Page 16 of Don't Make Me Fall
“The sex was great then?” he guesses, though I hear the bitter undertone to his voice.
“Sex? What sex? The man only ever kissed meonce. And let me tell you, after what happened on the mountain top earlier, I’m pretty sure kissing Tyler was like kissing my brother in comparison.”
Shit.
Did I just confess all that?
Out loud?
I did.
Keep talking. Maybe he’ll miss it.
“I spent a lot of late nights in the office working with Tyler. He seemed to care, but now that I look back at everything, hewas just using me. He pretended to know me, but only as far as it would benefit him.”
“So quit.”
“You say that like it’s so easy.”
“It is. You tell him to fuck off, and you leave.”
“And what? Move to Montana?”
“I’ve heard worse ideas.”
Here in this cramped tent pitched on top of a mountain next to a man who’s capable of making my entire body melt with his lips and hands, the fantasy is easy to imagine. Telling Tyler off would besosatisfying. Watching mountain sunsets every night like the one I witnessed earlier would be a dream.
“But my whole life is in Nebraska.”
“Too bad.”
“Yeah.”
“Alanna?”
“Hmm?”
He lifts his arm over my head, dropping his hand to my shoulder, encouraging me to rest my head against his chest.
“We should get some sleep.”
I want to argue, but a yawn assaults me so hard my eyes water. With my body comfortably cuddled into his, I drift off to sleep in seconds.
Chapter Eight
Hudson
I wake to the sound of hollow clapping, as though someone is hitting two sticks together. I reach out for Alanna, but my hand meets a cold, empty sleeping bag.
“For Christ’s sake,” I mutter, too tired for this.
I crawl out of my nice warm sleeping bag, annoyed that the sun has yet to peek over the mountains. We should be back in the tent, bodies snuggled together for at least another hour.Fuck, did I just say snuggled?
“Alanna,” I call out, unzipping the tent door.
It’s unsettling how she managed to sneak out of the tent without disturbing me. Have I slept that good in…ever? After eight years in the Army—four of them in the Special Forces—I learned to sleep alert. Every little noise wakes me. The habit’s been impossible to break.
Until now.
