Vivian Arend - Rocky Mountain Desire

“You don’t need to—” His brother’s expression made it clear it was time to stop protesting. “Fine. Pay me. I’m always in need of extra cash to spoil my nephews with.”

“Or maybe to spend on that new girl in your future.”

Matt rose to his feet and gathered his weather gear. “Don’t say that as if it’s a given thing, me and Hope. You know there’s always the chance she’s going to shoot down this idea. Just because…”

The memory of her kissing him senseless drove the words right out of his mouth. There was something combustive between them.

Daniel burst out laughing. “And I’m glad you stopped that bull, because I’d be sorry to have to end such a fine visit by rubbing your face in the snow for being a stupid shit.”

“Who’s the stupid shit? Talking to me when you’ve got a naked woman sitting in your bathtub?”

Daniel thumped him on the back then pushed him out the door. “You’re so right. Now leave.”

The love of family carried Matt all the way to his truck and kept him warm as he adjusted the heaters and cranked everything to high. Now he only needed to do one more thing.

He put through the call while waiting at the first set of lights.

“Matt?” Anxiety tinged Hope’s voice and he hurried to reassure her.

“Hey. I’m sorry for… Well, I’m not sorry for kissing you.”

Her light chuckle reassured him more than a rapid absolution would have. “I seem to remember I kissed you, Matt Coleman.”

“How about we say we kissed each other and make it square?”

She laughed louder. “Is this another built-in guy thing? Like the remote-control gene?”

“What you talking about?”

“Needing to receive credit for initiating the attack.”

Maybe. “Yeah, well, I’ll give you total credit for kicking my butt in your own unique way.” He paused. “You’re right. You were right—I would have left your apartment and spent the night moping and getting smashed.”

“You sound sober. My therapy worked?”

Holy shit, yeah. “Worked a little too well, I think.”

There was a creaking sound in the background, then the music kicked up—this time delicate flutes tickling his ear. “How can me kissing you work too well?” she asked.

“I want to do it again.”

Dead silence.

“Hope?”

She sighed. “Honest? I want to do it again as well. But that’s probably not the best idea.”

“Because I went out with Helen?” He hadn’t expected her to have the same concerns he did. Matt turned onto the secondary road that led toward his trailer.

“Went out? Matt, you asked her to marry you. Yeah. Sticking with being friends would be much easier.”

“But friends don’t kiss.”

She huffed into the receiver. “Nope.”

“And I want to kiss you, Hope. I want to touch you, this time without fighting to keep my hands off private places. I want to taste your soft skin and feel—”

“Jesus, Matt, you trying to drive me crazy?”

He was making himself crazy, his body reacting to the thought of what he was describing. “But I also want to help you finish that quilt, and maybe make a few more things for your shop.”

The line went silent for the longest time. Matt worried she might have hung up on him. When she did speak, it was quiet. Even. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I guess, in a way I don’t know either. I’m going out of town for a week, but when I get back, is it okay…I mean, would you mind if I gave you a call?”

“Wait…”

Matt clung to the wheel with two hands, wondering what was up. Praying he wasn’t going to get ditched before he made a real move. Shit, thirty years old and still fumbling with the girls. He needed lessons from his younger brothers or something.

“You have to wait until I open my present before I’ll answer you.” Paper crinkled in the background.

It took a moment before he remembered placing the gift against the wall when he arrived unannounced that afternoon. “You didn’t open it yet?”

“I was waiting, because… Well, when I give a gift I like to be there while the person opens it. But I don’t think you should come back tonight, so I’m breaking my rule this once. Hang on. What the heck did you use to seal this thing?”

“There was no invisible tape left at my place, so I used packing tape.”

She laughed, the sound light and happy like a million sparkling stars. “Duct tape forever.”

“You bet.”

Paper crackled in the background for a minute then her soft voice returned. “A quilt hanger. It’s very pretty, Matt. Thank you.”

He resisted offering to come over right away and put it up. “So, can I call you when I get back?”

