The burdens of a winter forest ranger had never felt so good.

As soon as Max arrived at the cabin and unloaded the girls, he muttered a hasty apology and hightailed it out the door. Not because he was scared of Elena, of course, and not because being in close proximity to her was making him all too aware of his hands. She was, after all, just a girl, however compelling her long-lashed adoration.

No, this was because of work. Work. Miles of isolated roadways had to be plowed using the converted snowmobile, and he’d also promised to perform a daily round on all the forest checkpoints. Stepping in as de facto ranger might not be the thrilling outdoor experience he was used to, but he liked being useful. He also liked the crisp mountain air and a feeling of buoyancy that had nothing to do with Elena or her wide, unfiltered smile.

It was dangerous, that smile. And this was coming from a man who’d once attempted to summit Annapurna in the dead of winter.

Snowfall had been light thus far, so the roads didn’t take nearly as long to clear as Max expected. He decided to buy some time by checking in on Ace and his strange Team Delta. He didn’t even have to feel guilty about it, either, since the main lodge, one of several rentable structures in this part of the forest, had the advantage of being on his way.

“Damn, son. You’re not wasting any time, are you?” Ace jumped out the front door as Max made his way up the steps, forestalling the need to knock. He peered over Max’s shoulder in an obvious show of interest. “Where’s Tina and her hot nanny?”

Max groaned. “Please don’t call her that. Her name is Elena, and she’s much too young for you.”

“But not too young for you?” Ace lifted a grizzled brow. Even though he was only about ten years older than Max, he carried his years heavily—not that Ace would admit as much. The man wore long silver dreadlocks and acted as though he’d just recently emerged from a frat house. He also had more energy than anyone Max had ever met.

“Definitely too young for me.” Also definitely too hot and definitely too much the nanny. “And I didn’t bring them because I’m only doing my rounds while they get settled in. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be up here for the holidays? You could have taken over ranger duty and saved me a whole lot of trouble.”

And he wasn’t kidding about that. Staying home would have saved him about five-feet-six-inches and a hundred and thirty pounds of trouble.

“Oh, but I’m working, my good man.” Ace hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the closed door to the lodge. It was a long wooden building that could, if necessary, house up to twenty. Its annual rents provided a hefty portion of the forest’s revenue. “You’ll never guess how much this lot is paying me.”

Actually, he could. That was what worried him. “How illegal is what you’re doing?”

Ace pursed his lips, tapping them with a dirty forefinger. “Less than robbing a bank but more than getting a parking ticket. Yeah. I’d say it’s definitely somewhere between those two.”

Max groaned again. “That’s an awfully big window, Ace.”

“It’s an awfully big paycheck, Max.”

Max knew better than to argue. Technically, Ace was his superior in the chain of command at their search and rescue group. He was the superior of everyone, with the exception of Newman, who oversaw the whole local operation—but Ace hadn’t gained that position because he was particularly wise or responsible. He’d just been doing it longer than everyone else. He also never skipped a call, which made him the most experienced. He didn’t have any family, he didn’t have a day job, and he didn’t have much in the way of a personal life. Which might sound pathetic to most people, but those were valuable traits in a volunteer rescue worker.

Some of the other members of the group joked that Max was a few short years away from becoming Ace. Just grow out your hair and beard and start reliving the glory days of your youth, and you’ll be twins, his friend Carrie had said. She’d meant it as a compliment, since Ace was unquestionably one of the best men they knew, but it hadn’t felt very complimentary at the time.

Reliving the glory days of his youth was literally the only thing Max had, with the exception of Tina. For a man who used to scale mountains so monumental they couldn’t even fit inside most people’s imaginations, it was a depressing thought.

“You guys want to come over for dinner tonight?” Ace asked. “And I don’t just mean so I can ogle the, er, definitely-not-hot nanny. I’m making my famous stew, and I haven’t seen that kiddo of yours in ages. I thought the battle-axe was taking her this year?”

“She had a last-minute change of plans” was the only explanation Max gave. Ace, who knew very well what kind of struggles he’d gone through since the divorce, was happy to let it lie there—yet another indication of the older man’s quality as a human being and as a friend. “I should probably head back before Elena thinks I’ve been eaten by wolves but, sure, we’ll come.”

Ace’s famous stew was one of the most inedible meals on the planet, but at least the company would help dilute Elena’s presence. The only other thing he could think of to flood the feelings she evoked was copious amounts of whiskey, but he hadn’t brought any of that with him. Hot chocolate he had in abundance. Alcohol to forget the way Elena looked at him, as though he were twenty feet tall and she wanted to lick every square inch?

There weren’t enough barrels in the world to hold that.

“How are you guys set up for supplies, by the way?” Max added, forcing the image from his mind. No good could come from thinking about Elena’s capacity for licking. “Can I grab you anything from the cabin’s storage?”

