Page 149 of Mountain Boss

One of his hands moves to grip my ass. “This is my penance.”

I drag my nails up the back of his neck into his hair. “Penance?”

He nods and presses his nose to my temple, inhaling. “I took that oil out of my truck.”

It takes me a second to understand what he means.

And when I do, a laugh bursts out of me. “Fisher was so certain he packed it.”

“You won’t tell on me, will you?” His lips brush my skin with each word, and a shiver bounces down my spine.

I give my head a small shake. “It’d be kinda hard to explain.”

Sterling huffs as he shifts us away from the side of the vehicle and lowers me to the seat.

I slowly release my hold of him, and our bodies disentangle.

When Sterling stands back up, looking down at me, the unspoken understanding hangs between us.

The agreement that we don’t want anyone to know about us.

For the boss-employee aspect of it.

For the special-treatment-possibility aspect of it.

For the I-rely-on-him-for-everything aspect.

Not to mention the fact that we’ve only fooled around a couple of times. Even if Sterling mentioned wanting tofuck me, he hasn’t.

True, the emotions I feel for Sterling when he’s around, or when he’s not around, seem bigger than just some physical fling. But the truth is we haven’t slept together.

We hardly know each other.

And according to my contract, I’m only here until the end of December.

“Legs in.” Sterling’s voice is low, like he’s having the same thoughtsI am.

Instead of talking to him about it, because I’m a chicken, I obey and face forward.

He carefully shuts my door, then I watch him circle back around the front of the Jeep and think about why I’m here.

He wanted to see me.

He wanted to see me so much he sabotaged Fisher’s packing.

A lightbulb bursts inside me.

He took that oil out of his truck before they even left. He knew ahead of time that he would want to see me. This sneaky little act was premeditated.

Sterling starts to climb into the driver’s seat but has to wedge himself back out when he doesn’t fit.

“How short are you?” He gripes as he uses the bar under the seat to slide it back before hoisting himself back in.

“Not that short.” I bite down on my laugh as he still struggles to get comfortable. “I’m perfectly capable of driving, you know. You could’ve just directed me on where to go.”

“True,” Sterling admits, finally shifting into drive. “But then I wouldn’t have gotten to carry you around like I did.”

“True.” I mimic him. “You also could’ve stayed on the side of the road, path, whatever this is.” I wave out the windshield. “Rather than jumping out in front of me.”

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