Page 4 of Saved By the Mountain Man

I couldn’t tell him I had nowhere else to go. It felt like I would be conceding if I sounded desperate. But with the winter coming on so quickly, I had to find a place where I could wait it out, or I would die out there.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said with a steely voice and walked to the bed, sitting down to make my point.

He ran a hand through his hair, a habit he’d always had. He looked older, wearier, like he had been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Maybe he had been.

His eyes flicked to mine, and I was suddenly aware I was in a very small room, and on a bed, with a very large, very attractive man looking over me.

Tanner parted his lips, and his eyes darkened. The tension in the air shifted, and for a moment, there was something there—something hot and demanding.

Tanner cleared his throat and turned away, and the sexual tension, the memory of the past where our bodies melded together, slipped away.

When he turned his attention back to me, his eyes were hard, guarded.

A look that said he wasn’t letting anyone in, not again.

“What are you running from, Rae?” His eyes were hard, but his voice was gentle.

I swallowed hard, memories of Jethro’s twisted smile flooding back. “It’s… complicated.” I hated how weak I sounded.

“Complicated.” He scoffed, shaking his head. “Everything’s always complicated with you.”

Anger flared in my chest. How dare he judge me? He was the one who had left without a word, who had disappeared from mylife like a ghost. “You don’t know anything about my life, about who I am now,” I snapped, the words biting.

He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat radiating from him, the magnetic pull that made me want to press my body against the length of his.

“I know enough to see that you’re in trouble,” he said, his voice low. “And trouble is the last thing I need right now.”

“Then why are you here?” I shot back, my heart pounding. “Why did you come into this cabin?”

He opened his mouth, and his eyes slid to my lips. I swayed slightly, leaning in, ready for him to… his jaw tightened, and his eyes found mine again. For a long moment, we stood there in a standoff, the air crackling with tension. His gaze burned into me.

Finally, he sighed, a sound full of frustration and resignation and stepped away, breaking the tension, the bubble.

“I stay in this cabin sometimes,” he said, his voice softer. “It’s a place to get away.”

“I can find somewhere else, then,” I said, my voice hard. I wasn’t going to share a cabin with him, that was for damn sure.

He stared at me, his eyes searching mine. I wondered if he could see the fear behind my bravado, the desperation I was trying so hard to hide.

“No,” he said finally, his voice clipped. “I have somewhere else to be. Don’t complicate my life. I have my own problems, Rae. I can’t deal with yours, too.”

With that, he turned and walked out, the door slamming shut behind him. I stood there, feeling like I was in the wake of his destruction all over again.

My heart raced, and I felt feverish.

Tanner was back.

How? Why?

It didn’t make sense, and I didn’t need this bullshit, either.

One thing was for sure—I wasn’t going to hitch my wagon to his star again.

As the sound of his footsteps faded into the night, I sank onto the bed, exhausted. I had come here to escape the city, Jethro, the hell he’d created for me, to find a place where I could breathe and think and figure out my next move. But now, with Tanner here, everything had changed.

I wasn’t just running from Jethro anymore. I had to face the ghosts from my past, too.

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