Page 13 of Single-Dad: The Mountain Man

Dixie walks away, appearing to have had her fill of human contact, and I watch in awe as she disappears from view.

“So, not only were you the king of MMA, are you telling me now that you’re king of the mountain?” I tease. “Is there anything you haven’t conquered?”

“Just the fire that burns for you,” he says.

“You don’t have to fight it,” I say.

Clutching his shirt with one hand, I pull him down to me and grab the back of his neck with my free hand, crashing his mouth into mine.

* * *

Shane

Primed to fuck,my erection strains against the fabric of my boxers. The need to be inside her is more intense than ever. It’s as if my body knows we belong together and wants to claim her now, to relieve the ache that’s so intense it hurts.

Her tongue tangles and dances with mine, fueling my desire to be inside her. I never felt the urge to put my seed inside a woman, but with Willow, the urge seems to be part of my existence. It’s as if on a primal level, my body knows that we’re meant to be together.

I cup her soft cheeks and deepen the kiss, plunging my tongue into her mouth and making her know how badly I want her. The desire she ignites inside me is a wildfire burning out of control.

“That’s payback,” she says and heads into the cabin. I want to pursue her for another taste of her kissable lips, but regain control. Just three more days.

* * *

We manageto keep our hands to ourselves during the drive into town and I convince myself that glowering and glaring at any guy who dares to look in her direction is a brotherly duty.

I take her for a coffee inThunderbrook’s Bistrobefore we head to the farmer’s market.

A perfectly normal day.

So, why is my fucked up brain convinced that we’re on a date? I can’t read her. But I truly believe she’s accepted that burying our feelings is the best thing moving forward, especially with Gage coming home next week.

“How about peaches for breakfast tomorrow?” she asks. “I might even make a pie.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Or you might say it sounds peachy?”

“Hilarious,” I groan.

“Oh, you’re no fun.” Her laugh simmers into a smile that seeps into me, reaching the shadowy depths of my psyche and making me a little brighter.

That’s one thing that makes you so resilient, angel. You lost your parents, then Gage got locked away, and you’ve maneuvered through adult life alone. Yet, you’re someone who is able to shine through regardless.

Sure, I kept watching from a distance, not allowing myself to get too close. Without telling her, I called in favors from a few friends who made sure she was safe in the city.

It killed me to leave her safety to friends, albeit friends I trusted like brothers. Still, it was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, and if it weren’t for Charlotte and Dylan I’d have moved to the city to be near her.

I would have kept my distance, but looked out for her, made sure those city boys kept their hands to themselves, delivered a batch of stew to her every evening—she wouldn’t have to live on ramen.

Did she get lonely? Homesick? Afraid?

I wanted to hold her, remind her of the cozy Thunderbrook feeling she would have been missing. My arms could have been home.

I would have held her during lonely nights, comforted her, kissed her.

Fuck.

And that’s why being left alone with her is seriously bad for my malfunctioning self-control. I began to lose it when she came back home from college

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