Page 93 of Say You Will

“You wanted to run away from home into a forest and live off the land. You were reading a book at the time.”

“My Side of the Mountain.I wanted the adventure, but not the suffering.” She laughs. “I was ten years old and told you to come with me and help me build a cabin because I didn’t want to live in a hollowed-out tree. You said if I was patient, you’d build one for me when we were adults. I can’t believe you remembered that.”

“I don’t forget when I make a promise. I built this place for you. In case you came back.”

Her brows draw together and her chin drops.

I indicate the bedroom. “Your luggage is stacked on the dresser, along with your purse, and the case with your meds.”

She nods. “Okay.” She steps away, then turns. “You know this is nuts, right?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just us.”

She swallows hard, and the corner of my mouth lifts. “You’re safe with me. There are perimeter alarms surrounding the property. No one followed us or has any way of tracking us. This property is hidden behind a shell corporation and doesn’t appear in any way connected to me, and”—I lift the corner of the area rug at my feet to expose a hatch—“if anyone makes their way up here, you climb down the ladder. You’ll have two choices when you get down there. Left door is a panic room. You can survive there for more than a month, if necessary, though it would never take that long for reinforcements to arrive. Right door leads to a tunnel that brings us out to the planes.”

“This place looks lived in.”

“I come here when I need to hit the reset button. Listen.”

She cocks her head. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Sublime, isn’t it?”

Her lips curve upward in response.

“Trouble hasn’t come to this mountain. Whoever our pursuers are, they don’t know where we’ve gone. We have a plane. A helicopter. A fully stocked kitchen, and, most importantly, time together.”

“I can’t believe you built this place for me.” Her words match her expression. She doesn’t trust easily.

“I would do anything to see you smile. I’ll give you anything you ask for.” I huff. “I’ll even carry your friendship bracelet, if you want me to.”

She squints. “You don’t have to carry it, but what is the big deal? It’s a piece of cotton.”

I reach in my pocket and remove her panties. I hold them aloft and give them a shake. I’m trying to avoid any more misunderstandings, and I can’t live my life hiding the fact that I stole them. I may as well face the music now. “I don’t need yourfriendshipin my pocket. I already have your panties.”

She props her hands on her hips, her eyebrows crawling to her hairline. “You’ve been carrying around my underwear?”

“What did you think I was doing with them?” I drawl.

Color floods her cheeks, and her brown eyes sparkle as she makes a grab for the lacy fabric and presses the front of her body flush against mine. As distractions go, it almost works. My eyes glaze with lust before I snap back to attention and stretch my arm out of her reach.

“Give me back my underwear,” she says in an exasperated tone.

“I’d rather not.”

She circles me and I move with her, until my back is against the bedroom door. She presses against me. Rubs, really. Like a cat seeking affection, but I’m the one who wants to purr. I slide her panties back into my pocket, then widen my stance slightly to bring my height closer to hers.

She drops a kiss on the center of my chin. “Why would you want to carry something like that around?”

Her body is warm and pliant against me, and she’s wearing her sweet, sexy smile. The one where I see it in her eyes more than anywhere else. It isn’t a fair fight, and I give a jerk of my head in a failed attempt to shake off the trance she’s put me under. “1) They remind me of you, and 2) The fabric has a distinctive stretch to it that I find to be a satisfying tactile experience.”

I halt her hand as it slides down my abdomen in the general direction of my pocket and guide it gently behind her back. “I’ll buy you new lingerie.”

She squirms her lower body against mine, seeking friction. “This isn’t a negotiation.”

Her nipples are hard as diamonds under her blouse, and I’m damned confident it has nothing to do with the chill in the air. I slide my thigh between hers. “Everything is a negotiation.”

She shivers and bites her lip, her pupils dilating as she watches me take off my glasses.Good to know.I’ll be taking off my glasses in the most inconvenient places for her now, just to see if it gets her hot.

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