Page 60 of Stirring Up Love
“But this is a retreat. We can’t have couples knocking beds against the wall at all hours of the day. And now this!” A finger came down level with the window, and Finn shrank away. “This man here is naked. Fully nude—”
“Again, not fully nude.” Finn flipped up the head of the hood and shook it back and forth.
Goliath ignored him. “I’m off to the store. But Elliot,handle this.” He stomped off to a jeep that shifted as he settled his bulk inside; then he sped off in a flurry of gravel.
“I’m sorry. Really.” The man on the porch raised his voice to be heard over the roar of the engine. “Your girlfriend explained the situation!” he shouted.
“Not my girlfriend,” Finn said, and the guy cupped a hand to his ear.
“What?”
“I said—”
“Still can’t—” The man waved a hand in front of his face and trotted down the stairs. “Know what? I’ll just pop in and drive you there, shall I?”
Without waiting for an answer, he opened the door and got in. “Given the situation,” he said, gesturing to the coat precariously covering Finn’s junk, “I think it’s best if you don’t walk.” He chuckled as he shifted the car into reverse, like people showing up naked at the lodge was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was, judging by Mountain Man’s reaction.
“Your girlfriend went on ahead. Said she wanted to get the heat on for you.”
Finn pursed his lips. “Of course she did.” Probably just thought it would be hilarious if he had to maneuver into the driver’s seat while nude.
Navigating up a winding dirt road through pine trees, Elliot said, “You know, you really shouldn’t go swimming this time of the year. A polar plunge might sound fun, but hypothermia is a real threat.” He added, “And don’t listen to Carter. I put you in one of the cabins, not the main lodge, so you needn’t fret about the noise. Not that it matters, anyway. I keep telling him, if he turns away honeymooners, we lose half our business!”
“We’re not—”
“Not married? Yeah, I gathered, but that won’t stop you, eh?” The man grinned at him again, then tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel, face forward. “Er, sorry. Overstepped my bounds. And here we are!”
He slammed the car into park outside a small log cabin, and Finn snapped forward against his seat belt. “Well, I’ll leave you to it, since you’re, er ...” Leaving the thought unfinished, the man got out and offered a quick wave, then headed up the path.
The half-typed text nagged at his mind. What could he tell Bella that would set her mind at ease? He knew she was worried about him,for all her talk about messed-up shifts. But he honestly didn’t know where he stood with Simone.
He’d wait to reply until they got back on the road. In the meantime, he needed to shift his focus away from Simone, the person he was quickly developing a thing for, and onto Simone, the potential partner.
Finn glanced around to make sure there was no one in sight, then grabbed the keys, wrapped Simone’s coat around himself like a towel, and inched his way out of the car. No need to subject anyone to an accidental peep show, least of all Simone. Talk about a bad start toward building a business relationship.
After tiptoeing up the wooden front steps, he twisted the brass doorknob with icy fingers and stepped inside.
CHAPTER 21
SIMONE
Simone knelt in front of a wood-burning stove, clueless and frustrated, clutching the fire-starter bundle that Elliot from the front desk had handed her, along with the room key, attached to—big surprise—another piece of weathered wood. This place really shoved rustic down your throat.
Which wasn’t the worst thing. Under other circumstances, being stuck in a quaint log cabin with no Wi-Fi and someone as sexy as Finn would’ve definitely had its advantages. But now the perplexing heater was just another obstacle in her path.
The rest of the cabin had been rehabbed, from the inset lighting spaced between knotty pine rafters in the whitewashed ceiling to the gleaming white pine floors. Would it have killed the owners to put in a heater from the twenty-first century? Casting a glance over her shoulder, she listened for the rumble of an engine.
Finn would be here any second, and she needed to get the fire started. Needed to get him warm so they could get back on the road. Needed to find her mojo again, get back in control.
Turning back to the stove, she caught sight of a laminated paper shoved halfway under the stove. Aha! She slid it out with a fingertip,then rubbed the resulting soot onto her jeans. Step-by-step instructions. Her shoulders relaxed, the peace of diagramed order washing away the anxiety that threatened like storm clouds on the horizon. She arranged the logs and kindling according to the diagram, then flicked the lighter on, but it wouldn’t catch. Tried again, and the door opened in a whoosh of cold air just as the lighter caught, extinguishing it.
“Hey!” Pivoting in her crouch, she nearly fell over at the sight that greeted her. Finn stood in the door with her coat draped around his hips like an ancient warrior returning from battle. Tattoos snaked their way around his right arm, up and around to wrap his shoulder in designs. His chest tapered down to a narrow waist, a delicious V framing the trail of dark-brown hair below his belly button—and that’s when Simone realized she was ogling the line of Finn’s happy trail.
“Like what you see, Blake?”
She took her time lifting her eyes to his face—no sense letting him know she minded being caught out—and twisted her lips. “What I see is a shivering mess who needs to get his butt in the shower before he succumbs to hypothermia.”
He jerked his chin toward the stove. “A fire would help.”
