Man of the Mountain (The Mountain Men of Fox Hollow Book 4) Read online

  I pick up the baby, wishing she had a name, and rock her in my arms, trying not to get my heart too invested in her. It’s hard not to — when you hold an abandoned baby in your arms, it’s instinctive to want to protect it, care for it. Love it.

  But this is just my job, and she isn’t mine. Still, it’s hard not to dream. Closing my eyes, I pretend for just a moment that she is.

  It’s what I want, deep down — a baby to love, to nurture. A chance to give a little one the childhood I never had. I became a social worker for a reason — I grew up in the system, shuffled from home to home, and the social workers who made sure I was safe were my superheroes.

  I wanted to be a hero to someone, too.

  Kutter’s been gone a long time and I start to worry, looking down at this baby, who has soft black curls around her face, dark eyes and long, thick lashes. Her skin is the color of glittering sand and she is nothing but perfection.

  Someone left her.

  My heart tightens, memories of my earliest years surfacing. I try my best to push them away, startling when the lights flash on, as if as a reminder of where I am. Right now. Here, in a cabin, with two strangers.

  “Katie, you all right?” Kutter calls as he pushes open the front door, drenched from the rain, his cut still bleeding.

  He looks like he’s been through hell. Mud covers his jeans and shirt. His cheeks.

  “Did you fall?” I ask, settling the baby back in the drawer and stepping toward him.

  He groans, running a hand over his hair. “I keep getting beat up by the elements. It’s destroying my image of being a tough mountain man.”

  “What got you this time?” I ask with a smile, his heroic nature shining though the injury. He went out in the middle of the storm so we could have power. God, he is so freaking sexy, risking his life for us.

  “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.

  I smile, not stopping her. Her pink tongue darts out of her mouth, licking her lush lips, and she inhales sharply before shaking her head, fixing her eyes right at mine.

  “The baby okay?” I ask.

  She nods. “She’s out cold. A warm bottle, clean clothes, and a tight swaddle was all she needed.”

  I reach behind her, into the closet, and grab the first aid kit behind the stack of sheets. “Right here,” I say, handing it to her.

  She takes it and steps into the bathroom, opening the kit up on the counter. She grabs an antiseptic cream and some butterfly closures. “Maybe you won’t need stitches since you have these.” She waves me over. “Come closer so I can fix you up.”

  Her cheeks turn pink as I step toward her, nice and close. Her back is to the sink and I’m standing close enough for her to doctor me up.

  She reaches for the cream, dapping it on a Q-tip, and lifts her hand, touching it to my forehead. I swear to god she pulls in a sharp breath of want. Because it forces me to do the same.

  As I do, the towel wrapped around my waist falls to her feet.

  And my cock, in all its glory, is hers to see.

  Katie

  Okay. So that is Kutter’s cock. I swallow, both wanting to bend down to hand him the towel, and bend down to give his thickness a closer look.

  Because holy hotness, he is large. Fully capable.

  I may be a virgin, but I am familiar with battery operated toys to help me relax… and this is no toy. What Kutter is packing is purely mal
e, purely massive, and purely made to please.

  My pussy is hot and I squeeze my core, both relieving the growing ache and making it worse. How can those two things happen at the same time? I don’t know. This is agony, plain and simple.

  “You okay there?” he asks, obviously realizing I am staring.

  “I’m okay. Ish,” I manage to eke out.

  “Nothing to be scared of,” he says, picking up his towel. “It won’t bite.” He grins devilishly. The kind of grin that has my knees going all wobbly and my heart pounding.

  “Sorry,” I say, turning around, facing the mirror. Which doesn’t exactly help because now I am just looking at his reflection. Hs cock is still in plain view.

  “Don’t apologize. You like what you see, Katie?”

  I close my eyes. Is this happening? I wanted a vacation to a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere, and somehow, an hour later, here I am. I didn’t even need to clear vacation days with Lorraine.

  “I like what I see,” I admit. “Very much so, actually.”

