He offered her a hand—which she took—and they walked out of the hotel into the hot evening. He opened the passenger door of a truck that had her stopping in her tracks.

“This isn’t your new truck,” she said.

“Sold it. Bought this instead.”

It was still a nice truck, but it’d been around the block a few years. She turned to him. “Why?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t Cedar Ridge.”

“And this truck is?” she asked, knowing damn well she was stalling with the small talk, but also knowing there was something she was missing here.

“Yes,” he said.

That’s when it came to her. Just about everyone knew that the Cedar Ridge Resort was in financial trouble and had a big balloon payment due this year.

Jacob was trying to do his share.

For some reason it was this act of loyalty, combined with the way he’d waded through the shitstorm of her life and temporarily rescued her from it, that had her eyes filling. “Dammit.” She wasn’t going to cry. She was absolutely not going to cry.

Ever.

Jacob silently helped her up into his truck, leaned over her and buckled her in. Still bent over her, one hand on the console, the other on the headrest of her seat so that his forearm brushed the side of her neck, he looked at her.

Really looked.

“I’m okay,” she whispered. Or she would be.

“Yeah, you are,” he said. “But you just had a bitch fight with your ex and probably lost your job. It’s okay to need a minute. Or ten.”

“You lost your friend and you didn’t need a minute.”

“Babe, I’m still taking a minute. And I’m not even close to being done taking it either.”

She paused and then set her hands on him. She could feel the heat and strength of him beneath his T-shirt. The quiet, steady thump of his heart was incredibly soothing. Her hands slid over him a little, making themselves at home.

“Soph.”

Not wanting to talk, not wanting to think, she went after what she did want. To lose herself in the only man she’d ever actively craved more than air. Wanting him to crave her back, to want to lose himself in her with the same intense longing, she turned to face him. Straining against the seat belt, she slid her mouth up the side of his throat.

He smelled good, so good that she had to taste. So she did, running just the tip of her tongue along the same path, smiling against him when he swore roughly, his fingers tightening on her as he shivered.

“Soph,” he said again, voice low now and also a whole lot husky. “We’re in a parking lot.”

He was big and strong, and yet she never felt overwhelmed by him. No, scratch that. She did feel plenty overwhelmed—by his innate maleness, by the testosterone and pheromones that rolled off him in waves, by how much he cared for her. But it was the very best kind of overwhelmed. Pretending that her entire life wasn’t in the toilet—again, or maybe the better word was still—she pulled him in as close as she could get him.

She both felt and heard the low rumble of his groan. It made every part of her react, and she couldn’t hold back. She nipped at his sexy throat, and when he groaned again, she pressed her lips to the spot.

Lose yourself in me. Let me lose myself in you…

As if he could read her thoughts, his hands tightened on her, one sliding between the seat and her back, sinking low to cup her ass, his other hand fisting in her hair to hold her mouth for his kiss.

Chapter 22

Jacob pulled back first, not wanting to make Sophie the center of any more attention than necessary. He was gratified to see she’d lost the temper and nerves in her eyes, which had been replaced by a sensual daze that raised the beast in him.

Shaking it off took a shocking amount of effort, but he did just that. He walked around the truck, got behind the wheel, and pulled out of the lot.

They didn’t speak, but the silence was easy now. Comfortable. And he realized it was always that way with her. He could relax with her in a way he couldn’t with anyone else.

He wondered at the potential fallout from today. Not for himself. He couldn’t care less about that. In fact, he and his siblings had had several business meetings with Lucas this week. He’d found him to be exactly the same guy he’d known in school—excellent at his job if not exactly a stellar human being.

But today business hadn’t come into it. In fact, Lucas had barely acknowledged him at all. That was good, leaving the business out of it, because Jacob planned to do the same when he paid Lucas a visit.

He parked in front of his cabin and turned to Sophie.