Page 7 of Don’t Make Me Fall (Mountain Men of Cinnamon Creek #1)

Chapter Seven

Alanna

A full body shiver keeps me from drifting all the way off to sleep. For the first time since we arrived in Cinnamon Creek, I’m irritated that I’m not in a tropical climate. I could be sleeping in a cushy hotel bed with a warm, Caribbean breeze softly fluttering my curtains.

But no.

Instead, I’m freezing my ass off inside a one-man tent on the top of a mountain in Montana. We extinguished the fire over an hour ago, when it was clear neither of us could stay awake to watch it. At least, I thought I was too tired.

Now, I’m just wide the fuck awake and frozen to the bone inside this borrowed sleeping bag that smells too much like the man who loaned it to me.

I’m still pissed at Hudson—which is why he’s wrapped in a sleeping bag outside said tent. Let him fight off the mountain lion should it come lurking.

But really, if I’m being honest, I’m mostly mad at myself.

I’m mad that I was ever na?ve enough to fall for a man like Tyler Duncan.

While Hudson hiked back down to the truck earlier to retrieve his overnight pack, I opted to stay at the summit.

I yearned to watch the sunset in peace. I was so caught up in the beauty of it that I forgot to snap a single picture.

It was everything I needed it to be. In that moment, I felt hope that everything would turn out all right.

Then my phone pinged with the sound reserved for Tyler’s emails, shattering the blissful moment, and I stupidly checked it.

The jerk had the audacity to ask if I’d help plan the wedding.

I lost it.

In a flash of rage, I chucked my phone over the side of the mountain.

What a fucking mess.

I’m a fucking mess.

A tear rolls down my cheek, then another.

Another full body shiver reminds me that I opted for the thinner sleeping bag since I had the cover of the tent to ward off the worst of the chill.

“Hudson?” I whisper shout as I push away the tears with the back of my hand. “Hudson, you awake?”

“Cold, sweetheart?” The way he calls me sweetheart sounds like an insult.

I still don’t understand why he’s so pissed about the Tyler thing.

He doesn’t know anything about the situation.

Hell, he hardly knows me. But earlier, when he asked about him, there was a blaze of furry in those intensely dark eyes.

As though he wanted to ring Tyler’s neck.

What should’ve startled me turned me on more than I want to admit.

“I know you’re cold too.”

“I’ve slept in worse conditions.”

Considering he and Reid served in the Special Forces together, I have no reason to doubt his statement. In fact, it only makes me more curious about him. “Will you tell me about it?”

“About what?”

“Your time in the military.”

“You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”

“Fine,” I relent.

“Who’s Tyler?” he repeats his earlier question, and though I can’t see his eyes from inside the tent, his tone hints at the same jealousy I witnessed earlier. Or perhaps, it’s…protectiveness. The thought makes me shiver yet again, but this time, I’m warmer for it.

“Move your ass into the tent, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

There’s a lot of shuffling outside, then the zipper’s on the door is yanked down. Hudson hovers in the doorway, a shit-eating grin on his face I can only see because of the flashlight he holds against his chest. “If you want my body heat, sweetheart, you don’t have to beg.”

“Shut up.”

“Not a chance.”

I pretend to be irritated, but secretly, I’m thrilled.

The electric kiss from earlier has been on replay in my overactive mind, and I’ve been desperate to touch this man ever since.

Inside the tent, it’s such a tight fit that I can’t imagine Hudson fitting comfortably by himself.

Yet, somehow, we’ve managed to sandwich two of us inside it now.

Our sleeping bags are side-by-side, the outer edges butted up against the tent sides, as we both lay flat on our backs.

The heat of him radiates against my side, warming me instantly.

He’s the fire I’ve been craving since I was stupid enough to cast him out of the tent.

“Tyler Duncan is my boss,” I finally say.

“And?”

It’s slightly terrifying how perceptive this man is, but his tone says it all. He knows it’s not that simple. He seems to know me better in the few hours we’ve spent together than Tyler ever did in the two years I worked for him.

“And I’ve had this stupid crush on him that’s gone exactly nowhere considering he’s marrying Cindy from accounting.

” Bitterness coats my words, but the sting is less…

stingy. Maybe that has something to do with the way making out with Hudson earlier made my entire body come alive in a way that a single chaste kiss with Tyler never did.

“So naturally you threw your phone off the top of a mountain?” Hudson asks, his curious tone a light tease.

“I threw my phone off the mountain because the pompous jerk asked me to help plan the wedding after months of leading me to believe there was something between us. He failed to mention he was even dating anyone else, let alone someone in the office. And I know how I sound.”

“How do you sound?”

“Pathetic. Stupid. Hopeless. So fucking na?ve.”

“You’re none of those things, Alanna.”

“You don’t know me very well then.”

“Maybe not. But I’m a good judge of character. And I’d bet the lodge that you are the exact opposite of the things you just described.”

“Nice how you’d bet something that doesn’t belong to you,” I tease, hoping to deflect.

“But it does.”

I lift up on my elbow and look at him. The soft glow of a nearly full moon casts his face in a gentle glow. “Explain this to me.”

“I bought the lodge, with Reid and Mason. All three of us own it.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that. So why are you doing hiking tours?”

“I’m more of a silent partner. And because I hate being cooped up.”

“Have you always been that way?”

“Yeah, I suppose I have.”

“Why did you get out of the Army?” I ask.

He looks away, out through the thin screen that’s allowing in the moonlight.

“I showed you mine.”

He looks back at me, his dark eyes dropping to my chest.

“Don’t be twelve,” I tease him, swatting at his chest. But my own gaze drops to his lips, and I seem unable to move it.

“If you’re going to kiss me again, I want to make sure it’s me you’re kissing.”

“You think I’m in love with Tyler?”

“Are you?”

I lay back down on my back and let out a heavy exhale. Tears prick the corners of my eyes unexpectedly, and I fight to keep them in place. “I thought I was.”

“The sex was great then?” he guesses, though I hear the bitter undertone to his voice.

“Sex? What sex? The man only ever kissed me once. And let me tell you, after what happened on the mountain top earlier, I’m pretty sure kissing Tyler was like kissing my brother in comparison.”

Shit.

Did I just confess all that?

Out loud?

I did.

Keep talking. Maybe he’ll miss it.

“I spent a lot of late nights in the office working with Tyler. He seemed to care, but now that I look back at everything, he was just using me. He pretended to know me, but only as far as it would benefit him.”

“So quit.”

“You say that like it’s so easy.”

“It is. You tell him to fuck off, and you leave.”

“And what? Move to Montana?”

“I’ve heard worse ideas.”

Here in this cramped tent pitched on top of a mountain next to a man who’s capable of making my entire body melt with his lips and hands, the fantasy is easy to imagine.

Telling Tyler off would be so satisfying.

Watching mountain sunsets every night like the one I witnessed earlier would be a dream.

“But my whole life is in Nebraska.”

“Too bad.”

“Yeah.”

“Alanna?”

“Hmm?”

He lifts his arm over my head, dropping his hand to my shoulder, encouraging me to rest my head against his chest.

“We should get some sleep.”

I want to argue, but a yawn assaults me so hard my eyes water. With my body comfortably cuddled into his, I drift off to sleep in seconds.