Page 16 of Arctic Mountain Man
He was right. Aaron was already becoming a distant memory, something that had happened to someone else.
“You’re wearing my shirt,” Blake said, his voice going rough as he changed the subject.
“Is that a problem?”
“Fuck no.” His hands slid down to grip my hips. “I like seeing you in my clothes. It makes you look like you belong here.”
Belong here.The words sent warmth spreading through my chest.
“Do I?” I asked softly. “Belong here?”
“Yeah,” he said without hesitation. “You do.”
We stood there in his kitchen, the morning light streaming through the windows, and I felt something settle deep in my bones. Something that felt like coming home.
“The weekend’s almost up,” he said quietly.
“It is.”
“And?”
He made me feel things I didn’t know I could. And I wasn’t certain how to express myself. “I don’t want to leave.”
“Then don’t.”
Two simple words that changed everything.
“Blake...” I started, but he stepped closer, his hands framing my face.
“I mean it, Sadie. Stay. Stay with me.”
“For how long?”
“Forever.”
The word hung between us, loaded with promise and possibility. Forever. Not just the weekend, not just a few more days. Forever.
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” I said, though every cell in my body was screaming yes.
“I know exactly what I’m asking.” His thumbs stroked across my cheekbones. “I’m asking you to build a life with me. Here. On this mountain.”
“I have a job, an apartment, a life back in the city—”
“Do you want that life?”
The question stopped me cold. Did I? I thought about my cramped apartment with its view of the brick building next door. My demanding job where I spent my days creating marketing campaigns for products I didn’t care about. My nonexistent social life, my string of disappointing relationships.
“No,” I said quietly. “I don’t want that life.”
“Then what do you want?”
I looked at him—this impossible man who had crashed into my world when I’d least expected it. Rugged and unshakable, yet somehow tender in ways that unraveled me. A man who stripped me bare with a glance and made me crave things I hadn’t dared admit out loud.
“You,” I said simply. “I want you.”
“Then you have me.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “You have me, and this place, and whatever kind of life we want to build together.”
“It’s crazy. I’ve known you for three days.”