Ace thought about it for a moment, this time tapping his chin with that same dirty forefinger. “Do they still have those nature cams you can mount on trees? I remember there being a team of scientists up here a few years ago monitoring the deer trails. See if they left any of that stuff behind, will you?”

Nature cameras? Max cast his friend a suspicious glance, but Ace just laughed at his expression.

“Less than a bank robbery, Max. Just keep telling yourself that. See you tonight.”

And with that, Ace leaped back up the stairs and into the lodge. Max could have demanded answers, but it was obvious his friend was enjoying himself. Who was he to rob the man of one of his few pleasures in life?

As he headed back down the path to where he’d parked the snowmobile, he couldn’t help but feel the heavy weight of that question. Ace was spending the holidays with a group of strangers who were paying him for some kind of service rendered—and he was probably grateful for it, because otherwise he’d be alone.

Just like Max. If Quinn hadn’t given him Tina at the last minute, he would literally be in the same situation. Taking small pleasures where he could get them, seeking out work if only so he felt a little less lonely.

Damn, but that was a sobering reflection for a man to have a few days before Christmas. It was even worse than thinking about Elena’s tongue.

---

Any and all thoughts of loneliness fled the moment he entered the ranger’s cabin. The lodge where Ace and his mysterious new friends were staying was far and away the crown jewel of this little patch of forest, designed to make money and cater to those who didn’t love the idea of roughing it.

The ranger’s cabin, however, was rustic living at its best. Because it was designed for just one person to live in at a time, it was technically a studio—a living room and partial kitchen on the bottom floor and a loft above that was only accessible via ladder. The bathroom, if it could be called such, was an outhouse located a short walk from the back door. There was running water in the kitchen and a tiny amount of electricity offered via generator, but those who lived here were expected to make do with firelight and the barest of comforts.

Which was why it was such a surprise to walk through the front door to find himself in a brightly lit winter wonderland unlike anything he’d seen before.

“Daddy, you’re early!” Tina cried, sliding down the loft ladder with the ease that only a seven-year-old with no knowledge of physics could have acquired. “We aren’t done yet.”

“How is that possible? There’s no room for anything else.” He spun slowly, taking in the transformation that had taken place in the all of two hours he’d been away. Their tree, still a sad, slightly broken twig of a thing, stood in one corner. It had been propped up in a cast iron pot and strung with a brightly colored paper chain. The bare wood plank walls twinkled with loop upon loop of white fairy lights. A fire crackled in the woodstove, and he could have sworn the smell of actual cookies was emanating from the tiny propane cooking stove in the corner of the kitchen.

“You guys did all this?” And then, because there seemed to be a lack of adult supervision taking place, he added, “Where’s Elena?”

Her head popped over the edge of the loft. Her long dark hair—now in a braid—flipped over the side. From this vantage point and with her hair like that, she looked absurdly youthful. But then she always did. Max had once caught sight of the pair of them in the reflection of a car window during a Tina pickup time. It was a vision that haunted him to this day.

Take one man, older than his years and desperate for adventure. Add a beautiful twenty-four-year-old with an infectious smile and a fear of almost everything. Then shake. Stir. Rattle. No matter how you tried to combine them, the results were always the same.

Wrong.

“Elena is installing carbon monoxide detectors and searching for some kind of barrier for the edge of this loft. There is no way I’m letting Tina sleep up here unless we put up a wall. This thing is a death trap.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “You brought carbon monoxide detectors?”

From upside down, her smile looked more like a frown. “I called the parks and recreation department before we left. They said smoke detectors and fire extinguishers come standard, but that’s it. You should really try to get that updated, especially with the use of indoor fires. What about cinder blocks?”

He blinked, confused. “Cinder blocks?”

“Yeah, to make my wall. I think I saw some out back when Tina and I were checking out the, um, bathroom facilities. If you can call them that.” She paused. “The parks and rec department didn’t mention that part. Neither did you, for that matter.”

“Too rustic for your tastes?” Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe he could ask Ace to house Elena and Tina in their own separate wing at the lodge. Not that this cabin didn’t look amazing and smell even better, but that was the problem. The cabin, Elena…they were both incredibly enticing and incredibly close.

“It’s not the rusticity that bothers me so much as the potential to come across a late-night predator,” she confessed. Her head popped out of view to be quickly replaced by her feet, which dangled off the edge of the loft just out of his reach. They were followed much too shortly after by her ass, clad in tight jeans that hugged every curve of hip and thigh. He looked quickly away, but it was too late. That image, all protruding, rounded softness, was going to be seared in his brain forever.

Matters didn’t improve any when her voice called out, “Give me a hand, would you? I don’t trust that ladder. It’s unstable.”

