Page 15 of Christmas Hike With The Mountain Man
Something about the serious tone in his voice made me believe he was telling the truth. I shuddered, thinking about what had almost happened.
“You didn’t have anything too valuable in there, did you?”
“Mm, just my car keys. Everything else can be replaced.”
Then he surprised the hell out of me by wrapping an arm around my waist. “We can live with that. We’ll get you new keyswhen we get back to the trailhead. The important thing is you’re all right. Will you watch the trail a little better going forward? You scared the shit out of me just now. That could have been you down there…”
I looked back up at him, our eyes catching.
The tiny, smoldering flame that had been flickering between us ignited.
And this time, when his mouth dipped towards mine, he didn’t veer away. His lips grazed mine, and then it was as if we’d unleashed an avalanche of hunger.
Our kiss turned from something small and tentative into something big and important.
I lost myself in the man, tongues tangling as I explored the taste of him. His hands rose up my back, landing at the base of my neck, pulling me closer to him.
That’s when I lost all sense of time and space.
We weren’t on a snowy hiking trail in the middle of the Ozarks. We were in a soft cocoon, just the two of us, sparks flying everywhere we connected.
When he finally pulled away, he looked at me with such wonder in his eyes that I had to believe this might be the start of something real. Had I come all the way to Arkansas to find the man I’d been looking for my whole life?
But then he stepped back, a pinched look of pain on the edges of his face.
“Sorry about that. That was, fucking hell, that was out of line.” He cleared his throat and shouldered his pack again. “We should go. Daylight’s fading. It’s just another mile or so to the spot we camped at last night. We can push through and make it.”
What the hell just happened?
I was getting whiplash from this man. Was he really going to pretend that didn’t just happen? I knew he felt a fire between us. Hehadto.
We started the hike again, erasing the kiss between us, as though it had never existed.
I didn’t understand what was going on.
The fact that a man as gorgeous as him would want to kiss me was too wild to even comprehend. But then for him to retreat like that? And act like it was nothing? It stung. Especially since it had been the best kiss of my life. I was still trying to recover from it.
Maybe he has a girlfriend.
That would suck.
I was starting to feel attached to him. Which was ridiculous since tomorrow would be my last day with Boone. But you can’t always tell your heart what to do.
Chapter 9
Boone
I’d fucked up big this time.
Jameson and I hadonerule. Don’t fuck the tourists.
And what had I done? I hadn’t slept with her, but if she was willing, it was only a matter of time before I slipped into her panties.
I was fallinghardfor Katie. And I didn’t want just one night in her sleeping bag. I neededmore.
My cock had been achingly hard ever since we’d shared that kiss.
And it had stayed hard as I set up camp for the night. And then through dinner.
