I smile down into my stew. “I was trying to be modest. Besides—and I hope you’ll forgive my lack of manners—but between those leggings, that sweater, and the noises you make when you eat something good…you’re the living definition of sexy.” I bite my tongue to refrain from adding I’d like to eat her something good. Just the thought of her in my mouth causes my cock to stiffen to an almost painful level. I’ll bet this cabin and my store she’s sweet as fruit and just as juicy.
Stephanie presses her fingers to her mouth. “I’ve been told I should lose weight.”
I stop with my spoon halfway to my lips. “By fucking who?” It comes out angrier than I intended, but, shit. That’s bullshit. She’s walking perfection.
She shrugs her brows, stirring her stew. “Take a wild guess.”
I already know, of course, but I can’t help the rage that rushes through me. “He’s clearly a stupid son of a bitch. Had the most beautiful woman in the world and let her go? Stupid as fuck. Lucky for m—”
Stephanie snaps her head up, eyes bright.
“Some man who will cherish you,” I finish. Whoa. Where’s all this possessiveness coming from? I hardly know this woman.
And yet…the pull I feel toward her beats strong in my heart. It’s undeniable.
I want her.
5
Stephanie
I don’t think I’ve ever blushed as much in my life as I have during one meal with Asher Hillsong. His compliments have been outrageous, but they echo sincerity. He’s not bullshitting me when he says I’m the most beautiful woman in the world. I know in the bottom of my soul he believes what he’s saying.
I’ve never been complimented like this before. It’s scary and wonderful and makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
Like I don’t deserve it.
Fuck that.
I gaze at Asher across the table. If he thinks I’m the most beautiful woman in the world, he’s a shoo-in for sexiest man alive, and damn what People magazine has to say about it. His blue eyes are dark but clear and piercing, and even under his scruff of beard, I can see his jaw clench as he tenses it.
Suddenly, it feels like the temperature has shot up to a hundred degrees in this cabin.
Asher slowly rises from the table and stands at my side. “Finished?” His voice is brushed velvet, and it makes me want to shudder. I nod. He takes my bowl and carries it to the kitchen. When he returns, he heads to the fireplace against the back wall of the cabin and throws some logs on, then strikes a match. It’s a real fireplace, not an electrical one, and when the cheery blaze is going strong, he turns off the lights, gesturing out the window.
“I like to sit by the fire with the lights off when it snows,” he says. “There’s something hypnotizing about watching the snow fall, and I often lose myself in my thoughts.”
I want to lose myself in you.
I press my thighs together at the rush of tingles that erupt between them.
He sits on the sofa that faces the big picture window, then glances over at me. “You’re welcome to join me.”
I smirk, rising from the chair. “Is this the part where you tell me you won’t bite?”
He mirrors my smirk. “Only if that’s what you want to hear.”
“Hmm.” I fold my arms as I cross the room to the sofa, then sit a safe distance from him. Two cushions between us. “Are you in the habit of telling women what you think they want to hear?”
Asher glances away. “No. I much prefer the truth. But that hasn’t gotten me very far, and it sure as shit hasn’t done me any favors.”
I scoot one cushion closer. “It got you away from a toxic person, didn’t it? Just like it did in my case.”
He sighs, studying me out of the corners of his eyes, tilting his temple against one finger. “He didn’t deserve you, you know. I hope to God you know that. And maybe I don’t have the right to say that to you, since we just met. But fuck that. Honesty.”
I smile. “I appreciate that more than you know. You’re right. He didn’t deserve me. And it sounds like she didn’t deserve you, either.”
He heaves another sigh, and at the sound, Sadie comes padding over to rest her head on his knee. Pure adoration glows in her big browns as she gazes up at him, and he rubs her ear lovingly in return. It’s a sweet, silent moment full of love that actually makes my eyes burn a little. Their bond transcends words.
“We were together for a few years,” he says in a low voice, lifting his eyes from Sadie’s to the snow as it practically pours from the sky. “Met in undergrad. She was a city girl, I’ve always been a small-town boy, a mountain man, at heart.” He lifts his shoulders. “My grandfather left me the hardware store. I thought I could have a nice little life, make her my wife, have a couple of kids, run the store. She told me she wanted the same things. If she’d ever said otherwise, I would’ve never pressured her to move here.”
He sounds sad, but not in a way that makes me think he misses her. He sounds sad about the entre situation, that either one of them had gone through what they had.
“Did you ever think about moving to the city?” I ask.
“Sure. I would’ve gone, found a good halfway point between these two places. I’d drive an hour to run the shop each day if it meant I could be near the mountains, make sure his cabin and his store were taken care of. I’m not an unreasonable man. I believe in some instances you can have your cake and eat it too. But I have to know the truth—there’s that honesty thing again.” He shakes his head. “She wasn’t honest. And then the lies snowballed until I found out the hard way she’d been seeing someone else for a while before we officially called it quits.”
I nod slowly. “Sounds like our relationships ended in similar ways.”
“I’m sorry,” he says softly.
“Me too.”
“You miss him?”
“Hell no,” I say with quiet vehemence. “Do you miss her?”
“Hell no,” he says, and we laugh. After a moment he adds, “There are things I miss about being in a relationship that have nothing to do with her, though.”
“Like what?” I scooch one cushion closer until we’re sitting on side-by-side cushions.
He angles his body toward me but leans back into the corner of the couch. “I miss taking care of someone. Cooking for a woman after a long day. Rubbing her shoulders. Little things like changing the light bulb in her reading lamp before she asks. Bringing her a cup of coffee in bed every morning. Watching movies and holding her close. Killing spiders, even.”
I shiver a little. Do men actually treat women like this? “You shouldn’t kill spiders,” is what my brain makes me say. “They’re very important for the ecosystem. You should take them outside.”
He grins at me. “Goddamn, you’re adorable. All right. I’ll take them outside.”
I clear my throat, embarrassed. “So all the things you miss about relationships is doing things for your lady? No selfish needs at all, huh?”
He gives me a slow, wicked smile. It’s the only thing on him that moves, besides his eyes, which travel down my body. “No. I have selfish needs. I am a man, after all.” He leans toward me. “I haven’t been with anyone since Beth left. I shut myself off from the world. And then when I came back to the world again, I just wanted to be alone. I had nothing left to give any woman.” He eyes me. “I’m starting to reconsider that.”