Tempt Me

And she intended to enjoy until the real world intruded once again.

She packed and met him out at the SUV parked on the driveway. He wore a pair of jeans and a cream-colored sweater, looking sexy with a pair of aviators covering his eyes.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes.” She gestured to the carry-on-sized suitcase she’d packed, trying to be practical and not overdo it with too many choices. It wasn’t like they were going out to fancy restaurants. They were staying in and she’d chosen accordingly.

He loaded the trunk with their bags and they got on the road. The trip passed in comfortable silence, the discussion mostly about music and other things they liked… and didn’t like.

They stopped at a grocery store not far from the cabin and she insisted on food she could prepare for them. Cooking relaxed her and she liked taking care of people. He’d gone on about the fireplace he loved at the cabin, and so she added some fun things to the grocery list, hoping he liked her idea later.

Throughout the morning, they were just two people enjoying each other’s company. Of course, that was on the surface. Right below was a simmering awareness that she couldn’t deny. He’d pushed up the arms of his sweater and her gaze settled on his muscular forearms with a sprinkling of dark hair. Those arms were sexy. The man himself was delicious and she wanted to get her hands on him again. They’d just had that one time together and nothing since except in her daydreams and at night when her subconscious took over and let her imagine him sneaking into her room and taking her hard and fast, slowly and sensually, and many other ways.

He’d made his intentions clear for their time away from the world. And she knew what she wanted, too.

She wanted him.

* * *

Austin loved the cabin. His parents had bought the place as a family getaway and it was his home away from home. He came up here sometimes to get a break from the stress of life. Bailey was too young to join him in the woods or to commune with nature but when his parents took her for the weekend, he’d come here and just… breathe.

He’d never brought a woman to the cabin before. Not before Bailey… and definitely not after. Mia was the first. She was a first in a lot of ways.

The first woman he felt protective over. The first he wanted to spend extended time with. And the first he couldn’t get out of his head. He’d tried to convince himself that it was for her safety only that he brought her away from their normal routine. But that didn’t explain why last night, when they’d said good night and gone to their own rooms, he’d been hard as nails and had to jerk himself off to thoughts of her before he could get to sleep.

And even then, he’d dreamed of someone coming after her. He planned to make sure he was between Mia and any shot her ex-employer took at her. It’d just better not be a literal one.

Mia took the spare bedroom in the cabin and he let her. She didn’t need to know she’d be sleeping in his bed until she passed out there from sexual exertion.

After a delicious steak dinner, he helped clean up and she shooed him out of the kitchen, claiming she had a surprise.

He threw another log on the fire. It was cooler upstate and the temperatures were low for late October. Being here wasn’t the same without the warmth and flickering flames. And this particular day, a fire was romantic.

Another first. Giving a shit about impressing a woman. Especially one he kept telling himself was just a fling until he got her out of his system.

“Ready?” Mia called as she walked out of the kitchen, a tray in her hands.

He rubbed his hands on his jeans and stood. “What’s the surprise?” he asked.

“S’mores. When you told me this place had a fireplace, I couldn’t resist.” She put the tray down on the large ottoman across from the sofa. “Marshmallows, Hershey chocolate bars, and graham crackers. And…”

She picked up a roasting stick in her hand. “Skewers so we can toast the marshmallows.” She looked pleased with herself. And with a white sweater falling over and baring one shoulder, she made an extremely irresistible picture.

“Well, then, let’s do it.”

She clapped her hands together and they each took a marshmallow and put it on a skewer.

“Did you get the chance to do this when you were a kid?” Or had she learned as an adult?

He used to go camping with his dad and he hoped she had some good experiences that indicated normalcy in her childhood.

“I did.”

He used the poker to pull open the covering to the flame.

“I had a nice family that taught us to roast marshmallows in a fireplace. Honestly, foster care wasn’t all bad.”