Page 11 of Fearless Mountain Man

“My flight leaves Sunday afternoon.” She shrugged. “I need to pay the bills.”

“And you have to be in Vegas to do that?”

“That’s where my listings are. It’s where I can drum up some more listings too. I’m licensed in Nevada. My client’s in Nevada. So even if you sell, I have to use an agent here to help with the deal. It’s complicated.”

“Sounds like it,” I said. I knew nothing about any of that.

“I’m not licensed to sell real estate in North Carolina, in other words.”

“But you could get licensed.”

“In time to broker your deal?”

That wasn’t what I was talking about. Maybe I shouldn’t call attention to that fact, though. If I told her once and for all I wasn’t going to sell, would she give up and leave town early?

It would be wrong to mislead her. I couldn’t do that.

“No,” I said. “I’m not going to sell. But I also don’t want you to leave.”

There. Honesty. If it meant Ana walked out of my life, yes, I’d probably kick myself. But keeping her here by deceiving her would be wrong. I just couldn’t do it.

“Oh,” she said.

Her crestfallen expression made me want to punch myself in the face. I’d want to punch anyone who put that look there, so why not myself?

“You’re depending on this sale,” I said.

“Yes.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, that cleavage rising and falling. Finally, she opened them again and said, “It’s just so competitive in my area now. I felt like I was building toward something, but lately, it’s been sliding downward. It would be better if everyone was having a tough time making sales, but no. It’s just me. Maybe I’ve lost my touch.”

I shook my head. “I doubt that very seriously. You’re what—twenty-two, twenty-three?”

“Twenty-three,” she said. “And yeah, I know I’m just starting in my career, but I don’t want to go back to bartending.”

She hadn’t mentioned that she’d been a bartender before. I took a step closer.

“I wouldn’t ask you to give up your life for me,” I said. “I know we just met, but?—”

“But there’s something here. And if I don’t explore it, I’ll regret it the rest of my life. I know.”

Those words were music to my ears. They also gave me all the go-ahead I needed to take another step toward her.

She didn’t move away. She didn’t retreat. Instead, her gaze lowered to my mouth. Yes, she was thinking about kissing me.

As I closed the rest of the distance between us and put my arms around her, her words came back to me. She wasn’t the only one who’d kick herself if she didn’t see where this could go. I’d never find anything like this again. I was sure of it. But I couldn’t ask her to give up her life in Nevada to live here with me.

But if she wanted to do it, I sure as hell wouldn’t stop her. In fact, it would make me the happiest man on Earth.

7

ANA

Ibarely had time to think before his head lowered and his mouth was on mine, his lips pressing against me with an almost frenzied desperation.

I felt that desperation too. It had been slowly building from the second I met him. And as our mouths came together, I knew this wasn’t normal.

I’d kissed a guy a couple of times. Once was at a school dance, when a boy forced a kiss on me on the dance floor. I’d been too polite to turn him away, but I’d gotten out of the situation as quickly as possible. I was definitely not into that guy.

The other had been a seven-minutes-in-heaven situation, where we were locked in the closet with friends outside. But he also wasn’t someone I was interested in.

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