Page 7 of Summer with the Mountain Man (Mountain Man Summer #16)
Chapter Seven
Riley
Have I fallen into an alternate dimension?
Maybe I fell asleep on the bus to Hartley Ridge, and I’m existing in some kind of wonderfully torturous dream where I’ve never been happier?
A dream where a man like Luca—wonderful and strong and kind and funny—keeps looking at me like I’m the most precious thing in his world.
This can’t be real, right? Surely it’s impossible to fall in love so quickly. It hasn’t even been a day. And yet the clenching of my heart and the quickening of my breath every time Luca looks at me…
I’m in love with him.
Oh, boy. This is not what I’d planned.
“What are you going to do with your degree?” he says as we sit together on the banks of the lake under a massive gum tree that shades us from the sun.
I’m nestled between his legs with my back to his chest, and the muscular strength of his body is stirring a craving in me I’m not sure I’ll ever sate.
Even now, I want to strip our clothes off, straddle his hips, and impale myself on his very impressive cock again.
Instead, I trail my fingertips over the back of his hand where it rests loosely over my left breast, and close my eyes. “I’ve had a couple of offers back home,” I say. The thought of not being here with Luca twists a knot in my stomach. “But I’m not sure about them.”
“Headhunted by tech bros?” he asks, a shallowness to his chuckle.
“Something like that.” I shake my head, wanting to lose myself in the waves of contentment rolling over me. “None of them were appealing enough for me to cancel my trip here, though.”
“Or to make you want to go back?”
“No,” I reply. “Why would I ever want to leave here?”
His heart thumps against the back of my head, and I bite back a curse. I’m getting carried away. Losing myself in a fantasy life with Luca is one thing, but giving voice to it? He’ll think I’m crazy.
Turning and twisting onto my knees between his legs, I grin at him. “With all the killer spiders and snakes and Vegemite, how could I even think of leaving?”
He rolls his eyes and snorts. “You hurt my little Aussie heart, Riley Diaz.”
Yeah, I’m never going to get tired of hearing him say my name.
Riley Cormack sounds nice, as well.
Oh, for Pete’s sake, mind, shut up!
Dropping back onto my butt, I settle back between his legs again. He draws lazy patterns along the line of my collarbone with his fingers, the gentle tickle beading my nipples.
I gaze out at the day, tracking the path of a bird—maybe an eagle?—as it glides high over the lake’s still surface. It didn’t take long for the heat to dry our skin and hair, but there’s a breeze that wafts over us from the water from time to time, bringing with it a cool kiss.
Perhaps I didn’t fall asleep or into an alternate dimension? Perhaps I died, and this is Heaven?
“So any family back home?” His question rumbles against my head.
“An older sister I rarely speak to,” I reply. “And Mom and Dad, but they moved to Florida and are enjoying the retiree life.”
“So people really do that?” He chuckles. “I thought that might be just something TV and movies make up?”
“What about you?” I twist my head enough to look up at him. Damn, he’s a good-looking man. “Family? Apart from your brother?”
A stillness falls over him. “No. Mum and Dad are both gone. Dad when we were both young—he was a cop and was killed on the job—and Mum to breast cancer last year. I…” He pauses.
“I was engaged three years ago, but my fiancée was killed in a car accident that…” Another pause. A shaky breath falls from him.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” I say, covering his hand with mine. My heart squeezes for him. I thought my family life was harrowing, what with our different political opinions. To lose almost everyone, including the person you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with…
See? His heart’s off-limits, Diaz. The last thing he needs is you going all OTT on his ass.
“Nah,” he murmurs, his fingers resuming their gentle caresses on my skin.
“It’s all good. For some reason, it doesn’t hurt as much telling you about it.
The accident almost killed me as well. I’ve had a lot of physical therapy in Sydney, and have only just returned to the Ridge.
Needed to come home to mend.” He lets out another ragged breath.
“I’m a little broken. But I’m getting better. Especially since I met you.”
How do I not open up my chest and give him my heart? How do I walk away from him after this?
Getting back onto my knees, I place my hands on his shoulders and gaze into his eyes. “Luca,” I whisper. “If it helps, I will try Vegemite again.”
He throws back his head and laughs, snagging my waist with his hands and pulling us both back to the ground.
I kiss him.
Because I have to. Like I have to breathe.
But the knot in my stomach, the one that had twisted tightly on the word fiancée , tightens more.
If I don’t get control over my heart, am I just setting myself up for heartache again?