be. The warmth I’d known before was all gone.

He clenched his jaw.

“It’s you or me,sweetheart.” The term of endearment was sarcastic.

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