Page 3 of Stubborn Mountain Man

“Can you stand on it?” he asked.

He was several feet away, hands on hips, eyeing my ankle, which I was currently pressing to see exactly where the pain was. I winced as my fingers found the most sensitive area.

“I don’t think so,” I said.

As if to demonstrate, I put the foot on the ground and pressed on it. The worst pain yet shot through me. It was so intense, I saw stars, and it brought the faint stirrings of nausea with it.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re coming back to my cabin so we can take a look at it.”

He came toward me and I stared up at him, eyes wide. He thought I was going to come to his cabin? My earlier visions of ax murderers came to mind. I’d be crazy to go to a stranger’s cabin alone.

Then again, I’d be crazy not to. What other choice did I have? Just sit here and wait until the bears got hungry? I’d run out of food and water and die of starvation if they didn’t get to me first. So I gave a nod as he knelt to sweep me up in his arms.

Once he had me cradled against his chest, I realized my mistake. I was enjoying this way too much. My independent streak might be coming to an end.

2

KANE

I’d really stepped in it this time.

That was my thought as I exited my kitchen with a freezer bag full of ice in one hand and a dish towel in the other. The last thing I needed was a damsel in distress in my living room, but here she was.

It wasn’t like I could turn her away. She’d fallen at the edge of my property, having strayed from the hiking trail for Lord knew what reason.

“This should take the swelling down,” I said. “I have some prescription pain relievers in my medicine cabinet from when I had shoulder surgery last year.”

The beautiful stranger was on my couch, that tempting ass on one cushion and her legs on the others. Those lightly tanned, curvy legs were doing things to me.

But it was more than that. This woman was beautiful in a unique way. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“That’s against the law,” she said. “You can’t share prescription medications. It could also be dangerous. You don’t know what medicine I’m on.”

Was I getting a lecture? I didn’t take well to lectures. Normally, I’d say as much, but instead, I found myself wanting to know more about her.

“You’re a rule follower, huh?” I asked.

“Alawfollower,” she said. “I believe laws exist for a reason.”

As a former Navy SEAL, I couldn’t help but be impressed by that. But as a guy who’d gone back to his hometown after leaving the military to find it wasn’t the same place I remembered, I disagreed. Lawmakers weren’t always concerned about the people affected by their laws.

But that was beside the point. Right now, it was all about getting her ankle in good enough shape that I could figure out what to do next.

“Here,” I said, holding the bag out to her as I approached the couch.

She took the bag and my advice to wrap the towel around it to make it more comfortable. Then I headed off in search of over-the-counter pain relievers. I had those too. I just thought she might want the hard stuff.

When I returned a couple of minutes later, bottle of pills in hand, she was staring down at her phone. The towel and ice rested on top of her ankle.

“There’s no cell reception up here,” she said. “I figured that, but if I could jump on your Wi-Fi, I can reverse image search my ankle and maybe see if I can research ankle injuries.”

I continued toward the kitchen, which had an island dividing it from the living room. That meant I could keep an eye on her while I grabbed something for her to wash down these pills.

“No Wi-Fi,” I said. “No TV either. I do have electricity and running water. I was going to build the cabin without it, but my brother talked me out of it.”

I started to grab some water from the faucet, but I glanced over at her. She was staring at me like I’d announced I was from Mars.

Yeah, she was definitely a filtered water type, even though she’d had that gigantic backpack and had clearly been on a hike. There was something very citified about her.

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