“You ready?” Kane asked over the telephone as I sat on the edge of the bed, tying my shoelaces.

“As much as I’ll ever be.” I sighed and dropped my foot to the floor, silently cursing Jess for adding the marathon to her list.

I’d always been physically fit, but only to a point. I never had to try too hard and never went to the gym because my line of work helped keep my muscles toned and my weight in check. Being on an active construction site, there was always something that needed moving or doing.

“If you want to do the half marathon, you have to train for it. You can’t just wing this kind of shit.”

Kane was suddenly in his military mode. All gung ho for the day’s activities. The man lived and breathed exercise and discipline. His background made it necessary for him to have a clear path, which often led to his laser focus.

“Don’t you think we should do this after work?”

“Stop stalling. I’ll be there in five. Be ready,” he said before the line went dead.

I tumbled backward onto the mattress and groaned. The man was impossible. Yesterday, when he went after Asher, I almost had a full-blown panic attack. When Kane pulled him out of the makeup trailer, I thought for sure he was going to knock Asher out, consequences be damned. But being Kane, therefore unpredictable, he did something I never would’ve thought about doing. He shaved the damn kid’s waxed and curled mustache. Asher begged for forgiveness as Kane threw him into the makeup chair, holding him down with one arm, and grabbed the clippers from the counter. When Kane turned them on, Asher began to shriek in terror with his eyes growing wider the closer the clippers came to his face. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a more satisfying grin on Kane’s face than I did as when he ran the clippers over Asher’s trembling lip.

“Consequences,” Kane mumbled before tossing the clippers back on the counter and finally releasing a very pale and petrified Asher.

I couldn’t stop my mouth from hanging open as I watched the entire scene. I guessed it was better than him coldcocking a kid who was less than half his size. Kane’s punch could’ve damn near killed the skinny thing who probably hadn’t been hit a day in his life.

The sound of Kane laying on the horn less than five minutes later had me scrambling out the door. “I’m coming,” I yelled, but he couldn’t hear me over the country music that poured out the windows of his beat-up pickup truck. He watched me as I jogged in his direction, his arm slung over the back of the seat, completely unreadable and totally Kane. I slid across the seat but didn’t lean back because his arm was still there, and I wasn’t sure what else to do except slam the door. “Feel better about yourself today?”

“I do.”

“The kid is probably devastated.”

“He’ll survive. He’s lucky I only cut off his mustache.” He smirked and laughed roughly. “Damage could’ve been far worse.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” I muttered and rolled down the window because suddenly being this close to Kane in such a confined space made it hard to breathe. “Where are we going?”

He tipped his head forward, and my eyes followed, landing on the giant mountain that sat behind my temporary housing. The top towered over everything in the city, and from a distance it was beautiful, but that didn’t mean I wanted to go anywhere near it. I was more of a “appreciate beauty from afar” type of girl. Never had I endured any type of strenuous physical activity unless it involved work, and even then, I tried not to work up a sweat.

“That’s too big, Kane. I said a marathon, not a triathlon.”

“Conquer the mountain, and the marathon will be child’s play.”

I blinked, gawking at him like he had two heads. “I wanted to go for a short jog, not a backbreaking hike.”

Kane shook his head. “Never wants to work up a sweat.”

“I sweat,” I argued, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out the window as we headed toward the mountain.

Kane thought he knew everything about me, but he didn’t. There were times, although few and far between, where I didn’t mind a little sweat or getting dirty. Those moments usually involved very few clothes and typically another person, but never a mountain and tennis shoes.

“Uh-huh.”

As he pulled on to the highway, we passed no less than five media trucks parked at the nearby café. Cameras, reporters, and bystanders filled the tiny parking lot.

“What the…” I whispered.

“I took care of them.”

I turned to Kane and blinked a few times, momentarily speechless. He took care of them. “What did you do?”

He looked at me, his gaze sweeping across my face as he shrugged like what he’d said wasn’t terrifying. “I took care of them.”

I clenched my jaw and narrowed my gaze, trying not to lose my shit. “You said that. What does that mean, Kane?”

