Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 24074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
I try to keep my mind off Mr. Wallis and on the stunning view as we hurry up the mountain along this spectacular trail. Thankfully, I brought my gym clothes to work out in the lodge’s gym after my shift. I was planning on running on the boring treadmill, not knowing this incredible place was only a few yards from the lodge. I’ll be running up here from now on. It’s stunning out here.
It’s a gorgeous spring afternoon. I’m only wearing yoga pants, running shoes, and a long sleeve lycra shirt, and it’s perfect. The sun is shining and melting the snow. Parts of the path are muddy, but I manage to jump and dodge around the puddles as I struggle to keep up with Mr. Wallis.
The birds are singing in the tall Aspen trees and I can hear a river roaring nearby as it takes all of the melting snow down to the bottom of the mountain. It weaves in and out beside the gorgeous trail, but right now, it’s nowhere to be seen.
I’d like to come back here alone and fully focus on the trail, because right now, my focus is mainly on the big muscular man beside me.
He takes a deep inhale of the fresh mountain air and I can tell by the look of pure bliss on his face that he’s savoring it. It smells like pine needles, wet soil, minerals, and trees. All scents that I could only get from a scented candle back home in Bloomington, Minnesota. My parents were always more interested in watching TV than exploring the outdoors. They never took me hiking or did anything like this.
“I love the smell out here,” I say as we keep a brisk pace up the mountain. “It smells so heavenly.”
“I never get tired of it,” Owen says as he closes his eyes and inhales again. I watch the way his big chest rises, and a bit of the desire I was feeling in the basement returns. “I was living in the thick of Manhattan for eight years. I think it traumatized me into never taking these mountains for granted.”
He smiles at me and I feel my cheeks blushing. Luckily, I can blame it on the crisp air.
“What were you doing in New York?”
I’m thinking he’s going to say modeling since he has the looks of a god, but he tells me he was in finance. Of course. How else could he afford to buy that beautiful lodge?
“I always felt like I was missing something in Manhattan,” he says as a squirrel runs across the path in front of us and races up a thick towering Douglas-Fir. “I always figured it was the mountains and wilderness, but… It was only when I arrived here, that I realized I was missing more.”
He’s thirty-six—I checked in the employee database—so, that can only mean one thing…
“You want children?”
He nods as he looks at me.
“A wife?”
He nods again.
I swallow hard with those intense blue eyes on me. My body tingles as I remember the erotic way his hand felt against my ass. The rest of my body starts craving those hands too.
“Do you long for anything else?” I ask.
He suddenly stops and my feet stop along with him. We’re standing under the tall trees with the sun shining down on us and reflecting on the white snow. My heart pounds a little harder as he reaches out and takes my hand. I let him.
“Yes,” he says in a smooth calm voice. “I long for it to be with you. It has to be you.”
I swallow hard as this gorgeous man stares at me. My head goes all light, my chest all fluttery. I lock my knees so they don’t wobble.
My brain isn’t working as sharply as it normally does while I stare at his beautiful face. Did he just say he wants to marry me?
“I like you,” he says as he leans in. I suck in a breath and hold it as he comes closer. “I like you a lot.”
I don’t know what it is, but I’m feeling like I can’t live without this man either. It feels like my soul has found its other half and I don’t know what to do about it.
He’s my boss. We just met. I’m trying to be professional and have a career here, and all of a sudden, I’m bending over in the basement so he can spank me and now I’m leaning in so he can kiss me? What is happening?
He leans in for a kiss and I just say ‘fuck it’ and lean in too. I want it badly, so why fight it?
I moan as our lips connect in a warm spine-tingling kiss. He wraps his big strong arms around me and I whimper when I feel his strength holding me against his hard body. I slide my arms under his and hold him as tightly as he’s holding me while I part my lips and taste his mouth.