He shared no further. Just bent to touch his mouth to mine, pulled out, rolled off, moving me with him so I ended up on top.

"You wanna clean up?" he asked when he got us in our new position, both his hands now at my head, fingers moving against my temples to dry the moisture there.

"Yeah," I said and it was croaky so I took a shuddering breath to get it together. "But I don't provide towels, only sheets. So I'm gonna have to go to the house to get a washcloth. And I also don't offer toilet paper, so I'll get some of that too."

His arms curved around me and tightened. "I'll go to the house."

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I'll grab some munchies and my phone charger, seeing as the resident badass has decreed we're spending the night in cabin eleven and my battery is low."

The grooves around his mouth deepened but his arms didn't loosen.

"I'll get food and your charger too."

"It's okay, Deacon."

"Did I say you're naked in this bed for the rest of the day?"

I suppressed a smile and replied, "Yes."

"So who's goin' to the house?"

The smile broke through. "You."

He gave me another squeeze on his, "Yeah. Me."

I bent my head to kiss him lightly then lifted it, muttering inanely, "Rethinking my decision to provide towels."

"Don't. Unnecessary hassle for you."

That quick, firm advice got him a grin.

That grin faded when I informed him, "Just so you know, gotta keep my phone close, honey, just in case one of my customers needs me."

He tilted his head slightly on the pillow and asked, "That happen a lot?"

I shrugged, lifting a hand so I could stroke his jaw with my thumb, mostly because I couldn't stop myself from touching him, and gleefully because I didn't have to try. "Currently, don't have any demanding renters. But it's not unusual."

"And those demands are?" he prompted when I gave no detail.

I settled more fully on him and shared, "Well, usually it's when they don't read the terms and conditions and think there are towels, toilet paper, daily maid service, laundry onsite, crap like that. And that only happens when they first get here and find out that stuff isn't provided." My eyes wandered to the pillow and I went on, "Though, next up for Glacier Lily, gonna build an outbuilding and have a coin-op washer and dryer so I don't have to deal with that part. When that's done, I'll build my gazebo."

"Gazebo?' he asked and I looked back at him.

"Last big dream for Glacier Lily. A big gazebo by the river with chairs in it for folks to sit, relax, drink in the view."

"Can you afford that?"

"I'm gonna refinance the property," I answered. "Roll the second mortgage in with money to pay back my dad and-"

I said no more because I found myself suddenly and surprisingly on my back with Deacon looming over me.

"You haven't paid back your dad?"

I felt my brows drawing together, remembering I'd told him about that but confused as to why he had a dark look on his face all of a sudden. "No. He won't accept installments and-"

"And you got a loan from the bank?"

"Well, yeah, Deacon," I replied. "All the work I did on the cabins cost some cake."

"And you got a loan from the bank to pay for it."

I stared at him and repeated slowly, "Well...yeah."

"Woman, don't do that again."

This was quick and firm too, it was also surprising.

"Why?"

"Banks suck."

"Perhaps," I allowed. "But they're a necessary evil. And anyway, I didn't promise them my firstborn child," I pointed out.

Again, Deacon wasn't in the mood for teasing or banter.

"Cassidy, listen to me, the economy was in the toilet for years. So bad, every time I came here, did it uneasy, hopin' you were still in business, ridin' a wave the rest of the country was not and keepin' your head above water."

God.

Deacon.

I wondered if it would ever stop coming to me, his moments of sweet and how deep they ran.

I wondered, but hoped it didn't.

"Straight up miracle you did," he kept at me. "You didn't, you get in too deep with the bank and your shit gets messy, they can take it all and you walk away with nothing."

"That won't happen."

"You don't think it will until it does," he stated and his words made me still underneath him. "You worked too fuckin' hard on this place not to enjoy the goodness you created. Do not put that in jeopardy."

"Did that happen to you?" I asked cautiously.

"What?" he asked back.

"Did you lose something to the bank?"

His head cocked to the side. "Fuck no. Never owned property in my life and definitely never had a loan."

That was intriguing, but I didn't have time to get into it, he wasn't done talking.

"I just know that shit goes down and it sucks. But if that shit happened to you with what I've watched you put into this place the last six years, it would do more than suck."

