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"No problem. Look. I've been talking your ear off—

"No." It hasn't felt like that at all.

"We brought you here so you'd be safe. So you could rest."

"You rescued me from a creaky, cold, dark house and fed me stew and gave me a room. You're doing a pretty great job."

"We're trying." He flashes me that same smile that used to make my heart melt back when we were in middle school. He looks around the room. "You have everything you need?"

I nod. I remember the layout of this big, rambling house well enough from our childhood. "Bathroom's still around the corner?"

"Yup, though be careful. You're sharing it with Adam and Sergio."

Oh, Jesus. A hundred dirty fantasies flash through my mind. Them walking in on me in the shower, me catching one of them drying off, skin slick with water, muscled chest exposed, and their cocks…

I slam the door shut on that particular branch of thought. "Got it. I'll make sure to knock."

"Okay. Just. Make yourself at home, okay?"

"I'll try." I have a feeling that conversation we're going to have tomorrow about me staying here is going to be fraught, but for now, I don't have the energy to fight it.

"Good."

With that, he turns to leave. There's something about the way he's framed in the door. I'm usually so distracted by his face that I can forget what his body looks like these days. But as he turns away, all I can see is the silhouette of him against the light spilling in from the hallway. His shoulders seem to take up thewhole doorframe. His waist is trim, his thighs muscular, and his ass…

Well.

I lick my lips. His name escapes before I can call it back. "Cayden…"

"Yeah?"

What was I even going to ask?Stay with me? Kiss me?

Do you ever wonder what might have happened between us if I had stayed on Lonely Peak?

I'm not brave enough to ask any of those things. What if he rejects me? I was never really in his class back in the day. I strongly doubt that I am now. I'm a high school art teacher, and he's a veteran, a hardened mountain man, working the old lumber mill of the Tucker property. I'm only here for a couple of months.

I've been discarded before. Rejected and thrown away with little more than a laugh.

But I'm not thinking of that. For a moment, all I can think about is tonight, and what it would be like if he pressed me down into this bed. Kissed me hard and stripped me down and pushed inside.

"Haley?"

The fantasy disintegrates. I meet the warm blue of his eyes, and they're guileless—not clouded by the same fog of wanting I've been wandering through all day.

I shake my head. "Nothing. Just." I cast about for some reason—any reason why I would have called him back. I'm pretty sure I can figure out where the towels are, and like I just said. There's really nothing else I need.

And maybe that's the key.

"Just—thanks," I finally manage to stammer out. "For everything."

"You're welcome, Haley. Anytime. Always." And maybe there's that hint of heat I was searching for a second ago, only now it's too late

I give a weak, appreciative smile. The next thing I know, he's closing the door behind him, and I'm alone in this room.

I flop backward on the bed, grab a pillow and hold it over my mouth. I stifle a scream in it.

What the hell am I doing?