CHAPTER TWO
Max
The drive from town up to Lone Mountain Lodge was only twenty minutes, but with Frankie sitting in my passenger seat, it felt like crossing a damn continent.
The air was thick with her—vanilla, a hint of some floral shampoo, and that clean, intoxicating scent of a woman. I was half-afraid it would still be there weeks from now, driving me insane.
Every time I shifted gears, my knuckles brushed her thigh. She was wearing tight, dark jeans that hugged the soft curves of her legs.
And her mouth.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her mouth.
Soft and sweet one second, hungry the next. One kiss and the woman had nearly destroyed what little self-control I had left.
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel hard enough to make the leather creak.
Because if I let myself think too long about the way she’d melted against me back at the store, I was going to pull this truck onto the shoulder, drag her across the console, and find out whether she made those same breathless little sounds with my tongue buried deep in her mouth and my hands down those sinful jeans.
I’d spent months watching her from a distance.
Months.
Watching her laugh with customers. Watching her tuck that dark hair behind her ear. Watching her mouth get her into trouble every five damn minutes. Half the time, I wasn’t even listening to what she said because I was too busy imagining what that smart mouth would sound like saying my name in bed.
I wasn’t some lovesick kid with a crush.
I was a man who knew exactly what he wanted.
I wanted Frankie.
And after that kiss? All bets were off as to how long my patience would actually hold.
“You’re awfully quiet, Max.” Frankie’s voice broke the silence.
I cut a glance at her. She was chewing on her lower lip—the same lip I’d bruised with my own yesterday.
She looked nervous, her hands twisted in her lap, but there was a flush on her cheeks that told me she was thinking about the same thing I was.
That brought on a low, insistent throb behind my fly.
“Just thinking,” I rumbled.
“About how much you hate your cousin? Or about how much you want to throw Tiffany off a mountain?”
A smirk tugged at my mouth despite the tension. “Blood thirsty little devil, aren’t you?”
She shrugged, making the green blouse she was wearing slip a little bit off her shoulder. “If the shoe fits…”
“Well, that option is growing on me. But mostly I’m wondering if you realize what you walked into when you claimed to be mine.”
Mine.
I probably shouldn’t have liked saying that as much as I did.
“I have to warn you, most of my family — Leo’s side — are a pit full of vipers. And Leo is the biggest snake of the bunch.”
Frankie laughed and I realized I hadn’t heard nearly often enough.
“They can’t be that bad.”
My silence was my answer.
“I was just trying to help. Tiffany was being a judgmental ice queen and I seriously considered introducing her to the business end of a staple gun.”
That dragged a laugh out of me before I could stop it.
Damn. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made me laugh.
“And you thought pretending to date me was the smart solution?”
She winced. “In fairness, the side of my brain that’s a little crazy was driving at the time.”
“I noticed.”
She groaned and dropped her face into her hands. “Please don’t remind me. I basically assaulted you in front of your ex-girlfriend.”
“Frankie,” I said roughly, “if that was assault, I’d happily volunteer to be a victim again.”
Her head snapped toward me so fast I almost smiled.
Pink flooded her cheeks again.
Fuck, she was cute when she got flustered.
“Max,” she squeaked.
“Frankie.”
The tension stretched thick between us again.
I exhaled slowly and turned into the long circular drive leading to the lodge.
The truth was, I didn’t give a damn about Tiffany anymore.
Maybe I had once. Or maybe I’d just liked the idea of wanting someone polished and sophisticated because that was what men like me were supposed to want.
But Tiffany had never looked at me and seen a man. She’d seen power. Land. Money. The Wilder name. Leo was worse. My cousin had spent his entire life trying to take whatever belonged to me simply because he couldn’t stand the fact that our grandfather trusted me more.
He wanted the company without the work. The money without the sacrifice. The respect without earning it.
And now he wanted the woman who used to warm my bed because somewhere deep down, Leo still thought beating me meant taking things from me.
The idiot still didn’t understand there was a reason Tiffany chose him in the end.
She wanted someone she could control, and she’d found out soon enough that was never going to be me.