“Matt…”

Waiting was killing him. He was back to being fifteen years old and wondering if the girl he liked would—and he didn’t want to think about that. About the memories of waiting for her sister. Those he needed to scrub from his brain. Instead, he thought about Hope’s rosy-red cheeks when he’d opened the door that day, the surprise in her eyes that had shifted to something more.

He wasn’t going to beg, but as Daniel had pointed out, he didn’t usually do things halfway. “I’d like to spend time with you. No pressure. Just get together and enjoy each other’s company.”

“I’m not sleeping with you.”

Jesus. Instant hard-on. Probably the exact opposite of the reaction she’d been hoping for, but the images in his brain were all soft skin and luscious lips, skimpy seashells and sultry eyes—that nearly naked woman from last summer he remembered in far too great detail. “Okay…”

“I mean, oh fuck this.”

There were crazy noises going on in the background, and he struggled to figure out what the hell she was doing, especially after that announcement. “You okay?”

“No. To be perfectly honest, I’m not.”

The quiet calm he’d associated with her was noticeably absent from her voice.

She went on, picking up speed. “I spent the morning by myself feeling a touch blue before concocting the best make myself busy plan I could—pulling together a couple quilt tops for samples in the shop. Then this guy I’ve been trying hard to put out of my mind drops in out of nowhere, turning my relaxing afternoon into an exercise in sexual frustration.

“I’m a dozen kinds of worried about this idea, and yet I’m still thrilled. I’m sure that somewhere along the line I’m going to end up in tears, or you’re going to figure this was the worst idea of your life but frankly? I can’t even pay attention to the red flags waving frantically in my face because I really want to see you again.”

“Good—”

“No talking. If I don’t say this now, I’ll chicken out. So, yes, I will see you, but I’m not going to sleep with you. Because I really want to.”

“That makes—” He stopped himself. “Sorry, continue.”

Hope groaned. “You must think I’m a crazy woman. Maybe I should start rescuing stray cats or something. But I’m serious. I could have crawled into bed with you last summer without blinking an eye, but now I think that would be a huge mistake for us both. So I will see you if you can promise we’ll try to keep this out of the bedroom for a while.”

When she stopped he waited, making sure he wasn’t about to interrupt again. “May I talk now?”

Her loud burst of laughter made him smile. “I’m a bossier shit than you thought, aren’t I?”

“I don’t mind. Well, I do mind. I think it’s totally insane that you want us to keep this platonic. But you asked, so even though my balls are screaming nooo at the top of their lungs, I’ll agree to your terms. One month no sex? Two? Six?”

“Six? My Lord, if we last six days I’m going to be impressed.”

Him too. “Your idea is a good one for a bunch of reasons, though.”

“Ha, you say that now, but I bet we’re both going to be bitching about it in no time.”

Matt pulled up to his trailer and sat in the running vehicle. “Hope, my turn to be crude. I can find someone to fuck.”

“Jesus.”

“Well, it’s true. I don’t want to go out with you just because I can see us having a blast between the sheets. I want to try that friend thing as well, and having sex off the top could get in the way. So…although I can’t believe I’m saying this…fine. No sex.”

“Not until we say—I know, like a double-jeopardy thing. I have to say yes, and you, and then we can’t do it for twenty-four hours or something.”

She had to be kidding. “Don’t try to make rules, darling. If we decide it’s time, there ain’t going to be any double-signed papers or anything like that bullshit.”

“I could wear a chastity belt.”

“I can pick locks.”

She snorted. “Ha, you can not.”

“With my teeth.”

Matt was still laughing when he made it into his trailer. The fire had gone out, and he shuffled through the cold room to light it one-handed as he clutched the phone. “I’ll call you when I get back into town, you crazy woman.”

“Don’t leave it too long or you’ll find I’ve given your quilt space to the cats.”

Matt clicked off, a high-energy rumba on a saxophone echoing in his ears, and the most optimistic sensation in his heart—happier than he’d been in a long time.

Hope checked out the menu, but she was more interested in examining the restaurant. Matt had asked her to meet him at a new spot on the east side of town, an eclectic place that was somehow wildly appropriate as a location for them to begin this unusual relationship.

She sipped her water as she glanced around, the butterflies refusing to settle.

“Is this seat taken?”