Page 120 of Ten Mountain Men

Instead, I just smile, brushing my fingers along the side of his face, playing a quick game of connect the dots with his smattering of freckles.

“I’m glad I’m here too,” I whisper.

Brooks smiles back at me, his thumb brushing over my cheek in a gentle, affectionate gesture. “Come outside when you’re ready,” he says, his voice still low, still tender.

And with that, he sets me back down, his hands lingering at my waist for just a moment before he turns and heads back out the door.

I stand there, the camera still in my hand, my heart pounding. That was way too close of a call.

I stuff the camera into my pocket and get to work, moving quickly but quietly through the room. I know there’s a dozen of these things scattered around the cabin, but damn if I can remember where I hid all of them. The problem is, I set them up to be well hidden, so well hidden that even I am struggling to find them.

In what feels like the worst Easter egg hunt of all time, I look everywhere, determined to find them all, but I can only find eleven.

But where the hell is the twelfth?

Panic starts to creep in. My hands are sweaty, and I can feel my pulse quicken. I move through the cabin, trying to act natural, but every creak of the floorboards makes me jump. Where did I put that last one? I check under the couch, behind the curtains, even in the kitchen cabinets, but it’s like the camera has vanished into thin air.

I hear footsteps again, louder this time. My heart races. I’ve got to act fast, but I’m running out of places to look. Eleven out of twelve isn’t good enough, not when there’s still one rogue camera out there, watching, waiting to be found and expose everything.

Chapter 37

Goldie

After not getting another moment alone in the living area, I decide I’m going to have to hunt for the last camera at night. Hopefully, first I can find a candle and a match in a junk drawer, because I can’t risk turning on any lights or lamps.

The conundrum is that now all three of the individual beds are pushed together—Buck and Nash are on one side of me and Clay and Rusty are on the other. How do I get out of bed without waking any of the four enormous men I’m smack dab in the middle of? With two of them on either side of me, climbing over them without waking someone up isn’t likely.

I don’t see any other option than to sort of shimmy my body down the bed, inch by inch, careful to keep my movements as discreet as possible, so that’s what I do.

When I reach the end of the bed, I manage to gracelessly pull myself into a seated position. After a moment of stillness to check if everyone else is still sleeping—and they seem to be—I gingerly stand up and tiptoe out of the room, through the next bedroom, and into the living room.

Phew.

All is silent. Too silent. Have I worn these big ol’ mountain men out to the point where their bodies are too exhausted to snore?

I wait a beat, listening.

Nothing but silence.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I contemplate my next move. Because out in the living area, in the dark, without a flashlight, any move could topple a pile of this or that or the other. Or, more likely—this, thatandthe other. We’ve done quite a bit of cleaning, but there’s still so many damn piles.

And how am I going to be able to find the camera and take it down without knocking down other crap in the process?

“I need to be able to see, dammit!” I mutter, frustrated.

All of a sudden the lamp beside the couch flickers on and I let out a startled shriek, thinking,Well, that was spooky AF.

Also thinking,Has losing my virginity unlocked some superpower that had been lying dormant inside of me, that allows me to turn on appliances with my sheer will?

But no.

“Hey, firecracker,” Ash says, twisting around and grinning at me. He’s sitting on the couch. He turned on the lamp.

“Oh!” I press my hand to my heart, willing my pulse to stop all the banging about in there, but the way Ash is looking at me only makes it bang about at a more frenetic pace. “I didn’t know anyone was in here. I didn’t mean to disturb you…did I wake you?”

“Nah. I was up. Just sittin’ and thinkin’,” he says.

“About anything in particular?” I don’t mean to say it flirtatiously but it comes out that way.

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