Chapter 20

“I didn’t realize marshmallow-roasting was such serious business.” Emma smiled as she sat down next to Jasper on a log a couple of hours later. After Shelby and Cooper finished a little five-song set, a couple of the guys had built a monstrous bonfire in the fire circle just down from the main lodge, and everyone was gathered around it now as Kyla and Ma doled out marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate.

Sparks drifted toward the sky, then fizzled out, and Jasper blinked hard, trying to erase the earlier images from his head.

“What do you mean, ‘serious business’?”

“Well, I just figure with the level of concentration you’re giving the one on your stick, there must be some sort of perfect s’more prize or something you’re after.”

“Nope. Just tired, I think.”

“Oh.” She nodded uncomfortably. “Did you want to head out? We can leave anytime. You don’t have to stay on my account.”

He looked at her. “You really want to go back to that depressing hotel room?”

“Not a bit, no. Especially after seeing the cabin Kyla just showed me.”

“You going to move out here now?” He smiled. “Told ya you’d fall for the place.”

“I’m not sure what my expense account will stand for, but wow. So tempting.”

“You could always try the ask-forgiveness-later route and just book it.”

Emma laughed. “Don’t tempt me.” Then she squawked as her marshmallow dropped into the fire. “Shoot.”

“Uh-oh,” Hayley called from across the circle of logs, pointing at the spot where Emma’s marshmallow sizzled. “You know what that means.”

“What?” Emma asked.

“You have to kiss somebody.”

“Yup.” Daniel put his arm around Hayley’s shoulder. “And I should know. Hayley’s been dropping them on purpose all night.”

“Have not.” She elbowed him.

Jasper watched Emma out of the corner of his eye as she listened to Daniel and Hayley. She smiled, but it was tight.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I think there’s a special dispensation for first drops, especially if somebody doesn’t know the rules.”

“Oh, please.” Hayley rolled her eyes. “You can’t be that bad to kiss.”

Beside him, Emma slapped her hand to her mouth, but not before he heard a surprised little snort erupt.

“Sorry.” She laughed, then widened her eyes as she lost her balance on the log. She bumped into his stick as she righted herself, and with a sizzle, his marshmallow dropped into the fire.

“Ha!” Hayley laughed. “Now it’s like fate! You both dropped them. You have to kiss.”

Jasper raised his eyebrows. “How old are we all?”

“Currently, twelve, but I’m cool with that.” Hayley’s own eyebrows went up in response, but Jasper shook his head, and she shrugged, apparently deciding not to push it.

Emma leaned close. “Is this now a challenge to your manhood?”

“Not one I’m worried about.”

“Because it wouldn’t be the worst thing.” She shrugged. “I mean, if it helps you preserve your rep or whatever.”

“I’m not going to kiss you to preserve my rep, Emma—such as it is.”

“Okay. Just offering.”

“Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Hell, no.”

He sat back. “Well, feel free to think on it. Jeez.”

She laughed. “You could ask me why.”

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes. “Why is the answer ‘hell, no’?”

“Because I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

She looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “Of wanting more than a kiss.”

He felt his eyes go wide, and he shook his head. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Maybe I want to hear it again.” He looked at her until she finally looked back up at him. “Are you serious?”

“I…think so.”

“Why?”

“Does there have to be an analysis? You’re single, I’m single, the world is turning, we might die tomorrow, so why not enjoy tonight, yadda yadda.”

He smiled. “Yeah, that was so you.”

“I know.” She sighed. “Totally didn’t sell that, did I?”

“Nope.”

“I don’t know, Jasper. But I do know I’m kind of sick of analyzing my every move to absolute death. I just spent one of the best days of my life out here with you, and maybe I’m just stupidly high on fresh air and horses and big, friendly families. Maybe I want a slice of it for myself because it’s all the things I don’t have.”

She looked down. “Or maybe I have been trying for two weeks to think of you as only a resident’s son who I’ll forget as soon as I go back to Florida—”

“Smart.”

“It’s not working.”

“No?”

“Hell, no,” she whispered.

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

He smiled. “No, I’m not. But if I say it’s unintentional, does that get me any points?”

“I don’t know. Depends what you mean by unintentional. Because that tree was pretty damn intentional today.”