  Kutter laughs. “You’re funny. And sexy. And—”

  “Don’t.” I shake my head. Our eyes meet in the mirror.

  “Don’t what?” He sets his hands on either side of me, pining me in front of him. How close is his cock to my ass, is what I want to know.

  “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

  Kutter frowns. “But you are sexy as hell. I mean, I know you came here for work but fuck, Katie, it’s like you came here for so much more than that.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask, trying to swallow down my fear. I couldn’t be straight-up with my boss, but maybe I can practice being honest with Kutter.

  “Doesn’t it all seem too good to be true?” he asks. “You being here. Like destiny.”

  I shake my head slowly. “I don’t believe in destiny,” I say.

  “What do you believe?”

  “I believe in hard work. Determination. I believe in pulling up my bootstraps and doing the damn thing. Mostly, I believe in me.” Kutter’s eyes darken as he listens to my spiel. “It’s not a cozy point of view, I get that. It won’t give many people warm and fuzzies. But destiny doesn’t work for people like me, Kutter. Or for babies like the one who is sleeping in the living room.”

  “You’ve been hurt, bad?” he asks. “Broken down?”

  “I prefer bruised but not broken,” I tell him honestly.

  “That why you do the work you, protecting people who can’t protect themselves?” He cuts straight to the heart, sees my truth.

  “Yeah,” I tell him. “I was a foster kid. I get the system. I wanted to help make it better.”

  “You’re making it better for that sweet girl in the living room.”

  “So are you,” I tell him. “You fought for her.”

  “She needs a name,” he says. “Don’t you think?”

  I swallow. “We shouldn’t get attached.”

  He frowns. “Why not?”

  “Because when we say goodbye—”

  He cuts me off, looking so deep into my eyes I swear he can see my every thought, every dream. Every desire. “We don’t know how this is going to end.”

  I shake my head again. “Don’t, Kutter… We don’t know one another. We’re not remotely ready to dive into our dark and lonely pasts, let alone contemplate some future. We just met…”

  I expect him to huff, to grab his towel and march away. Annoyed. With me.

  But instead he spins me around and lifts my chin with his hand and I close my eyes, not wanting to be soft. Because if I let myself go there, to that place, I’ll start crying. I’ll let him in. And there is a reason I throw myself into work. A reason I don’t date. Because letting people in is the scariest thing in the world.

  People can’t hurt you if they don’t know you.

  Kutter, though, doesn’t give me a chance to sheath myself in armor, doesn’t give me time to pick up a sword or a shield.

  No.

  Kutter doesn’t waste a second of our time.

  He simply lowers his mouth to mine, and he kisses me.

  The kind of kiss I’ve always wanted. Always dreamed of having. A kiss full of longing, a kiss filled with the promise of devotion. A kiss that says I just heard all your excuses but they don’t scare me away. Not even a little. Not one bit.

  A kiss that has me wrapping my arms around this near-stranger and kissing him back.

  Kutter

  Her body presses against mine, and my cock groans against her. Her lips part as our tongues meet, and I can’t help threading my fingers through her long, dark hair.

  She whimpers as I caress her, my hands roaming under her shirt, massaging her full tits, and wanting so much more. Everything. All of her. She wants it too.

  Her hands press against my chest and I lift her cute ass up to the countertop, standing between her legs, aware of my hard, thick cock between us. She moans as the kiss deepens, as I inhale all of her. She smells like rain showers and starlight and brand-new days. She smells like hope and desire and a future all wrapped up in one curvy little package. She pulls off her top, unclasps her bra.

  “Fuck, girl,” I groan, taking in her perfect tits. They are full and round, and meant to be enjoyed. I dip my mouth to her breast, running my tongue over her sweet nipple, my cock groaning with anticipation. God, how I want to run my shaft between these tits, pumping my cock until I come all over her skin. She’d look so fucking good covered in my seed.

  Filled with it too.

