Just This Once, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge #3) by J.H. Croix Page A

of where he lived. When he’d renovated the old industrial building for his business, he’d had them utilize the upstairs for apartments. He rented several out to staff and kept one for himself. It was large and luxurious and completely secure. Becca had been here once or twice with Gage. He had figured it made sense to live as close to work as possible because he didn’t have much of a personal life and hadn’t intended for that to change—until now.
    Years of life as a Navy SEAL kept him far away and made it hard to forge new connections. He had a few people who were near and dear—Ellie, Gage and Gage’s family, and some of his SEAL team members that were part of his life after he’d retired from the military. Otherwise, he’d considered it perfectly fine to live where he worked. He’d never considered he’d be bringing Becca here in any capacity other than as a family friend. He’d long ago written off any chance with Becca. Yet, here she was after last night.
    He still had to prepare himself for the eventuality she would keep to the path she’d declared for herself after her engagement fell apart—the path where no man had a chance with her. His thoughts flashed to the way she felt in his arms last night—wild, passionate, pulling him into the flames that twined around them. A woman who felt passion that intensely shouldn’t go through life alone. He hoped like hell she didn’t and that he got to be the lucky man at her side. He mentally shook himself. Now was not the time to start pondering the wonders of Becca and allowing himself to consider how much he wanted her.
    When the alarm quietly beeped, indicating it was clear to enter, he stepped through and held the door for Becca. Her breasts brushed his arm as she passed by. His body tightened. He forced himself to hold still for a moment. He needed to get his brain and his body off of this constant loop of wanting Becca. He’d been so successful at tamping down his feelings for her for so long that it threw him to be so easily affected by her. He took a slow breath and deliberately shut the door. The door led into a short hallway, which led to another door. Becca stopped by the next door and turned to him.
    “Is this some kind of super secure thing, or what?” she asked, her brow arched.
    He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
    “No. Just that I always wondered.”
    He reached the door and punched in the next security code before glancing down at her. She’d taken a step back, but it didn’t change the current humming in the air around them. Her glossy hair fell back when she tilted her face up to look at him. Her nose turned up just the slightest bit at the end, and her heart-shaped lips were so tempting, he had to yank on the reins of his desire. He forced himself to say something instead of kissing her like he wanted.
    “When I had the building designed, this hallway originally went to two separate apartments. Due to the need to expand the space for our computer servers, we remodeled the two apartments into a larger one for me, along with the additional server room. The extra security’s nice, but it’s just a leftover from when there were two entrances in here.”
    He pushed the door open and gestured for her to pass. There was a bark and suddenly Oscar hit him in the knees, all eighty pounds of his furry self. He lost his balance, but steadied when Becca caught his arm. Oscar was all wiggles and snuffling sounds. Aidan handed the bottle of wine to Becca and knelt down beside Oscar.
    “Hey buddy!” He ruffled Oscar’s fur while Oscar butted up against him, rubbing his head into Aidan’s chest.
    “Hey there!” Ellie called out. “As you can tell, Oscar’s thrilled to see you.” Aidan glanced up to see Ellie leaning against the counter with a wide smile. She cast her smile in Becca’s direction. “How’s it going, Becca? Glad you could come.” Ellie pushed away from the counter and walked to meet Becca, tugging her close for a quick