Page 7 of Coveted By The Bear (When Worlds Collide #1)

“ T hat was just delicious,” I said, patting my stomach and standing to clear the table.

“I got it. You sit with your coffee,” Miles said gently.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep. You are always doing for other people, Hope. Let me do this for you,” he replied, and his smile made my knees weak.

Good thing I was already sitting. How many times in my life had someone noticed something like that about me?

I sipped my coffee and watched as miles made quick work of taking care of our leftovers and dirty plates and utensils.

He’d cooked a perfect London broil that looked big enough to feed ten people. But it was so good, there was hardly a slice left, truth be told.

With it, he made broccoli and pasta with garlic, grated cheese, and crushed red pepper and a salad with just arugula and fennel sliced thing. He dressed it with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice, and the result was fantastic.

Then he finished the meal with a couple of fresh apple turnovers from the Bear Claw Bakery and fresh brewed coffee, which he actually let me make after practically barring me from the kitchen.

Thoughtful, sexy man.

“Hey, you wanna see the rest of the property?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t given him a proper tour.

“I’d love that,” he replied, those crystal clear blue eyes of his zeroed in on me.

I nodded and moved to unlock the back door, and Miles followed. He was so close, I could smell the soap still clinging to his skin.

God, he was gorgeous. And he smelled good. Real good.

Usually, I wasn’t so hyperaware of men. Especially men who looked like him. I mean, I was always the girl most likely to be friend zoned. Always the one who reminded a guy of their little sister or cousin. A shoulder to cry on.

And I accepted that for a while. Accepted that I was never going to be the love interest.

I watched my friends from high school and college all fall in love and find their person. And I wanted that, too. Maybe that’s why I settled.

But this was my life. My story. And maybe it was okay for me to want something for myself.

For me to want him.

“This is the yard,” I murmured, Miles hot on my heels.

I frowned as I took it in through his eyes. I mean, this was my childhood home, but I had plans for it. I was just busy and broke.

“What’s this here?” he asked, eyeing a stack of lumber half hidden beneath a dark green tarp.

“Oh, that. Well, you might have noticed, I work crazy hours, so I don’t really have the time I’d like to work on this place,” I began.

“Hey, you work hard, Hope. It’s okay to give yourself a break. Now, what’s all this wood for?”

“Thank you,” I said, surprised. “Um, I was going to build a deck back here so I could have a place to put a table and chair set. You know, one of the ones with an umbrella right in the middle? I love to grill, and my father built that one against the back fence when I was little. It still works, but I think it probably needs a good cleaning and some bricks have to be replaced,” I told him.

“Then over here, I want to have a couple of those low Adirondack chairs in a semicircle with a firepit in the middle so I could just sit outside at night and just enjoy the air.”

“That sounds real nice. Who would you sit with?” he asked, and when I turned, I realized he was all up in my space.

“I-I don’t know,” I replied, my voice hardly more than a hushed whisper.

My heart was galloping inside my chest. Miles was so close. So big. I could almost feel the warmth from his body against mine, but there was still too much space between us for that to be possible.

“I could almost see you right there. A mug of coffee in your hand, a big fuzzy blanket on your lap. It’s a lucky man who’d get to sit beside you,” he murmured.

“Oh yeah? You think so?” I replied with a snort.

“Oh, I know so,” he said, canting his head to look at me like he was trying to figure something out.

“Hmm.”

“What? You don’t believe me?” Miles asked, and sounded shocked.

“It’s not that. You just don’t have to say that to me,” I said, biting my lower lip and glancing up at him through my lashes.

“Why?”

I paused and closed my eyes. Shit. Why did I have to go there?

“Tell me why, Hope,” he said, and this time it wasn’t a question. It was a demand.

“Because good looking guys don’t say things like that to me. I mean, I’m just a regular girl. Nothing special.”

Miles’ eyebrows furrowed, and his irises seemed to glow. A rumbling sort of sound came from his chest, and I gasped as he reached for me.

Big hands clamped down on my waist, and he pulled me closer. His eyes were on mine the whole time, like he was waiting for me to protest.

But I didn’t. In fact, I liked the way it felt, having his hands on me. And I had to admit I was curious to see what he’d do next.

Would kissing Miles Orson be every bit as hot as I imagined it would be?

And yeah, I’d imagined alright. I’d imagined quite a lot.

“I know I’ve got no right to touch you, and if you want me to stop, just say the word. But I would have to kick my own ass if I let you keep on thinking things like that for even a second longer,” he growled, pulling me till my front was pressed against his.

“Miles,” I whimpered as he leaned down.

“Easy, I got you,” he whispered, then his lips were pressed to mine.

What started as something soft and gentle soon exploded into something decidedly not. A deep groan spilled from my lips as our tongues tangled and Miles’ hand clamped over the back of my neck.

“Fuck, you taste like apples,” he mumbled, his tongue diving back inside my mouth and I could only moan my response.

My knees went weak and were it not for the way he wrapped me up in his solid embrace, I had no doubt I’d be a puddle of please do me now at his feet.

His kiss was like nothing I’d ever experienced. It was like he was trying to memorize my taste. Like he was claiming his ownership with every stroke of his tongue.

My body hummed with desire. My nipples tightened beneath my clothes, and I pressed myself closer to his body, trying to relieve some of that tension.

“We have to stop,” he whispered, still kissing me.

“Why?” I asked, before I remembered good girls didn’t say things like that.

“Because you have work,” he replied, and just then my phone alarm chirped.

Fuck.

“Oh, yeah. Work.”

“Can I see you after?”

I blinked my eyes slowly coming down from the high that was making out with Miles. I felt achy, unsatisfied. But also completely dumbfounded.

He’d kissed me.

“Yeah. Sure,” I replied and stepped back, unsure of how to behave with him now.

“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t retreat like nothing happened, Hope, because this is just the beginning.”

Our gazes locked, and I saw truth and something else burning in his. I knew better than to trust someone so easily.

And no, I was not lying when I said men usually didn’t bother wasting pickup lines on me. I didn’t know how to play games. Even if I did, I wouldn’t.

I knew little to nothing about Miles Orson. But if this was a line, I was dangerously close to buying it.

Shit.

“I really hope you mean that, Miles.”

“I do. Text me when you get to work?”

“Why?”

“So, I know you got there safely,” he replied.

My mouth made a circle of surprise, and he grinned, dropping a kiss right smack on my lips.

“Go on,” he said, and I nodded.

I guess I was going to text him when I got there.