Page 71 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

His shoulders tense, his massive pecs rock hard, his jaw working as he stares me down. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I take another step toward him until I’m so close I can smell the sunshine in his hair and that clean sweat smell emanating from him that makes me think of only one thing: sex.

I shiver.

Good God, this man could always turn me into a quivering mess.

“Why do you want to go to the river?”

I suck in a long, deep, fortifying breath, knowing he isn’t going to like what I’m about to say. “I need to know if being there will jog my memory. If I see anything there that might, I don’t know, match these flashes that I’ve been having.”

“Are any of them the river?”

I shake my head, running my hands through my hair. “No, but they’re coming more often now. Longer flashes. More vivid images.”

“Still no specifics?”

“Fire. Something that sounds like thunder or a gunshot. Running, carrying something. The sound of metal dragging or clanging against something. It’s all just…” I squeeze my eyes closed, pressing my fingers into my temples. The all-too-familiar throb that always comes with mining my mind for the memories returns full force. “It’s all just so jumbled in this dark haze.”

He closes the distance between us, capturing my cheek in his rough palm and tilting my chin up with his thumb. “Do you really think going up there would help?”

I open my eyes to meet his that watch me so intently. “I do. I have to do something other than sit around here all day or hang out with Raven while she works. I need to do something active, something that might actually make a difference, otherwise I might just…”

Lose myself.

Because that’s what it feels like.

I didn’t just lose a year; I lost part of what makes me me. Until this mystery is solved, I can’t move forward, and Killian has proven we can’t go back.

This is limbo.

That strange state of hanging between worlds—the old and the new. The past and the future.

I blow out a long, heavy breath, unable to explain it to him when I don’t even understand it myself at times.

The calloused pad of this thumb scrapes across my jaw. “Okay.”

That was too easy.

I expected some sort of objection or even an argument from him. “Really?”

He nods. “If this is what you think you need.”

It isn’t just about me.

That may be the way he sees it, but this is about far more than just my missing memories. This affects him. His future. His life.

“You need it, too. You can’t keep ignoring work, ignoring the business, to run off to the mountain to solve this mystery.”

The corners of his lips curl up into a smirk. “I’m the boss. I can do whatever I want.”

That draws a half smile from me. “But all your employees depend on you. It’s not fair to take you away from them.”

He snorts. “Believe me, Connor and Liam are enjoying having their chance to boss people around while I’m not there.”

I chuckle. “Liam would never.”

“You’re right, it’s mostly Connor, but they have everything well in hand. I’m not needed there.”