Page 3 of Savage Mountain Man

“I think she is,” I said into the phone.

“Someone called looking for her,” Georgia said. “Is she…naked?”

How the heck did Georgia know that? I was on the verge of saying yes when I stopped myself. Technically, she wasn’t naked anymore, so it wouldn’t be a lie.

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“Whoever called said their friend Kacie was naked on the gondola, and we might want to check it out. Must be some weird sort of prank.”

“Must be,” I said.

Was her getting naked over there part of a prank? Maybe it was a dare. Seemed like something a twenty-something year old woman would do. Hell, I’d taken a few dares in my time, so who was I to talk?

“Sounds like a shit friend to me,” I said. “More like an enemy.”

Georgia laughed. “You’ve got that right. I’ll call Kyle, and he’ll get you out of there.”

As I hung up, it occurred to me that the second Kyle pressed that button, I’d be on my way down the mountain. I’d gone up to check out the progress on the chalet the lodge’s owner was building up there. I’d loaned him some of my guys to handle the construction, but lumber was at a premium, so Alex was planning to bring in his own guys to finish it off.

This chalet was for skiers. Just a small place for them to chill and grab a coffee or hot cocoa before heading down the mountain. In other words, another way for the lodge to make a little extra money.

“They’re going to get us out of here,” I said to the woman, who was now staring down at her phone.

She looked up and our eyes met. I still wore sunglasses, so she wouldn’t be able to see that I was looking at her. And that suddenly bothered me. I whipped the sunglasses off and tucked them into the collar of my shirt before returning my hand to the railing next to my seat. This thing could start up suddenly, and I wanted to be prepared for a jolt.

“It was a dare,” Kacie said.

Adair. Was that the name of the friend who’d called the front desk to alert them to her nakedness? Maybe that was the person who dared her.

Oh. A dare. Now it made sense.

“Someone dared you to get naked on a gondola?” I asked.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and I saw her chest rise with the deep breaths she took. What I wouldn’t give for a repeat view of that chest without clothing covering it.

“Someone dared you to get naked out here?” I asked. “In these temperatures?”

“The original dare would have had me sitting where you are.”

She pointed to my seat, moving closer to the glass. That gondola had a bench on either side, so I knew she was as close as she could get. Did that mean she wanted to see me better? Or maybe she just wanted to get closer to me. A guy could dream.

“It was a bunch of college friends,” she said. “After graduation, I moved back to Charlotte, and we all went our separate ways. The only way we stay in touch these days is through a group text chain.”

A group text chain with college friends. As a dude in his mid-thirties who’d gone straight to work after high school graduation, I couldn’t relate. I did have a couple of high school buddies I stayed in touch with, though. We just didn’t text as a group.

“I’m the only virgin in the group,” she said.

In the seconds after she said those words, her eyes widened. She appeared to have let that last bit of information spill out. My cock was already at full attention, though. That had happened the second I’d gotten a glimpse of those gorgeous tits.

“They dared you to risk frostbite because you’re a virgin?” I asked, trying to make it make sense.

“They said I’m not fearless enough.” She shifted her stare to the beautiful, snowy view ahead of her. “Apparently, I led a sheltered life. My parents were super strict. They didn’t let me date. But in college, I could have done whatever I wanted. I choose to stay this way.” She shifted her gaze back to me. “Until I meet the right man.”

“Sounds like a sound strategy to me,” I said, trying to catch my breath. The way she’d looked at me as she said those last words had done a number on me. “I’m taking a bit of a break from dating myself. The whole thing is just exhausting.”

The truth was, it had been years since I’d met a woman who did even a fraction of what this woman did to me. Granted, I’d never seen a woman naked before I introduced myself, which I still hadn’t done, I now realized.

“I’m Brandon, by the way,” I said. “I’m helping with some of the construction here in town.”

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