We were all over each other before we even got the door closed to his room.
The second he touched me, the chemistry between us burst out like a rip cord being pulled. It was zero to ten, instantly.
I loved his body. His wide, muscular shoulders, his defined stomach, the curve of his collarbone when I tucked my nose into his neck while he was on top of me. His scent was like an aphrodisiac.
I kicked out of my sandals as he peeled his shirt off.
It was incredible how he transitioned from the polite young man of a few minutes ago to the virile, hungry male in front of me now.
This was no boy. This was a man. And he was pure sex, six feet tall and an erection pressing against his zipper. His eyes hooded and looking at me like he wanted to eat me. A thick trail of hair descending into his pants…
I loved the way his hands felt on my skin. I didn’t care if they had cuts or bug bites on them, they made me feel feral. It was the same way he made me feel every single time he got me alone, like I couldn’t scale him fast enough.
I wondered offhandedly if this is how most people felt during sex. This must be the reason why it’s such a big deal.
It wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy sex. I did. Neil could give me an orgasm most of the time—I’d never had a problem getting there. But it wasn’t this all-consuming, driving need that it seemed to be for everyone else.
I could never understand why people would fight about it or cheat looking for it or end things because there wasn’t enough of it. It was always dead last on my list of important things in a relationship.
But now I got it.
If this was the kind of sex everyone else was having, it all made sense, because this? This was incredible. It was like Daniel had flipped some broken switch inside me, and now all the parts were running like they should and I hummed like a well-oiled machine.
I was becoming addicted to him. I wondered how much sex I’d need to have with him for him to actually satiate this need he seemed to bring out of me. I kinda wanted to figure it out. Seemed like a fun experiment…
I was slipping an arm out of my spaghetti strap, and he came up behind me. “Don’t,” he said in a husky voice. He started kissing the side of my neck. His beard and his tongue raked across my bare skin. “I like it.”
I leaned back into him. “You like it, huh?” I ground into him, and I felt his breath shudder.
Then a hand was pushing my dress over my hips, tugging my underwear down my thighs. The clink of a belt buckle, pants dropping to the floor, and a hot erection pressing against my ass…
Need ripped through me.
He whirled me onto the bed and reached into the nightstand. He tore the corner of a condom with his teeth and I watched him roll it on. Then he was climbing over me.
And then he slowed down…
He hovered, hands on either side of me, nothing touching me but his lips, his breath on my skin.
“You smell so good,” he whispered into my collarbone.
I hooked an elbow around his neck to pull him toward me, but he held his body off me, and like he saw the complaint coming he crushed his mouth to mine to keep me quiet.
The kiss was everything, and it was torture because I wanted more than this. I wanted his weight on top of me. He was all over me and all around me, but still too far away. The heat from his body pressed into mine, I could feel it through my dress.
I’d never in my life wanted someone to rip my clothes off until this moment. I wanted nothing between us. I hated the very existence of the fabric, I wanted to feel his skin on my skin. I wanted his sweat and the pounding of his heart and his fast breath. It was some sexual claustrophobia. I was starting to feel frantic.
I ran a palm down his chest following the trail of hair under my fingertips and took him into my hand, and he sucked in a breath against my mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a shuddering noise as I moved back and forth. He lost his resolve and lowered himself onto me.
When he eased inside of me, it was fireworks.
I gasped at the deepness of it, the internal thump. I felt desperate for it, like I wanted to claw at him, get him closer.
He rode me with his rough hands on my thighs, his tongue plunging in and out of my mouth, my dress bunched around my hips. I slipped an arm out of my dress strap and uncovered a breast and it made his motions more frantic.
I turned him on. He was ravenous for me.
Every time I was with him, he built me up. He gave me back something that Neil stole.
I rolled my hips just the right way and threw back my head and in one fluid movement he made his final thrusts between my legs. I could feel him
pulsing inside of me, and I wished in my delirium that there was no condom.
With Neil, I hated the cleanup. But with Daniel the thought of him filling me up, him dripping down my thighs—I wanted it. I couldn’t have it. I’d never have unprotected sex with someone who wasn’t my boyfriend. It was amazing I was even having sex with someone who wasn’t my boyfriend at all. But, God, the thought of it made me quiver.
