“Got the kids this weekend. Next weekend I don’t, and you don’t have yours. And Jimbo’s got a hunting cabin that his wife took over to make it a cabin-cabin. It doesn’t have a lot, but it’s got everything you need. Jimbo uses it when he hunts but she uses it to hang around and read while he hunts. Been there once. It’s a nice place. Not much, bed, kitchen, stereo, no TV. If he’s not usin’ it, wanna take you there.”

I didn’t care if it was filthy and decorated in dead animal heads, Mickey wanted to take me there, I wanted to go.

“Okay,” I replied.

“Like I said, it’s not much,” he said. “But it’s far away. No kids. No exes. No fire department. No old folks. Just two days, you and me.”

That sounded fabulous.

“I’d love to go, Mickey.”

He took one arm from around me and ran his knuckles down my jaw, dipping his voice to say, “It’s pretty basic, Amy. But they got heat and light, a fridge, a stove,” he tilted his head to the fire, “a fireplace.” He rubbed his thumb along my lower lip. “We can be naked the entire time and you won’t even notice where you are.”

I loved he wanted to go away with me.

I loved that he was being so sweet.

I loved how he was touching me.

I did not love all that his words were saying to me.

“You do know, although I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, that filthy rich people don’t spontaneously combust when they step foot over the thresholds of such places as hunting cabins.”

His hand dropped away and his eyes narrowed on me. “Just want you to be prepared for what you’d get when you got there.”

“I kinda got what I was going to get when you said Jimbo has a hunting cabin. Since Jimbo shared that for his regular job he’s a mechanic at a local dealership, I would not expect to go to said cabin and find you having a personal valet and me having the opportunity to boss around a chef.”

His eyes stayed narrowed as he growled, “Tame the smartass, Amelia.”

“I will, Michael, when you come to terms with the fact that I have money,” I snapped.

“Think we had a drama witnessed by the residents of a nursing home that saw the end of that shit,” he returned.

“Really?” I asked my question but kept right on speaking. “Then why would you need to assure me we could be naked and I wouldn’t even know where I was?”

He clamped his mouth shut and his jaw went hard.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

He unlocked his jaw to reply, “Maybe we shouldn’t go.”