Page 120 of Mountain Boss

I swallow again.

Maybe he wasn’t always that way.

Sterling looks up at me, his mouth half turned up. And it’s like he’s a whole different person than the one I know.

His half smile starts to slip.

And it’s my turn to close the distance between us.

His eyes heat.

He reaches for me as I place my hands on his bare chest.

His muscles tense under my touch, and I witness a full-mouth smile on Sterling’s handsome face as he jolts.

“Your hands are fucking freezing.”

I automatically start to pull them away, but his palm against the back of my neck holds me in place.

“Warm me up with another kiss,” he demands, his lips an inch from mine. “Then go to bed before I take more.”

I’m tempted to tell him he can take as much as he wants. But something stops me.

Something in my chest that tells me not to rush this.

That there’s no need to rush this.

That,please, gods, don’t let me ruin everything by rushing this.

The hand on my neck flexes as I close my eyes and push up onto my tiptoes.

Sterling moans against my lips.

And I feel his other hand drag down the length of my braid.

I open.

He takes.

We’re making up for the lack of kissing last time. And his taste is familiar to me now.

Familiar and addicting.

We pull back at the same time.

My fingertips drag down his bare skin, feeling the rough chest hair that I fantasized about touching after seeing him that very first time. When his flannel was undone and his body was on display.

I slide my hands down to his sides.

I want to move them around to his back.

I want to hug him.

But I take a step back.

Not tonight.

Not when I need to hurry away.

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