I realized that I would try things with him that I hadn’t tried with anyone. He made me feel uninhibited like that—and safe.
I think the safe thing was the biggest part of it, actually.
He hovered, still inside of me, catching his breath. His heart was thudding against my bare breast like a jackhammer.
“Fuck…” he breathed. “You’re gonna give me a heart attack.” “Well, you seem like a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.”
He laughed so hard into my neck, I broke into giggles.
He started kissing me softly, still chuckling, and I tipped my head back.
I hated that we only had time for this quickie. The second time would last longer. We’d take everything off. We’d play a little. Draw it out.
This was the night I wanted. It was the weekend I wanted. I wished I could just stay here, stay with him. I didn’t want to spend two days with Gabby and Jessica when this was the alternative. I didn’t want to ride the bike trail or sit in a chair on the four-season porch reading a book or get my nails done at the lone salon in town. I just wanted to do this. And it was weird because until I got here, I’d been looking forward to spending time with my friends. But Daniel had just risen to the top of a quickly shifting priority list.
Huh.
He kissed his way up under my chin. “I didn’t know your last name,” he said.
“What?” I said absently.
He came up to look at me, his earnest hazel eyes peering into mine. “It was on the reservation, but I didn’t know it was you.” He paused. “I’ve never done this with someone I didn’t know,” he said quietly.
The way he said it made me instantly feel bad. Like I’d defiled him. Made him lower his standards for intimacy. I mean, he hadn’t asked me my last name. But then he probably thought I wouldn’t have told him. And honestly? I probably wouldn’t have. I’d sort of had one foot out the door since the start of all this.
But I didn’t really have one foot out the door now…
I was going to keep seeing him. At least for the time being. He didn’t need to know my whole life story, but I could give him a little more than I had been.
I gave him a gentle kiss. “Alexis Elizabeth Montgomery.”
He smiled so that his eyes twinkled. Then he leaned in. “Alexis.” Kiss. “Elizabeth.” Kiss. “Montgomery.”
I never knew hearing my name could make me smile so much. I arched an eyebrow. “Are you going to Google me now?”
“Not if you don’t want me to,” he said. “Did you Google me?” “Well, yeah. What if you were a registered sex offender?”
He looked amused. “And? What did you find?” “Five-star reviews.”
He laughed.
My cell phone pinged from wherever I’d dropped it on the floor. Daniel nodded over his shoulder. “Are you gonna check it?”
“I probably should,” I said, running my hands through his hair. “What if they’re coming back.”
He gave me a final peck and got up and handed me my phone from the floor. Then he went to the bathroom to clean up.
I checked the text and grinned. “They’re going to the VFW,” I called out. “Something about trivia night?”
Daniel smiled coming out of the bathroom, zipping up his pants. “It goes until ten.”
“So we have three more hours?”
He climbed onto the bed. “We have three more hours.”
He wrapped around me in the biggest, sweetest teddy bear hug, and again I marveled that he was both this cuddly boy and the guy who’d screwed me senseless a few minutes ago.
He planted a kiss on my neck, then propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at me. “Why is it a bad breakup?” he asked.
I wrinkled my forehead. “What?”
“Your last boyfriend. You said you’re going through a bad breakup. Why is it bad?”
I hadn’t planned on talking to Daniel about Neil. It wasn’t really information he needed. But now that it was the reason I was pretending I didn’t know him in front of my friends, it seemed like a fair question.
I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “The relationship was… abusive.”
His brows drew down. “He hit you?” I shook my head. “No. He was mean.”
Daniel studied me. I couldn’t interpret the look on his face. “What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I would never be mean to you.”
The comment hit me right in the heart, it was so earnest.
No. I didn’t think he would ever be mean to me. Daniel couldn’t be mean to anyone, I suspected.
Whoever got him one day was going to be a very lucky girl.
When I didn’t answer, he looked at his watch. “I wasn’t expecting company, so I’m going to have to get creative with dinner,” he said. “I should probably feed you.”
He got up.
