Snowed Inn with the Mountain Man: A Holiday Instalove Romance by Gia Bailey

Author:Gia Bailey [Bailey, Gia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Rosie

Hunger woke me. Specifically, the loudest, most embarrassing hunger pains anyone had ever heard, woke me.

I jerked awake, looking around wildly for the source of the sound, before realizing it was me. In my defense, I was more the six small meals a day kind of woman, not the eat breakfast on the plane, drive for hours, and then eat nothing but trail mix and jerky with water to wash it down six hours later.

The fire was low, and a chill was in the air. The silence was that strange kind of thick, heavy absence of sound that snow brings. I shifted and felt Bran’s hand fall from my waist. I was still leaning against his wide chest, and I have to admit, it was the best smelling pillow I’d ever had. He smelled like forests and woodsmoke, and clean male spice. I wanted to burrow in there and never move, but alas, my stomach had other plans.

I sat up slowly and shifted off the couch. As I stood, my leg muscles protested madly. It had been a good long while since I’d worked as much as I had today, with all the carrying, walking in snow and ice, and wandering around the inn, not to mention breaking chairs and kneeling by the fire.

I turned to take in Bran’s face again in the firelight. Behind him, his shadow mirrored his posture against the wall, and I thought of his brother. William. I’d never had guessed that a guy that looked as at home in the wilds as Bran did, hadn’t been born and bred here. Still, he had taken the beliefs of his brother, and held them dear, changed his whole life and priorities right there, and that was a kind of brave I could barely imagine.

I thought of my path, the one laid before me by my mother. Fancy finishing school and a showy, pretty useless degree, and now I was interning eternally at various high profile, prestigious art galleries, which really translated as getting on the phone and digging through my mother’s contact list to scrounge up donors and sponsors. What the galleries wanted me for was my connections, not even mine, actually, my mother’s. It was a depressing thought, but nothing I hadn’t already known. Would I ever be brave enough? Would I ever stop feeling useless and unnecessary in the depths of my heart?

I got up, feeling not only hunger now, but nature calling. I grabbed a candle and made my way out of the room. The hall was cold, very cold. Shadows danced around the candle, throwing specters against the walls, and making me jump. Christ, I was scared. Somewhere in the building, a banging noise startled me, making me yelp. I thought I was adult enough to go to the bathroom alone, but now I was out in the hall, my courage was deserting me. A noise like a scratching sound caught my attention, and broke the last fragile strand of courage I had, and sent me spinning around.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.