He didn’t want to see anyone hurt.
When the women had given hugs to all and left, he found himself standing with his brothers and Janna. It was awkward. He cleared his throat.
“I guess I’m going to get Janna settled in for the night.”
“Right,” Riley joked. “Settled in.”
Ryder let out a low growl and rose to full height to face his brother. Riley put up his hands in surrender. “All right, all right. We can take a hint. We know when we aren’t wanted. Come on, Ryan, let’s go drink our woes away at the lodge bar.”
Ryan nodded but paused to put a hand on Ryder’s shoulder as he passed.
Ryder looked to him, waiting for what he wanted to say. Janna was still looking out to where the Jeep was pulling away, and when Ryan seemed assured she wasn’t listening, he leaned in to whisper in Ryder’s ear.
“She’s a good one,” he said quietly. “I like her.”
Ryder blinked. That was high praise from Ryan, a quiet, sensitive type who tended not to give opinions very often. “Thanks, bro.”
Ryan nodded and jogged after Riley, who was already prowling toward the bar, probably looking for any single ladies on the way.
He took a step forward and put an arm around Janna’s waist, pulling her against him. She turned in his arms and looked up at him. Damn, she seemed small compared to him. Small and precious.
But she was a woman. Capable, smart, and strong. If she chose him, it would only be because she wanted to.
“We don’t have to do anything tonight,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel pressured.”
Her eyes blinked up at him and her jaw tilted stubbornly. “What makes you think I feel pressured?”
“You seemed nervous that your friends were leaving. But if you were worried I’d suddenly come on to you, you shouldn’t have.”
“Ha!” she said, putting her hands on his chest, warming the skin there. “I was hoping you’d come on to me.”
His groin tightened at that and he bit his lip against a groan.
“Honestly,” she said. “The only thing worrying me is how little control I seem to have around you. My rational mind just flies out the window. I want you so badly I can barely walk.”
He tilted his head and looked down at her, and a slow smile curled the corners of his lips. “I can carry you.”
She reached her arms up toward him. “Yes, please.”
He grinned and swept her up in his arms, not caring who saw as he carried his mate bridal style out of the lodge and to the cabin they shared.
It was going to be a good night.
12
They were already pulling at each other’s clothes as they fell in the cabin door together after Ryder set Janna down. She pulled at his suit coat, which was tight across his wide shoulders.
He looked so freaking good in that suit, but she had a feeling he’d look better without it. His dark hair was combed back and swept off his forehead, and his handsome features were tensed and focused as he reached around her with a growl and unzipped her dress.
She laughed. “Take off my coat first!”
He growled. Literally growled. “I have to taste you.”
She dropped her arms and let her coat slide to the floor and then grabbed at his coat again until he mumbled a curse and shrugged out of it for her. His tailored white dress shirt was taut across his chest and he fumbled with the buttons as his mouth claimed hers.
Her dress was barely hanging on, and when he finished unbuttoning his shirt and shrugged out of it, leaving him only in an undershirt, he swept his hands over her shoulders and down her waist, smoothing the dress off her body until it let go and pooled on the ground in a puddle of black silk.
She growled and reached up on her toes, trying to wrap her arms around his neck, and he caught her up and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Damn, she felt tall up here, perched above his long legs, her soft thighs enjoying the taut feel of his rippling abs. He held her up with one strong hand and pulled off his undershirt with the other, leaving her warm belly pressed to his searing hot skin. He felt literally on fire, but in a good way.
His hand cupped her ass, thumb playing with the waistband of her panties, and she sighed as his other hand moved to hold her back so he could lean forward and press a kiss to the side of her neck. She gasped as he nipped the skin there and turned around and walked her back into the door they’d just entered through. There were no open windows in the cabin. They’d shut them all before leaving so they didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them.
It was just them alone, a man and a woman ensconced together with wilderness all around, the snowy mountains a distant witness to their lovemaking.