He was not wrong.

He was also still not done.

"You refinance only if you're gettin' a better rate, you roll that second mortgage into it but you don't borrow more to build the laundry or a gazebo. You don't do those at all until you got the cash to pay for it or I got a good amount of time at Glacier Lily to put them up for you."

Again, there was a lot there, all of it we had to go over, and I decided to start with the part that interested me most.

"You'll put them up for me?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, how are you gonna do that, Deacon? We're not talking cleaning gutters here."

I saw a veil slide over his features. He didn't shut down, but he still shut me out.

He did this further by answering simply, "Got the skills."

I took a moment to decide whether to push that or not.

In that moment I saw his expression remain veiled and we'd just shared something beautiful. I didn't want to do anything to mar that, like push it when he wasn't ready. So I let that go.

"The laundry would be a very nice added service," I told him. "That's probably the biggest request I get. There's a Laundromat in town but people don't like to schlep their stuff to town. And those coin-op machines cost a whack to use. It would pay for itself."

"It could also start payin' for itself when you can pocket that shit, not you earnin' back what you put into it, givin' it away, takin' more time to do that since you're payin' interest on what you borrowed."

He was again not wrong and this was sounding familiar.

"My dad would say that," I told him.

"See your dad isn't the scarecrow either," he replied and I grinned.

"No, he isn't."

"No increase on your loan, Cassidy," he ordered.

"You're being bossy again, Deacon," I returned, my grin dying, my decision not to mar this beautiful moment in cabin eleven suddenly forgotten. "Even if you do me the huge favor of building it for me, I have to pay you something and buy materials."

"Pay me?" he asked, his tone weirdly incredulous.

"Yes," I answered, my tone understandably determined.

"Pay me," he repeated, but it wasn't a question this time. It was an opportunity for me to take back what I said.

"Yes, Deacon. You wouldn't be cleaning out gutters; you'd be building a building."

At that, he looked to the pillow and told it, "She's naked in my bed in eleven, my cum leakin' outta her," his eyes came back to mine, "so this conversation ends here."

"We should get this straight," I pointed out, because we should. Relationships crashed and burned after arguments about money and I didn't want that for ours.

"We can do that when you're not naked with my cum leakin' out of you in my bed in cabin eleven," he returned.

I sighed because he was right.

Deacon decided it was time to move on.

"What food you want me to bring?"

"The Red Hot Blues and the hummus," I answered immediately and his lips started curving up. "And a bottle of red wine. And glasses. And whatever you want to drink, though you're welcome to wine. And the rest of the pie. We'll use the forks and plates in the kitchen."

"See I'm gonna be makin' more than one trip," he muttered.

"I could help you," I noted.

He pressed deeper into me. "You could. You aren't. You're gonna be lazy because, woman, trust me, you're gonna need your energy."

I squirmed under him at that promise and instantly acquiesced, "I'll stay here."

His lips curved up again and he replied, "Good call."

"Though, I'm kinda hungry and I'm also leaking."

"Right," he murmured, taking my hint. He bent in, touched his mouth to mine, then said, "I'll go."

Then he went, sliding off me and rolling off the bed.

I switched positions to get under the covers.

When I had the covers up over my breasts and Deacon was pulling on his clothes, I called, "Honey?"

He kept his side to me, his hands doing up the buttons of his jeans, but he slid his eyes my way. "Yeah?"

"Hurry."

At my word, his face darkened and he turned to me, bending deep. Putting a fist on the bed and one hand to my cheek, he bent deeper and took my mouth in a long, hot, wet kiss. When he released my mouth, he touched his lips to my forehead in a short, sweet kiss.

Then he straightened away, pulled on his tee, sat on the side of the bed to yank on his boots, and took off.

And with the amount of time it took him to get back, I knew he didn't waste any.

Deacon Hours later, in the quiet dark, Deacon lay in the bed he'd lain in many times before, this time doing it feeling Cassie's soft body tucked to his side, her arm draped over his stomach, her cheek pressed to his chest, listening to her breathing.

All those times before, and more when he was on the road and away from Glacier Lily, he'd dreamed of this too.