Page 35 of Beauty and the Beard

Humming in agreement, I flutter kisses along his jaw and neck. “A guy definitely could. How do you taste so sweet all the time?”

He slides his hands down my back and drags his nails down my spine. When I shiver and groan, he laughs again. It’s so carefree and so… alive.

Fuck. I’ve been dead right along with Connor this whole time.

I’ve missed this so much. It’s only now by letting someone else touch me and make me smile, I feel the weight I’ve been carrying.

It’s heavy and I’m so tired of it crushing the air from my lungs. But it’s not as easy as just waking up and flipping a switch. No matter how beautiful and happy that switch is.

“Leaf? Are you okay?”

Sasha’s gentle voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

His smile fades, and he passes his hand over my cheek.

“Then don’t.”

Staring into his eyes that say so much that his lips don’t, I drop my forehead to his.

“Can I take you somewhere today?”

“Of course. What did you have in mind?”

Rolling back to my side, I take his hand in mine. My thumb dusts across his knuckles while I gather my thoughts.

“I think you’ve already been there. But I want to show it to you and tell you what happened. I want to take you to my sugar shack. Where I used to make maple syrup… it’s what brought me to this mountain.”

“I’d love to. And yes, I did go once. That’s where Perry found me when he drove me back that day. I don’t know anything about maple syrup except I know I love to eat it.” He smiles brightly and again I’m sucked into his charm. His light ways that are so appealing even when I know he carries his own scars.

“Good. I… well, there’s lots for me to tell you. How about I snag some food from the kitchen and we spend the day there? Then if you’d like, you could have dinner with me. In my place, not the lodge.”

Sasha’s eyes widen, and he stumbles over his words.

“I’d, yeah, that sounds… heh, should we get up and get started then?”

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

He bounces out of bed and I’m gifted with the view of his firm ass as he walks to the bathroom. Unbidden, my lips turn into a satisfied smile. Over his shoulder, Sasha catches me watching.

“I see you.” He winks. “I like that you like it.”

The bathroom door closes and I stare up at the ceiling. I’m really doing this. Sasha will know everything about Leaf, the lodge owner, former maple syrup producer, and widowed recluse.

And if I’m lucky, maybe a bit of the romantic he so desperately craves. If I’m super lucky, maybe he’ll see the Leaf I used to be.

Sasha’s hair peeks out from under his ATV helmet as we whiz along the road to the sugar shack. He clutches his camera bag to his chest with one hand and has a death grip on theholy shitbar above his head.

But he’s smiling. His nervous laughter when we hit a bump is something I wish I could bottle.

Gearing down, I turn us onto to the long and winding road up to the sugar shack. My heart breaks when I notice the sign is all rusted and broken. When I first placed that sign in the ground, it was the happiest I’d ever been. Connor marched up to me not an hour later, demanding to know what kind of operation I planned to run because he was not letting it interfere with his lodge plans.

When I park in front of the main processing building, I’m shocked I’m still smiling, remembering the day I met Connor.

“What’s got that smile on your face?” Sasha asks as he pulls off the helmet.

His hair pokes out all over from static and I reach for his hand. Pulling him along back to the sign we passed, I stop us in front and point to it.

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