Page 71 of Wildest Dreams

He clears his throat as he watches me, shifting his hips agitatedly on the log, and then giving into his base male need to man-spread. A sound rumbles through his chest as he pushes his quad against my thigh.

“Got plans this morning?” he asks, eyes trailing down my outfit.

“All the guys are going hiking – scoping out a spot so that we can camp out in a couple weeks’ time.” I swallow and swish my hair. “I am obviously invited.”

He looks out at the lake, shoulders hunched forwards as he claps his fist into his palm.

I watch him for a beat, the big rise and fall of his shoulders as he wars with himself about whatever is on his mind.

“…Why?” I ask suspiciously.

He clears his throat and rolls his shoulders, psyching himself up.

“I, uh…” He grinds his fist into his palm a couple more times before finally sitting upright, releasing a warm wave of his testosterone. “There’s somewhere I wanna take you.”

I pause on the muffin mid-bite before narrowing my eyes on him. “Where?”

He glances over at Caden who is looking very pointedly at anywhere but Tanner. He picks up a rock and stares at it intensely.

Tanner looks back out over at the lake for a few beats, before shifting his thighs wider and meeting my gaze again.

“It’s… important to me. Maybe just… let’s drive there, and if you don’t want to, that’s fine but…” His sentence trails off as his beautiful irises search mine, glinting in the morning sunshine as the rays illuminate the shimmering lake. “Can I just drive you there, and you can see it for yourself? Please?”

“Now?” I ask, looking meaningfully back down at my unfinished muffins and back at him.

“Doesn’t have to be. Or you can eat in my car.” He rolls his shoulders as he watches me.

Call it morbid fascination but I really want to know where he wants to take me.

“…Fine,” I say, and he quickly shoves himself up to his feet, immediately helping me up with a hand around my elbow, then at the small of my back.

As he begins manoeuvring me with his palms on my hips I twist around and frown up at him.

“This isn’t because of… last night, right?” I ask, unsure if he’s thinking that we can just pick up where we left things in the cabin before I shoved him out of the window and then had a fever-dream kind of conversation with my equally tipsy brother.

Tanner’s cheeks burn crimson and he removes one of his hands so that he can scrub at the back of his neck.

“N-no,” he murmurs quietly, “although, last night was… I really…” He swipes his tongue over his lower lip, eyes staring unseeingly ahead as he opens up the passenger door for me.

I slip inside, watching him curiously, and as if this is something we do all the time he naturally dips beneath the door and teases the belt from its holder, handing it to me and waiting with his forearm on the roof as I buckle myself in.

When the belt is clicked into place he closes my door gently and rounds the hood, the car swaying under his weight as he heaves his body inside.

“You got ID on you?”

I blink at him, thrown by the question. “Uh, yeah?”

He grunts. “Good.”

After he doesn’t expand on the topic any further I just brush it off for now, although I give him another healthy dose of side-eye.

“So why do you drive a G-wagon?” I ask him as he confidently brings the car to life, his arm hooking around the back of my seat as he checks his back window. His giant biceps are right next to my face and I stare at them without blinking as his other hand lazily swirls the wheel into position.

“It’s an off-roader,” he replies, total focus on the road.

“So you always come to places like this?”

“Like Larch Peak?” he asks, before a smile flickers briefly across his mouth. “Aisling, I’m from Carter Ridge – aside from the town centre and the Carter U campus, the majority of Carter Ridgeisoff road.” He debates with himself for a moment before adding on, “And my parents had a summer house here in Larch Peak.”

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