Mountain Boss: Mountain Men Series Book One
Mountain Boss: Chapter 100

My legs are dry, having been out of the hot tub long enough, so it’s easy to pull my thin sleep pants on. My underwear still feels damp, but I’ll take those off as soon as I get back to my cabin.

Sterling struggles a bit to get himself tucked away, making me smile all over again.

Palms on my cheeks.

Lips against mine.

My smile fades, just a bit.

His reaction to my laugh was so… heartbreaking.

He looked so… surprised.

And not just surprised. Completely caught off guard.

Like he’d witnessed a rainbow in the middle of a blizzard.

I swallow, fighting down the urge to go to him. To smile at him again.

Sterling has been a gruff man since day one.

A hard man to get along with.

A closed-off man.

And I always just attributed it to his nature.

That he was just like that.

But…

I swallow again.

Maybe he wasn’t always that way.

Sterling looks up at me, his mouth half turned up. And it’s like he’s a whole different person than the one I know.

His half smile starts to slip.

And it’s my turn to close the distance between us.

His eyes heat.

He reaches for me as I place my hands on his bare chest.

His muscles tense under my touch, and I witness a full-mouth smile on Sterling’s handsome face as he jolts.

“Your hands are fucking freezing.”

I automatically start to pull them away, but his palm against the back of my neck holds me in place.

“Warm me up with another kiss,” he demands, his lips an inch from mine. “Then go to bed before I take more.”

I’m tempted to tell him he can take as much as he wants. But something stops me.

Something in my chest that tells me not to rush this.

That there’s no need to rush this.

That, please, gods, don’t let me ruin everything by rushing this.

The hand on my neck flexes as I close my eyes and push up onto my tiptoes.

Sterling moans against my lips.

And I feel his other hand drag down the length of my braid.

I open.

He takes.

We’re making up for the lack of kissing last time. And his taste is familiar to me now.

Familiar and addicting.

We pull back at the same time.

My fingertips drag down his bare skin, feeling the rough chest hair that I fantasized about touching after seeing him that very first time. When his flannel was undone and his body was on display.

I slide my hands down to his sides.

I want to move them around to his back.

I want to hug him.

But I take a step back.

Not tonight.

Not when I need to hurry away.

My hands drop away from his body. “Good night, Sterling.”

His fingers release my braid. “Sweet dreams, Courtney.”

Scooping up the rest of my clothes, I slip my feet into my shower sandals.

I take the few steps off Sterling’s back deck to the ground, and when I’m about to enter the woods, I look back.

Sterling is still there.

Shirtless in the moonlight.

Watching me.

And with a sense of safety I’m not used to, I step into the dark.