Page 37 of Devoured By the Forbidden Mountain Man

Rex’s gaze moved over my face slowly enough that I felt the attention like touch. There was nothing uncertain in his expression, but he did not close the remaining space until I did. I rested my hands against his chest. His heartbeat was steady beneath my palm; mine was not.

“I have been trying to concentrate around you since before breakfast,” I said.

His hands settled fully at my waist, spanning the fitted knit of my dress.

“I noticed some concentration problems. You stared at me while I carried glassware.”

The memory of watching him move through the Lantern House warmed my face, but I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of admitting how little I had hidden. “I hid them extremely well. That could have been professional interest.”

Rex’s mouth curved.

I slid one hand up the back of his neck and drew him down to me.

The kiss erased the humor without erasing the ease.

His mouth met mine with the familiarity of something we had already learned we liked, but there was more heat beneath it tonight. He held me against him, one hand moving from my waist to the curve of my hip while I opened for him.

I tasted coffee and cider. His beard scraped lightly against my skin when I changed the angle, bringing back every heated second from the kitchen the night before.

Heat gathered low, deeper and more insistent than it had been in the Lantern House. I pressed closer until the hard length of his erection pushed against my stomach through his jeans.

Rex broke the kiss only far enough to breathe, his forehead resting briefly against mine. I could feel the restraint in the way his fingers tightened and then eased at my hip.

“If we keep going,” he said, his voice lower than before, “I’m not assuming you want anything beyond this.”

He waited for my answer with his hands steady at my waist.

I kissed him once, slower this time, then took his hand. “I know exactly what I want.”

His eyes held mine. I smiled and started toward the door. “You’re coming upstairs.” Rex followed.

The cold outside hit my heated face as soon as we stepped beneath the overhang. I laughed and hurried toward the stairs, still holding his hand. The metal railing was damp beneath my palm, and somewhere in the trees water fell in heavy drops long after the rain itself had stopped.

Rex came up behind me, and the size of him on the narrow stairway sent another rush of awareness through me.

At the top, I got the key into the lock on the first try, which felt like a personal achievement considering how hard he was making it to think.

The loft was warm and softly lit because I had left the bedside lamp on before Meredith’s call. My earlier cup of tea still sat forgotten near the kitchenette. The bed was neatly made, my green sweater folded over the chair where I had left it, and the few belongings I had unpacked made the little apartment look less anonymous than it had the night before.

I locked the door behind us. Rex remained near it while I slipped off my boots and peeled away the dark tights, leaving both beside the chair.

He looked around once, not because the loft was new to him but because this was the first time he had entered it as anything other than the man who owned the property. Then his attention returned to me, and I liked the way he looked at me.

There was no attempt at polite restraint now, only appreciation that traveled over the dress, my bare knees below the hem, and the curves the soft knit had been outlining all evening.

I stood and reached for the hem. Rex’s eyes came back to my face.

“Are you planning to watch from over there?”

His slow smile changed him. “Not for long.”

I pulled the dress upward, deliberately taking my time as the fabric skimmed over my hips and waist. When it cleared my head, my hair fell loose around my shoulders again.

I wore a black lace bra and matching panties beneath it.

Rex’s breath deepened. The reaction was subtle enough that another person might have missed it, but I had spent two days learning him and I did not. I dropped the dress across the chair.

“That was worth changing clothes for.”