I was just sliding the balcony door closed when the bathroom door opened.
“I feel like a new man.”
“Good.” I had a smile on my face when I turned around, but it faltered as Cole crossed the room.
He was towel drying his hair, wearing nothing but a pair of black pajama pants that hung low—unbelievably low—on his hips.
My breath didn’t just hitch, it vanished. Every molecule of oxygen evaporated with a single glance.
Because Cole was cut—really cut. His arms were so chiseled, the dips between his muscles resembled the mountain valleys we’d seen earlier on our hike. Hours wouldn’t be long enough to trace all of those dips. His chest was dusted with just a bit of hair, but plenty to entertain my fingers for days. And his abs belonged on the cover of a romance novel. I’d expected his stomach to be flat. His T-shirts and polos were never puffed out around the middle, not even after a large meal. But Cole’s abs weren’t flat—they were ripped. The skin covering the muscle was so lean his stomach was the definition of a washboard.
If I knew who’d invented karate, I’d send them a thank-you note.
Cole dropped the towel and I snapped my eyes to the floor, trying to hide the fact that I’d just been drooling over his upper body.
“I don’t suppose you have any painkillers in that massive purse of yours.”
“Sure,” I panted, remembering to breathe again. My arms led the way to my purse on the bed, digging frantically for the pill bottle at the bottom. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He popped the cap, shook out some pills and grabbed one of the water bottles I’d brought along.
The cords of his throat mesmerized me as he tipped the bottle back to his lips and started gulping. As if I were watching the water on its path, my eyes traveled down his throat, skimming over his collarbone and down the center line that cut between his pecs and stomach. I watched it flow all the way down to the V that disappeared between the waistband of his pajamas, then down a little farther, to the bulge no cotton could conceal.
Cole dropped the water bottle from his lips. I turned back to my handbag, pretending to organize it while my cheeks cooled. “Headache?” I asked, pushing things around on the bottom of my purse.
“I’ll be fine.” He set the pill bottle by the TV and rolled his neck.
He was trying to play it off, but I knew he was in pain. Setting my purse aside, I pointed to the end of my bed. “Come sit down.”
Without question, he sank into the mattress. His shoulders rolled forward as he hung his head.
I climbed on the bed behind him, staying on my knees as I scooted my way to his back. With the slightest touch, I placed my hands on his bare shoulders. A zap of electricity shot up to my elbows and the heat from his skin infused my cool fingers.
Cole tensed and the muscles in his back became even more pronounced—he’d felt that zap too.
My heart was racing but I ignored its drumming beat and began kneading my thumbs into the base of his neck.
“You don’t have to do this.”
I added more pressure. “Just close your eyes and relax.”
Cole gave me a faint nod and then hung his head again, relaxing with every passing second as I worked up and down his neck, then back and forth across his shoulders.
“Is it helping?”
He nodded. “You have magic hands.”
“If the restaurant doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll become a massage therapist.”
A quiet laugh came from deep in his chest, the rumble sending tingles skittering over my forearms. “Talk to me about something. Your voice is soothing.”
My hands paused. No one had ever complimented my voice before. It was funny how a little bit of his praise made me like something about myself I hadn’t really considered special before. So if my voice would help soothe Cole’s headache after a long day of literally hauling me around, I’d read him my grocery list. “What do you want me to talk about?”
“Anything. How about your family? Are you close with your parents?”
The thought of them warmed my heart. “I am. We don’t get to see each other much but I talk to them both a couple times a week. And they always come down for Kali’s and Max’s birthdays and for Christmas too.”
“When was the last time you were in Alaska?”
“Two years ago. I went up not long before I bought the garage and started renovating it for the restaurant. I spent a couple of weeks up there getting my dad’s advice on my business plan and having my mom help me brainstorm a full menu.”
My hands dug harder into Cole’s neck, working away one of the knots.
“What do your parents do?”
“Dad is a pilot. He has his own business flying supplies into northern Alaska. He’s built it up over the years and has a bunch of pilots working for him now. He could retire anytime, but he loves flying. And Mom is a private chef in Anchorage.”
“Is that where you got your love of cooking?”
I smiled. “Yes. Mom taught me how to cook.” She had passed down her passion for food, while Dad had paid for my business degree from Montana State. They’d both given me the tools to make food my career.
“What about your grandparents?”
My hands moved down Cole’s neck to his shoulders again. With every circle of my thumbs, the tension eased away. “They’re all still in Alaska. Dad’s parents live in the same place they have for fifty years, three blocks away from my parents’ house. And Mom’s parents are in a nursing home. They’re in their nineties now but otherwise in good health. Though neither of them can hear very well anymore.”
