Mountain Desire (Wild Mountain Men 3)

I’d fooled around, then fled. Yeah, I’d been the one to set the parameters. No relationship. No emotions. Just sex.

I couldn’t do it though. It had been too good. There was something about Shane and Finch, and not their sexual skills, that attracted me to them. I wanted more, and not just sex. I wanted to get to know them.

And that couldn’t happen. Men were assholes. They fled when things got tough. They were mean. They hit. They wanted absolute control. I wouldn’t go back to the woman I was, weak and defenseless. Chad had blamed everything on me. Dinner not being done. A lost sock. The battery dead in the car. Hell, even bad weather. He was a manipulator, an expert in passive aggressiveness. I could never do anything right, and I’d believed him. He’d slowly isolated me f

rom my friends. I’d been in a bad place, a place I swore I’d never be in again.

I couldn’t, wouldn’t go back there.

The threat was real and twice as bad because I was interested in Shane and Finch.

“You’re not waiting for someone to drive by. And I’m sure a tow’s going to take a while. I’m calling Shane… unless there’s a reason why I shouldn’t?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes, wishing she could see me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh. You left in a rush, and it was because of a guy. I know it.”

“I’m in a ditch, Poppy, miles from town. It’s snowing. I’m not getting into it now.”

“So there is something between you.” She laughed.

“Poppy,” I groaned.

“Why not talk now?” she countered. “It’s not like you’re going anywhere.”

Internally I fumed. She was right. I couldn’t be the only person who’d slid off the road in this weather. Hardin and Mac had one tow truck, and I had no doubt they were busy today. People in Cutthroat were super nice and stopped if someone needed help. But being in law enforcement made me wary of strangers stopping, especially with a murderer on the loose. I had an option to get out of this predicament, and I was being stupid not to take it.

“Fine, call Shane.”

She hung up without saying goodbye. Not two minutes later, she called back. “They’re on their way.”

My heart did that funny leaping thing again. They were on their way.

“Your party was great,” I told her, trying to steer the convo to something safer than Shane and Finch. “I’ve never been to a bonfire in the winter before.”

“It’s winter forever around here,” she said. “Might as well make the most of it.”

I’d grown up in Colorado and was familiar with winter and snow. But Montana was colder, darker and was buried in the white stuff for months. Besides that, there was no spring, only snow until one day it became summer, sometime in June.

“You left in a rush,” she stated. “It was because of Shane. Right?”

She could be a detective with how perceptive she was.

“I was tired.” I’d been far from it. I’d gone to her guest room, gotten in bed and relived every second of the time with Finch and Shane. How Shane had a dimple in his left cheek when he smiled. How Finch’s whiskers had felt on my inner thighs. The way Shane had kissed. How Finch had known just how to play with my nipples to make me wet. How Finch’s tongue could be magic on my clit. And his finger… I hadn’t even known I had a G-spot.

I’d tossed and turned thinking about how stupid I’d been to walk away from two gorgeous guys while at the same time believing it had been smart to push them away. If they got too close, they’d see the cracks, know I was broken in so many ways. One guy had destroyed me. I wasn’t letting two get near my heart.

She sighed. “I’ll get the truth out of you eventually, especially if you’re staying here all weekend.”

In the rearview mirror I caught a glimpse of a truck headed toward me, and I followed it as it slowed, then stopped.

“Someone’s pulled over to help. I’ve got to go.”

“Fine, you can use that excuse. I want details later.”

“Poppy, I’m not sharing things about your brother.”

“Ha! I knew it was him.”