My Mountain Man Muse

All right. If this is what getting murdered is going to be like, sign me up.

He gently lays me down as if I’m the most precious thing in the world and props my swollen ankle up on a pillow. It’s the first time I’ve seen it since the fall and it looks horrific.

My ankle is no longer an ankle. It looks more like a bowling ball.

“You’ll stay here until you heal up.”

“Really?” I say, staring at him in shock. “But we don’t even know each other.”

“I’m Jayden,” he says in a raspy voice. “What’s your name?”

“Katie. I mean Lily.”

I’m so distracted by his beautiful brown eyes that I forget my own damn name.

“Which one is it?” he asks while he looks at me funny.

I swallow hard. “Lily.”

“All right, Lily. Now we know each other. I’ll go make the coffee.”

My unblinking eyes widen as I watch him walk to the fireplace and throw a couple of logs in before he goes into the kitchen.

Once he’s gone, my eyes dart back to the old typewriter on the mantel. I wonder if it works…

There doesn’t seem to be a television in here and I would bet my life that he’s never even heard of a computer, let alone WiFi.

Maybe I’ll ask him to bring the typewriter down so I can try it out.

He returns a few minutes later with two steaming mugs of coffee and a bag of frozen peas under his arm. He hands me a cup and then places the frozen peas on my swollen ankle.

“So, do you like… live up here all the time?” I ask.

Maybe he’s a rich CEO who lives in the city and comes up here to unwind, or maybe he’s a famous actor who comes up here to get away from his adoring fans.

“This is my home.”

I should have known better. He looks like he was made to live up here.

“I like it.”

“It’s not for everybody, but it suits me.”

“So, you live all alone like this? Do you have a girlfriend or a wife?”

He shakes his head as he looks down at the coffee in his cup. “It never happened for me. I waited, but…”

I’m leaning so far toward him that I’m about to fall off the couch before I catch myself. “Yes?”

“It just didn’t happen,” he answers, looking like he’s going to expand on the topic but doesn’t, which is too bad because I’m insanely curious about it.

I resist the urge to ask if he doesn’t have a girlfriend because he murdered her (I’m still not entirely unconvinced that he’s an ax murderer).

“I’m running low on firewood and I have to finish collecting the logs. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”

I nod as I watch him stand up.

“Can I get you anything?”

I glance behind him at the typewriter. “Does that work?”

He turns and smiles when he sees what I’m looking at. “That was my mother’s. It still works.”

My fingers are itching to get to work as he brings it down, dusts it off, and puts on a fresh ribbon of ink. He gets a stack of white paper out of the cupboard and places it on the coffee table in front of me.

Once he leaves, my fingers start flying across the keys and my story comes to life.

Katie was having the worst day ever. Until a hot hunk of burning man named Evan came to her rescue. He was big and muscular and had a big juicy coc

Too soon for that, Lily. Too soon.

and he had beautiful brown eyes that were the shade of an old leather horse saddle.

Katie was trapped on a pirate’s ship and had nowhere to escape to, but luckily Evan was there to keep her safe and warm.

I grin like a madwoman as my fingers fly across the keys, filling up page after page as my novel starts coming alive.

Chapter Four

Jayden

Each step through the snow away from her is painful.

My chest is so tight that it hurts to breathe. I can’t get the feeling of her in my arms out of my head. Those soft curves… they’re going to ruin me.

I stop and look up at the sky, trying to control the raging emotions that are ripping through my body. The fat flakes of snow are floating down between the tall trees, covering everything, including me. A snowflake sails into my eye and I keep walking as it melts and runs down my cheek.

How am I going to live up here now that I know she’s in the world?

It was easy before. Other women never did much for me. They had no appeal. But with Lily, I don’t know… everything has changed with Lily. I don’t know how I got this far without her, but now that I have her, I’m not going to let her go.

She’s fucking gorgeous. Beautiful brown hair, blue eyes that are bursting with life, dancing pug pajamas… I chuckle as I remember how ridiculous they looked, but then my pulse starts racing when I remember how soft her curves felt underneath them. Her curvy hips made my mouth water and it took everything I had not to rip those pajama bottoms off her and take what she had hiding underneath.