Max bit back a groan as Elena wiggled her ass his direction. Trust that woman to refuse to use a perfectly stable ladder for fear it might break. Oh, no. It would be much better to leap off the edge and vault into the arms of a wary, unprepared man.

“Daddy, she’s going to fall,” Tina admonished him.

Since causing the nanny to suffer a broken leg was probably worse than a few seconds of inappropriate embracing, he came forward to do as he was commanded. He didn’t say anything or touch Elena in any way, but she seemed to know exactly when he got in position. Without a word of warning, she let go of the ledge and slid into his waiting arms.

His first thought was that Elena was hot. Not attractive-hot—though that was unquestionably true—but temperature-hot, her skin radiating a heat that seemed almost unnatural, warming his bones and his body from the inside out. His second thought was that he liked it. Maybe it was because he’d spent most of his twenties on top of mountains, where it was considered a balmy day if they broke zero, but there was something profoundly comforting about that innate warmth.

Elena was hot-blooded, vibrant, so fucking alive. As if her extreme youth wasn’t enough of a reminder of the gulf between them, she had to go and throw that into the mix, too. Max had been little more than a living shadow for years.

“Good catch,” she said with a laugh, aware of none of the turmoil currently raging inside him. “I’ll feel much better about going up there if I know there’s a strong man waiting for me at the bottom.”

He couldn’t let her go fast enough after that. “Yes, well. I’ll be gone most of the time, remember?” He forced his voice to a cool politeness as he set her on her feet and backed away. “Don’t count on me to save you.”

He didn’t have a chance to see how she reacted to his words, since Tina chose that moment to bound forward with all the energy to be expected of a little kid at Christmastime. “Wanna see the decorations we put up?” she asked and, without waiting for an answer, took him by the hand and started leading him over the cabin, chattering away at their handiwork.

He’d already seen most of it, but it took Tina pointing out such details as the solar panels for the twinkle lights and the vanilla-sugar-cinnamon combination simmering on the propane burner before he realized just how much planning Elena must have put into this. Even though she looked to have all the rusticity of the tooth fairy, she seemed to know exactly what the limitations were out here and what she had to do to combat them.

As if to prove it, Elena settled Tina with a box of pinecones swiped from the tinder box. A bottle of glue and an enormous plate of glitter later, and his daughter was busily—and happily—handcrafting ornaments for the tree.

He lowered himself to the wood-log futon in the main room, aware, as he did, that it would have to be transformed into a sleeper later. He’d known that the three of them sharing a roof would be tricky, but sitting on what amounted to Elena’s bed was more difficult than he’d anticipated. It was a clear reminder that for the next few weeks, they were literally going to be living on top of each other.

Living on top of one another isn’t the same as lying on top of one another, he reminded himself, but it was a futile effort. Lying on top of Elena—fearful, adoring, doe-eyed Elena—was a thing that was growing increasingly more appealing as the hours in her company progressed.

To give his thoughts a more appropriate turn, he focused his attention on his daughter and her pinecone project.

It didn’t help. Instead of reminding him that Elena’s role here was a professional one, the sight of his daughter hard at play in a remote ranger’s cabin made him feel a warm contentedness. This situation, this moment, was literally the thing he strove for every day of his life. It was his two ideal halves—the adventure-loving outdoorsman and the capable father—married in a moment of easy tranquility. It was an elusive moment of happiness that he almost never got to experience firsthand.

And Elena had made it happen with no more than a plate of glitter.

“How much does Quinn pay you?” he asked as the nanny approached from the kitchen, unaware of the heights she’d reached in his esteem. She held out a steaming mug of coffee, which he wouldn’t have been surprised to find out she’d somehow made from tree bark and melted snow. “Whatever it is, it’s not enough.”

True to form, Elena didn’t take any offense at his remark. She laughed instead and settled herself on the other side of the futon—close, but not so close he could reasonably protest.

He could reasonably mind, though—and mind he did. Even from this distance, he could feel the warmth of her, smell the vanilla and cinnamon and, now, coffee that clung to her hair.

“I do all right,” she said with a friendly smile. “I won’t be retiring to France anytime soon, but it’s better than teaching freshman psych, which is how the rest of the grad students make ends meet.”

Max relaxed a little into his seat, comfortable with their footing for what had to be the first time. Interns and students were one of the only age-appropriate conversations he could imagine having with this woman. If he tried very hard, maybe he could eke it out the whole two weeks.

“When do you graduate?” he asked.

“Oh, I already did.” She took a sip of coffee as though blithely unconcerned with this and all other topics related to her ineligibility.

He shot straight up in his seat, spilling coffee over his hand. It scalded his skin, but he barely registered the pain. “What?”

