Page 30 of Bear In A Boutique
“You do not have to do that, Ryker. Your body will hurt like hell in the morning.”
He shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
She winked. “Want to make a bet?”
His face lit with a breathtaking smile. “Only if you let me win.”
“Never going to happen,” she teased. “Quit worrying about your ego and help me make a fire.”
Chapter Ten
He wasn’t leaving her when someone was starting random fires in the park, the generator in the van barely worked and wouldn’t provide heat during the chilly night, and she wasn’t handy enough to get it started again if it died.
If the random distasteful glances she tossed at the van were an indication, she felt the same.
They’d gotten a nice fire started and he found two logs to use as benches. Olive sat before the flames, wrapped in a fuzzy red blanket with a beer on the ground by her feet. The one she’d brought him sat untouched. He was more interested in the fat marshmallows she speared onto the end of a sharpened stick and thrust into the flames.
Marshmallows weren’t his favorite, but he was pretty sure you were supposed to hold them above the flame so they were lightly roasted, not insert them in the fire where they would burn to a crisp.
“We should talk.” She turned the stick over and over as the marshmallows began to swell.
That was a loaded statement. He cracked the beer and took a sip, feeling like he was going to need it.
“Okay.”
She swiveled on the log to face him. Their eyes caught as a shadow of flames danced across her pretty face. Turning the stick in her hand, she seemed to be thinking about what to say.
“Why did you ignore me for so long, and now all of a sudden, you can’t keep your hands off me?”
She didn’t mince words, and as uncomfortable as they made him, she deserved to know what was going on in his heart.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not that complicated.”
Taking another drink, he cradled the bottle between his hands and watched her move the stick around. “I didn’t want you to think I was interested because I was trying to protect you. But then you stuffed ten inches in your mouth like a champ and I couldn’t hold myself back anymore.”
Arching a brow playfully, he hoped she’d latch onto the teasing so he could steer this conversation in a different direction.
A pebble bounced off his knee, followed by another. “Ryker, you’re terrible. Tell me the truth.” She threw a tiny piece of wood at him. He grinned and caught it.
“It was too hard to stop pretending that I’m not attracted to you.”
“Because I ate twenty pancakes?”
“Because some feelings won’t be ignored.”
A fair distance spread between them, and he silently kicked himself for not putting her log closer to his. She looked genuinely surprised. Might as well get it all out.
“After I kissed you in the fire tower, told myself it didn’t mean anything and to forget about it. But how do you forget electricheat running through your veins with each kiss, or longing that pulsed harder than my heartbeat?”
“Oh.” She shifted on her seat and checked her marshmallows. Her eyes dragged to his and she swallowed hard. “Whatdidthe kiss mean to you?”
It was his turn to look into the flames. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but she needed to know.
“I have a job offer in Denver and I’m considering taking it. If I do, I’ll be leaving Estes Park. This is what I was trying to protect you from. I can’t encourage something between us when I might be walking away. It’s not fair to you.”
Olive cleared her throat and took a long drink from her bottle. When it was empty, she left her marshmallows in the fire, got up, and returned with another. Popping the top, she took another swig and picked up the marshmallow stick. When she spoke, her tone lacked the playful edge it had before.
