Page 22 of Forgotten Mountain Man

“I have to get someone food and a bed,” he muttered gruffly.

Gage inclined his head. “Understood,” he murmured, and I remembered he’d been a soldier at some point, too.

Maybe Red Hart and the lands surrounding the ranch house had a draw for a certain personality type.

“Are you going to be okay with this many people around?” I asked Walker, pulling back, but he wouldn’t let me.

“We’ll find out.” His arm tightened on me, almost to the point of uncomfortable.

I didn't say anything or shift away, stealing a little more of his warmth for the last minutes I had him to myself. My hands slidinside his jacket, pressing to the hard ridges of his stomach as I closed my eyes and hummed something noncommittal against his chest.

Some of the tension left his tense frame. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “You gonna show me that fancy office of yours in White Cap tomorrow?”

I broke out of my cuddle zone and jerked my head up to stare at his face. “You'll come into town with me? Borrow a truck?”

He shrugged. “I might have left a truck here with Jude one year.”

My mouth fell open.

Walker shut it gently with two fingers. “Bugs’ll get in this time of night, Precious.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder and ignored the line of farm hands who stared openly at us. “You are full of surprises, Walker Roan.”

His chest rumbled as we approached the big house. “I ain’t the only one.”

Jude’s silhouette leaning against the wide veranda was easy to spot. “Heard you were coming down. One of the boys ran back to tell me.” His voice held no more of a smile than the slice of his face that I could see in the reflected light from the house as he looked at me. “We were waiting for the rain to stop, Faith. Knew you’d be safe with him, because otherwise he would have come down, even if it meant coming in during the rain. I tried to call, but?—”

“My phone went flat pretty fast. I know. That’s on me. I should have listened.” I leaned into Walker's side and hugged him tight. He held on and didn’t make me face Jude alone, thankfully, because now it was my turn to be the cowardly lion. “I’m sorry, Jude.”

He didn’t rip me a new one, and I was grateful. “Looks like you were in good hands.”

I nodded while Walker stroked my hair. “I was.”I am.If he was coming into town with me tomorrow, I’d bought one more day with the mountain man who I didn’t want to leave any time soon.

A day in town. Hell, he freaked out when a farm hand he knew at least in passing shook his hand. How was he going to go in a ton with a population of approximately five thousand people? I mean, they weren’t all going to flock to him at once, but my office was on the main street. I’d been gone for over a week with no notice. People would be dropping by.

I bit my lip and cast those thoughts out of my mind. I’d deal with tomorrow…well, tomorrow.

“Need a feed?” Jude still hadn’t moved, and I got the impression we were yet to pass some sort of unspoken test before the foreman would let us into the domain he protected for the twins.

“Glad to see you made it out safe.” Travis walked out of the big house and down the steps of the veranda, wiping his hands on a tea towel. “Eve’s heating up some food for you. There’s plenty left. How much can you eat, Faith?” His gaze lingered on where Walker’s arm wrapped around me.

“A bit,” I mumbled through another yawn.

“Good,” Travis said approvingly. “Eve’s got rooms made up for you.”

Walker’s hand stopped stroking my hair. “We’ll stay together.”

Jude made an all-male noise in his throat, turned on his heel, and disappeared into the house. Walker seemed to take that as an invitation, kicking off his boots at the step and held out a hand for me to do the same. A frisson of heat that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with my heart rippled through me. I leaned on his arm for balance as I untied my borrowed footwear and tried to breathe evenly.

“That's okay with you, Faith?” Travis asked softly, unmoving from his spot, still wiping his hands with the tea towel. “Staying with the big guy?”

I looked up at the Walker, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and I nodded.

“Yeah,” I managed, noting the way Walker's gaze darkened possessively at my answer. My stomach flipped in a way that had nothing at all to do with my exhaustion, food, or the lack of it.

“I’ll stay with him.”

Over an hour later we were filled with more food than I ever expected to be fed, especially when we had rocked up unannounced to someone’s house at ten o’clock in the evening after the literal hoards had already been through the kitchen for the night. Eve fed us a veritable feast, Travis and Jude joining in for seconds. Walker devoured his usual house-sized version of a meal, and I managed more than I expected despite my eyelids drooping at the table. Then, Eve brought out dessert. I decided afterwards that as good as the vanilla slice tasted, I never wanted to see it ever again.

---