Chapter Five

 

I came awake on a groan, my butt smarting from Tate’s fucking last night. He hadn’t been lying when he said it had been too long for him. After the first time we’d made love, we’d eaten dinner afterward, avoiding the subject and not talking much. I sensed he was a troubled man. After all, he was living on the mountains alone, separating himself from people. Someone didn’t make that kind of decision lightly.

He’d waited until I had fallen asleep to crawl into bed. I’d woken up to feel his hands wrapping around me and him caressing my cock. It hadn’t taken long for me to get a hard-on. The sex had been even more intense than the first time.

I stretched, noting my ass wasn’t the only part of me that throbbed. So, did my ankle. Pulling myself up to a sitting position, I tugged the sheet off my naked body and examined my ankle. I’d iced it yesterday as Tate had advised and it didn’t look as swollen as before.

With the inability to walk properly, I wouldn’t be getting off this mountain any time soon. Give and take a few days. I thought about Keith returning to his condo and not finding me there. I pushed the thought from my mind. He didn’t care anyway so this was none of his business.

I fretted that I was jumping out of the frying pan and straight into the cauldrons of hell. Tate was the definition of the kind of man that was bad for me. I didn’t do this hiking shit and if Keith hadn’t convinced me, we wouldn’t have even met. This couldn’t be anything than a few days of sex at best. As soon as my ankle healed well enough, I would be leaving.

The thought of going back to my life and acting as though Tate didn’t exist was disconcerting. I couldn’t be catching feelings for the man so quickly though I admitted, he was an enigma. I wanted to know more about him, what had driven him to seek solace away from people.

In the wee hours of the morning, I’d woken up in his arms and it had been a nice feeling. We slept spooned against each other, his morning rise poking my ass and his arm draped over my waist. I’d fallen back asleep but waking up now, there was no sign of the way we had been nestled against each other.

“Don’t get carried away,” I whispered the advice to myself. No sense liking the guy too much when we were from two different worlds. This would never work when I lived in the city. Besides, who said Tate was interested in anything but a fling?

I shuffled to the edge of the bed, wanting to take a leak and a shower. That I’d never expected at all. Indoor plumbing in the log cabin. He had explained that he did the plumbing himself and sourced from the river nearby. I was impressed that he was so handy although it was obvious just by looking at him, that he was the kind of guy you’d want hanging around in dire situations.

I frowned as I wondered why I had this fixation with guys who were physically more powerful than me? Although Keith was very much corporate, he still had that macho, larger-than-life personality that had attracted me to him.

Now Tate.

“Shit,” I grumbled when I tried standing on my leg and it still hurt too much to put pressure on it. I looked around for the clothes Tate had loaned me since everything in my bag had been soaked. I found the T-shirt and tugged it over my head, before hopping my way to the door.

Without warning, the door pushed open, stubbing the toe of my left foot.

“Fuck!” I exploded, hopping around on my one foot. Before I could fall, Tate caught me.

“Shit, sorry,” he apologized. “I had no idea you were out of bed.”

My toes forgotten, I stared up at Tate, clinging to his biceps. Holy hell, I didn’t know he was so handsome. He had shaved off the hair from his face and his hair was tied back. With the lack of facial hair, I could clearly make out his strong jawline and the sensuous lips I’d kissed over and over last night. His piercing green eyes stared back at me.

“What?” he barked out at me in that gruff way of his.

“Uh nothing,” I replied, looking away from him. “Put me down, will you? I was going to take a shower.”

“Hang on.” I couldn’t say I was surprised when he brought me to the bathroom. I figured Tate for this type of man with a take-charge attitude and, it was useless for me to protest.

“You don’t have to act so macho, you know,” I told him when he walked into the bathroom and lowered me to my feet.

“You know you love it,” he smirked at me.

I was amazed that he was able to tease, although the mask came back over his features immediately.

“Call me when you’re through,” he stated, retreating from the bathroom.

I watched him go with a frown. I was wondering if I had made a mistake. I had been inclined to believe he had shaved for my benefit but now I wasn’t so sure. He had the opportunity to join me in the shower if he had wanted to but he had chosen to leave instead.

Feeling disappointed, I set about getting to my morning routine. This was all for the best anyway. It couldn’t be wise for me to be more than sexually involved with another man so quickly after Keith. We had sex yesterday. Twice. So it was good. Way better than good. That didn’t mean I had to start thinking about what life in these woods would be like with Tate.

Nope. I wasn’t thinking about that at all.