“Note to self,” Maddy muttered. “Wear better shoes when impromptu hiking.”

About an hour into her hike, she took a wrong step and slipped. Her sneakers didn’t have enough tread and she went tumbling down an embankment, twisting her ankle and slamming her shoulder painfully into a tree.

It had taken her a good hour of trying to crawl up the embankment before she gave up, tears sliding down her cheeks—partly from her throbbing ankle and shoulder and partly from pure frustration.

So she fashioned a walking stick out of a tree branch, tore off a strip of her t-shirt to bind the gash on her arm she’d gotten from sliding down the embankment the third time, and headed off in the direction of the Lodge—very slowly.

“If I die here, I hope they put ‘Here Lies Maddy: brought down by Carter Daniels’ Glistening Abs’ on my tombstone,” she told a lizard perched on a rock next to the one she’d sat down on to rest. The lizard cocked its head at her before skittering off.

Maddy sighed, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She was maybe losing it a little, talking to a lizard, but she was alone in the woods, and she was pretty sure she was lost, because she’d been walking for what felt like hours—it had to have been hours—and she hadn’t come across the Lodge or anything she recognized. And she was dying for a drink. Of water. Not of alcohol. Though that might be nice, too, all things considered.

A rumbling sound—thunder—filled the air and she looked up at the gaps of sky through the tall branches of the pines. Yep. Those were definitely storm clouds.

“Just my luck,” she said.

She struggled to her feet again, wincing as she put too much weight on her hurt ankle, when she heard something in the distance that wasn’t thunder. It was the crackle of branches.

Her heart leapt, and then plummeted.

What if it was a bear? Or a elk?

It won’t be Carter’s abs that bring me down, it’ll be an angry elk, she thought as the rustling grew louder. She turned in a slow circle, trying to identify where the sound was coming from.

“Maddy? Maddy!”

Carter came hurrying through the trees. His hair was a mess, like he’d been yanking his hands through it. “Oh, fuck, Maddy, there you are!” he said. “I’ve been looking for you for hours. Are you hurt?”

He hurried over to her, helping her sit back down on the rock.

“I feel so stupid,” she said. “I slipped down the embankment and twisted my ankle. Please tell me everyone isn’t out looking for me.”

“Nat mobilized search parties,” Carter said. “Speaking of that…” He pulled out his phone and tapped out a text. “There. She can call everyone off. Now let me see.”

“I keep maiming my feet around you,” Maddy said, her leg trembling as she tried to lift it up. He gently took hold of her calf, guiding her foot to rest against his bended knee.

“Seems a shame, since you like those quirky shoes,” he said.

Her eyebrows drew together. “You’ve noticed my heels?”

There was a pause, like she’d just caught him, and then he looked up and the heat in his eyes, the seriousness, made goose bumps spread across her skin.

“It’s kind of hard not to notice you.”

“Because of the whole tall-ness thing?” Maddy asked, because she was her own worst enemy and prone to babbling when she was really nervous. “Nat keeps telling me I should dress up as one of the Amazons from Wonder Woman this Halloween.”

Was it her imagination or did he just groan under his breath a little? His hand tightened around her calf, sending a thrill of heat through her that almost distracted her from the pain.

“It’s not because you’re tall, Maddy,” he said quietly. “It’s because I like you.”

“Oh,” she said, her eyes going big.

“Oh,” he echoed, with a small twist of a smile that made her just ache all over.

This man. Who did he think he was?! He was perfect! She wasn’t an idiot, she knew he wasn’t perfect perfect, because no person was. But she had the sneaking suspicion that was quickly becoming a bone-deep realization that this man? The one literally kneeling at her feet, telling her, no games, no guile, that he liked her? This man just might be perfect for her.

“That makes things really complicated,” she said. “Because I like you, too.”

His eyes dropped to her lips, and she wanted nothing more than for him to kiss her.

And then, Mother Nature, the cock-blocking bitch, decided to open up the heavens right then and there. A giant rumble of thunder filled the forest, so close it almost felt like the ground was shaking. Rain began pouring down in sheets, soaking them almost instantly.

“We need to get out of here!” he shouted over the downpour.

“I’m not exactly mobile,” she yelled back as the rain plastered her hair to her head. Oh yeah, she was going to be one very sexy drowned rat after all of this was done. Thank God she hadn’t put on any mascara before heading out this morning.

“I’ll have to carry you.”

She frowned, shaking her head, unable to make out his words. “What?”

Instead of trying to shout this time, he just swept her up in his arms. Her stomach swooped and her arms looped around his neck like they belonged there. He smelled like rain, like the forest, like him… and she just felt so safe.

“There’s a groundskeeper cabin about a quarter of a mile north,” he said as he began to move through the trees. “We’ll wait the storm out there and it’ll have a first aid kit.”

