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Because when he wasn’t looking at me as if he wanted to pick me up and tuck me into his side and carry me off to his cabin, I was conspiring on new ways to get him to do just that.

Or when he was warning any man who came within ten feet of me away with a look, I imagined he’d honed while in the service. If I was a smart woman, I’d fear that look. Especially since it was now directed at me.

But today, being smart was at the bottom of a very long list. Today, I was determined to get him to kiss me or spank me. Either would serve me well.

I’d often jumped before I looked in life and now would be no different. Here goes nothing.

“So, how much longer before you finish slinging mud? I mean, it looks great and all, but it’s not like you’re painting a masterpiece. It's just walls. Maybe I can—” I left Lauren to moon over her husband and walked over to Lars.

“No! Touch nothing. It’ll be done today.” Lars wore protective eye wear, low slung work pants, and waffle stompers, and a camo tank top that outlined every dip and rise in his powerful chest. My gaze ate him up as it dawned on me he actually spoke over five words in a row. Sure, they were underlined in frustration. What else was new? But I think I was finally getting to him.

My gaze strayed to his beefy arms, which were splattered with dried “mud” and suddenly all I could envision was his burly, hard body, naked in a hot shower, covered in suds, surrounded by steam. And he’d need a good scrub brush to get clean.

I wanted to be the one wielding that brush all over those mammoth shoulders and heavily muscled, sun-kissed arms. And my daydream didn’t end there. But his throat clearing did. Knocked me right back into the moment and his frowny face that I somehow had fallen in love with in a matter of weeks.

There must be something about the mountain air. Crisp and woodsy. Then there were the sunsets overlooking the valley below toward the city of Pineville, which stretched all the way to the Kokanee River, had become my second favorite view. This place was set up for romance, almost as if it’d been scripted for a Hallmark movie complete with the town grump who only needed the love of a good woman to turn his frown upside down. And I’d fallen for all of it.

“Dylan!” Lars barked out my name and it set off his dog, Pepper Jack, aka PJ, into a fit of howls. Shortly after Lars rescued the ten-year-old Newfoundland, the dog had gotten ahold of a block of pepper jack cheese. The poor thing had been sick all that night. Anything with spice was not a canine’s friend, and Lars, in a rare bout of humor, renamed the Newfie after the cheese.

And now, both of their loud and unexpected reactions had me rethinking my decision to push him into revealing his feelings for me. Had I built this whole back-and-forth thing between us into something it wasn’t? Dammit, I hated second guessing myself.

Yet, since I took this job and witnessed what my sister had discovered up here on the mountain, experiencing the same connection she’d found with West, and this had become my new priority.

Because, dammit, she was right. Love rarely made sense, and it didn’t happen on a preconceived timeline.

But how much deeper was Iwilling to go to find out if Lars wanted me as much as I wanted him?

TWO

LARS

“What?”Dylan shot back. “I’m really at a loss here. You blow hot then cold more often than my great-granny Davis when I was a kid. Lauren and I had to visit her when we spent time with our dad and she was full on menopausal for a good ten years. Well, I don’t have ten years to figure you out, mister.” Dylan slammed her fists on her tempting and perfectly flared hips and all the spit dried up in my mouth.

Dylan was a handful. Enough to drive a sane man to drink. If I thought making an offering to the Norse gods of my ancestral homeland to spare me from my near constant state of sexual arousal and frustration whenever she was in the same room as me, I would. But like Loki, she was wily. And too damn tempting. And so out of my league I can’t let myself think she was attracted to me.

Locked in a stare down, everyone else in the room faded away. And for once, she kept silent as I tried to win the battle raging within me to grab her and kiss her senseless. And what in the hell did she mean by not having ten years? Why did her words always seem to have another meaning?

I’d been debating why she paid me so much attention. Because Dylan teased everyone. She was kind. And friendly. But she seemed to go out of her way to make me…irritated. Which turned into a case of major sexual frustration and kept me awake half the damn night. Morning showers had become increasingly colder since she arrived at the lodge.

Why couldn’t she have been someone just looking for a temporary gig? She’d settled into our little family-slash-tribe as if she were made for me. Er, it, us…shit. And now her sister was married to one of my closest friends. So, even if she didn’t stay in the job much longer, she’d always have a connection here. And I’m not sure I could handle seeing her with another man. Why some guy hadn’t locked her down already was a mystery.

Dylan and Lauren were twins, fraternal. Something I was thankful for everyday, since that meant I wasn’t lusting after a carbon copy of West’s wife Lauren. And I’d been lusting. Internally. I did my best to not let her see how she affected me. Dylan was so far out of my league. Under normal circumstances, our paths would never have crossed, even in a town the size of Pineville.

But she was here, and I had to deal. I’ll be the first to admit, I hadn’t been doing a very good job of it. I’d become more closed off than usual. Damn, why’d she have to be so, so perfect? Dylan was taller than her sister. The top of her head came to my shoulders where with most of the women I’d been with had been much shorter. And I really liked that she was just the right height to pull her flush against me, all her curves lining up just so.

She was leaner than her petite and curvy sister, but all her curves were just right for me. I’d spent hours imagining what her full breasts looked like. Would they be rosy tipped or a deeper red? Either way, I’d gladly spend hours worshiping those often-pebbled peaks.

Then there was her outfits. She wore clothes that flattered her form yet did nothing to hide her very sensitive nipples that, no matter the situation, were always tempting me as they pressed seductively against the silks and linen blouses she preferred. Yeah, I may be a bit obsessed with those firm globes no matter what she wore.

And now here I was trying my best to keep my eyes from straying below her lovely neck and figure out how to handle the feisty guest services manager who may or may not be open to what I had in mind for her, if I were to make a move.Which I wasn’t, unless she made it crystal clear that’s what she wanted. Dylan had been riding my ass all morning over finishing the texturing in the apartment. West, Ridge and I had built it as an addition over my wood shop. It was for whomever filled the manager position so they could live on-site. I’d been in charge of hiring, but after months of wavering, the decision was taken out of my hands when Lauren had offered it to Dylan.

She hadn’t been an applicant, but she’d stepped in and become the perfect fit. For the position, not my sanity.

“Well? Nothing to say. Not even a grunt?” Dylan’s eyes were still blazing, and all I could focus on was would she have the response when I was diving between her thighs making her scream?

Did she realize how glorious she looked standing there, daring me with her chin lifted in the air?

“I’m thinking.” And I was. I’d given Dylan more thought than when I’d joined the Army. More brain power than when West asked me to move to Idaho and help him create his vision. Now our vision. And certainly more thought than I’d given another woman. Ever.