Page 9 of Forbidden Mountain Man

He pushed himself to his feet and turned to face me. I immediately felt my cheeks grow warm. Could he see that I wasblushing? He didn’t know I was a virgin. It probably wouldn’t even occur to him.

But what he saw when he turned to face me stopped him in his tracks. I’d originally plopped down on the same cushion I’d occupied while eating the ice cream. But while he worked on the fireplace, I scooted toward the center cushion and now sat squarely in the middle of it, legs crisscrossed in front of me and the big throw from the back of his couch covering my lap.

Could I make it any clearer I wanted him to sit next to me? Maybe so. When his eyes shifted toward the recliner to my right, worry that he might sit there prompted me to pat the empty cushion to my left.

“It’s cold,” I said. “We can warm each other up.”

Was that the worst come-on ever? Probably. It wasn’t like I had any experience with this stuff.

His hard-as-stone features softened slightly as he continued toward the couch, dropping down on the cushion I’d patted. I lifted the throw and scooted it toward him. After eyeing it a second, he spread it over his own lap. He still didn’t relax, though. He sat, his back ramrod straight, staring ahead at the fire.

“It’s a comfortable couch,” I said. “You were right about that.”

He looked confused as he stared straight ahead into the fire. In my usual way, I nervously continued running my mouth.

“I’m sleeping here tonight, remember?” I asked.

“Actually, I can sleep here. You take my bed.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t do that.”

“Because I didn’t make it?”

He looked over at me then, and I saw a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. That was huge. I’d been working hard to get a smile from him since I met him.

“I don’t make my bed either,” I said.

He’d made a comment about his unmade bed when we were taking the mini-tour of his cabin. We didn’t see the two bedrooms he said were upstairs, but he’d taken me through the main bedroom and bathroom.

“I can’t kick you out of your bed,” I said. “I’ll be perfectly fine right here unless…”

Darn. Why had I added that word at the end? It just spilled out as my mind returned to the gutter.

Long seconds passed with him saying nothing. I was just beginning to think he might let it go when he spoke again.

“Unless what?” he asked.

“Unless you want to share the bed with me.”

My heart was pounding so hard, I was sure he could hear it. Heck, I was surprised it wasn’t making the entire sofa vibrate. He could outright reject me, and what could I do? I’d have to go on with my life, pretending that meeting this guy hadn’t rocked my world.

With anyone else, it would just be embarrassing to make a pass and be turned down, but there was so much more at stake with this guy. If Lucas rejected me, I’d be devastated.

“Are you talking about sleeping or something else?” Lucas asked after a long, terrifying silence.

This was it. I could easily back out. I could write it off the same way I’d written off taking the center cushion on the couch. Sharing a bed was just a way to stay warm. That was all.

But no. I couldn’t chicken out now. If I did, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering…

“Something else,” I said.

Another long silence. Finally, he spoke again.

“I want to be clear,” he said. “Will we be naked in that bed?”

If he wanted to be clear, we needed to go further than that. “I want you to make love to me.”

I paused there. It would be unfair not to be completely open with him now. If he was going to do this with me, he had to know what he was getting into.

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