Page 40

I step closer slowly, lowering my voice. “Nobody touches what’s under my protection.”

Her pulse jumps visibly in her throat. “That sounds possessive.”

“It is.”

The honesty hits her hard.

I can see it.

Feel it.

“And that doesn’t concern you?” she asks quietly.

I look down at her mouth briefly before meeting her eyes again.

“No.”

That answer should probably concern me too.

Instead, all I can think about is how good she looked standing beside me while the entire town understood exactly what she was becoming to me.

A problem.

Mine.

And I’m starting to realize I like that a little too much.

Chapter Seven

Nora

The cabin feels different after town.

Quieter.

Not because Rhett suddenly stopped being impossible. If anything, he’s worse now, moving around the kitchen like he owns the air inside it, broad shoulders filling the small space while snow falls harder outside the windows again.

No, what changed is me.

Because I can still see the look on his face when that man touched me in the store.

Cold.

Instant.

Violent.

Not reckless violence either. Controlled. Focused. The kind that sits under the skin waiting for permission.

And somehow that’s worse.

“You’re staring again,” Rhett says without turning around from the stove.

I lean against the counter, crossing my arms. “You keep saying that like it’s illegal.”

“It’s distracting.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t look so aggressively mountain-man all the time.”