He sighed. “It’s nice that you still have all of them. My grandparents all passed when I was younger.”
“I’m sorry.”
Before Jamie, I’d never lost anyone. Maybe that was a tiny part of why his death had been so devastating. So shocking. It had been a wake-up call that the time we had with our loved ones was fleeting.
As if he could feel my moment of sadness, Cole reached up and put his hand over mine, squeezing once before dropping it back to his lap.
I rubbed his shoulders and neck for a while longer until my fingers finally wore out. But I didn’t want to stop touching Cole, so I inched my knees closer. My hands slid up his neck, past his ears and into his hair. “Lean back.”
Cole looked up at me through dark lashes, watching as my fingers massaged his scalp. “Magic fingers,” he whispered, “and beautiful eyes.”
My hands kept working at Cole’s hair as I held his gaze. The intensity between us grew with every passing second that we refused to break apart—refused to even blink.
And in that moment, I opened myself up completely to Cole. Without words, I told him how much he meant to me. How he’d stitched my broken pieces back together. And in his tender gaze—deep in his pale-green irises—he showed me a vulnerability I’d never seen. His eyes pleaded for me to take care of his heart.
I’d protect it always.
The heat between us grew as the seconds passed, but still, we didn’t break our stare. My hands stopped moving as my chest heaved with choppy breaths. Cole sat frozen against me—waiting.
Waiting for my signal.
I blinked before filling my lungs with a jagged breath. “Will you do something for me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Kiss me.”
His head came off my shoulder as he twisted. With his arms bracketing my knees, Cole leaned forward, fitting his naked chest against my front. His hands left the bed, traveling up my sides with the lightest touch. Those long fingers grazed the sides of my breasts before running over my bare arms and up, into my damp hair.
The entire time, Cole’s eyes stayed glued to mine.
When his face came closer, I dropped my gaze to his lips. I only had a second to study them before he kissed me. The moment we touched, my eyes drifted shut and my lips parted for his tongue. It touched the tip of mine before darting back out to trace my lower lip.
A greedy moan came from the back of my throat as Cole teased. He nipped and sucked on my lips but he was holding back. My hands, dangling limp at my sides, reached for his waist, but he jerked his hips back, not letting me get a grip.
“Cole,” I pleaded when he broke away.
He was panting as he searched my eyes. “How far do you want to take this?”
The answer came without hesitation. “All the way.”
He leaned back, like he didn’t trust himself to be too close. “Are you sure? Because once we do this, once we cross that line, we aren’t going back.”
I cupped his jaw. “I’m as sure as I’ve ever been. This. Us. I want this. I want you.”
I’d barely gotten the last word out before Cole’s mouth slammed down on mine. This time, there was no teasing. No playing. No holding back. Cole kissed me so deeply that I was lost to anything other than his mouth.
My hands clung to his back as I pulled him closer, needing more. I was dizzy from the throbbing between my thighs and the lack of oxygen, but I just held tight, desperate to consume him completely.
On a groan, his hands left my hair and moved down to my ass, squeezing tight as he picked me up off the bed and laid me on my back, and not once did he break the latch he had on my mouth. As my hips cradled his, his hard length rubbed against my aching clit. I arched up, rubbing myself against the thin cotton that separated us.
Cole’s tongue dove back into my mouth, plundering relentlessly as his hands roamed to my breasts. He squeezed them over my camisole before yanking it down, freeing them so he could fill his large hands.
I arched my chest into his hands, craving a harder touch on my pebbled nipples. And Cole didn’t disappoint. With his palms still cupping my breasts, he used his thumbs to flick and tease my hard buds. Every tug and roll sent my pulse shooting directly to my center. Surely my wetness had seeped through my panties and sleep shorts. Surely Cole could feel just how much I needed him inside.
My hands slid between us, working their way toward the waistband of Cole’s pants, but before they could slip inside, he broke away, cursing.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“What?” I breathed.
He collapsed onto my chest, panting and still cursing into a pillow. When he lifted his head, his jaw was clenched tight. “I don’t have any condoms.”
Fuck.
Before I could say anything, Cole rolled over me, reaching for the phone on the nightstand. “I’m going to call the front desk.”
“Wait!” I smacked his hand away from the receiver. The last thing I wanted was for a bellhop to bring up a condom that had been sitting around an old mountain lodge for who knew how long. “I’m on birth control, and I haven’t been with anyone since . . .”
His hand came back to the bed. “I just had my annual physical and I get tested every year. I’m clean.”
I lifted my head from the pillow, pressing my lips to his. “Then what are you waiting for?”
