My Mountain Man Muse

“I really don’t,” he says, looking confused.

I take a deep breath and then swallow hard. “I was looking for some food.”

“Oh,” he says with a chuckle. “Sit down, I’ll make you some breakfast.”

He walks over to the stove and starts flicking dials. Still shirtless. Still unbelievably gorgeous.

I keep one eye on him as I limp over to the table and take a seat.

The typewriter is on the table and I have a stack of pages already written for my novel. It’s about a poor village girl named Katie who gets kidnapped aboard the notorious pirate Captain Theo Bones’s ship and the dreamy First Mate Evan Blitz comes to her rescue.

“Are you a writer?” Jayden asks as he cracks an egg into the pan.

“I wanted to be,” I say as my cheeks heat up. “But my brain kind of had other plans.”

“It looks like you’re doing pretty well,” he says as he glances at the papers on the table.

I can’t help but smile as I look down at them. There are eight pages done already. I guess I am doing pretty well.

I guess I just needed a hot mountain man to spark my imagination.

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to work on it here while your ankle heels up,” he says in his smooth deep voice.

“How long do you think?” I ask as I stare at the hard sexy lines on his broad shoulders. With this view, I wouldn’t mind extending my vacation. Maybe indefinitely.

He turns around and looks down at my ankle. Oh crap. He’s coming over here.

My heart starts pounding and I swallow hard as he approaches.

Oh no! I didn’t brush my teeth!

I look like a hag. I probably smell worse.

He kneels down in front of me and gently touches my throbbing ankle, inspecting it as I inspect him.

Every inch of his torso is hard muscle. It’s like Christmas morning for my eyes. I don’t know where to look first.

“It’s not broken,” he says as he slides his fingers gently over it.

I’m getting all hot and squirmy when I notice how gentle he is with me. This mountain man is rough and wild outside with the logs and ax, but he’s gentle and tender whenever he touches me. It’s incredibly hot.

“And the swelling has gone down,” he says. His dark brown eyes dart up to mine and my breath catches in my throat.

God, why didn’t I stop to run a brush through my hair or something? This man is looking stunning all shirtless with his long beard and gray woolen hat on and I look like I woke up in an insane asylum with my greasy hair and dancing pug pajamas.

“You’ll probably be able to put weight on it in a week or so,” he says. “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

He turns his head away and I see his jaw clench like the thought in his head is causing him pain or something.

“Nothing,” he says, getting up with a grunt. “I’ll make you breakfast and then you can continue working on your book. I want to know if Katie is going to get off that ship.”

My eyes widen and my stomach drops. “You read it?!?”

He nods as he flips the eggs and continues making my breakfast.

“It’s pretty good.”

I’m staring at his back in shock. How dare he read my book!

I open my mouth to tell him off. “I can’t believe you read my bo—it is?”

“Yeah,” he says as he pours me a coffee and brings it over. “You’re talented.”

A tingling creeps up my neck and into my face and my cheeks start burning as he places the steaming mug in front of me.

“Wow,” I say, feeling my heart start to race. “Talented. I, uh… I uh… am just following inspiration I guess.”

“Well, keep it up,” he says as he finishes preparing my plate. “I can’t wait to read what you come up with next.”

My mind is swirling with a million thoughts as he places the hot breakfast in front of me and returns to his chopping outside.

Wow. Talented. Someone actually said I was a talented writer.

And yes, that someone lives in the middle of nowhere with no TV, Internet or any other books that I can see, and probably gets his entertainment by watching squirrels fuck, but still. Talented. I’ll take it!

I can’t help but turn to the window and watch as he picks up the ax and continues chopping the wood. I could watch this all day.

And I would, but story ideas keep popping into my head, getting my fingers all tingly.

I fly through the next couple of chapters, stopping only to stare and gawk at my sexy muse as he gets his hard muscles a little harder by slamming that ax into the wood.

My book is coming along nicely. Poor Katie is trapped in the evil Captain’s quarters on the pirate ship, but luckily for her, the delectable First Mate Evan Blitz is coming to rock her world.