She looks at me sideways. “Why not?”
“Because it’s going to be dark in a few hours and you got a seven-hour hike ahead of you. At least.”
She looks like she’s going to be sick. “Shit.”
“She’ll be fine. She’s with her group.”
“But what about me? I have to sleep out here with the… gulp… bears?”
“You’re going to sleep with me.”
“With you?”
“You’re going to sleep at my place.”
“I am?”
“You are. It’s the only safe option.”
Her nervous eyes dart over to my huge chest and big arms. “If you say so.”
“I do.”
We walk in silence for a minute or two as she digests the information.
“What’s your name?” she asks me.
“Cyrus Colt.”
She laughs.
“What?”
“It sounds like a cartoon villain. Dun dun dun, it’s Cyrus Colt!”
I can’t help but laugh along with her. “What’s your name?”
“Mia Summers.”
I smile as I say it in my head. “That’s fitting.”
“How so?”
“Mia Summers… It sounds bright and full of life, just like you.”
She smiles shyly as we keep walking.
I can’t believe this woman will be sleeping in my cabin tonight. She’ll be naked in my shower. She’ll be laying in my sheets. Her alluring scent will fill each room.
My control will be tested like never before.
I’ve never been so tempted by anything before today, let alone a goddess like her.
I need to have her. I want her to be mine so badly my hands are trembling.
We belong together and tonight she’s going to find that out.
Tonight, she will become mine.
Chapter Four
Mia
* * *
His cabin is actually really cute. It’s a nice big log cabin and not the tiny kill shack I was expecting.
“Did you have this built?” I ask as we walk up to it. It’s one floor, but it sprawls out with a nice wraparound porch.
I’m so curious about this guy. I live in New York City, so it’s not too often that I meet rugged mountain men who live in the forest, hunting and foraging for food.
Is he married? Does he have a girlfriend?
Am I going to find a wild mountain woman in there boiling a stew for those dead rabbits he’s carrying, wearing a dress made out of grizzly bearskin?
I look for two chairs on the porch, but there’s only one.
That’s a good sign, I think. He doesn’t seem to have a girl.
Not that it matters. Not that I’m interested in this strong muscular alpha male who looks at me like he wants to make my toes curl.
I laugh nervously as I walk up to the cabin.
Nope! Definitely not interested! I’m totally not aroused right now thinking about having a sleepover with this man with no one around for miles.
“My father started building it when he was my age,” Cyrus says. “But it was small and the whole thing could have fit on the porch. I had it rebuilt about seven years ago. I’ve been coming up here every chance I get.”
“You don’t live here year-round?” I’m shocked at that. I can’t picture this guy in civilization. I imagine him waiting in line at Costco with a full cart and I let out a giggle. He’d probably still have an axe hanging from his belt in case there was a loose grizzly bear in aisle three.
“Only half of the year. I live in Queens for the other half.”
“Shut up!” My mouth drops open as I stare at him in shock. He lives in New York? Nothing is making sense anymore. “What do you do for a living? Do you sell rabbit pelts in MacDonald Park?”
He shakes his head as he looks at me with a devilish grin on that handsome face. I can tell he’s warming up to me. I can also tell that he probably doesn’t warm up to most people. Not if he’s living out here, he doesn’t. I’m honored that I’m one of the lucky ones he likes.
“That’s not even a thing,” he says with a laugh. “I’m in finance.”
“Like, you work at H&R Block during tax season or something?”
“No, like I’m the owner of a company that manages fifteen billion dollars in hedge fund portfolios.”
“Oh… Wait, what?!”
He just looks at me as we stop in front of the stairs that lead to the porch.
“You’re rich?”
He shrugs.
“Like, really rich?”
“Do you want to go inside and warm up?”
“I’m toasty warm,” I lie. My toes are freaking freezing! “You’re telling me that you’re mega-rich?”
“Never said that.”
“But it’s true.”
“Fine, it’s true.”
“You’re telling me that you’re crazy rich and can travel anywhere on the planet for your vacation? Any beach, villa, or hotel in the world. And you choose to forgo every luxury known to man to stay in the mountains?!”
He takes a deep breath and exhales long and hard as he looks at me. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“Have you ever been to a beach resort?” I ask him as I shake my head in disbelief. “They’ll just give you slushy alcoholic drinks with these adorable little colorful umbrellas on them! And everyone is so nice! It’s incredible.”