Page 38 of Her Wild Coast Refuge

My heart pounds so hard it’s louder than the bass thumping from the stage.

Her kiss lingers, soft and gentle. Desire thunders through me, exploding inside my chest, making my throat so tight I can’t breathe.

I want so many things in this moment. To keep dancing, and make her laugh, to hold her and kiss her and watch her smile. To know that it doesn’t have to end.

Lexie rocks back, and smiles. “Thanks for the dance.”

I’m so worked up, and confused, that laughter bubbles up from inside me. “You’re welcome.”

“I wish…you could kiss me.” Her anxious whisper is like a wrecking ball to my heart.

Here’s that line in the sand, drawn so clearly it might as well be carved into the floor. Can I really walk away from this, feeling this way? Like if I do, I’ll destroy the little light that’s glowing inside me, the one that’s flickered in the cold wind for so long.

But I can’t ask her to kiss a married man.

I press my lips to her forehead. “Me too.”

ChapterTen

DAWSON

I pinchthe bridge of my nose while Bealer’s lead engineer tries to blow smoke up my ass.

“No,” I interrupt.

Quinn scowls, but I’m fed up with Dr. Important’s bullshit.

“That’s not going to work,” I continue, pushing to my feet. On the screen, the gray-haired engineer watches me with that condescending look that drives me crazy.

“Look at the average rainfall measurements again,” I say. “If Soren Mountain has a year like 1986, the dam will breach.”

“We can’t plan for every weather possibility.”

“Why not? Isn’t that your job?”

Dr. Important gives an exasperated huff. “The Soren Mountain dam’s architecture is well above current safety standards.”

“The current safety standards are a joke, and you know it. Those same standards have allowed three dams to fail in the U.S. in the past five years.”

“We will have round the clock monitoring.”

“So we can measure just how bad of a disaster a breach will cause? Great.”

“I assure you this proposal is using cutting edge technology.”

I shake my head. “Not good enough. You have two days to get me a solution that accommodates for climate change and prevents heavy minerals from leaking into the groundwater.”

Dr. Important just stares back at me, his jaw tight.

We end the conference and I release a frustrated sigh. “What does it take to get through to these people?”

Quinn rubs his forehead. “I know it’s not completely foolproof, but it’s pretty fucking close.”

“This is not a game of horseshoes, Q.”

“He’s right about the monitoring. If anything starts to go sideways, they can prevent a full catastrophe.”

“In theory, sure. But what if they can’t get there in time? If the pond starts to breach, they’ll need pumping equipment in place, somewhere to put the excess. See what I mean? They’re all talk. They don’t give a shit about safety.”

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