“Wasn’t, actually. I honestly meant to just show you the view.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And then you went and leaned up against me, and your hair smelled so damn good, and your whole body quivered when I touched you…”

“Ah, so it’s my fault.”

“Sure. Let’s go with that.”

“I was just trying not to fall out of the tree.” She smiled, then looked around like she’d just realized other people might be listening. “Thank you for bringing me out there. Thank you for bringing me here. It’s—it’s been a great day.”

“Better than work?”

“Haven’t even thought about work. Not even once.” Her eyes widened. “Seriously!”

“Good. I might be out of line suggesting it, but I have a feeling you could use more days like this.”

“Oh, I could definitely use more days like this.” She nodded slowly, her face thoughtful. Then she smiled and leaned close. “Hey—don’t you need to feed the kittens?”

He shook his head. “One of my café kids took care of it.”

“But…I mean…don’t you have to do it every few hours?”

“Yeah, but they’re fine for now.” He shrugged like it was nothing to worry about, then caught the way her eyebrows were up, her eyes wide, like he was a thick doofus who wasn’t understanding something.

“So they’re good?” She nodded slowly. “We don’t need to maybe go check on them? At your nice, warm house, where nobody lives besides you, and nobody’s staring at us like they’re waiting for us to jump each other right here on this log? Where maybe we might—I don’t know—watch a movie or something?”

“Oh-h,” he said, as if it was just dawning on him what she was suggesting. “A movie might be nice, sure. I haven’t watched a movie in a while.”

She looked like she might thud her head on her knees, which amused him probably more than it should.

“Yes, Jasper. A movie. Definitely not snuggling. Or kissing. Or maybe ignoring the movie and going upstairs to your room. Definitely not turning the lights down low and undressing me so, so slowly that you feel like you might die before you’re finished. And definitely, definitely not lying with me in the dark, forgetting about everything else in this entire world until tomorrow morning.”

He stared at the fire for a long, long moment while his body processed her words, and the whispery tone she’d used to deliver them, but as soon as he could do so without embarrassment, he stood up and turned to the others at the fire.

“Emma needs to—go. So I’m—we’re going to go.”

Oh, for God’s sake. Had the English language fled south along with all of his blood?

Hayley grinned from the other side of the fire. “Good night, then! Great to meet you, Emma!”

“You, as well,” Emma said as Jasper pulled her to her feet. Then she turned to where Ma and Cole sat on one log. “Thank you so much for letting me join you for supper, and for letting me ride this afternoon.”

“You’re welcome anytime,” Ma answered. “Anytime at all.”

“Good to have you here, Emma.” Cole stood up and reached out a hand. “Keep Jasper out of trouble, will ya?”

Emma laughed. “That might be a bigger job than I’m capable of.”

Everyone called their good-nights, and it was all Jasper could do not to pull Emma into a dead sprint on the way to his truck. Yeah, it’d been—forever but still. The thought of her in his house, in his bed, under him, around him…ah, hell.

As he opened the passenger door for her, he paused. “You sure about this?”

“Hell, no.”

“Is that your line of the night?”

“Hell, yes.” She laughed. “It’s working pretty well so far.”

“Here we are again,” Jasper said as he unlocked the café door and opened it for her to walk through. “Home sweet home.”

Emma stepped into the café, inhaling deeply. The scent of Jasper’s café was just one more thing she wished she could bottle and bring back to Florida with her. Coffee beans and old wood flooring and a heady overtone of Jasper’s aftershave. No matter what happened tonight, opening a genie’s bottle of that scent—she knew already—would bring her back to this moment.

Her stomach twittered with nerves, which was more than a little embarrassing, considering that she’d practically begged the poor man to take her home with him.

He hadn’t argued.

“You want some coffee? Or a hot cocoa?”

He stepped behind the coffee bar and flicked on a machine. Had he sensed her sudden second thoughts? Was he purposely giving her time?

Or was he having second thoughts? Maybe he was calling up his most convenient delay tactics, now that they were back to his place. Maybe he wished he’d brought her back to the hotel. Heck, at this point, maybe he wished he’d never met her.

It was amazing the directions her brain could go in with a few uncomfortable moments of silence.

“I can hear you thinking, Emma.” He smiled softly as he scooped cocoa out of a glass container and into two mugs.

“Oh?”