He grinned, the light in his eyes sparkling brighter than I’d ever seen. “My perfect woman.”
My heart flutter was so strong, it was nearly all I could feel. And with that feeling came something else, a realization. I shouldn’t feel guilty for having heart flutters with someone other than Jamie. I should feel lucky—incredibly, unbelievably, magically lucky. I’d found someone else who made me feel cherished and loved and protected.
Cole had earned these heart flutters.
And he should have them.
As he fit his lips back to my smiling mouth, I closed my eyes, savoring the realization. Savoring his kiss and the heat between us that scorched my skin. I craved more of the burn, more of his skin and his body, so I slid my hands into the waistband of his pants. With a relentless grip, I filled my hands with Cole’s ass.
“Poppy,” he groaned as I squeezed. Even with my fingers digging in hard, they barely made a dent in the muscle. Cole’s body was too solid. Too hard. Every inch.
And I was done with these clothes keeping it away.
My hands traded his waistband for my own. I hooked my thumbs into my shorts and did my best to wiggle them free, but with his weight on top of me, they barely slid down an inch.
I tore my lips away from Cole’s and huffed.
He chuckled against my cheek. “That’s my job.” Starting at my jaw, he began peppering kisses down my neck.
I abandoned my undressing efforts and let my hands fall to my sides, enjoying the way Cole’s tongue licked and his mouth sucked on my skin.
Down he moved, to the dip between my collarbone, then to the swell of one breast. His hot mouth found my hard nipple and he sucked it inside, rolling it once with his tongue before letting it go with a pop.
He did the same to the other nipple as his hands came to the hem of my camisole. By the time he’d dragged it up my torso, I was writhing beneath him. The torture was agonizing. Beautiful. It was driving me crazy but I didn’t want him to stop.
“Cole,” I pleaded. “More.”
He hummed and broke away from my breast, finally whipping my camisole over my head and tossing it to the floor. He leaned back on his knees, his eyes darkening as they feasted on my naked skin. “You are so beautiful.”
My heart swelled as I pulled in a shaking breath. There was so much I wanted to say, to tell him how special he made me feel, but I was lost for words. All I could do was hold his eyes as he slowly stripped off my shorts and pink lace panties.
His mouth came back to my skin and began exploring. His tongue licked the swells under each of my breasts before his lips tickled down my ribs on one side. Cole sucked and nipped at the soft curve of my hip. He kissed the inside of my thigh, down to the bend in my knee. Then he moved back up my body to do the whole thing again, this time on the side he’d neglected.
He was on a quest to devour every inch of my skin just to see if one part tasted differently than the rest. By the time he reached my center, dragging his tongue through my slit in one long, euphoric lick, every nerve in my body was pulsing, desperate for release.
Cole stepped off the foot of the bed and shoved down his pants. When he stood, my eyes dropped straight to his thick, hard cock. My heartbeat kicked up another notch as I took in his size. It had been so long since I’d had sex and Cole was big.
Crawling back into bed, Cole covered me with his body, wrapping one arm around my back while the other threaded in my hair. He pressed a soft kiss to my lips, erasing my worries with that one sweet caress.
As his tongue stroked my bottom lip, his hand abandoned my hair and came between us to fist his cock. He pulled it through my slit, spreading my wetness up to my clit. My hips arched when he did it again and again—my body begging for more.
Finally, he positioned the tip at my entrance and brought his hand back to my face. Then with one smooth glide, Cole filled me completely. He stayed still for a moment, giving me a chance to stretch around him, but then he began stroking. His deep, deliberate rhythm brought me higher and higher until my legs were trembling and my skin was on fire.
I couldn’t last. As much as I wanted to drag out this incredible feeling, my body was leading the way. So I closed my eyes, blocking out everything but the feel of Cole inside me. And I let go. I moaned as my orgasm ripped through me in waves, my inner walls clenching hard around Cole until I was boneless beneath him.
“God, you are perfect.” Cole kissed me again, then started stroking faster.
I’d expected him to find his own release soon, but he just kept going. Over and over he moved, building me back up. Showing me that, even exhausted, he had the stamina to go for hours. He kept thrusting, his hips setting an erratic rhythm I couldn’t predict, until I was shaking underneath him, ready to come all over again.
“Come, beautiful,” he panted. “I’m there.”
With his gravelly voice in my ear and his hot mouth on my neck, I gasped his name just before my second orgasm broke hard.
I pulsed around him, my hips bucking against his. He tipped his head back and let out a loud groan as he came, hot and wet inside me. I was still coming down but forced my eyes open, wanting to see his face—his breathtaking face.
His dark lashes squeezed together. The cords of his neck flexed tight. His stubbled jaw clamped shut.
