Page 133 of Rough and Rugged

She grins at me. “Oh, yeah, you, too. I’m Raelynn.”

I offer her a parting wave and hustle off to the right through the crowd, toward where Blaine stands with his axe propped on top of the log, his chest heaving, breathing ragged. Sweat rolling in rivulets down across his chiseled pecs and washboard abs.

Christ is he hot.

And allllll mine.

I lean against the wood fence, draping my arms over the top while I watch the judges do their thing. Blaine finally turns and scans the throngs of people, searching for me. When his green eyes find mine, his lips twitch into a grin.

One of the judges says something to him, drawing his attention back over to them, and they motion to his log. He nods and replies, offering them a smile and a little inclination of his head before they wander off to the next contestant.

Blaine turns and slowly saunters over to me, those damn jeans huggingeverythingso brilliantly, the heat of the day suddenly seems a thousand times worse.

I wink at him. “Hey there, lumberjack.”

He grins. “Hey there, beautiful.”

After all this time, it shouldn’t still affect me when he calls me that, but butterflies take flight in my stomach, and I lean closer, undeterred by the sweat pouring off him.

“I have to say, your efforts out there were pretty impressive.”

He glances back at his log and shrugs a shoulder. “I don’t think I won.”

I pout at him. “Well, that’s just unfair. Part of the judging criteria should be how hot the lumberjack looks doing his thing.”

Because he woulddefinitelywin if that were considered.

Blaine chuckles and waggles his eyebrows at me. “I’ll have to let Jax know to add that to the judging criteria next year.”

Scanning the crowd, waiting for the announcement of the winner, I shift on my feet, pressing my thighs together against the building throb between them. “So, you have an hour off after this, right?”

He narrows his eyes at me slightly. “Yeah…”

His suspicions already raised, I try to play coy, looking up at him through thick lashes. “Well, I was thinking…”

Blaine leans closer, resting his forearms on the fence next to mine. “Uh oh, this always leads to trouble.”

This man knows me too well…

After a decade, it’s hard to get anything by him. He can read me like an open book, and I can him. Which is why it’s so entertaining to know I’ve been able to keep a secret from him all weekend while he competed.

I roll my eyes exaggeratedly at his comment. “Fine, if you don’t want to hear it.”

He reaches out and grabs my wrist, tugging me into the fence as close to him as he can with the rough-hewn beams between us. “I wouldloveto hear your idea. Just because it’s bound to be trouble doesn’t mean I won’t be down to join you for it.”

Fighting another grin, I press my hands against his sweat- slickened chest. “Well, I was thinking that since the log roll competition took place this morning that the beautiful lake just through the woods over there is probably abandoned right now while everybody tries to grab a cold beer and a snack before the next event starts…”

And there’s no need to expand on that.

Blaine knows exactly what I’m suggesting.

He issues a little growl of approval, his chest rumbling against my palms. “Hmm, you’re probably right. What did you have in mind? A nice stroll around it?”

Ha.

Funny man.

I lean up on my tiptoes so I can reach him and drop a quick kiss on his lips. “That is definitelynotwhat I was thinking. I had more of a why-don’t-you-come-split-mekind of situation playing out in my head while I watched you tear into that log.”

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