Page 31 of The Contractor & the Entrepreneur

As cars cruised past them on Main Street, they stared over the short buildings at the brilliant colors that in his mind only a Montana sunset could do justice to. He felt like they were in their own world.

After a few beats, she blinked up at him. “Beautiful,” she whispered.

“Gorgeous,” he agreed, completely focused on her face and those deep-brown eyes.

He found himself bending closer to her centimeter by centimeter. If he moved too fast, he might ruin the moment. She’d put up her walls and dash away again.

It was agonizingly slow but as enticing as anything he’d ever experienced. She focused on him as he came ever closer.

Then she fisted his T-shirt in her hands and pulled herself up toward him.

Rhett was startled in the best possible way.

His hands wrapped around her lower back, urging her closer still. Their mouths sought each other like two magnets waiting to find their perfect match for years. The moment of connection was an explosion of warmth and joy.

A horn blared from the street. Sloan yanked away from him and turned to look at the large, four-door black Chevy idling at the curb.

Now Rhett was startled in the worst possible way.

He turned to put some teenager in his place but was shocked again to see Josh glaring at him while Sandy looked like she wanted to dissolve into the passenger seat.

He shook his head at his friend, anger making his chest tight.

Sloan pulled out of his embrace as Josh gunned it and roared down the street.

“This is getting out of hand,” Rhett muttered, meaning his friends and co-workers acting like teenagers.

“It is.” Sloan blinked up at him, and that shutter went over her eyes. “Thank you for sushi.”

She turned and walked down the street. Her hotel was half a block away. Maybe Rhett should’ve respected her independence, but he fell into step with her. Things with the development and his friends would figure themselves out. A woman like Sloan only came along once in a lifetime.

“Sloan.” He tried to think where to start. They’d both been caught up in the moment, before Josh ruined it, but he found he was very serious about growing closer to her and developing a relationship.

“Please, Rhett, don’t. I appreciate dinner and you being so great to bury the hatchet, but obviously your friend and mentor doesn’t feel the same. I’m sure all the contractors are still up in arms at me. I don’t want to cause trouble for you.”

She said all of this as she rushed down the street in her pretty but sturdy boots.

“I don’t care what any of them think,” he said heatedly.

“Yes you do. They’re your friends, your associates. I’m the newcomer and I’m not here for long.”

“You’re not?”

They reached her hotel. She paused out on the front walk and turned to him, folding her arms across her chest.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, looking miserable. “I thought I wanted to build a new life up here, be independent, prove to myself and my dad I can do this, but I don’t want to stay in a place that hates me.” She tilted her chin up, and her dark eyes filled with resolve. “I’ll get this project going smoothly, sell more lots, pay off my loans, and I’ll find another place inMontana, Wyoming, or Idaho to develop. Some place with green mountains and great real estate potential just like this. A place where people aren’t prejudiced against Sloan Jensen.”

“Sloan.” Rhett touched her arm. Her gaze flicked to his fingers then to meet his again. “They’ll come around. They’re just pigheaded, prideful guys. It’ll calm down.”

She shrugged as if she didn’t believe him.

“Those other places might have mountains, but they won’t have Rhett Coleville,” he said. It sounded weird, like something Easton would’ve said before he settled down with Cassie, but the line seemed to have the desired effect as her gaze swept over him and her shield fell for just a moment.

She arched up and his hopes grew wings. Gently kissing his cheek, she drew back just as quick. “Thanks for being so great,” she murmured.

Then she spun and rushed up the walk, dashed up the steps, and disappeared through the front doors.

Rhett watched her go, miserable and hopeful at the same time. She felt something for him. She’d kissed him for that brief second before Josh had blared his horn. It didn’t sound like she wanted to go back to Arizona or Vegas. Developing property and being an entrepreneur was her dream and there was plenty of opportunity around here, especially now that she’d gotten to know the county people and had her own ‘ins’ with some road guys.

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