Page 32 of Seduced By the Mountain Man

I looked into his eyes, seeing my own hopes and fears reflected there, and knew I was done running from this, from him, from the possibility of something beautiful and complicated and real.

"Yes," I said, the word carrying the weight of a thousand unspoken promises. "Yes to all of it."

He stood and offered me his hand, and I took it without hesitation. As he led me toward his cabin, toward a future I couldn't predict but was finally brave enough to embrace, I felt something I hadn't experienced in years:

The exhilarating freedom of choosing my own path, consequences and all.

***

His cabin was smaller than ours but infinitely cozier, with a stone fireplace, rustic furniture, and windows that framed the lake like living paintings. Jace lit a few candles while I stood by the window, watching the last guests making their way back from the beach.

"Second thoughts?" he asked, coming to stand behind me, his hands settling on my shoulders.

"No," I said, leaning back against his chest. "Just... absorbing. This feels like a beginning, doesn't it?"

"The best kind," he agreed, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "Want some wine? Coffee? I can make s'mores if you're feeling festive."

I turned in his arms, smiling at the nervous energy beneath his casual offer. "Are you trying to delay the inevitable, Mountain Man?"

"Maybe a little," he admitted with a sheepish grin. "This feels important. I want to get it right."

"You already are," I assured him, rising on my toes to brush my lips against his. "Stop overthinking and kiss me properly."

He needed no further encouragement. His mouth claimed mine with a hunger that had been building for days, weeks, maybe years. My tank top came off easily, his hands gentle buturgent as they reacquainted themselves with my skin. I pushed his shirt off his shoulders, desperate to feel skin against skin.

When he lifted me and carried me to his bed, I felt weightless with possibility and desire and love finally acknowledged. The windows were open, letting in the cool mountain air and the distant sound of laughter from the resort grounds, but the world beyond these walls might as well have been a thousand miles away.

He laid me down gently, his eyes drinking in the sight of me in the candlelight. "You're so beautiful, Dee. I've imagined this so many times, but the reality..."

"Is better," I finished, pulling him down to me. "It's always better when it's real."

This time, we took our time. His hands mapped every inch of my body like he was memorizing a sacred text, his mouth following with kisses and whispered endearments that made my pulse race as much as my body respond. When I returned the favor, exploring the planes and angles of his chest, the ridged muscles of his abdomen, the way he shuddered when I kissed the sensitive spot below his ear, it felt like coming home to something I'd been searching for my entire life.

"I love you," I whispered as he settled between my thighs, his weight perfect and right and everything I'd been craving without knowing it.

"I love you too," he replied, his forehead resting against mine. "So damn much, Dee. You have no idea."

When he finally moved inside me, slow and sure and infinitely tender, I understood the difference between having sex and making love. This wasn't just physical joining—it was emotional, spiritual, the melding of two souls that had beencircling each other for years, finally brave enough to close the distance.

We moved together in perfect rhythm, building toward something beautiful and inevitable. When I shattered in his arms, crying out his name into the candlelit darkness, he followed me over the edge, his own release wrung from him like a prayer.

Afterward, we lay tangled together, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow to normal. Through the open window, I could hear the peaceful sounds of the lake—the gentle lap of water against the shore, the distant call of a loon, the whisper of wind through the pines.

"So what happens now?" I asked, tracing patterns on his chest with my fingertip.

"Now we figure it out as we go," he said, his hand stroking my hair. "One day at a time. One conversation at a time. Starting with Tyler."

I tensed slightly at the mention of my brother, but Jace's arms tightened around me reassuringly.

"We'll call him together," he continued. "Soon. Before we lose our nerve or he hears it from someone else. We'll be honest about our feelings and hope he understands that we're adults capable of making our own choices."

"And if he can't?"

"Then we'll handle that too. But I have a feeling Tyler might surprise us. He's wanted both of us to find happiness for a long time. Maybe he'll realize this could be the perfect outcome."

I smiled against his chest, allowing myself to hope. "You make it sound so simple."

"Maybe it is. Maybe we've been overcomplicating things because we were afraid." He tilted my chin up so I could see hiseyes. "But I'm not afraid anymore, Dee. Not when I'm holding you like this."

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