Breathtaking.
So much had happened since the day Cole had come back into my life. The highs and lows of my emotional roller coaster had been almost too much to handle. But I couldn’t regret a second of that ride—not if this is where I got to step off. Here, in the arms of this incredible man.
Cole collapsed on top of me, holding me close, as we panted for air. I pressed my hands flat onto his back, not wanting to let him go quite yet, until, finally, we’d regained our breaths and the room had stopped spinning. He slid out and fell onto the bed at my side. Then with a fast tug, he pulled me onto his chest.
“Now, I’m wiped.”
I giggled into his neck. Between the hike and the sex, I bet he’d be dead to the world in less than five minutes. “I’m going to clean up. Be right back.” With a peck on his cheek, I rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom. I hurried to clean up, wanting to make it back into his arms before he fell asleep.
Cole was waiting when I slipped under the blankets he’d turned down. He pulled me into his side and nuzzled his nose into my hair. Then he took my hand and laced our fingers together. “Are you okay? Being with me?”
Since I’d completely broken down after our first kiss, his question didn’t surprise me. He was probably waiting for me to have another crying jag. But there was nothing about sex with Cole to cause anything other than tears of joy.
“I’m better than okay.” I kissed his chest. “I’m wonderful. And you’re the only one I want to be with.”
“Good.” He blew out a relieved breath. “Do you want to talk about why your rings are gone?”
I should have known he wouldn’t miss that. “It was time.”
“You can always talk to me about him. About how you’re feeling. Promise you’ll tell me if it ever gets to be too much.”
“I promise, just not here. This bed, it’s a place that’s just for us, okay? This is only ours.”
He kissed my hair. “Okay.”
I closed my eyes and snuggled closer, glad that he liked to cuddle. “Good night.”
He yawned. “Night, my pretty Poppy.”
Then I fell asleep next to the second man I’d ever had sex with. The man who had set out to win my damaged heart. The man who had been healing it ever since.
The man I saw when I dreamed of the future.
The next morning, Cole and I were slow to start the day.
Since I didn’t have boots, we couldn’t take the morning hike I’d originally planned, so instead, we lazed in bed. After he’d made me come—twice—and shared my shower, we forced ourselves apart and left the lodge, making a stop at Lake McDonald.
“I’ve seen so many pictures of this lake, but none of them do it justice.” Leaning into Cole’s side, I couldn’t believe this place was real.
The glassy water reflected the blue mountains in the distance. Some of the trees had started to turn, their yellow and amber leaves contrasting with the surrounding evergreens. But my favorite part was the lake rocks. Round, smooth stones of every color—red, green, blue and yellow—rested under the water’s surface.
“I want to come back here some day and take a canoe out on the lake.”
Cole’s arm around my shoulders pulled tighter. “Maybe we should come back every year. This could be our annual vacation.”
I smiled. “I like that.”
This park would always be special to me, mostly because this was the place where Cole and I had really started. I’d happily come back every year to spend a weekend together. And I loved that Cole assumed—just like I did—that we would be together. That I’d be the one he’d spend his annual vacations with.
“Give me your phone. I’ll take your picture.” He let me go and held out his hand.
“Okay.” I dug it out of my back pocket and handed it over.
Cole backed up, but I didn’t turn right away. I kept my eyes on the lake and threw my arms out to my sides, tipping back my chin to let the sun warm my face.
“All right.” He chuckled. “Turn around and smile.”
I dropped my arms and turned, but instead of smiling, I blew Cole a kiss.
He clicked a few pictures, then gave me back my phone. “Do you want to stay or should we head back?”
I looked over my shoulder at the lake one last time. “We’d better go. It’s a long drive.”
“Okay.” Cole fell in step behind me as we walked up the dirt path to the truck. He opened my door, then went around to his own. His movements were stiff today, the aches from our hike yesterday likely setting in, but he hadn’t complained.
As we pulled onto the highway, he took my hand. “When we get back, how long do you think it will take you to pack up stuff for a few days?”
“Pack? Where exactly am I going?”
“To my house.” He grinned. “You’re stuck with me now.”
I smiled at Cole’s profile. He hadn’t shaved today and his jaw looked sexier, more rugged with his thick stubble. When we got to his house, my tongue was going to get up close and personal with that jaw. Packing light—or fast—had never been a strong suit, but tonight, I’d be setting a personal best. “Ten minutes. Fifteen, tops.”
And if I forgot something, I’d just swing by my place tomorrow before work. I was more than willing to get up thirty minutes earlier if that meant I got to sleep in Cole’s sleigh bed.
The only down side was that I’d have to block out the image of another woman having slept there first. “How attached are you to your bed?”
