Chapter 14 Hunter
HUNTER
Christmas morning snow had covered the earth once again. Icicles hung from the porch roof, and snowflakes clung to the windows. But inside the cabin, everything still smelled like cinnamon, cedar, and her.
Sierra stands barefoot in my small kitchen, wearing one of my flannels—hers now, officially—while stirring something warm on the stove. Music plays softly in the background, and her hair is tied up with a red ribbon she’d pulled from who knows where.
I watch her from the doorway, arms crossed, and a smile on my lips.
She turns and catches me staring. “That look better mean you’re impressed by my soup skills.”
“It means I’m trying to figure out how the hell I survived without this.”
She smirks. “This as in the soup?”
“This,” I say, walking up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist, “as in you.”
She leans back into me and lets out a contented sigh. “Smooth, Mountain Man.”
“Honest.”
She tilts her head to kiss my jaw. “You’re getting soft.”
I press my hips into her ass. “Nothing soft about that.”
“Incorrigible.”
“You love it. Is that ribbon in your hair how I unwrap my present?”
“Food first.”
We poured bowls and ate curled up on the couch, our feet tangled under a blanket. Eventually, the bowls emptied; we set them on the floor, and her head found its way to my shoulder.
“You good out here with me? For real?”
“As long as you’re here, I’m great.”
“Good,” she says, crawling across my lap. “Because I kind of fell in love with this cabin.”
I raise a brow. “Just the cabin?”
She looks around, pretending to think. “Maybe the guy in it, too.”
“Yeah? Maybe you should tell him.”
She leans in and kisses me, then pulls back slightly, her eyes locked on mine. “I love you, Hunter. I loved you the night you said it, but I knew you needed to hear it differently.”
“How so?”
She traces her fingers along my hairline. “If I’d just repeated it after you said it, you’d never know how much I mean it. Because I do. I love everything about you.”
I intertwine my fingers with hers. “Merry Christmas, snow princess.”
Thank you so much for reading UNWRAPPING THE MOUNTAIN MAN.