Beside me, Frankie looked out the windshield. “I just don’t want to let you down.”
Oh, if only she knew. “You couldn’t,” I said quietly, truthfully.
Because somewhere between her smart mouth and those dangerous curves and the way she’d thrown herself into my corner yesterday without hesitation…
Frankie had become the only thing that mattered.
The lodge was a masterpiece of glass and cedar, perched at the top of the mountain overlooking the valley.
It was the kind of place my family loved — expensive, exclusive, and pretentious as hell.
It suited Leo and Tiffany perfectly. All polished wood, expensive wine, and people pretending to enjoy tiny portions of food.
I handed the keys to the valet and grabbed our bags.
I kept one hand firmly on the small of Frankie’s back as we walked into the lobby.
Partly for show. Mostly because I liked touching her too damn much already.
I felt her shiver under my touch, her body leaning into mine almost instinctively.
Like her body already knew mine belonged next to it.
Check-in was a blur of forced smiles and congratulations from staff who knew the Wilder name. The lobby was filled with the sounds of ice clinking in glasses and the high-itched laughter of people I’d spent my life avoiding.
“The suite is ready for you, Mr. Wilder. When you’re ready, you’re to go to the trailhead for the Welcome Challenge.
You have about twenty minutes before the first event starts.
” She handed me the key and a small cream colored card.
I glanced down at it. It had a list of wedding activities that would take place.
Leave it to Tiffany and Leo to make this into a big production.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the card and key and steering Frankie toward the elevators.
I could feel her looking at me, her eyes tracking the line of my jaw. My groin tightened, a sharp, insistent ache that made me want to hit the emergency stop button and pin her against the wall and see if she’d make those soft little gasping sounds she’d made when I’d kissed her.
Exiting the elevator, I led her down the hallway to the end suite. I swiped the card and pushed the door open, stepping back to let her enter first. The room was massive. Vaulted ceilings, a stone fireplace, and a view that stretched for miles.
And one bed.
It sat in the center of the room like a challenge — a sprawling, plush king-sized mattress draped in white silk.
No couch. No daybed. Just a sea of pillows and a lot of potential for trouble.
I wanted to strip her bare and see how she looked against those white sheets, but I forced myself to stay still.
Frankie stopped dead in the middle of the room. “Oh.”
I closed the door behind us with a solid thud.
Frankie turned around, her eyes wide and dark. She looked shy, flustered, and so damn kissable I had to shove my hands into my pockets to keep from grabbing her.
She turned in a slow circle, clearly inventorying every surface for a possible second sleeping option. Her gaze landed on the two leather armchairs. Then the window seat — decorative, maybe three feet long. Her shoulders dropped slightly with each failed option.
“Maybe there’s another room available?” Her voice climbed half an octave. “I could check at the desk. Tell them there was a mix-up with the reservation—”
“The lodge is booked solid for the wedding.”
“Right. Of course it is.” She chewed her bottom lip, eyes darting around again. “Okay, what about a rollaway bed? Hotels have those, right? They could bring one up—”
“Frankie.”
“Or I could sleep on the floor. I’ve done it before. Camping. Well, not actual camping, but I slept on an air mattress once at my cousin’s house and honestly it wasn’t that different from—”
“Frankie.” I stepped closer, watching the pulse hammer at the base of her throat.
“I’m just saying, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. This whole weekend... and I... and there’s only one bed, Max. One. That’s not a lot of beds. In fact, it’s the minimum number of beds, and we’re two people, so mathematically—”
“Are you done?”
She swallowed hard. “Maybe?”
I closed the distance between us, my hands settling on her shoulders. “There are no rollaways. There are no other rooms. And neither of us are sleeping on the floor.” I leaned down, my face inches from hers. “We share the bed. Unless you’re afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands off me.”
“What? I’m, I’m not afraid of that,” she shot back, lifting that cute little chin.
“Really?” I decided I’d teased her enough. I let my hands slide down her arms before stepping back. “Then let’s go. We’ve got family to annoy.”