Page 28 of Shielded Hearts

“I’m glad you had a good rest, princess.”

“I did. And these sheets! They have to be two thousand-thread count.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

She issued a husky laugh. “It means they’re soft and perfectly cozy. Everything about this cabin is cozy and warm. Not at all detached like a billionaire’s mansion, which is sometimes too modern and stark.”

“I’m glad it meets your standards.”

She pushed into a sitting position, drawing his attention to her attire. Sometime in the night, she’d thrown on an oversized T-shirt.

He wanted to rip the thing off her.

“Did you have an interior designer for the house?”

Her question didn’t mesh with his own focus of getting her naked and speared on his cock again.

He shook his head to clear it. “No, why?”

“This place has a woman’s touch.”

He grunted. “Good eye. It has.”

She pulled her rosy bottom lip between her teeth. Her fine brows drew downward.

He didn’t know much about women, but he could see she was visibly upset at being the second woman to be here. Nobody wanted to come in second.

Slipping out of bed, she faced him with a mattress between them. All that space to spread her out and claim her.

“I know I should have asked this last night, but I just assumed. You didn’t have a date at the wedding—”

He cut her off. “Aspen, are you trying to ask if I’m in a relationship?”

“Well…yeah.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, making that short hem ride up her bare thighs. “It’s clear that a woman decorated this place, and you said as much.”

In slow, measured steps he rounded the bed. He came to a stop in front of her.

She tipped her head up, jaw set in a cute little challenging jut.

“A very important woman decorated this cabin, Aspen. My baby sister Willow.”

* * * * *

After waking up clinging to her travel companion and then making a fool out of herself with the whole woman’s touch on the cabin thing, Aspen needed some precious time away from Colt.

She took a shower in the huge bathroom and while lathering herself with fragrant body wash, she marveled at how the shower wasn’t tiled with marble. Complete slabs of marble made up the walls. It sure beat the horse trough and water heated on the old smoky woodstove.

She quickly dressed in sleek dark jeans and her favorite black blouse, the one that packed perfectly for travel. Whenever she wore it, she thought immediately of Vivian. Her sweet friend had always complimented Aspen when she donned the top, and there were multiple photos of them in various locales—in Stockholm, the Cotswolds and even in Japan.

Aspen added a berry-red lip stain and went in search of her host.

Her lover.

Oh god, had she really slept with him? The twinges in muscles she didn’t use often told her loud and clear that she hadn’t imagined their encounter.

When she followed the decadent scent of good coffee into the kitchen, her stare fell on the long, hard planes of Colt’s spine. At the sound of her footsteps, he swung to face her.

His gaze latched on to her lips and then skidded back up to her eyes. Her lower belly heated, and her pussy squeezed in reaction to a single look from the man who’d filled her so completely the night before.

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