“I graduated from the master’s program in the fall,” she said and produced a napkin as if from out of her sleeve. Just like Mary Poppins, though the metaphor didn’t seem an apt way of describing how she looked right now. Mary Poppins was prim and starched and untouchable. Elena was wearing an oversized sweater that kept slipping off one golden shoulder and had her legs curled underneath her so that the tips of her fuzzy socks showed. She looked incredibly comfortable and about as touchable as a human being could.

In fact, if given the option, he’d start with that naked slope of shoulder. He liked the way it curved gently up into her hairline, the way a loose tendril from her braid bounced and curled. He could just imagine the way she’d soften under his fingertips, arching her neck to give him better access—

No.

He didn’t want access. He wanted walls. Thick, heavy, impenetrable walls. Maybe he could use some of those cinder blocks she’d been talking about earlier.

“What does that mean?” he asked, his voice strangled. “Employment-wise, I mean?”

She shrugged, causing the sweater to slip even further. If he tried very hard, he could almost ignore the enticing swell of breast that peeked above her neckline.

Almost.

“The usual. I had a few job offers right away, but I promised Quinn I’d stay on until she found a replacement or came up with an alternate arrangement. I guess the wedding counts as the latter—we’ve decided to make New Year’s my last day.”

He blinked, unsure if he could be hearing her right. She wasn’t a student? She was leaving her nanny position?

“You look alarmed,” Elena said, her lips lifting in a slight smile. The expression didn’t reach her eyes, though, which glittered with meaning. You look alarmed but I don’t care. You look alarmed but even that can’t save you. It was just like he’d said in the car—with Elena, you always knew exactly where you stood.

For him, that meant too close. Way too close.

“Don’t worry so much, Max,” she chided. “You still have two more weeks in which to view me as a child. A lot can happen in that time.”

He couldn’t pretend to misunderstand her. The day she’d shown up on his doorstep and confessed that she had feelings for him was a memory that burned hard and deep in his soul. As if it could have burned any other way. What was a man supposed to say when a college student fourteen years his junior looked him in the eyes and said she loved him?

No—it had been worse than that.

So, you probably don’t want to hear this, but you’re kind of the man of my dreams, had been her exact words. She hadn’t appeared nervous or uncomfortable, had held his gaze with a directness he found unsettling even now. I know you think I’m too young for you, and I get it, I really do. But I think you’re amazing, and I think we could be even more amazing together. I’m as sure of that as any woman—of any age—can be.

No one had ever said such a thing to him before, not with that level of certainty, anyway. He’d let her down as easily as he could, citing their age difference, her student status, the fact that she worked for his wife, literally anything that would stop him from whisking her into his arms and taking her up on the offer.

To this day, he was still pissed at Quinn about it. He wasn’t sure what his ex-wife had hoped would happen by forcing Elena to make a public confession like that, but he suspected she had full custody in mind. Either that or abject humiliation.

In that, however, she’d grossly underestimated Elena. There had been nothing shamefaced about the way the girl had licked her lips and returned his stare, forcing him to recognize that amazing didn’t even begin to cover it.

But he’d held firm then, and he’d do it now, too. He would.

“I don’t think you’re a child,” he said slowly.

“Good” came her prompt rely. “Because I’m not. When are we going to your friend’s cabin, by the way? Soon, I hope? I’d rather not do too much traveling after dark, if that’s okay with you.”

At first, he was confused by the sudden change of topic, but he followed Elena’s pointed gaze down to where Tina sat putting the finishing touches on her pinecone project and listening in. Apparently, Elena had enhanced sight on top of all her other nanny superpowers.

As if to prove it, Tina broke into a wide grin. “Oh, goody! Are we going to see Uncle Ace now? He promised to teach me how to play poker next time I saw him. He said he knows all the good ways to cheat. I’m supposed to wear a shirt with long sleeves and big pockets.”

Max groaned and passed a hand over his eyes, but Elena laughed. “I packed just the thing, sweetie. Let’s get you changed, and then we’ll head over.”

She paused long enough to send an enquiring glance Max’s way. Enquiring and teasing, knowing full well that their conversation had done nothing to calm the waters between them. If anything, all she’d done was rock them until he felt like a drowning man.

“Does that work for you, Max? Or did you have something else you wanted to say?”

He shook his head with a resoluteness he was far from feeling. The barriers he’d been counting on to keep Elena at bay—her age and her profession, that insurmountable something—was disappearing faster than a white flag in a snowstorm.

Surrender, it called, before it’s too late.

“There is nothing else to say,” he said in what he hoped was the final word on the subject.

Knowing Elena, however, he highly doubted it.

To Tina, and with a lightheartedness he was far from feeling, he added, “Go on and get changed, Peanut. But if I ever catch you counting cards, you and Ace are both going to get a serious talking-to.”