“Need any help?”
“Nope. But you can come hang out with me while I cook.” He put on a shirt, and I followed him downstairs.
He had a pot of coffee on the kitchenette. “Mind if I have some of this?” I asked, already grabbing a mug.
“I can make you a fresh one.”
“No, this is fine,” I said, pouring it. “I got used to old coffee during my residency. Now I kind of like it. Reminds me of the little bit of downtime I used to get.”
He watched me take a sip. “No cream? No sugar?” “No.”
He shook his head. “How can you drink that?”
“It’s coffee. You’re supposed to taste it. You can’t taste it with cream and sugar in it.”
He looked at me dubiously. “That’s like saying you can’t taste your eggs because you add salt and pepper.” He took my mug from my hand and put it to his mouth. He winced, handing it back to me. “This tastes like a burned tire.”
I laughed.
He looked amused. “I guess this proves strong coffee doesn’t put hair on your chest. Actually, maybe I should get a closer look.” He pulled the front of my dress open with a finger and I laughed, swatting him away.
It was amazing how good I felt. Like I’d had a full body and mind reset. And I didn’t think it was only because of the sex either. I was happy to be here.
Come to think of it, I’d felt like this last night after we’d hung up too. I’d slept better than I had in months.
Daniel was a vacation for me, I realized—like a break from my own brain or the reality of my current crappy situation. And we had that easy flowing conversation that you so rarely find with someone. I had it with Derek and Bri, but I’d never had it with Neil. With Neil, I always felt like I needed to say something important or smart for it to be worth bringing up. We spent a lot of quiet meals together.
At the time, I thought this meant we were good with comfortable silence. But now I realized it meant something else. Some strange, stiff, unnatural dynamic that I’d dealt with for so long, I didn’t know it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t a comfortable silence, it was just…silence.
I started wandering the garage looking around while Daniel rummaged in a fridge. Hunter walked with me, pushing his head under my hand until I resorted to walking with a palm between his ears.
I saw the headboard Daniel had been working on last night. It was propped to dry. He had chairs hanging from the walls in various stages of completion. A dresser set and a pair of nightstands sat by the garage door.
He had a stack of books on a stool by his workbench. I picked up the top one. The Circus Fire.
Daniel looked over at me. “That’s a good one. Have you read it?” I shook my head at the cover. “No.”
“It’s about the deadly Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus fire of 1944. You’d probably really like it—severe burns, emergency situation, mass casualties. Your kind of thing.”
I laughed.
“You can borrow it if you want.”
“Thanks. We like the same books,” I said, looking at the rest of the stack. I knew he liked history, but most of these weren’t big titles. Self- published books about Alaskan homesteaders and stories of Native
Americans. A memoir about a man who ran a dogsled team in the 1940s.
I liked lesser-known books too. I’d even read a few of these. It was a little surprising. I didn’t really know anyone who read the exact same kind of books I liked.
“What’s the last book you read?” he asked, pulling out a frying pan.
“Well, I actually just finished this one,” I said, showing him one from his stack. “But right now I’m reading The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.”
“Oh yeah, I read that,” he said, setting some carrots, garlic, and an onion on the counter. “About the Spanish flu of 1918. You know my great-great- grandfather Wilbur Grant saved the whole town from that.”
“Really?” I said. “How?”
“Cut down trees to block the roads into Wakan. Kept everyone in, everyone out. Didn’t lose one person. They were pretty pissed at him though at the time.”
“Was he the mayor too?” I asked.
Daniel nodded. “Yup. A Grant has always been the mayor, going back one hundred and twenty-five years.”
“Wow. Always?”
“Always.”
“How many Grants are here now?”
He shrugged. “Just me. I’m the last one.” Ha. I knew what that was like.
“And if you leave?” I asked.
He laughed. “Why would I ever leave?” I gave him a small smile.
He pulled out a knife and a cutting board. “After Wilbur died, my great- great-grandmother Ruth Grant took over. She set up an illegal Prohibition bootlegging operation out of the basement of the house. The most prosperous years in Wakan history. They named a gin after her. We use it to stitch people up with fishhooks.”
I laughed.
