Page 30 of Hot Winter Nights (Bear Mountain Rescue 1)

“About the cabin. I finished the repairs and we need to talk about rent.”

Allie gaped at him, completely taken aback. After everything that had happened, he was here for money? She stiffened and said, “Don’t worry, Mr. Belmont, I’ll have the check to you first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Come on, Allie—”

“Good night.”

With a heavy sigh, he let her pass, and she pushed through the door, slamming it behind her.

Penny held up a bottle of wine. “So I heard you had an interesting afternoon.”

“How did you hear that?”

“My phone’s been blowing up all day with questions about you. All the single men in town want to do you, and the women want to know what your secret is. I mean, if you can get two guys like Dex Belmont and Hunter Gracin to have a parking-lot brawl, you’ve gotta be dynamite in the sack.”

“Kill me now,” Allie groaned.

“No way! You are stirring things up around here. I mean, the most drama this town sees is on The Bachelor. You, my friend, are my new hero.”

Allie grabbed two wineg

lasses from the cupboard and held one out to Penny. “Don’t you have a bar to work at?”

“Called in sick. Figured you could use a little more estrogen and a lot less testosterone in your life.”

“What I need is a time machine.”

“Sorry, all out of TARDISes,” Penny said as she poured Allie a glass of wine, nearly full to the brim. “But a few of these might help you block it all out for a little while.”

The next morning, Dex slammed his fists into the sides of his punching bag, putting all of his self-loathing and bitterness into every blow. God, he had messed everything up, even his apology. He hadn’t meant to talk about rent at all, but when she’d tried to blow past him without giving him a chance to explain, he’d lashed out.

Bluebell let out a loud howl as someone pounded on his front door.

Dex, shirtless and covered in sweat, jogged from his gym room to answer it and found Allie standing on his front step with an envelope.

“Here you go. You are paid up for six months, so there is no reason for us to have any other contact except in a professional capacity.”

Dex took the envelope, slapping it against his thigh. “Come on, Allie, I get that I handled all of this badly, but we live next door to each other. We are going to see each other around town.”

“Seeing each other out and about is fine. It’s the being-alone-together part we have a problem with.”

Hoping to break through her anger, he tried to tease her. “Are you saying that you have no self-control when it comes to me?”

Her dark-brown eyes were so cold, his smile slipped. “Actually, at this moment, I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last man on earth.”

With that, Allie spun on her heels and walked to her Jetta. Dex watched her disappear down the road, and when she was out of sight, he slammed the door. Bluebell was lying across the floor watching him pace, and for some reason, he found himself talking to the dog.

“Why can’t she just accept that I messed up? We all make mistakes and say things we shouldn’t. It’s not as if I set out to hurt her.”

Bluebell lifted her head and yawned, but Dex kept talking.

“I mean, I said I was sorry, and she’s not exactly innocent. She kissed me back; she let me.…”

God, when she’d come on his hand, all he’d wanted to do was rip off her pants and bury himself inside her. To make love to her until she was screaming his name. He’d wanted to possess her, to brand her as his. It had scared the hell out of him.

So he’d taken the easy way out and bailed. He’d pushed her away and that made him a horrible guy.

And even more, he was the guy who lost his best friend.

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