“They were camped outside your place. I told them to wait at the café, and we’d try to give them an exclusive later.”

“You what?”

“They’re bastards. They would’ve hounded you. So, I took care of it.”

The one thing Kane hated more than hipsters was the media. He hated any big event the network planned which required our attendance. America clamored for more Kane Kaino, the hottest handyman on television. But he didn’t want anything to do with it, usually staying right at my side or standing in a dark corner, brooding away from the media spotlight.

“We’re giving them an interview?”

“Nope.” His tone was clipped as he wrapped his fingers tighter around the steering wheel and adjusted himself in his seat. “But it worked.”

Bill was going to be pissed Kane had tricked the media. There was no doubt they’d show up on the set again, and Bill would do everything he could to accommodate them. He, along with the studio, loved that we were in the spotlight, even if it was an invasion of our privacy.

Resting my forehead in my hand, I closed my eyes and exhaled, long and slow, barely able to keep my anger in check. “Why would you do that?”

“You want them following us?”

“No.”

“Well.”

“You lied to them.”

“I said ‘try.’ I didn’t promise anything. That’s why we’re going to the mountain. If you jog on these roads, small town that it is, the reporters will follow. You want that?”

I grumbled under my breath, hating that he was right even if he was wrong. “No.”

“That’s why we’re going to the mountain. I lured them away to give us some privacy.”

The color on my thumbnail came off in flakes when I chewed on the tip, prying away the already chipped polish. Kane and I hadn’t spoken about the kiss, the video, or the repercussions. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“Kit, listen. What happened is in the past. You were drunk, and we’ve been friends far too long to let it become an issue.”

I bit down, practically ripping the entire top half of my nail clean off as soon as he said the word issue. The alcohol gave me the courage, lost in the moment, to actually kiss Kane, but in no way did it diminish what I’d felt as our lips touched. I’d thought the kiss meant something to him, but clearly, I was the only one who felt anything.

I’d watched the video at least a hundred times, studying every second of the footage and reading through the comments. Kane looked all in. At first, I think I’d surprised him, but then he wrapped his arms around me and seemed to enjoy himself.

I’d be lying if I said I never thought about things moving forward between us. He was good and honest, loyal, and even if he was just my friend, he was attractive. But he’d always spoken about relationships like they weren’t for him. His privacy was important to him, but even his mother had told me once, at a Fourth of July barbecue, that Kane never seemed interested in anything but looking after his family. Mrs. Kaino had been disappointed by both her sons. She’d sworn she’d never get to be a granny the way Kane and Kiel acted with women.

So I didn’t give too much thought to making a move or hoping for things that probably wouldn’t happen. Still, that kiss…maybe my eyes deceived me, but I thought after all these years, I could read his body language when he wasn’t putting up a front.

“Yeah. It’s not an issue for me if it’s not for you,” I said, ignoring the knot in my stomach and playing it off like it was a drunken mistake.

Shit.

Kane and I were coworkers and, just as he said, friends. We’d been that for years. Hearing him say those words shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, and I was afraid of what that meant.

When he finally parked, he turned off the truck, sliding sideways on the seat and staring at my profile. I kept my face forward along with my eyes because I didn’t want Kane to see the hurt I was feeling.

“Look at me,” he grunted.

Slowly, I turned my face and wiped every bit of emotion right off it, just like I’d seen him do a million times. “Yeah?”

“Lay it out.”

“What?”

“Lay. It. Out.”

I clenched my hands together, trying to keep the scream that was creeping up my throat down deep because I didn’t feel like getting into an argument right now. The day was already going to be long, and to have us both pissed off wouldn’t do us any good.

“I got nothing,” I told him.

“I call bullshit.”

“Kane,” I said in a supersweet voice. “You can call it whatever you want, but there’s nothing to lay out. We walking, or we going to keep sitting here, talking like you got a pussy too?”

My words must’ve hit a cord because his body rocked backward as his eyes widened. “You got a lot of shit to sling today, Kit. I’ll give ya that. We’re walking.”

“Thank fuck,” I whispered and reached for the door handle, but Kane stayed put in his seat. I climbed out and, with my still unreadable face, held my arms out in the air. “You coming?”