I eyed a few novelty woodworking pieces in the corner of the garage. There were three of them. One was a wall hanging of a horse, its mane flowing behind it, twisted into the knotted wood. There was a mirror with an intricate floral appliqué frame, hand-wrought. And a custom rocking chair. He’d etched an elaborate whimsical design into the headboard. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Works of art.
“Did you do these?” I asked, pointing at the small collection in the corner.
He glanced up from chopping carrots. “Yeah.” “Who are they for?”
“Just practice pieces.”
“These are your practice pieces?” My God.
Daniel was an artist. It was like he brought the wood to life in his hands.
I traced the curve of a rose carved into the mirror frame. “How much do you sell these for?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. The materials aren’t very expensive. That horse? The beam came from an old barn we were tearing down. Got it for
free. It’s mostly my time.”
“Well, how much time did it take to do this one?” I pointed at the mirror.
He looked at it. “Couple of weeks? I don’t know. I’d probably ask two hundred for it.”
I scoffed. “You’re undercharging.” He laughed like I’d told a joke.
“See the wood I used for the horse?” he said. “I liked it because of the color. The barn was a hundred, hundred and twenty years old. The ammonia from the cow’s urine stains it over time. Darkens it.” He nodded at it. “You see the ghosts? Those lighter patches on the horse’s neck? That’s where the metal brackets used to be. The ammonia didn’t get to that part of the wood, so it’s lighter.” He pushed his chopped carrots into a pan. “I like working with things that have history. It gives it character. There’ll never be another one exactly like it.”
My face went soft. He was an artist.
I glanced over at him. He looked really handsome standing there in his black Grant House T-shirt, all bearded with his dimples flashing, a wall of tools hanging behind him. There was something infinitely sexy about a man who could build things. And cook things. When he started to sauté the onions and garlic, I think I fell a little bit in love.
I came back over to the kitchenette and sat on the weight bench to watch him. Hunter put his face in my lap.
“Why don’t you do the carpentry full-time?” I asked, petting the dog. “You’re so good at it.”
He shrugged over his frying pan. “Couldn’t make a living out of it. The village is too small.”
I smiled. “You could go bigger. Ship your pieces. I know people who would pay thousands of dollars for this stuff to furnish their cabins.”
I could see by his smile that he took the compliment. I watched him add a jar of home-canned tomatoes to the pan.
“Do you cook the breakfasts?” I asked.
“I do. I’ve been trying to get you to stay for one. Looks like I’m finally getting what I want.” He gave me a triumphant grin.
Both of us were smiling. We’d been smiling since the minute we were alone and allowed to do it.
“This was the best surprise,” I said, almost to myself.
He beamed down at his pan. “You know, you can come whenever you want,” he said. “I want you to.”
“Whenever I want?” I teased. “I don’t want to show up and you’re not alone.”
“I’ll always be alone when you show up. I’m not seeing anyone else.”
I didn’t respond to this. It wasn’t my business if he was seeing other people—even though the thought of it did bother me a little bit.
Was it weird that it bothered me? It should have been, right? I shook it off.
“Are you going to sneak into my room tonight?” I asked.
“I think it’s better if you sneak into mine,” he said, talking to his frying pan. “Your friend is sharing that bathroom. Plus, we can make more noise over here.” He grinned.
“Why did you open the B & B? I thought you said it was closed for the season.”
He went quiet for a long moment. “I had to. Amber—my mom—is selling the house.”
I froze. “What?”
“She’s selling it,” he said. “To buy a bike shop in Florida. I have the summer to raise fifty thousand dollars for a down payment on the property
so I can try to buy it. If I can’t raise the money…” He paused. “I have to raise the money.” He nodded at the garage. “I need to finish all this to sell at the swap meet. And I had to open the house early to convince her to wait.”
I shook my head. “But…how can she do it? It’s your family’s house.” I couldn’t even imagine if Royaume was being taken from my family.
Suddenly I could see the strain around his eyes. He must be totally overwhelmed. I looked around at the huge backlog of furniture. It was a warehouse full, and none of it was complete. There was no way he could do it all. Not while he was running the bed-and-breakfast at the same time.
