Page 4 of Mountain Men Heroes
Whiskey eyes, warm and inviting, lured her in. She heard him say something but didn’t pay too much attention to it. Two dimples on either side of his cheeks sent a lightning bolt of lust to strike her square in the girly parts.
How crazy. She couldn’t help but feel safe. Drawn to the man she hadn’t laid eyes on in forever and a day.
She nodded. More than one thing hadn’t changed since she’d left the snowy picturesque landscape five years ago.
Gently he took her hand and hauled her up with a little too much force. She lost her balance and stumbled forward. Hands out, she clutched the nearest thing within reach. Wouldn’t you know it? Two well-formed pecs were right where her hands landed. She groaned and his eyes turned from whiskey to molten gold in a flash. The throaty growl made her want to taste his lips. All she had to do was lean a little closer...
Had his eyes always been so sexy? So bright?
“Esme,” Drake gruffly whispered like his nickname for her held all the magic in the world.
“Sorry.” Her breath caught. Did her fingers just flex? Oh, God. She yanked her betraying hands back and forced them to stay at her side. Why did she have to pack the one pair of pants that had no pockets!
“I hit my head.” She cringed inwardly. Let him know you’re off your rocker. Smooth.
She’d lost her damned mind.
Was it too unrealistic to ask for someone to light a match and blow the gas station? A squeaky groan slipped and she took a couple of steps toward her car. Mirth brightened his irises and the firm straight-faced man that played her guardian angel melted into the warm, smiling Drake Savage: the man she fell in love with when she was the sweet, innocent seventeen-year-old.
Drake Savage, the son of her father’s rival.
“Did your old man make it back with you?” Drake scanned their surroundings looking for a threat of some sort to pop out at him.
Her mind briefly drifted back to the boy barely older than her. In his awkward teenage years he’d been handsome, but never in a thousand years did she think he’d turn out to be so... gorgeous. So fucking gorgeous.
Not that he knew it from the way he wore the same bright smile and easygoing manner.
“Uh, no. You don’t need to worry. It’s just me.” From one foot to the other she shifted her weight and hoped he didn’t dig deeper. Even as a teenager, Drake had been bigger than the rest of his cousins. Now he towered over her a good half a foot, making her five-five stature feel petite.
Her knees trembled in time with her racing heart. Small lines creased the space between his eyes and her gaze roved over her very impressive mirage. Drake wasn’t the boy she remembered. He’d gained weight in all the right places. Once lanky arms and legs now robust with heavily defined muscles.
Finger-length sable hair brushed the collar of his shirt. It was longer than she remembered, but he still rocked out the mussed don’t-give-a-damn look, but in a sexy way. Longer strands swept down to brush either side of his face. Not too long, but enough to make her fingers twitch with the urge to touch. She had to admit the man oozed sex appeal without even trying.
Drake looked over her shoulder for the man who’d once cursed him and his people with every fiber of his being. “Sorry to hear that.”
She smiled politely, twisting her fingers into a knot to keep them to herself. She doubted it, but she appreciated the sentiment for her sake anyway. “I have to be going. I have a flight to catch. But it was really great seeing you.” Esmeralda bit the inside of her cheek at the lie. If she let him in on her real plans he’d try to stop her.
“Is that so, Esmeralda Morgan?” Drake closed the distance what little distance there was between them. Heat swallowed her up the closer he came and she loved it. Wanted more of him. Was it possible to fall in love at first sight for a second time?
He said her name in a slow drawl with just a hint of gravely inflection that coaxed memories from the deep well she hoped to have drowned them in. Apparently, they’d found a life raft and clung on like little pesky nuisances to come back and bite her in the ass when she least expected it. Because what else explained the way her veins flooded with an unsolicited amount of adrenaline as Drake tangled her fingers with his?
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Her face warmed as his eyes came alive. Tingles brushed along her skin as if she didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. Steel bands wrapped around her and pulled her deeper until her body flushed against his. One muscle at a time relaxed into his hold. He knotted the length of her ponytail around his hand and angled her lips upward. As that one action held her spellbound, her core warmed and the walls of her pussy pulsed with the memory of what it felt like to have him taking all of her. His nostrils flared and the gold specks in his eyes danced.
“Carebear, is that you?”
Drake groaned.
He looked down at her. “This isn’t over.” Voice was thick with emotion but rang with a level of certainty she felt hard-pressed not to ignore.
He took a half a pace back and with him the delicious heat he emitted. Unable to break the connection any more than she was, he tightened his fingers around hers.
The look in his gaze connected as if invisible magic twined them together. Her nipples pebbled in the soft confines of her bra at the sinful promise. She pressed her lips together and swallowed.
“It is you! Damn, Drake why didn’t you tell me guests were coming?”
Oh God, she couldn’t handle two Savage boys at once. A big diesel rig pulled up behind her. So tied up in the moment she failed to hear the arrival of Drake’s brother.