He stared at me for a few seconds before he followed, jumping out of his truck and coming to the back, meeting me before I could walk away. “Look at you. All fired up.”

I raised my chin, refusing to admit the obvious. “I ain’t fired up.”

“Scorchin’, babe.” He smiled.

I rolled my eyes, stepping to the side and out of his way. My face might have been unreadable, but my body threw me right under the bus.

Twenty minutes ago, I couldn’t imagine climbing to the top of the mountain, but after the conversation we’d just had, I hoped he could keep up. “Just try to keep up, old man.”

He grunted, following close on my heels as I pushed aside a wayward branch and stepped foot on the trail. I paused for a second, craning my neck to see the top, but it was too high to see much of anything besides the treetops. Kane used the opportunity to move me aside, wrapping his hands around my upper arms before lifting me in the air and setting me behind him, to take the lead. “Follow,” he said, barking at me like I was his lap dog.

I growled. He glared over his shoulder, throwing me a warning before he took a step forward. “Too much bad shit up here. Let me move everything out of the way. We can’t have you getting hurt. Bill would have my balls.”

I didn’t want to tell him that I wanted his balls too. I shook my head. That didn’t sound right, even in my head. I mean, I was pretty sure he had nice balls with just the right amount of weight to them, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I didn’t want to touch them, making him crazy with lust, did I? I laughed. The internal war inside my head was getting a little out of control, and Kane noticed.

“What’s so funny?” He lifted a log that had fallen over the path, throwing it into the brush instead of stepping over it like most people would do.

“Nothing,” I said and bit down on my bottom lip to stifle my laughter.

Kane moved on, dropping his line of questioning as we made our way up the path. When going upward and looking straight ahead, only Kane’s very fine and muscular ass filled my field of vision. Less than a mile in, he stopped, and I almost smacked his two cheeks with my face.

“It’s so damn muggy.” With his back to me, he grabbed the hem of his T-shirt, lifting the material over his head in one quick motion.

Fuck.

I’d seen the man shirtless a hundred times over the years, but suddenly I couldn’t look at him the same. Each muscle in his back rippled, moving in perfect synchronization. My mouth watered, and the thin sheen of perspiration that had dotted my skin started to grow, feeling every bit of heat he was throwing.

“You okay?”

I raised my eyes, meeting his as he glanced over his shoulder. “I’m fine,” I managed to say through my harsh breaths, the climb and his bare chest making it impossible for me to get enough air.

“We’re moving.”

I stepped forward, not looking where I was walking, and started to tumble. Kane turned quickly, grabbing me near the waist, and kept me upright. My hands flattened on his biceps as they flexed under my weight. My eyes darted to his, my fingers digging into his skin, and I sucked in a breath, both in shock that we were touching each other again and that I almost took a header because my damn foot got caught under a tree root.

“I gotcha.”

“Thanks,” I said, my face way too close because the only thing I could smell was Kane. The mountain seemed to disappear, the wildlife scattered, and only we existed in that moment, perched on the side of the mountain.

He peered down at me, and I gazed up at him. Neither of us spoke a word, barely moving as our hands stayed on the other’s body. For just a second, he let that unreadable face go, and I saw the man staring at me like he wanted to sink his teeth into me. I’d seen that look before during the hundred times I’d watched the video of us.

Kane could insist that the kiss meant nothing to him, but after I fell into his arms, I knew there was more than friendship between us. It was written all over his face. It was an awful idea. Kane and I were friends and coworkers. Neither of us wanted to ruin what we had going, but I think we were way beyond the point of no return.

“Kane,” I said, finally coming to my senses and unwilling to make the first move again. I wanted to, though. God, how I wanted to kiss the man again, but there was no way in hell I’d be initiating anything.

“Yeah?” he replied, his hands tightening around my waist.

“You going to hold me all day, or are we hiking?”

He cleared his throat and dropped his hands from my sides, the unreadable look firmly back in place. “Hiking.”

When he quickly turned and I had the view of his fine ass and chiseled back again, I did a little celebratory dance. I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt that tingle from the kiss the other night.