  Desire overtakes me as I imagine her sweet cunt wrapped around my cock. “Fuck, I want you, so damn bad,” I tell her, my breath on her ear. She shivers with pleasure, but I want to make her shake. Writhe. Come together and come undone — all of it. I want her.

  “I’m a virgin,” she tells me between kisses. “I mean, I want this — I do… but I wanted to tell you first.”

  I pull back. “Yeah?”

  “Does that change anything?”

  I run a hand over my beard, taking in her holy innocence. “Fuck, girl, it changes everything.”

  Her eyebrows lift, her sweet lips part. “How?”

  “It makes me want you all the more,” I growl.

  She smiles, exhaling her delight. And she wraps her arms around me, ready to be scooped up and pleasured until her sweet virgin hole is taken the way it deserves.

  But before we can do any of that, the baby cries. Waking from her sleep, she lets us know her needs.

  “Okay,” I say, handing Katie her shirt. “You can have that back. But no bra.” I wink, and she laughs.

  “And why is that?” She jumps off the counter, pulling on her shirt as I reach for some sweats so I can be decent in front of the baby.

  “Because I need to see those perky little nipples,” I say, reaching from behind her and squeezing her sweet tits. Kissing her neck.

  She swats me away, both of us laughing. “The baby!”

  In the living room, she lifts the baby from the makeshift bed and I realize she cooked us dinner while I was jerking off in the shower, thinking about her cunt.

  “That smells good,” I say, lifting the lid to a pot on the stove. Katie made spaghetti and meatballs. She reaches for the can of formula and prepares a bottle, the baby happy in her arms. “I’ll dish this up for us,” I say.

  She smiles her thanks and begins to coo at the baby, offering her the bottle. “You’re right,” she says. “It’s weird not calling her by a name. Any ideas?”

  “How about Hope?”

  Katie looks up at me. “That’s so fitting.” She shakes her head. “She is perfect. I swear, look at her… those eyes make me melt.”

  I place a hand on Katie’s back. “Pretty damn perfect.”

  We eat the pasta and she tells me about her job, her boss.

  “And what do you do for fun?” I ask.

  “Read. Go hiking. Cook. Nothing that exciting.” She wipes her mouth with her napkin. “And what about you? What do you do out here when you’re not working?�
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  I clear my throat, taking Hope from her as she clears the table. “I do the same as you, to be honest. More fishing than cooking though. My life is simple — that’s how I want it.”

  She nods slowly. “And you’ve never been married… never thought about settling down?”

  Clenching my jaw, I consider how to phrase this. “I’ve never met a woman who made me want to change my world.”

  “Right,” Katie says with a wry smile. “I get that. You have your own slice of paradise out here — why share it?”

  I want to say I would share it with you. Turn my world upside down for you — but we just fucking met. I don’t want to scare her away. And I know my words would have her running. I want you. All of you. Forever.

  She covers her mouth as a yawn takes over, and I tell her I will make up the bed with fresh sheets. “I’ll take the couch,” I say.

  “Unless…” She lowers her chin. Lifts her eyes.

  I step toward her. Hope is asleep in my arms. “Unless you’re scared of being lonely in that room all by yourself?”

  She licks her lips, fighting a smile. “Yes. That’s it. I was thinking about being lonely.”

  I chuckle. “Do you think Hope will stay sleeping for a while?”

  Katie nods. “Let’s bring the dresser drawer into the bedroom. But first, can I please put a bandage on that gash? I want it to heal as quickly as possible.”

  After Katie uses the butterfly closures on my wound, she changes Hope for bed. I move the drawer into the bedroom and watch as Katie takes her time swaddling Hope. Once the little one’s eyes close and she is sound asleep, Katie nestles her in the makeshift bed. “I wonder what my boss will think about us staying here.”

  “I’m guessing she will think you did what you had to do.”

  “There is going to be an investigation to try and find Hope’s birthmother.” Katie sits on the edge of the bed and I turn off the overhead light, and then turn on a lamp beside the bed before sitting beside her. “It worries me,” Katie says in a whisper. “I wish… I wish I could guarantee she would be in good hands until…”