Man of the Mountain

“A mud slide on the back of the cabin.” He shakes his head, those brown eyes melting me. “I should shower,” he says. “I’m a mess. You okay out here?”

I nod, ever so slowly. Wishing I’d fallen in the mud too. Then I’d have a reason to invite myself into the shower with him.

Kutter

She licks her lips and I swear to god it’s an invitation. But I’m not fucking this up. I want Katie and I don’t want to scare her away before I get a chance to prove that to her.

Her stomach rumbles, loudly, reminding me what time it is.

“Are you hungry?” I ask. Then I chuckle. “Of course you are. Your stomach wouldn’t be growling otherwise.”

“I didn’t have dinner. Figured I’d stop on my way back to town.”

“Let me get you something — I haven’t eaten either.”

She stops me, setting a hand on my arm. “You’re filthy. I know that isn’t my kitchen, but you are not stepping foot in there.”

“Bossy, huh?” I give her a cocky grin. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

“No? Why not?” She sets a hand on her curvy hip.

“No idea, actually.” I laugh, looking at her like she owns the place. “But I like it. A woman who knows her mind.”

She bites her bottom lip. “I usually hold everything back. Never say what I’m actually thinking.”

“Really?” I look her over. “Guess you were waiting for the right man to put in line.”

She laughs. “How do you know I don’t already have a man?”

I tense. Fuck. Is this sweet ass thing already hitched? I look at her ring finger. Bare. Good.

“I know you’re not married,” I tell her. “And it’s not because you aren’t wearing a wedding band. It’s because you’re looking at me like you want something.”

Her eyes widen. “And what would I want?” she asks, lifting an eyebrow. God, she looks sexy.

“Me.” I give her a big smile then, and she laughs.

“You’re ridiculous,” she says. But the light in her eyes tells me she thinks I am more than full of it. They tell me I wasn’t off the mark at all. “Now go clean up and let me make us some dinner,” she tells me. “I’m hoping you aren’t living on cans of chili and frozen burritos?”

“I have some meat in the fridge, and vegetables. I’m not a complete mess.”

She’s pulling open the fridge, but before I leave for the bathroom, she turns, looking at me over her shoulder. “Thank you,” she says softly.

“For what?”

“For being a real man.”

As I step into the shower, I’m thinking all sorts of reckless things. Like how I’d like Katie to be standing in here with me. Naked. Alone. Ready to be devoured. Because hell, walking back to my cabin after a goddamn mudslide took me twenty yards down the fucking mountainside, I thought that was it. A cougar fight and a storm doing me in.

But what’s really doing me in is her.

Hell, Katie is going to ruin me. Her and that baby girl, hell, I’m fucked. Because now there isn’t just one girl I’m vowing to protect at all costs, it’s two. I can’t exactly let Katie walk out of this cabin and out of my life with the baby.

That cedar tree falling when it did was no coincidence. It was goddamn destiny.

In the shower, I let the water run hot, my cock hard as I think about the woman on the other side of the door. Her sweetheart face, her pink-lipped smile. It may be wrong to think of her naked and pressed against me, but I never said I was right. I’m a wild ass man who lives in the woods — for a reason.

I wrap my hand around my cock, pumping my shaft as my mind stays fixed on her. The one and only woman who has ever caused me to rethink every last thing. What the hell am I doing living alone when she exists?

But I know nothing about her. Besides her full tits, her perfect round ass, thighs nice and thick, the kind I long to spread so that my beard can tease her in all the right places. I pump my cock as I imagine her pussy, wet and ready. Tight. Mine. Fuck. I come hard against the tile of the shower and I turn the water to cold, needing to settle my stiffy so I can walk out of the bathroom without causing a goddamn scene. Because my hard cock will cause a scene. She’s never seen anything like it, I’m sure. But god, how I want to show her.

I wrap a towel around my waist and step from the bathroom, and I practically run right into her. Katie is there, the hall closet open, eyes wide as if she’s been caught red-handed.

“Oh. I. Um.” She swallows. Bites her bottom lip. “I was looking for a first aid kit. For your forehead? I thought I could at least bandage it…” Her words trail off as her eyes begin to roam.