Page 21 of Ranger's Secret

I make it three steps toward the exit before I hear his chair scrape against the floor. By the time I’m in the hallway, he's right behind me.

"Delaney."

I turn, and suddenly he's there, backing me against the wall beside a display of old park photos.

"You were magnificent tonight," he says. "Watching you tear apart Brett's bullshit and build something real in its place. Fuck. You have no idea what that did to me."

My throat goes tight. The way he's looking at me makes every rational thought in my head scatter like leaves in the wind.

"I've tried to stay away," he continues, stepping closer until I'm trapped between him and the wall. "But I want you, kitten. I know you won't say yes because you're too busy being noble, too worried about doing the right thing. But what if I don't let you say no? What if I take the choice away from you completely? Then it's not your fault anymore."

The words send a dangerous thrill through me.

"We can't," I say, but dammit, I want to. My body is already responding to his proximity, to the promise in his voice. "This is crazy."

But even as I say it, I'm leaning into him instead of pulling away. My resolve is crumbling with every second he stands this close.

"Meet me at the outpost tonight. Stop thinking. Stop analyzing. Just come to me."

He turns and walks away before I can respond, leaving me pressed against the wall with my heart rocketing against my ribs and my skin on fire.

The outpost. I know where he means—the old ranger station about a mile up the trail, abandoned but still maintained for emergency use.

This is insane. Reckless.

But as his words echo in my head.What if I don't let you say no.

A week of his cold indifference has been torture. Pretending I don't want him, that I don't lie awake thinking about his hands on my body, has been slowly killing me.

He's offering me an escape from my own conscience. A way to have what I want without admitting I chose it.

And maybe I don’t want a choice anymore.

6

JAGGER

I've been waiting at the outpost for forty-five minutes.

I should have known better, that no matter what I told her tonight, no matter how much heat I saw in her eyes, Delaney Holt is too stubborn to give in that easily. Too afraid of what she wants to just take it.

It's past eleven now. She's not coming.

But I'm not giving up. Not even close.

Maybe I'll wait until everyone's asleep and slip into her cabin, pin her to the bed and make her admit she wants this. Make her beg for what she's been denying herself.

Or maybe I'll corner her during tomorrow's training, find some excuse to get her alone so I can remind her exactly what she's missing. How good it felt when I had my hands on her, when she was falling apart under my touch.

I'm not backing down. Not when I know she wants this as much as I do.

I lock up, ready to head back and start planning how to make her mine, when I see movement in the trees.

She's standing about twenty feet away, just at the edge of the tree line, caught in a shaft of moonlight. She looks like she'sbeen standing there for a while, working up the courage to either come closer or turn around and run.

Our eyes lock across the distance, and I can see the war playing out on her face. Want versus fear. Desire versus that stubborn need to do the right thing.

She came. She actually fucking came.

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