My Mountain Man Muse

That’s what she wanted. She knew it in her brain heart.

She definitely didn’t want to go back to her sad little apartment and crappy job old life. This was way more exciting.

Just as the sun began to set in the distance, casting the vast sky in vibrant hues of pink and red, Evan turned and smiled at her.

It was in that moment she knew, they would be together forever. They were meant to be together.

They had the rest of their lives to be as one and it started now.

In the end, Katie’s horrible day turned out pretty damn good.

My fingers are tingling as I type The End, the most exciting six letters a writer can type.

I sit back, take a deep breath, and stare at the thick piled of typed pages.

I’m finished. Of course, I still have a few edits to do and I have to retype it all into my laptop, but amazingly, the first draft is done.

Even if nobody buys the book, I finished it. I’m a real writer now.

Jayden walks into the room and I turn to him with a big grin on my face.

“Don’t tell me,” he says with his brown eyes lighting up. “Is it…?”

“Finished!” I say proudly.

He walks over and puts his big hands on my shoulders, massaging them with just the right amount of pressure. I drop my head forward with a moan as he rubs my back.

“So, they destroyed the ruby?” he asks as he reads the last page.

“They sure did,” I say with a grin. “Evan can do anything.”

His hands stop on my shoulders as he leans down. “I think I’m getting a little jealous of this Evan guy.”

“I wouldn’t,” I say as I lift my mouth up and kiss his furry chin. “He may be a little bit based on you.”

“A little bit?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Loosely based,” I correct. He’s not buying it. “Okay, he’s totally based on you.”

Jayden smiles and the sight makes my chest feel like it’s going to explode.

“What about Katie?” he asks. “Is she based on you?”

“Not really,” I say with a shrug. “Other than her getting herself in a predicament and having a hot muscular man come and save her.”

“Aw, that’s too bad.”

I jerk my head back around and look up at him. “Why do you say that?”

“Well,” he says as he stands up straight and lets his hands fall away from me. “It says here they were meant to be together, Evan and Katie. If Evan is based on me, then…”

“Maybe she’s a little based on me,” I quickly correct. “In fact, I think she’s a carbon copy of myself. Besides, the whole pirate and magical ruby thing.”

“Ah,” he says as he rubs his chin. “That’s good.”

That’s good?

What does he mean by that’s good?

But before I can ask him, he wanders off, leaving me with my head spinning.

I want to be his. I want to stay here and see where we go from here.

This has been the best week of my life and I don’t want to go back to what I had before.

My crappy apartment is going to feel so cold and empty without Jayden there. And I don’t even want to think about what my bed is going to feel like.

And I’ve never felt so alive as when I’ve been writing this book. Maybe I’m not Nora Roberts now, but maybe with some practice, I can get better.

My old job as an office administrator in a propane processing plant doesn’t sound too exciting anymore, not that it ever was.

I really want to stay here with Jayden.

He’s been saying a lot of things, but it’s always in the heat of the moment. It’s easy to get carried away during sex, but asking someone to stay for real, especially for a recluse mountain man, is a little bit harder.

I sigh as I stare at my last page that’s still perched on the typewriter.

Katie got her happy ending.

But will I?

Chapter Eleven

Jayden

I watch with my pulse racing and my hands clenching in and out of fists as Lily walks up to Mr. Miller, the owner of the cabin she rented.

He’s an older man and we’ve had our share of problems over the years with all of the loud ass city folk he’s rented too, but right now I don’t care about any of that.

It’s her last day here and Mr. Miller has come to check on the cabin and take back the keys from her.

She still hasn’t given me any sort of answer on what she’s going to do and it’s been driving me mad. My whole body is tense as I picture myself pushing her car over a cliff and carrying her back to my cabin.

I want her to stay.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do if she insists on leaving.

But I love her too much to make her stay. She’s going to have to come to that decision on her own.