Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
By the time she had exited the Civic and grabbed her overnight bag out of the trunk, a familiar figure darkened the top of the stone steps leading up to two, French black doors. He stood there with an easy smile and his hands tucked loosely in his pockets as if he had all the time in the world while he waited for Gracen to make her way over.
“Hey, beautiful,” Malachi greeted.
Same as always, now.
Gracen smiled wide. “Hey, yourself. This place is really out here, huh?”
“Still got power,” he returned.
She laughed. “Barely. I’m pretty sure the power lines stop a kilometer or so up the road.”
“Yeah, it’s not far from here. Pretty much chip sealed roads all the way to the one-eighty, too.”
The mention of the rural highway connecting Mount Carlton to the Miramichi made Gracen shake her head.
“I won’t lie and say I miss driving on that road,” she said. If at all possible, she did her best to avoid traveling it.
Malachi shrugged. “Try it on a bike. That’s an ... experience.”
No thanks.
She could only imagine.
The steps of stone and mortar carried Gracen to where Malachi stood just beyond the doors. He was a hell of sight in red and black plaid, denim, and combat boots. Like he fit right there in the woods with an ax over his shoulder and woodland critters running around his feet. His short—and new—hairstyle, a wet-looking quiff only added to his appeal while he lingered in the only stream of light offered by the front of the lodge. Overhead, tall windows framed the lodge all the way up to the eave in the shape of triangles. The glow of the light inside haloed the two of them down below. Gracen peered upward to get the full effect of the lodge’s entrance looming above its guests, and Malachi did the same.
“Hell of a place, huh?”
“Private,” she agreed. “I almost missed the drive passing by, actually. If it weren’t for the telephone poles, I wouldn’t have thought there was anything down in here.”
“Can’t blame you there.”
He chuckled, and before Gracen could meet his lowered gaze from the sight up above, Malachi snagged her wrist in his grip. He tugged her forward, pulling her into his warm, hard chest for a hug that squeezed the last drops of breath from her lungs.
She didn’t mind.
She buried her face against his throat, so his chin rested on the top of her head while Gracen hugged him back as hard as he’d done to her. She only loosened up when he kissed the top of her head, and she thought of a couple of other places that were far better for his lips.
Like her own damn mouth.
“What about me?” Gracen asked, tipping her head back to stare into Malachi’s face.
He squinted one eye, unable to keep from grinning. “What about you, huh?”
Was he going to make her say it?
Is that what he wanted?
So be it.
“I’d like a proper kiss, too,” she whispered.
Malachi dropped a light kiss on the tip of Gracen’s nose, making her laugh. “There?”
“No.”
But it was good, too.
Sweet.
Malachi kissed her cheek, then, lingering at the very edge of her grinning lips. “Here?”
“You’re just teasing me, now.”
“Tell me you don’t like it,” he returned just as fast.
She couldn’t say anything, actually. Malachi made sure of that because his next kiss landed exactly where she wanted it. Perhaps the month of time that had gone by since she last seen this man did something beneficial for the both of them because the second his mouth was on hers, fireworks lit up inside Gracen’s body.
From head to toe.
The demanding sweep of his lips over hers, taking all she was willing to give, brought her to life. She’d not forgotten what his kiss felt like, of course. It was just the taste of him and the way he held her tight until the kiss was done that make her remember how much she’d missed him.
And maybe part of the reason why, too.
He let her step back from him, just far enough to gaze upward again at the high roof’s peak, but one of his hands stayed flat against her waist overtop her old high school hoodie. So old, in fact, that the graduation year and school logo in gold on the front had long since faded against the green cotton.
“Your boss really doesn’t mind me—”
“Chip’s already drunk and getting rowed down the river in a canoe.”
Gracen’s brow lifted high. “At this time of night?”
They were a lot closer to midnight than dinnertime, that was for sure. It couldn’t be too safe to boat on a river at night while drunk, not that she had a lot of personal experience in the topic. Gracen was a passable swimmer but not much more, so she didn’t actively seek out watersports of any kind.
“The river is the only reason he even had this place built,” Malachi replied. “Well, if you ask him. We won’t see him until noon tomorrow, probably. He can’t drink like he used to. It’ll take a bit for him to get up and going, I’m sure.”