Page 50 of Ten Mountain Men

“If you don’t put me down, I’m gonna barf,” I warn him, and that does the trick.

I expect him to just toss me onto the ground on my butt. But he draws me over his shoulder by my hips and deposits me gently and slowly in front of him. Probably just doesn’t want to risk causing me any further injuries that’ll prolong my recuperation time. Are they really going to let me stay until I’m all healed up? Could that take a week? That could take a week, right?

“Happy?” His eyes are something else, though. Like a daytime stormy sky, flashing with streaks of lightning, darkening as more clouds roll in. Talk about fifty shades of gray right there.

“Thrilled,” I reply, but the world is still spinning a bit.

Grumpy Luke lifts his chin. “What are your intentions with my brothers?”

I blink up at him. Did I just fall into a sitcom from the 1950s? “What?”

“While we’ve got a minute alone, we might as well get on the same page here.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t buy the wholeI’m just up on the mountain camping aloneline of malarkey you fed us. And I don’t believe a city girl like you would be attracted to Lynx or Nash, either.”

“But I am,” I say without even thinking, as if my libido is now controlling all my actions without my brain or mouth to stop it. “I mean, I was. I—”

Oh, my sweet mercy, Iwas.

“Yeah. Changing everything about someone’s appearance is generally the very first thing you do when you’re attracted to someone, right?” There is nothing light and jovial about his sarcasm. He raises a bushy brow. “Look, I can’t make you leave if they want you to stay. Well, I can, but it will only piss them all off and I’d rather put up with you for a few days than piss them all off. But if you hurt any of them, and I mean any single one of my brothers, me and you are going to have a big problem. Got it?”

Without letting me answer, he stomps past me, calling over his very broad shoulder, “They may not look like it, but my brothers have hearts that can break.”

I stand rooted in place for a moment. It’s not what he said, but something in the way he said it. Grumpy Luke has a sensitive, protective side?

“Are you coming on your own or do I need to throw your ass over my shoulder again?” he asks without glancing back.

I trail behind him the rest of the way to the cabin. Partially because his strides are like six times the length of mine, and partially because of my damn ankle. Is it throbbing? If it’s throbbing, I think that means I could have a blood clot or something and I probably do need to go to the hospital. And if I need to leave for the hospital, there would be no reason to come back, let alone stay…

Grumpy Luke is waiting by the front door…I guess to make sure I don’t turn around and race limping back to finish up what Lynx, Nash, and I started? Without comment, he ushers me inside.

He stomps around gathering up pillows, which he piles up at one end of the couch.

“If you have to relieve yourself, go to the bathroom and come straight back. But do not move from this couch otherwise. The kind of healing you need is not the kind Marvin Gaye would recommend.” That’s a pretty clever pop culture reference, if a dated one, something I wouldn’t expect out of Grumpy Luke.

“So lie down, elevate your bad foot, and try not to start any orgies, got it?” he barks, which is something I totally would expect out of him.

Chapter 14

Goldie

There’s a tremendous hacking sound from behind us and we both turn to see that Buck has just come into the room from down the hall, apparently catching the last part of Grumpy Luke’s order.

“I…uh…must’ve misheard,” he says.

“You didn’t,” Grumpy Luke replies.

“How many fish did they catch? Twenty? Thirty? I’m starved, so I hope they caught a mess?” Buck asks him. Then to me, he adds, “Hey, you know how to gut a fish? If not, I’m happy to show you—”

“Bucky. Stop. I think she’s been shown quite enough today,” Grumpy Luke answers for me before I can politely decline while hiding my disgust. I have no desire to ever gut anything. Ever.

Although,Bucky?Did I hear that right? The most cantankerous man on the mountain calls his brotherBucky?

Why do I find this so adorable?

“What are you talking about?” Buck asks his brother. Then he glances at me. “What’s he talking about?”

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