Page 17 of Protected By the Mountain Man

“I thought…I mean, I heard…” he manages before faltering, rubbing a big hang over the back of his neck. “I, uh, thought you were in trouble.”

“I was just having an emotional moment,” I say in a small voice before I rinse my toothbrush and my mouth. “Sorry if I disturbed you.”

Ace’s face is a storm of confusion in the mirror. “Disturbed me? Not in a thousand years.”

This man — a stranger — thought I was in trouble and threw himself into the perceived fray? In turn, I have to restrain myself from throwing myself into his arms.

I don’t turn around, but stay facing the sink, meeting his eyes in the mirror — just in case I can’t resist that throwing-myself-into-the-burly-mountain-man’s-arms urge. “I’m okay.”

He leans his head to one side. “Are you, though?”

My first instinct is to scowl and double down, telling him to mind his business, stubborn idiot that I am.

But my second is to tell the truth.

That’s the instinct that I listen to.

Leaning the heels of my hands on the edges of the sink, I spill it all. How I met Ryan. The way he tricked me into being the mother of his child. The way I regret everything, everything, everything—

“No.” He cuts me off with a fierce growl, stepping to my side. He takes my face in his hands and turning it to him, so gently it might make me start crying all over again. “No. I hate how you’ve been treated, and Billy too. But I don’t regret that you’re here, in my home, safe.”

“Safe,” I echo Ace. “You’ve made me feel more safe than I ever have. Did you know that?”

His forehead creases in what I first think is anger, but then realize is relief. “Really? You mean that?”

It’s his vulnerability that undoes me.

I’m in his arms, his hands at my waist, my arms around his torso, before I realize that I’ve moved.

“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it,” I whisper, voice hoarse.

“No,” Ace says, a slow smile lifting one corner of his lips. “You wouldn’t, would you?”

I shake my head. “No. At least, I try not to. I’m sure it makes me a huge pain in the ass for everyone around me.”

“A woman who knows what she wants and refuses to settle for less?” He laughs, a short, guttural sound. “That makes you irresistible.”

My lips part in shock. “It does?”

He nods. “To the right men. To decent men.”

My heart is throwing itself against the insides of my ribs when I speak, breathless. “To you?”

“Absolutely.” Ace growls the single word, melting every last one of my reserves.

I wind my arms around the back of his neck, marveling that I’ve found someone like him: handsome and strong and, best of all, trustworthy.

“Will you kiss me, Ace?” I ask, practically panting.

Instead of words, he answers me with action. Catching my lower back in his big hands, he pulls my waist to him until I can feel his hardness, how ready and willing he is.

For me.

For this.

Forus.

Then he takes a hand and, so gently I could weep, he cradles the back of my neck, guiding my mouth to his.

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