Page 14 of Rescued By the Mountain Guide

"You're half-frozen."

"I'm fine." He shrugs off his ice-encrusted coat, hanging it mechanically by the door.

"Three hours in a blizzard isn't 'fine,' Jackson." Anger resurfaces now that fear has subsided. "That was reckless."

A bitter smile twists his mouth. "Perhaps you're rubbing off on me."

He moves to the woodstove, holding his hands toward the heat, back deliberately turned to me.

Clear message: conversation over.

The silence stretches between us, taut and uncomfortable. The kiss hovers in the air like an unexploded bomb, neither of us willing to acknowledge it.

Jackson remains by the fire, his shoulders rigid with tension, while I stand awkwardly beside the table, uncertain whether to push or retreat.

"I won't ask where you went." The words emerge softer than intended.

"Good." He doesn't turn around.

"But I will ask why."

His back stiffens further. "You know why."

"Because you kissed me?"

"Because I lost control." He finally turns, eyes guarded. "I don't lose control. Ever."

The implications hang heavy between us. Lost control with me. Lost control on the mountain once before, with tragic consequences.

"It was just a kiss." The lie tastes bitter on my tongue. It wasn'tjustanything, and we both know it.

"Nothing is 'just' anything up here." He gestures toward the raging storm outside. "Everything has consequences. Everything."

His intensity should repel me. Instead, it draws me like a magnet. This man feels everything so deeply and guards himself so carefully that the momentary lapse in his armor reveals depths I hadn't imagined.

"We're stuck here regardless." I attempt practicality. "We can't exactly avoid each other."

"We can avoid talking about it." His tone suggests the matter is closed. "And it won't happen again."

The finality in his voice stings more than it should. Not that I want it to happen again. Absolutely not. This man is infuriating, arrogant, damaged, and completely wrong for me in every conceivable way.

So why does my body tingle at the memory of his touch?

Why does disappointment curl through me at his dismissal?

Jackson moves to the generator, checking it, deliberately focusing elsewhere. The message is clear: boundaries are re-established, walls are rebuilt, and they are stronger than before.

But beneath his controlled exterior, tension radiates from him like heat. And despite his declaration, something elemental shifted between us—something neither of us can pretend away.

The blizzard rages outside, trapping us together for days to come. The kiss may not happen again, but its aftershocks will continue reverberating through our forced proximity, making the wilderness outside seem far less dangerous than the smoldering tension within these four walls.

Chapter4

Power Failure

Dawn creepsthrough the frosted window, casting weak gray light across the shelter's interior. Another day trapped on this mountain, another day confined with Jackson Hart.

Sleep came in restless bursts, and whenever I closed my eyes, my mind replayed yesterday’s kiss. The pressure of his mouth, the strength in his hands, the unexpectedness of it all—these sensations haunted the thin line between wakefulness and dreams.

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