“You’d be insane not to be thinking, in my opinion.” He shrugged. “I mean, here you are, a couple thousand miles from home, and you meet a guy, and you’re not the kind of girl who just falls into bed with a guy after two weeks, no matter how much you like him. Or how much he looks like Superman.”

She laughed, rolling her eyes.

“But here you are, and you really, really want to—but you also think you’re being impossibly stupid doing so. Because how could you not? You’re here for ten more weeks—maybe—and he’s here forever, because there’s no way he’s leaving. And what kind of intelligent woman signs up for that kind of thing?”

She wasn’t laughing anymore.

“So I’m going to make us some cocoa, and then I’m going to let you pick us a movie, and if all we do tonight is sit on the couch and watch a movie, then I’m good. If you’re freaking out right now and would rather I take you back to the hotel, that’s fine, too.”

She raised her eyes to his. “Seriously?”

“Yes, despite the fact that you were tormenting me terribly at the campfire, and despite the fact that you smell good enough to eat, and despite the fact that the best thing I can possibly think of is to wake up with you tomorrow morning, I’m perfectly happy with the day we’ve already had.” He stirred hot milk into the mugs. “And if you’re good with it, I hope we have more of them.”

Emma watched him stir, watched the tension in his shoulders as he waited for her response, watched the way his forearm muscles contracted, watched his fingers…and imagined them on her skin.

“Hey, Jasper?”

“Yeah?” He looked up.

“I don’t think I want to watch a movie.”

“No?”

She swallowed, shaking her head as she took off her sweater. “No. I don’t think I want any hot cocoa, either.”

He put down the spoon but didn’t move. “What do you want, Emma?”

“You.”

His eyes met hers, and they both froze for a long moment, suspended in possibilities. Then, in a move that made it look like he’d teleported around the counter, he was in front of her, pulling her to him, and his lips found hers in a kiss so searing, so absolute, so damn hot that she couldn’t breathe.

She didn’t even want to.

Her knees turned to mush, and he tightened his arm around her back, pulling her against his body. His lips were gentle but demanding, and when his tongue found hers, she sighed and slid her hands up his chest.

He was so warm, so solid, so gloriously, perfectly man, which felt ridiculous to think, but God, it had been so damn long. She’d been so scared for so, so, so long to let herself feel this way. So scared to let anyone close enough, scared to wake up with regrets, scared to learn far too late that it was a terrible, awful idea in the first place.

But as much as those thoughts had always crowded her head and sent her running long before there was any danger of a repeat event, she couldn’t even summon up a glimmer of one right now to help her back away.

She’d never wanted anything as badly as she wanted this right now.

She’d never wanted anyone as badly as she wanted Jasper right now.

“Stop thinking,” he growled in her ear. “Just be. Be here. Be with me. Now. Here.”

“I am. I swear, I’ve never been more here in my entire life.”

“Good.” He held her close, brushing hair back from her face as he looked into her eyes. And then he lifted her up like she weighed nothing at all, and he carried her through the door into the back room, where he paused as they passed the couches.

“Last chance—want to watch a movie?”

She laughed. “Definitely. Please don’t take me upstairs and make me never want to come down again.”

“Sweetheart, I guarantee if I take you upstairs right now, I’m the one who’s never going to want to come back down.”

“Okay.” She smiled, tilting her chin up to kiss him. “I’m good with that.”

When they reached the top of the stairs, she slid down from his arms, her mouth wide open at the sight of his living quarters. Exposed brick walls led to high ceilings with thick wooden beams, but it was the windows that made her jaw drop.

Toward the front of the apartment was the kitchen, with a breakfast nook overlooking the town square. It was modern but classic at the same time, with painted-wood cupboards and a huge granite island. But when she turned toward the living area that stretched to the rear of the house, she had a hard time snapping her jaw back into place.

“Oh, my God.”

She walked slowly toward arched panes of glass that practically covered the back wall of the living area. Even though it seemed late, the last tendrils of sunset hung onto the mountains in the distance, bathing the room in a soft, golden light.

Like downstairs, there was a television mounted to the wall, and two big couches framed a soft, thick area rug. Two chaise-type chairs were angled toward the windows at the end of the room, and Emma had a feeling that on the rare occasions when Jasper took a minute to sit down, those chairs were where he did so.