The cover of the pines lessened the deluge a little as they made their way through the woods. The cottage was exactly where he said it was, a cute little log cabin-from-a-kit deal that had a green tin roof and a river rock chimney. It smelled a little dusty inside, but there was a couch and running water.

Carter set her down on the couch and went rooting around in the kitchen for a first aid kit, leaving Maddy with a glass of water and her thoughts.

He liked her. She felt like she was sixteen with a crush and she didn’t care. She wrung some of the rain out of her hair, looking down at her torn, muddy jeans with disgust. She was a mess. She needed a shower. She wondered if this little cabin had hot water. Hell, she’d be willing to take a cold shower if it meant getting all this mud off.

As she listened to Carter humming under his breath in the kitchen, she thought she might need a cold shower at this rate.

She bent down to unlace her shoes, slipping the one off her uninjured foot without trouble. But her twisted ankle had swollen, making it difficult. She whimpered as she finally tugged it off, pain flashing through her foot.

“Careful,” Carter said from behind her. “I found a kit. Take some ibuprofen. For the swelling.”

He held out four red tablets, which she downed with a sip of water. “Is there a shower in the bathroom?” she asked.

Carter nodded.

“Okay.” Maddy struggled to her feet, and he grabbed her arm, steadying her before she fell over. “I’m gonna go clean up. I’m a mess.”

“Are you sure you can stay upright?” he asked.

Not really. “Sure!” she said as cheerfully as possible. “I’ll be fine.”

He helped her across the cabin, and she hopped into the little bathroom, closing the door behind her.

“Great idea on the skinny jeans, Maddy,” she muttered to herself as she pulled her mud splattered sweater off and tossed it on the ground. She unbuttoned her jeans, skimming them down her hips and thighs. She got one leg off, but when she tried to pull the jeans off over her injured ankle, they caught. reached her ankle, they caught.

Oh, no. Maddy tugged on the denim, pressing her lips together tight as pain lanced through her. Her ankle was too swollen to pull them off. Maddy’s stomach sunk as she contemplated her options here. She hopped over to the bathroom cabinet, rummaging through it. It was filled with your basics, soap, shampoo, conditioner, Q-tips, condoms, and aha! Scissors!

Feeling triumphant, Maddy plucked them out of the cabinet and started to hop over to the bath tub, so she could sit down and cut her way free of her jeans. She was halfway across the bathroom when she misstepped, her good foot catching in the denim she was dragging behind her and she went tumbling to the ground for the second time that day.

She huffed out a surprised breath, thankful she hadn’t hit her head as she got to her feet and sat down on the edge of the tub. It took her a second to realize Carter was knocking on the bathroom door, saying her name urgently, like he’d been saying it for a while. Before she could open her mouth to tell him she was fine, the door was opening.

And then there they were. Her and him. Him and her. The two of them. And she was stripped down to her panties and bra. Not even her sexy ones! Just her regular every day white lace bra and cotton boy shorts. Talk about a missed opportunity.

Concentrate, Maddy!

He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t looking away. He was looking at her like this was the first time he’d ever beheld the female form. Like she was a revelation and a masterpiece and a gift, all wrapped into one woman.

She shivered under his gaze and his eyes darkened, the forest green turning almost black with desire as he took her in.

“Let me,” he said, his voice almost a growl of sound. He took the scissors from her hands, kneeling down between her legs and cutting a long slice in the denim tangled around her ankle. He pulled the material off gently, freeing her foot.

The distraction gone, the tension in the room seemed to spike, because he didn’t get up off his knees.

I’m going to get a very inappropriate kneeling fetish from all this, Maddy thought, her fingers twisting together. She needed to be professional. She needed to grab a towel or a robe or something and cover up.

God, she needed him to touch her.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing, because his fingers were balled in fists at his side.

“We can’t,” he said, voicing the thing she hadn’t been able to bring herself to.

“I know.”

But neither of them moved or looked away. The air went electric and charged between them and she felt like if she moved or breathed or even spoke, one of them would break.

“Maddy,” he said and that was it. Just her name. But it was so much. It was everything.

It was like a physical touch, the rumble of his voice wrapped around the letters of her name. Her eyes fluttered shut.

It was a plea. An apology. A warning.

It was a cliff she wanted to throw herself off.

She had been waiting. Aching. Needing. She hadn’t gone out all these months. She hadn’t scratched any itches. And now she knew why.

She’d been waiting for him.

There were a hundred reasons why she shouldn’t. Why she couldn’t.

And there was only one good reason why she should: because Carter Daniels made her feel like herself. Like the best possible version of herself. The confident, wise-cracking woman she’d been before.

He made her feel like she could be herself and he wouldn’t run away. Like, instead, he’d chase after her.

“Maddy,” he said again, and this time it wasn’t a plea or an apology or a warning.

This time, it was a request.

And this time, her answer was yes.