Page 10 of Devoured By the Forbidden Mountain Man

Rex rested his forearms on the table. “I don’t like a file that ends without making sense.”

I glanced toward the office building beyond the dark window. “That statement would be more impressive if I hadn’t seen your expense desk.”

His smile arrived slowly. “The recovery file was organized.”

I laughed, and the tension around Gavin’s name eased enough for me to breathe normally again.

We kept talking until the bottle had dropped below half, neither of us drinking quickly. Rex explained what he could reasonably check the next day without making promises about what we would find. Meredith might still be in Idaho. She might have moved. Current public information could give us a starting point, and then we could decide whether contacting her made sense.

The restraint in his approach kept me from building a theory too quickly.

By the time he closed the folder, the question had changed shape.

Meredith Stokes was no longer a random witness name buried in an old file. She was someone Gavin had worried about before the night his life collapsed.

That was all we knew.

For tonight, it was enough.

I began gathering the plates, but Rex stood and took two of them before I could stack them.

“You cooked. I’ll clean.”

“I can help.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”

We carried everything into the kitchen together.

Rex rinsed while I loaded the dishwasher. The ordinary work settled us into another easy rhythm, although the awareness between us hadn’t disappeared with the conversation about Gavin. If anything, the long evening had made it harder to dismiss.

I accepted the final wineglass from him.

Our hands met around the stem, and this time neither of us immediately moved.

I looked up at Rex standing close enough that I could see the individual strands of silver in his beard and the faint crease beside one eye. The kitchen had gone quiet except for rain against the windows and the low hum of the refrigerator.

His hand settled at my waist.

He did it slowly enough that I had every opportunity to step back, but I stayed exactly where I was.

The warmth of his palm came through the thin fabric of my top, and heat spread low through me. I set the wineglass safely on the counter behind me because I no longer trusted myself to keep holding it.

Rex moved closer until the space between us narrowed to almost nothing.

I lifted my face.

He started the kiss, and I closed the remaining distance.

His mouth was warm and firm against mine, controlled for the first few seconds before the kiss deepened. I caught the front of his henley in one hand and felt his other palm settle at my hip as he drew me closer.

The difference in our size became impossible to ignore, and so did how much I liked it. I slid my hand up the side of his neck. His beard rasped pleasantly against my skin when I changed the angle of the kiss, and my breath shortened as his grip tightened just enough to hold me securely against him.

A soft sound escaped me as Rex eased back until our mouths separated, though he didn’t remove his hands. I was still holding his shirt while we looked at each other and waited for our breathing to slow.

I could have kissed him again, and judging from the fact that he hadn’t stepped away, the option remained very much available.

Instead I smiled. “Tomorrow just became more interesting. We found a seven-year-old question and made my employment situation considerably less simple in the same day.”