“I’m so sorry, Daniel.” I didn’t know what else to say.
He just smiled. “It’ll work out. This weekend helps. I got most of the rooms booked. And I get to see you.”
I stayed the whole night in Daniel’s loft. I texted Gabby and Jessica and told them I was going to sleep so they wouldn’t check on me when they got in. Then I locked my room and came back to the garage and slept with Daniel
—well, our version of sleeping, which didn’t involve much sleeping at all, actually.
When he got up at 5:45 to put coffee on in the house, I snuck back in with him and went to my room.
I loved spending time with him, just hanging out with him. It was so easy and fun.
He didn’t feel like his age. Maybe he’d had to grow up fast, like I did.
Well, I’d grown up fast in some ways—and I hadn’t in others. I was college bound by seventeen, but I didn’t have a first kiss until I was twenty. I didn’t lose my virginity until I was twenty-four. I didn’t really get to do
the teenager thing. Guess I was getting to do it now though, sneaking out of the house like a kid.
I met the girls in the dining room for breakfast at nine.
“Oh, my God,” Gabby said from her seat at the table when I walked in. “You missed out. We had so much fun last night.”
I poured myself a coffee from the station Daniel had set up on the buffet table against the wall. “Really?” Me too.
“Yeah, so we went to this VFW, which was kind of ratty, but it was the only thing that was open. This guy started hitting on us and he pulls out this guitar and sings ‘More Than Words’—I died.”
I choked on my coffee and spit it back into my mug. “Was it any good?” I asked, still laughing, wiping up my chin.
Jessica scoffed. “It was as bad as the food at that restaurant we ate at last night,” she muttered. “What did you eat for dinner?”
I took a seat and shrugged. “The guy made me a sandwich.”
He actually made me pasta Bolognese using tomatoes he’d grown and canned. It was amazing. I was having a very different weekend than they were…
Daniel came in balancing three plates on his tattooed forearms. We made split-second eye contact before we looked away from each other.
The chemistry between us was off the charts. He made my body react just by being in the room, and it occurred to me that this would be true even if we’d never touched each other. Even if I had been here on a couple’s weekend with Neil and this was the first time I’d ever met him, I would have noticed it. It was like a pupil shrinking under a light, totally involuntary.
He started setting French toast in front of us.
God, he looked good. He was wearing an apron. His hair was sort of messy and looked effortlessly adorable. Just when I thought he couldn’t get any cuter . . .
“How’s your head?” Jessica asked me. “You look like you were up all night.”
“I was,” I said, glancing at Daniel just in time to see the corner of his lip twitch.
I didn’t have makeup on. I never in a million years would have let Neil see me like this in the morning. But Daniel said he didn’t mind, and I was too tired from last night to make the effort. Honestly, I really didn’t think he cared. The man was a perpetual erection around me. If the way I looked in the morning turned him off, his penis certainly didn’t get the memo.
Daniel cleared his throat from the end of the table. “Baked French toast with a splash of Madagascar bourbon vanilla, topped with macerated berries, served with candied maple bacon and fresh melon. Let me know if I can get you anything else.” A smile and a flicker of eye contact with me and then he left the room.
We started eating.
“This is so good,” Gabby said, moaning.
It was good. I really should have let him make me breakfast sooner.
Wow.
I was beginning to think maybe I should start taking Daniel up on more of his offers. So far he hadn’t disappointed me—in anything.
I heard a creak in the foyer, and Hunter came in. The front door must have been ajar. He trotted over to the table with a plush toy in his mouth and put his face in my lap.
I smiled. “Hey there.”
I wiped my mouth with a napkin and reached down to pet his head.
Then the plush toy moved.
“Oh, my God!” I screamed, pushing away from the table.
I stared at the thing in his jaws in horror. “He…he has a squirrel!”
Gabby and Jessica practically fell over backward getting up. Daniel must have heard the noise, because he came running in from the kitchen.
Hunter backed into the mouth of the dining room, blinking at us innocently, like he didn’t know what the big deal was.
The thing hung limp from his mouth. Then the tail twitched. Oh no, it was playing dead.
