Page 15 of Shielded Hearts

“Well, Aspen. Good news, there are three cans of food that aren’t expired,” he called to her. “We’ve got beets.”

Her subdued moan reached his ears, making him shake with a silent laugh.

“Lima beans.”

“What the hell do we do with lima beans? Eat them out of the can?”

He didn’t know what it was about a prim and proper woman like Aspen cussing, but it amused the hell out of him. His grin stretched wider.

“Corned beef,” he went on.

“Oh god.What even is that?”

“And I have granola bars in the truck.”

She popped into the open doorway, dark curls mussed and as disheveled as if she’d just been carried to that bed and thoroughly loved.

Dammit, and he just got his erection to go down.

Her green eyes and the faint roses of sleep in her cheeks were the best thing this cabin had to offer. “Granola bars sound great.”

He pushed to his feet and left the cabin to retrieve the food and a couple of the bottles of water he always stashed in the truck. In the mountains, a man was prepared for any eventuality. That could mean anything from a hunting accident to a flat tire. Having a few basics on hand meant life or death.

He came back inside and set the food on the old wood table. One of the spindle legs had been replaced by a two-by-four post. Angling his head, he eyeballed it. “Vintage furniture.”

“Don’t remind me.” She snatched up a granola bar and tore into it. In three bites, she had polished it off and reached for a second. Seemed she didn’t want the corned beef.

“So this place won’t make the travel portfolio.”

As if restored by the food, she gave him a small shake of her head rather than bitinghisoff. “I’m looking for hidden gems. Things off the beaten path. Some of my clients like privacy and elite retreats, not resorts. And yacht vacations aren’t the same now that the whales are sinking them.”

His brows shot up. “I heard about that.”

She tipped her head to the side like an interested bird. “You don’t seem like the kind of man who follows current news.”

“I was a Navy SEAL. Anything that goes on in the water interests me.”

She straightened, her gaze cutting from his face to his shoulders and down over his chest. If she kept eyeing him like that, he was never going to make his cock un-swell.

He had to put some distance between him and the woman who made gray sweats look sexy and irresistible.

He turned for the door. “I’m going outside to have a look around.”

* * * * *

The water wasbarelywarm. The metal edges of the horse trough were freezing if Aspen even bumped into it.

What must have passed for steam in the days of pioneers wisped up from the water that barely covered her thighs but was making her curls frizz. Her knees jutted upward, even her shorter legs too long to fit in the small tub. She still couldn’t believe she’d gotten brave enough—or desperate enough—to heat water over the stove and take a bath.

After the endlessly long day she had yesterday, getting up early and flying to Wyoming to hand-deliver that portfolio, followed by one roadblock after another, she deserved hot water.

If only it were hot.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath of the light lemon-scented body wash she’d picked up last time she was in France. What she wouldn’t give right now to be back there, staying in luxury accommodations and visiting farmer’s markets.

Instead, she was stuck in a lukewarm bath, trying to quickly scrub herself clean before Colt returned from whatever he was doing outside.

She pictured him standing under that water hose they claimed was an “outdoor shower.” All six-foot-two or three ofraw, muscular Navy SEAL power, scrubbing himself down with cold water in the wilderness.

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