“My bed? Well, considering I just bought it a few months ago, pretty attached.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected. “You just bought it?”
“It was time for an upgrade. That one is brand new. Why?”
“Oh, just curious.” I covered my mouth, pretending to yawn, when really, I was hiding a huge smile. Cole’s house, here I come. He didn’t know it yet, but I’d just claimed that bed as mine.
His kitchen too.
We drove awhile in silence, taking in the scenery as we navigated the windy roads out of the park until we hit the main highway that would lead us back to Bozeman. Cole pulled into a gas station to fuel up and I hopped out, wanting a drink for the ride home. “I’m going to get a water. Want one?”
He nodded, digging his wallet out of his back pocket and tossing it over. “Thanks, beautiful.”
Beautiful.
I smiled at his new endearment. Pretty Poppy was still my favorite, but beautiful was a close runner-up.
Hurrying inside, I used the restroom and then got Cole and I both waters and some licorice for the rest of the trip. Just as I was coming outside, I heard a yelp from the parking lot of the farm and ranch supply store next to the gas station.
I searched for the sound just as I heard it again. The yelp was coming from an old red truck where a woman was setting out a sign next to a tire.
Puppies for Sale. $1500. Purebred German Shepherd.
My feet immediately changed direction. Fifteen hundred dollars was way too much to spend on a dog, but since looking was free and I loved puppies, one glance wouldn’t hurt.
“Hi!” I waved to the woman as I approached her truck. “Would you mind if I looked at your puppies?”
She smiled. “By all means. Please.”
I leaned over the tailgate and five pairs of brown eyes all came to me, tails wagging frantically as they licked their metal crate. “Oh my god.” Now I knew why people spent fifteen hundred dollars on a dog. One look, and I was in love. This woman could have my car if that meant one of these fur babies could come live with me.
“Pop—oh, shit,” Cole muttered, walking up. The minute he spotted the puppies and the look on my face, he knew exactly what I was planning. “So much for going to the pound and getting a rescue pup.”
I’d told Cole that I was planning on getting a puppy from the pound to satisfy Jamie’s list, but that plan was history. My next dog would have to come from the pound, because I was buying one of these puppies today. Besides . . . “These dogs need good homes too, don’t they?” I asked the woman, hoping for some support.
She just backed away, not making eye contact with a scowling Cole.
Chicken.
I’d expected her to jump right in and help me make my case to Cole as to why I was going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a puppy.
“Cole, look how cute they are.” I turned back to the puppies. One of them—the cutest one—had retreated to the back of the cage, lounging while its siblings were still licking the crate. “Besides, it doesn’t matter where the puppy comes from. The list just said to get a dog to keep for its entire life.”
Jamie’s family had always had ranch dogs, but he’d always wanted a pet. A dog that could come inside or that he could take on jogs around the neighborhood. He’d wanted a dog to become man’s best friend, not be another employee of the Maysen ranch. This puppy was just the kind he would have gone for—probably because this was exactly the type of puppy I would have gone for.
I had no idea how I’d fit a puppy into my life, but the little one in the back, the one more interested in watching the activities than being front and center, was my new dog.
“Do you take credit cards?” Cole asked the woman.
My head whipped away from the dogs as Cole stole his wallet from my hand.
The woman grinned. “I sure do.”
And just like that, I had a puppy.
An hour later, my new dog was on my lap and the back of Cole’s truck was filled with pet supplies we’d bought at the farm and ranch supply store.
“What should we name you?” I cooed as the puppy perched her paws on the door to look out the window. “I’m thinking . . . Nazboo.”
“What the fuck?” Cole muttered. “No, Poppy.”
“What’s wrong with Nazboo?”
He frowned. “I don’t want to be outside yelling ‘Come here, Nazboo.’ ‘Sit, Nazboo.’ ‘Don’t fucking eat that, Nazboo.’ Pick a normal name.”
I laughed but shook my head. “No. Nazboo is cute. It’s from one of Kali and Max’s cartoons and it’s unique.”
“Veto.”
“Fine. If you’re so particular about the names, let’s hear your pick.”
“Hmm.” Cole rubbed his jaw with one hand, brainstorming quietly as he drove with the other.
While he attempted to come up with a better name, I stroked Nazboo’s back. She was, by far, the most precious dog I had ever seen. Her coat was mostly black, but she had the typical German shepherd tan spotted on her legs, her belly and the sides of her face.
And now she was mine to love and cherish until the end of her days.
“Well?” I asked. “What do you think we should name her?”
Cole looked over at me and my girl, then shook his head before admitting defeat. “Nazboo.”