Page 14 of The Mountain Man's Heat
The knot in my stomach lurches, and I return the frame to the bedside table, eyes burning. Whoever she is, they look genuinely happy together. I refuse to believe he’s just cheated on her with me. Everything in my heart tells me he wouldn’t do that…but when it comes down to it, we’re still just two strangers who shared a powerful connection during a moment of forced proximity. That powerful connection isn’t love. It isn’t game-over-we’re-together-for-ever-now. It isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Hudson and Iris McKinney.
It was—pasttense—two people have amazing, soul-shaking sex.
If I don’t leave now, I will probably do something stupid like convince myself itismore, that Hudson and I are the definition of love at first sight, regardless of who the woman in the photo and on the blanket is.
And I can’t let myself do that.
“C’mon, Arch,” I whisper, turning to my aunt’s dog. “We have to go.”
As if sensing my apprehension, Archie jumps off the bed, liquid-amber eyes locked on me. He trots out of the room, nails clicking on the floorboards.
I hope to hell the noise doesn’t wake Hudson up.
Chapter Ten
Hudson
“Whatisyour problem, McKinney?”
Jerking my stare from the station house’s computer monitor, I narrow my eyes at Jake as he strides into my office.
“I’m busy, Conroy,” I say. “These reports aren’t going to write themselves.”
He snorts, stopping on the other side of my desk and crossing his arms over his chest. “Mate, you’ve been staring at the screen without moving for the last thirty minutes.”
“It’s called contemplating.” I grab the mouse and jerk it around the mouse pad. The cursor flies over the screen, and it dawns on me I have no fucking clue what report I’ve been attempting to write. Since waking up to find Iris and Archie gone from my home this morning, my brain seems to have shut down.
“It’s called sulking,” Jake shoots back. “You’ve been a bear with a sore tooth all day. You yelled at Gibbo this morning for making a cup of coffee wrong.Hiscoffee. I’m pretty certain Gibbo knows how he likes his coffee.” He puffs out a breath andshakes his head. “He and Riggs have a bet going you struck out on Tinder. If that’s the case, suck it up, mate. If it’s something more serious…” Worry creases his forehead, and he uncrosses his arms. “It’snotsomething more serious, is it? I haven’t just torn you a new one after you’ve been told you have cancer, have I?”
“No.” I shake my head and release a shaky sigh, an invisible band squeezing my chest. “Nothing like that.” Swiping at my mouth, I shake my head again and grunt out a wry laugh. “I think I’ve fallen in love with Lily Andrews’s niece.”
Not think. Know.
Jake’s eyebrows shoot up. “You what? The one from Melbourne looking after her house and dog?”
An image of Iris fills my head. Of her dimples creasing the edges of her lips, her eyes twinkling with playful mirth as she questions my taste in Batman and dances the Batusi with me to no music…
“Yeah.” I huff. “That one.”
“When the hell did you have time to do that?”
“Archie got loose in the storm. I helped her catch him.”
His eyebrows lift higher. “The storm last night?” A grin spreads over his face. “Well, that explains the abrupt nature of our call last night. I interrupted you getting some a?—”
“Don’t,” I growl.
He stops. Studies me. And then he lets out a soft grunt. “Shit, Hudson. You’re serious? As long as I’ve known you—what? Four years?—you’ve never been in an actual relationship. I mean, I know you’re no pure virgin, but you’ve scorned the idea of letting anyone truly get close to you, especially since your dad died. I’ve watched more than one woman try to change your mind only to give up brokenhearted. And yet, after one night with…”
“Iris,” I supply, my heart thumping faster at her name.
“After only one night with Iris, you’re hooked?” He laughs. “You never do things half-arsed, McKinney. I’ll give you that. It’s about bloody time love smacked you in the face. I’m happy for you, mate.” Pausing, he frowns. “So what’s with the grumpy attitude?”
I claw my hands through my hair. “Because she left. With Archie. Sometime after the storm while I was still asleep on the floor.”
Jake narrows his eyes again. “Did she leave a note?”
The hole in my chest twists tighter as my mind picks over—for the umpteenth time—the Post-it I found on my kitchen counter this morning.