Daniel put his hands out. “Hunter…don’t move.”
I swallowed, my back pressed against the buffet. “Maybe you can get him to go outside?” I whispered.
Daniel nodded. “Good idea,” he said, his voice low. He started slowly for the front door.
The squirrel began wiggling—Hunter flung it in the air. Everyone shrieked.
He caught it again like a kid casually tossing a baseball and then shook it around until his ear was inside out, and then he went back to blinking at us.
We were all holding our breath, hostage.
Daniel got all the way to the foyer. He opened the door wide and pointed. “Hunter, out.”
Hunter looked at him, confused. Then he dipped his head and very gently placed the animal at Daniel’s feet. It immediately sprang to life and darted under the dining room table.
Complete chaos.
Screaming, chairs knocking over, broken glass.
Gabby, who had sat at the end against the wall and who was now effectively trapped by fallen chairs, climbed the table and scrambled on her
hands and knees over plates of food to escape.
Hunter smiled around at the activity, looking proud of himself. We burst outside, leaving Daniel and his dog in the house.
When we got out on the lawn, we stood there gasping. Jessica was clutching the front of her shirt like she was having a heart attack and Gabby had an entire piece of French toast stuck to her boob from the table army- crawl. It began to peel off, slowly, and then it landed on the grass with a plop.
Breathing hard, we stared at it sitting there. And then we started to laugh.
Uncontrollable, soul-releasing laughter.
We were laughing so hard when Daniel came outside a few minutes later to release the thing, we were crying.
Hunter bounded down the stairs and bounced among us, tail wagging.
He let out a long roooooooooo! Then he ate the French toast.
I had to wipe tears off my cheeks.
Daniel came over to us, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry. He’s got a soft mouth,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s good for a hunting dog. Means they won’t maul the birds they retrieve. It also means they don’t kill the things they catch…”
Jessica howled. I don’t think I’d ever heard her laugh so hard. She was always so serious.
Daniel put a thumb over his shoulder. “I can replate everything if you just give me a few minutes,” he said, looking embarrassed.
Jessica nodded, wiping under her eyes. “Please do.”
When Daniel went back into the house, Gabby shook her head. “This place is so getting one star. What a shit show.” She laughed.
I sobered instantly. “What? You can’t give it one star.”
Jessica shook her head, still tittering. “I’m pretty sure live rodents at breakfast deserve one star, Ali.”
“It was an accident,” I said.
“Uh, that dog shouldn’t be around people,” Gabby said. “He’s not trained.”
“He’s a rescue. He’s still learning.”
Gabby wrinkled her forehead. “How do you know?”
“The guy told me. Seriously. Do not give this place one star. You’ll hurt his business.”
Gabby scoffed. “So, like, an entire squirrel at breakfast deserves what?
Some rave review?”
I shook my head. “No. You don’t have to lie. Just don’t rate it at all.”
She crossed her arms. “If I treated patients the way this guy runs this B & B, I’d be sued for malpractice.”
“It’s not that serious, Gabby,” I said. “We all laughed.”
Jessica looked annoyed. “Ali, she had to climb across a table. Her new Lululemon shirt is ruined. And that dog practically knocked you over yesterday. He should be locked up at the very least. It’s extremely irresponsible.”
An acorn dropped behind her onto the grass with a muffled thud.
“You don’t think you’re being a little hard on him?” I asked, looking back and forth between them. “One star for the dog?”
“Frankly, no, I don’t,” Jessica said, waving off a dragonfly. “I think it’s warranted.”
We stood there in a tense moment of silence. They didn’t know.
They didn’t know Daniel wasn’t nothing to me. His struggles were not some abstract idea, because he mattered to me. They didn’t know because I
couldn’t—wouldn’t—tell them.
If I did, I’d lend him my protection. They wouldn’t write that review because me asking them not to would be enough. If I just said, Look, this is the guy I’ve been seeing. Please don’t. They wouldn’t.
But I couldn’t do that. Because then I’d be giving Daniel to Neil. And that was worse.
I wiped under my eyes.
“Grace costs you nothing,” I said. And I went back inside.
