Entwined by Melissa F. Miller

Author:Melissa F. Miller [Miller, Melissa F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940759760
Publisher: Brown Street Books

11

As the sun struggled up over the mountains, Jake paused to watch. He was four miles into a quick five-mile run. The frost crunched under his feet as he came to a stop. His bare arms and legs protested the sunrise observation. Shorts and a tee shirt were hardly the traditional choice for a mid-December run in the Shenandoah Valley. But Jake took his obligations to his clients, himself, and, now, Chelsea seriously. A man who could be defeated by the weather was a poor excuse for a protector.

So he did his winter runs in summer clothes and his summer runs in ski clothes. He took ice baths and saunas. Hot and cold were nothing more than temporary conditions.

The sun peeked up over the purple peak, and he took a moment to fix the sight in his mind before continuing on the loop that led him back to his cabin and the woman he loved. Weather conditions might be temporary, but his feelings for Chelsea were enduring. His hand wandered to his shorts pocket and felt around for the sterling silver ring in its velvet pouch.

He’d considered giving it to her last night—after they made love for the third time, sprawled out on the soft chocolate-colored blanket in front of the crackling fire. But something had stopped him. Not uncertainty. He was sure of his feelings.

But Chelsea had changed. She wasn’t a girl. She was a woman. And twenty-year-old Chelsea might have loved a simple silver band that he’d bought from an aging hippie at a farmer’s market with a view of the sea. Would thirty-year-old Chelsea think he wasn’t serious?

As his feet pounded against the snowy terrain, his mind wandered to the glittering rock that Trent had slipped onto Olivia’s left hand. And Marielle’s vintage jewels. Leilah’s blinding diamond everything. How could he give the woman he loved anything less? He closed his fist around the ring pouch. After his morning meetings, he’d drive into DC and find a jeweler who’d have a ring worthy of Chelsea.

That decision settled, he quickened his pace. In part, to keep to his standard seven-minute mile. And in part, because the image of Chelsea, tousled and sleepy, had him straining against his gym shorts. If he sped it up, he might have time to show her just how much he cared before hitting the shower. He sprinted up the hill to the cabin with Chelsea fixed firmly in mind.

But when he stood in the doorway to his bedroom and gazed at her sleeping form, he didn’t have the heart to wake her. She looked like a pink-cheeked cherub with her cascading golden hair and her kiss-bruised lips. He crept through the bedroom and into his bathroom.

After a short but hot shower, he was toweling off his hair when the door creaked open and she materialized through the steam.

“Morning,” she rasped in a husky voice. “I brought you a coffee for a change.”

She placed it on the vanity. He wrapped the towel around his midsection and reached for the mug.

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