The party was in full swing, the moon high in the sky, and the scent of pear blossoms thick in the air as people danced and mingled and drank and celebrated across the meadow.

Rhett watched with more than a little pride as he saw what a good time everyone was having. Lydia Munroe may have planned the wedding, but his staff had coordinated with her every step of the way, and he’d put in a lot of work as well. He had never expected to become something of a wilderness hotelier, but he had found that he was rather good at it, and he was good at finding the right people to staff River Run—everyone who worked for him was fantastic. He was grateful for all their hard work, and for the fact that he was able to provide so many jobs in the area, where the tourist trade had definitely ticked up since he’d built the hot spring facilities. It had been a great choice to build the bathhouses and the wood-fired dry sauna—they had become a huge draw for his return customers and brought in a whole new clientele. He’d always had in-room massage therapists on call, but now with the hot springs and sauna, he’d been able to hire a few on staff full-time.

His proud gaze fell back on the dance floor, and he couldn’t stop the stirring of jealousy in his chest as his eyes settled on Nat, who was dancing with a tall blond man he recognized as Aiden McGowan. His eyes narrowed as McGowan bent and said something in Nat’s ear that made her laugh. And it wasn’t her polite CEO laugh—it was her real one, the one that flashed the dimple on her left cheek.

God, that dimple. He could write a fucking sonnet about that little divot in her cheek.

“What are you up to?” asked a voice behind him.

He turned, a slow smile lighting his face as he took in Maddy, still resplendent in her wedding dress. His best friend has chosen a gem of a woman for his life partner, and Rhett was really happy for the two of them. There was a bone-deep good streak in Carter, he mused; the kind of good that spoke of self-sacrifice—hell, the man had given up one of his kidneys to his baby sister. That was the type of man Carter was. But for Carter’s friends, that goodness had a price—they worried that someone might take advantage of him. Rhett could still remember a few instances in their college years where idiot jocks thought they’d get the better of the geeky inventor.

That turned out to be a very big mistake on their part.Rhett didn’t let anyone fuck with his friends and Carter was a geek, but he was a geek who trained in several martial arts with the same devotion he applied to science.

And now Carter had Maddy, who was sweet and smart—and whose high heels could probably easily stab a man if she needed to. The perfect match, really. They’d probably be popping out gorgeous, Amazon-like babies any day now.

“I was just thinking about how happy I am for you,” he said, leaning over and brushing a light kiss on her cheek.

“Really? Because it looks to me like you were staring at Nat and Aiden McGowan,” Maddy said archly.

“I am an accomplished multi-tasker,” he admitted, not bothering to deny it, and it made her laugh as she came to stand next to him. The vintage emerald eternity band on her finger sparkled as she plucked his glass of champagne out of his hand and took a sip.

“You don’t have to worry about those two,” she said, nodding toward Nat, who was currently laughing at something Aiden said.

“I’m not,” he said, probably too quickly, because Maddy looked smug.

“She likes Aiden, but just professionally. Anyway, McGowan is completely in love with Lydia Munroe,” Maddy said.

“The party planner?” Rhett asked. Maddy always had the gossip about their larger social group, which he guessed made sense since she ran Purely Pleasure’s social media branch.

“Mm-hmm,” Maddy said. “Neither of them seems to realize it, which is hilarious. Whenever those two are in the room together, it’s like all the air’s sucked out, and it’s just them. It’s intense.”

“Oh, so like you and Carter,” he said, making her light up.

“Have I thanked you yet for giving us River Run for the wedding?” she asked.

“At least a dozen times today alone,” he said. “I was delighted to do it, Maddy.”

“I’m so grateful,” she said. “I fell in love with him here. Right in that forest.”

“I remember. I had to fix the door on the groundskeeper’s cabin you two waited that storm out in… and the shower rail you broke. I don’t even want to know how that happened. I have a feeling it’d scar me for life.”

She turned bright red, her pretty face alight with mischief and happiness. “You know, if you asked her to dance…” she nodded toward Nat, who was still smiling up at Aiden McGowan in a way that made him want to stalk over there and tear her away. “… she’d say yes.”

“We’ve danced before,” he said, and he didn’t know why he said it. It wasn’t an excuse, but it almost sounded like one.

They had danced before. Years ago, before River Run had expanded, when he was still wooing investors. In a lot of ways, Nat was the reason River Run had become the destination property—and the animal sanctuary—it was. She had been the person who had inadvertently brought Eleanor Townes, River Run’s angel investor, into his life.

Ever since she’d stepped into his life, Nat’s presence had had a ripple effect on it. He’d thought of her every day, even when she was all the way in New York. She’d been home in Oregon for more than a year now, and while distance and the city still separated them, there wasn’t a week where he didn’t get a call or text from her, or he sent one in turn, and if that stopped…if they stopped…

He valued their friendship. And he knew better than to cross that line. If he did, there would be nothing but heartache. Nat was the CEO of Purely Pleasure now. A rare female CEO of a company that was on the rise, partly because of her. He understood how important that was—not to just her own career goals, but for young women just getting their start in the business world. Nat was an example. A role model. A great shining hope. Someone who had climbed her way to the top on her own wits, smarts, and talent; who had survived the cut-throat, male-dominated business world. Someone who would open the door for more women in positions of power, a mentor for young women, because she was the kind to always pay it forward.

