Page 9 of Tension with the Mountain Man
Tucker is quiet for a long moment, and I wonder if I've pushed too far. Then he starts talking, and I realize he's telling me something he's never shared with anyone else.
"John was everything I wasn't," he says quietly. "Outgoing, fearless, the kind of guy everyone wanted to be around. He thought safety equipment was for weaklings, that real men didn't need rules to keep them alive."
"How old was he?"
"Nineteen. I was twenty-one, supposed to be watching out for him." His jaw tightens. "I wasn't there when it happened. I wasin town, dealing with equipment orders, paperwork. John was working alone, cutting down a tree that should have required a two-man crew." He took a breath. “The tree kicked back. Caught him across the chest, crushed his ribs, punctured both lungs. By the time they found him and got him to the hospital..." He shakes his head. "I held his hand while he died. Promised him I'd never let it happen to anyone else."
My throat tightens with emotion. "I'm so sorry."
"Twenty-two years later, I'm still keeping that promise. Every safety meeting, every protocol I enforce, every time I pull a guy back from a dangerous situation—it's all for my brother."
"You honor his memory," I say softly. "Every day, with every life you save."
He looks up at me then, and I see something raw and vulnerable in his eyes. "You're the first person who's ever understood that."
The intimacy of the moment feels more significant than anything I've shared with a man before. This isn't just dinner conversation. This is Tucker trusting me with his deepest pain, his driving purpose.
"Thank you for telling me," I whisper.
We finish dinner in comfortable silence, but the air between us has changed. Charged. Every glance, every accidental brush of fingers when he refills my wine glass, sends electricity shooting through me.
"Sally," he says finally, his voice rougher than usual.
"Yeah?"
"I need you to know something."
My heart hammers against my ribs. "What?"
"This isn't casual for me. I know we just met, I know it's fast, but..." He reaches across the table to take my hand. "I can't stop thinking about you. Can't stop wanting to be near you, to protect you, to make you smile like you did in the diner yesterday."
The raw honesty in his voice makes my chest tight. "Tucker.”
"I know you're probably planning to leave Silver Ridge. I know you've got bigger opportunities waiting. But I need you to know that what I feel for you, it's not something that happens every day. It's not something I've ever felt before."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I'm falling for you, Sally Jacobson. Hard and fast and completely." His thumb brushes across my knuckles. "And that terrifies me more than any tree or chainsaw or piece of faulty equipment ever has."
The confession hangs between us, raw and honest and impossibly brave. This strong, quiet man who's spent twenty-two years protecting others has just made himself completely vulnerable to me.
"I'm scared too," I admit. "I've never felt like this before. Like I can't breathe when you're not around, like my skin is too tight when you are."
"What are we doing?" he asks, echoing my own confusion.
"I don't know. But I don't want to stop."
That's all the permission he needs. He stands and comes around the table, pulling me up into his arms. When his mouth crashes down on mine, it's like coming home and losing my mind at the same time.
"Sally," he growls against my lips, and the sound sends liquid heat pooling low in my belly.
"Yes," I breathe, not even sure what I'm agreeing to. Just yes to everything, to whatever he wants, whatever this is between us.
He lifts me easily, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carries me down the hall. Halfway there, he presses me against the wall, grinding against me while his mouth attacks my neck.
"Fuck, Sally," he groans when I roll my hips against his erection.
In his room, he sets me down and immediately pulls my dress over my head. I'm fumbling with his shirt buttons until he just yanks it off. The rest of our clothes follow in a rushed tangle until we're both naked, breathing hard.
