Page 20 of Made for You
God, what had I been thinking?
Mortification burned through me, flooding my cheeks as I tore my gaze from the broad chest. I was so caught up in my want for him I’d forgotten—completely, stupidly forgotten—that we weren’t alone. We were in a restaurant, for fuck’s sake!
Gage’s grip on my fingers loosened, but he didn’t step away. His body still caged mine, his scent still wrapped around me, his eyes dark and hungry as they burned into mine. He leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “How quickly can you get away?”
I smoothed the front of his shirt with a trembling hand, then caught the edge of his collar between my fingers, giving it the faintest tug before releasing him. “If you’re not in my driveway in thirty minutes, I’m going to be very put out.”
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
I slipped out from under his arm, forcing my legs to carry me down the hall. By the time I reached the dining room, my pulse had slowed enough for me to paste on the cool, composed smile my father expected to see. He couldn’t ever know what had just happened … or what was about to happen next.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The roadunspooled ahead of me, a dark ribbon stretched between the mountains. My headlights cut across the gravel shoulders, bouncing off the reflective posts. The heater hummed low, but my hands were cold on the wheel.
I should’ve turned left at the junction, headed back toward the ranch. Back to sanity. Back to sense.
Instead, my truck was pointed in the opposite direction.
I had a whole laundry list of reasons not to be doing this. Christ, I’d recited them enough times in my head since walking out of Riva that I could have given a speech.
Reason one: she was a Bellrose. That name was plastered across construction signs I’d been cursing for months. It didn’tmatter that it was a resort instead of one of those soulless developments springing up like weeds in every valley from here to Jackson Hole. The principle was the same—growth that chipped away at the bones of a community until it was unrecognizable.
Reason two: she’d lied. Or maybe omission was the better word, but hell, if it didn’t sting the same. She’d let me take her home, let me strip her bare and bury myself inside her, all without telling me she was part of the very thing I was actively fighting against.
Reason three: the valley couldn’t take much more of this. Resorts brought strain on land and water, carved up habitat corridors, and brought outsiders who didn’t give a damn about the place beyond what they could charge per night. Jobs were good if they hired locals. But if they shipped in staff and ate up what little housing stock we had left? Families who’d lived here for generations would have nowhere to go.
Those were the facts. Plain, cold logic.
But none of it mattered, because my body had already made the decision my brain was too stubborn to admit.
The second she’d whispered, “Please, fuck me, Gage,” in that dimly lit hallway, logic hadn’t stood a chance.
I could still feel the tremor in her hands, the way her body had arched into mine like she needed me as much as I needed her. No woman had ever undone me like that—like I was a live wire sparking out of control just from the sound of her voice.
And then there was the way she’d looked me dead in the eye and called me out.If I’d walked into that bar as Siena Bellrose, would you have approached me?Damn her, she was right. I would’ve written her off without a second thought, same as I had every developer who’d come swaggering into town thinking money gave them claim to it.
But she wasn’t swagger. She wasn’t slick charm and empty promises. She was sharp edges and challenge, yes, but under all that polish, I’d seen something raw. The pulse at her throat. The way her voice caught when she talked about things she didn’t want her father to know. The way she’d clung to me like it cost her something to let go.
And yet, I should’ve been smart enough to walk away anyhow. To protect my peace. To keep myself from diving headfirst into something that couldn’t end well.
But I wasn’t smart where this woman was concerned.
My truck ate up the miles, and before I knew it, her driveway came into view. The lights inside glowed softly against the night sky, warm and golden through the windows.
I killed the ignition, and sat for a long beat staring at her front door, finally admitting the truth I’d been trying to outrun all night. “Too late to turn back now.”
The taste of her kiss still lingered on my tongue as I shoved my truck’s door open and stalked up the path. I didn’t bother knocking—just walked right in. The moment I stepped through the door, a rush of memories from our first night together crashed over me, that jasmine and vanilla scent of hers hitting me like a freight train. My body reacted before my mind could catch up, my dick hardening instantly against my zipper as I recalled kissing her everywhere, pulling that scent deep into my lungs, her nails digging into my back, her lips parted in ecstasy beneath mine.
Goddamnit.
I blinked hard, forcing the memories of that night aside, unwilling to let nostalgia cloud my mind.
I couldn’t dwell on how right it had felt being with Siena, how she seemed to unlock something inside me I’d kept shackled for years. How I’d traced the constellation of freckles across her shoulders and stupidly thought I might be the first man totraverse this woman’s body properly. Or how, in the morning light, I’d left thinking I’d finally found someone worth settling down for.
What a fucking joke.
My jaw clenched so tight I could hear my molars grinding. I pictured Siena laughing into her phone as she told her girlfriends about the clueless hick she’d picked up at the bar. The thought twisted my gut. Did she tell them how I’d walked out of her bedroom with a wink, whistling a jaunty tune like I didn’t have a care in the world?
