Page 19 of The Mountain Man's Mail-Order Mafia Princess

“I accept.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She watched the road Cade had taken. “My father’s people verified your business and property. They must’ve assumed the digital acceptance was enough.”

“Did anyone speak to me?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t involved in the review.”

Her family had arranged the placement, and her father controlled the driver who’d left her at my cabin. Whatever else sat behind those facts belonged to her until she chose to tell me.

I carried the folder inside and set it beside her handbag.

“We should leave,” I said. “You’ll have service in town, and you can decide what happens next.”

Talia caught the hem of the shirt she’d borrowed from me.

I turned before she pulled it over her head.

“You’ve already seen the top,” she said behind me.

“That doesn’t mean you invited me to watch.”

A pause followed.

“No,” she said more quietly. “It doesn’t.”

The bathroom door closed a moment later.

I stood at the sink and drank the rest of my water, my grip tight on the glass while I pictured her beneath my shirt.

***

Talia came out in the same leopard-print cropped top and black skirt she’d worn the day before. Her curls fell around her shoulders, her makeup had been restored with whatever she carried in that handbag, and the heels remained completely wrong for every surface between the cabin and Promise Ridge.

I locked the house and opened the passenger door of my truck.

Talia studied the height of the step.

“I can manage,” she said.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”

“You’re waiting.”

“I’m holding the door.”

She put one hand on the frame and lifted her foot. The narrow heel slipped against the metal step.

I held out my hand.

She glanced at my hand, then at me. “Taking help doesn’t make this a rescue.”

“It gets you into the truck.”

“That’s what I meant.”