“Got it at the house,” he clipped.
“From all the other women you’ve dragged up there?” she snapped, trying to level him with a glare.
He spared her one brief, disbelieving look. “Really, Mallory?”
She pushed a dripping lock of dark hair behind her ear. “Sorry,” she said, managing not to sound petulant or sarcastic.
And just like that, his fury was banked down, and he could breathe again. He was still stinging, and fear prickled at his heart, but at least he was rational once more. “We’re almost there,” he murmured softly.
She nodded once.
Hunter exhaled slowly and prayed there would be something to salvage after this.
They pulled up to the house, and Hunter found himself holding his breath as Mal saw it for the first time. She stared wide-eyed for a long moment, then looked at him with a raised brow. “Really?” she said with a hint of irony.
He tried not to smile. “What?”
She scoffed and propped her feet up on his dashboard, somehow having removed the muddied boots without him knowing. “It’s… little.”
He smirked. “Just the entrance. It’s built into the mountainside. You can’t really see the whole thing from this side. You need to see the back or the side. In fact, you probably already have.”
She looked at him, curious. “How’s that?”
He leaned his head back and listened to the rain hitting the truck for a moment. “Down on the shore, where the lodge is? Have you seen the house up high with the back wall of windows?”
“Yeah,” she replied slowly, almost sighing. “I’ve never lusted after a house before, but that one…” She trailed off, and her hand trembled as she put it on the armrest and turned to him. “Are you saying this is that house?”
He laughed and groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. “You lusted after my house? Oh, that’s just great…”
“Hunter,” Mal said in a strained voice, her body tense and practically coiled in her seat. “Can we go in?”
He rolled his head on the headrest to look at her. “You think I brought you up here to sit in my truck?”
She suddenly looked very small. “It would be the perfect punishment.”
He watched her for a moment, blinking slowly. “Well, I’m not the torture kind of guy, sweetie. So yeah, we’ll go in. And I’ll make you lunch, and then you can fall asleep on my couch in front of the fire. But there’s something I think you’ll want to do first.”
She looked wary but interested. “Oh yeah?”
He nodded slowly. “You’ll need your boots.”
She tucked her feet back in them, then looked at him again.
He hid a smile, the tension in his chest easing. They would be all right. “I don’t want to deprive you of your photographic opportunities, but you have to be safe. The outdoor fireplace is just down those stairs, and there is a perfect vantage point of the lake. Take what you need, and we’ll go in after that.”
Her mouth popped open with an audible sound. “Are you serious?” she squeaked.
“I am.”
She stared at him in awe. “Really?”
He laughed once. “We’re not going to get wetter than we already are. Yeah, go take your pictures, and if the weather clears while we’re up here, I’ll take you wherever you need to go for more of them. But only if it clears. Understood?”
She nodded so fast he thought he missed it, and then she was out of the truck, racing toward the stairs he had indicated.
He sighed and shook his head, then followed. The things he would do for this woman constantly amazed him—like driving around the resort in the middle of a torrential downpour, screaming at her like a deranged father, and hauling her up here as if she was grounded for life. For someone who was known for being cool and calm and controlled, he was having quite the emotional awakening. If he didn’t go completely insane because of her, it would be a miracle.
She tossed one hesitant smile back at him as he watched her, and his entire being lurched toward her helplessly. As he suspected he always would.