“This is the prettiest place I’ve ever seen, Jasper.”

He made a face. “Not exactly what a bachelor wants to hear about his pad.”

“You can’t walk in here and see that view and not think of that adjective. Not if you’re a human with functioning eyes.”

“Fine.” He rolled his. “The view’s all right.”

“You’re not serious.”

He smiled. “Hell, no. This view’s what sold me on the idea of even taking on the café downstairs. I saw this window and I was done for. Figured I could learn how to make coffee.”

“Was it all like this when you bought it? Or did you remodel?”

“I did some projects, but the former owner had gone right through it a couple of years before I came along, so it was in pretty amazing shape already.” He motioned her toward an archway in the wall to her right. “Want to see the rest?”

“Only if you were serious about never letting me leave, because I’m pretty sure I could be happy here.” She stopped, closing her eyes. “I mean—I just meant, because it’s so nice, not because—oy.”

She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. She was going to scare the man into thinking she was ready to move in, for God’s sake, and he barely knew her.

Jasper smiled gently. “I think I might have to get you out on at least one more trail ride before I ask you to move in. I’m an old-fashioned guy, after all.”

“Very funny. You know that’s not what I meant.”

“I know. And I love that you love my place.” He took her hand. “Come see the best part.”

When she walked into his bedroom, she was pretty sure she’d entered some version of Montana heaven. It was huge, with a window that mirrored the one in the living room, and the way the king-sized bed was positioned meant the first thing he’d see every morning was that mountain view.

“How exactly do you get out of bed in the morning?” She crossed the plush carpet to the floor-to-ceiling window, draped with sheer panels. “I would seriously want to lie here all day long, every day, just looking out this window.”

He walked up behind her, sliding his arms around her and resting his chin on her head. “It’s a tough life. I know it.”

“It’s gorgeous, Jasper. I feel like I’m in some sort of resort hotel.”

“Wait till you see the bathroom.” He chuckled. “And before you do see it, it’s the room I haven’t had time to touch yet.”

“Uh-oh.”

He slid his hands down her arms, then led her toward yet another arched doorway. When she stepped inside, her eyes went wide as she scanned the enormous, marble-tiled room. It had to be ten feet wide by twenty feet long, with an enormous sunken tub and a walk-in shower with what looked like twenty jets.

“Um,” she muttered, unsure of what to say. “This is some bathroom.”

He laughed. “I swear, they spent more money remodeling this than they spent on the entire café downstairs.”

“If you just installed a fridge in that corner, you could pretty much live in here.”

“Right? It’s twice the size of my college apartment.”

Emma spun slowly in the middle of the room, then looked up. “There’s a chandelier.”

“This is what I’m talking about.”

She laughed. The place was so ostentatious, so ridiculous, that she could picture a woman in full gown and heels getting ready for a night at the Oscars right here at the triple sink.

“Who puts in a triple sink?”

“I have no idea.” He shook his head. “But eventually I’ll make it look like someone other than a Hollywood starlet lives here, because if anyone saw this bathroom, my rep would be shredded.”

Emma looked at him, standing lounged against the doorframe in his perfectly worn jeans, a white T-shirt and open flannel one over it—the same kind of outfit she’d seen him in every time she’d run into him since she’d been here—and she laughed. She couldn’t help it.

“It’s not that funny.”

“Oh, it’s funny. There you are, all just-a-normal-coffee-guy, ma’am, pouring your brew and making small talk downstairs. And upstairs lurks a princess bathroom complete with pink marble. It’s most definitely funny.”

“Well, here’s the thing, Miss Winthrop.” He pushed away from the doorframe and walked toward her, framing her hips with his hands when he got to her. “You can laugh now, but maybe later we’ll try that shower. Or maybe the tub. Did you see how many jets there are in that tub?”

She shook her head slowly, feeling heat careen through her veins. “No,” she whispered.

He brought one of her hands to his lips, then kissed each finger gently, one after the other, with delicate, deliberate, torturous precision.

“There are a lot of them. And there are a lot of buttons to control them. We can spend all night figuring out what you like best.”

“Oh.” She gulped as he took her index finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it as he sucked gently.

“Come on, sweetheart.” He undid the top button of her shirt, kissing her eyelids. “It appears that you have way too many clothes on.”