He wasn’t going to get in the way of that. It didn’t matter that he enjoyed the times she came out to the property more than pretty much anything else. He couldn’t think about all those long talks and rides they’d taken, her easy touch with the horses, the way she swung up in a saddle like it was where she belonged… like next to him was where she belonged.

“She looks beautiful, doesn’t she?” Maddy asked, and God, it was Rhett’s curse that not one woman in his life wasn’t really smart, savvy… and nosy. If he wasn’t so damn fond of her, he’d be annoyed.

And anyway, she was just telling the simple truth: Nat looked amazing in the green chiffon gown.

“She does,” he said. Because she always did, no matter what she wore. Nat was beauty personified, with her wild hair and her sun-kissed skin and those big, dark eyes that were like pools of unfathomable and mysterious secrets.

The song Nat and McGowan were dancing to ended. He said something to her before they parted, and Nat nodded.

“Now’s your chance,” Maddy said with a wink, and drifted away toward the dance floor, where Carter was waiting for her.

Rhett followed, because he was weak. Nat was just heading off the dance floor when he caught her, holding out his hand. “I seem to remember we were good at this,” he said, because he knew if he made it a challenge, she’d strive to meet it.

That was who she was.

And she did. She took his hand, and her skin sliding against his shouldn’t rev him up the way it did, he wasn’t any teenager, but God, it did. She did. Everything about her. Her touch, her skin, her smell. Honeysuckle and linen, a sweet, clean scent that reminded him of cotton dresses drying on the line and flowers blooming in the summer heat.

“If I remember correctly, you stepped on my toes once or twice,” she said as he slid his hand down her back, drawing her closer to him.

“Lies,” he scoffed.

The music was an old song, something that sounded like it belonged in a movie musical from the thirties. As the singer crooned about dancing cheek to cheek, Nat smiled and he drew her even closer, his beard brushing her cheek.

They swayed together, the heat of her body pressed against him a kind of torture he didn’t even know how to process in the moment. He wanted to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder and disappear into the woods with her like a fucking caveman. He wanted to stay right here, as close as they’d been in years, the simple press of their cheeks together, their fingers intertwined, the precious spot on her lower back that his thumb brushed against, where her dress dipped dangerously low. He wanted to say something, or maybe nothing at all, because what could he say?

She was the one person he couldn’t have. That he wouldn’t let himself have. Because she was the kind of woman you gave everything to. Who deserved everything a man had. And if he let himself love her, if he crossed that damn line in the dirt, he would fall to his knees and worship her. He’d give her all that he was, all that he had.

But it wouldn’t be enough. Because he could give her himself, but he couldn’t give her the life she needed to be the person she was.

And he’d be damned if he’d be the cause of her fall from the mountain she’d climbed all herself, that she deserved to summit.

“I think you’ve gotten better at this,” she murmured, her words vibrating against his cheek.

“Better shoes this time,” he explained, and he could tell she was smiling. He wanted to pull back to see it, but he was afraid that if he looked in her eyes right now, he might break and she might see it, how he truly felt, in his eyes.

Earlier today on that fence rail, he’d been so close to breaking as she fixed his tie and they did their normal Nat-and-Rhett routine, shooting barbs and jokes back and forth like they always did. There had been a moment where he swore…

But no. He was making shit up in his head. They were friends. Nothing more. That’s what she wanted. That’s what he needed, because he wasn’t going to fuck up her life with his drama.

“You were very dashing before, too,” she said as he brought their clasped hands closer, pressing them against his heart. He heard a little click, like she was swallowing hard. Could she feel how his heart was thundering underneath his suit?

“I was desperate to save River Run,” he said. “And you did it in one night.”

“I didn’t do anything,” she started, but he squeezed her hand.

“Hush,” he ordered, and to his surprise, she obeyed. “You were the one who talked to Eleanor about me. You were the reason she became interested in the project and the sanctuary. I owe it all to you… and you know it.”

She pulled back, the brush of her cheek against his as she did almost gutting him. Dancing with her had been a bad idea—one he hadn’t been able to resist—but a bad idea all the same. This was going to haunt him, how she felt in his arms, how her fingers twined with his against his heart, how she had him in the palm of her hand.

“You did this,” she said, her dark eyes wide and solemn and so sincere that it made his stomach clench. “You created all of this. All I did was brag about you to a very nice older woman who mistook you for my husband.”

He frowned, startled by this revelation. “You never told me that.”

She let out a laugh but it was a nervous one, too high-pitched to be normal. “Really? I must have.”

“I would’ve remembered it if someone thought I was your husband.”

“Careful, or I’ll take offense,” she said lightly, and dark flush stained the sweep of her tanned cheeks. “I don’t think it’d be too bad, being married to me.”

His stomach twisted at the thought, and he had to stop his fingers from curling into the small of her back and drawing her closer. When was the damn song going to end?

She looked up at him, her full lips twisting into a rueful smile. “Rhett, this is the time where you say to the single woman attending her best friend’s wedding, Any guy would be so lucky to be married to you, Nat. He’d travel the ends of the earth to find you.”

He looked down at her, his throat dry with absolute fucking terror because it was the polite thing to say, but it was the farthest thing from what he wanted to say. Because no guy in the world was worthy of her, and if any of them even got near her…

He leaned forward, his lips brushing against her ear. “If you were mine,” he said. “I’d tear the entire world apart for you.”