Page 58 of Ten Mountain Men

To my dismay, they all leave the table, one by one as they finish eating, and return to the same spots they occupied last night, book in hand.

My mouth twists as I try to figure out this dilemma.

As picky as Grumpy Luke was last night about not talking while they read, I seriously doubt there’s going to be any deep and revealing conversation tonight. Ugh, I hadn’t considered that at all.

I also don’t know if I was just stupid with lust or what, but…during reading time or not, how will they ever have any deep and revealing conversation in the living room for me to catch on camera…if I’m always in the living room with them?

Ugh.

I could take a bath!

But that might not give them long enough to get to talking.

Hmm…

What to do, what to do…

When in doubt, fake it!

That’s what Dr. Mara Levine advised on that one episode of her ill-fated seriesGOOD SEX! With Dr. Mara Levine.

She was talking about orgasms of course, but let’s be honest. Sex with these guys? I wouldn’t have to fake jack. They could probably make me come by staring at me hard enough.

But…

There is something else I could fake, that would get me out of the room. Well, there are several things, including explosive diarrhea, but thank God that’s not the route I’m going to have to take.

“Ow!” I cry as I get up from the table.

Three or four of the brothers are up and rushing over to me, offering assistance.

“Are you okay?” Brooks asks. He looks so hot with his beard a reasonable length.

“Oh, I don’t know…” I grab onto his shoulder, like I need his help just to remain upright. “It hurts real bad. I think I might just want to take some pain pills I have and maybe go to sleep? But…since I sleep on the couch and I certainly don’t want to displace all of you, or interrupt your routine—”

“But you don’t sleep on the couch,” Buck says. “You sleep in my bed.”

“She slept in your bed last night,” Lynx says. “But that doesn’t mean she’s going to sleep in your bed every night. The rest of us have beds. She might want to try one of ours.”

“Here we go,” Luke remarks, without looking up from the book of quotations. We really do have common ground there, if he would just let me in a little!

Lynx shakes his head, then nods, as if having an internal debate. “She would be more comfortable in one of the single beds than one of the bunks. Put her in your bed, Buck.”

“I can sleep with you tomorrow,” I offer Lynx. “I mean, if I’m still here,” I add quickly.

“Tomorrow it is,” he says with that catlike smile, those golden-green eyes dazzling as he winks one of them at me.

“Is it okay with you if I tuck her in?” Brooks asks Buck.

“Well, that’s up to her,” Buck says. “But I don’t have a problem with it at all.”

Luke harrumphs, as if Buck was speaking to him.

So after I change into my pajamas and brush my teeth and do the rest of my nightly skincare routine, Brooks carries me bridegroom-style and settles me in Buck’s bed. He pulls up the covers around me, carefully tucking them around my chin.

Then he says, “Be right back.”

When he returns, he has two glasses of water.

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