Page 24 of Mountain Daddy

Calm down.

This is only physical. I’m letting my brain run like a train. I shoul stop before I wreck myself.

This means nothing. It’s simple, really. Just sex.

Except it's not working. If anything, being with him again has only made the craving worse.

And that’s dangerous. Men like Nikolai Vetrov don’t stick around for waitresses from Chicago.

But what choice do I have? I can’t walk away. Not when he smells all heady. Not when he feels so safe. Instead, I close my eyes and let myself pretend, just for tonight, that this could be something real.

His arms tighten around me. I feel myself relax. Just a little while, I tell myself.

But as sleep drags me under, one thought cuts through the haze. I’m already dreading the moment I’ll have to walk away.

And worse?

I know I won’t want to.

---

The soreness in my thighs hits me like a truck. I smile. I dig into his bed. I smell him all around me.

And I want more.

I reach across the bed, expecting to find warm skin and solid muscle.

Empty.

I sit up, clutching the sheet to my chest, look around like a crazed animal. No sign of him. His clothes? Gone.

And the worst part? This time, there’s no note on the nightstand.

8

LILLY

Once again, he never called.

In his defense, he never said he would. There was no note the last time around. No promise.

All I’m left with is the memory of his touch burning on my skin.

His breath, hot against my lips.

His words, dirty when he asked how I wanted it.

I'm serving the hotel guests at the bar, trying not to look toward the VIP section. Table 9 has customers tonight—three men I don’t know.

None of them Nikolai.

Where the hell is he?

I shouldn’t care. Definitely shouldn’t be counting the days since I woke up alone in his bed.

But he’s a bad idea I can’t shake.

“Lilly, you're spacing out again,” Trish says.

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