Page 8 of Wild Mountain Ma n

I shook my head. “No, I want to see where you live.”

Oh, wait, that didn’t come out right. It made it sound like I was trying to get him back to his place so I could seduce him. Only after I had that thought did I remember he didn’t live in Seduction Summit right now. He said he was living in Adairsville—and I’d just turned down his offer to show me around that town.

The more I thought about it, the better seducing him sounded. I wondered what it would be like to kiss him, have his arms wrapped around me as he pulled me against him. My body quickly warmed up at the thought.

“The thing about Seduction Summit is, yeah, there aren’t a lot of amenities yet, but every day you wake up surrounded by beauty. I’ll step out onto my back porch in the morning and look out over the water and the mountains all around me. The air is clearer. I’ll be able to go for a long walk if I want, and I don’t have a neighbor breathing down my neck.”

“You won’t have any neighbors?” I asked.

“Nope. I’m sure that’ll change soon enough, but not right now. Not where I’m building. The closest neighbor is within view, but too far away to shout across the yard or anything.”

I laughed. “I can’t even open the door to check the temperature without the woman in the apartment across the street coming out to gossip. She’s the very definition of a nosy neighbor.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I felt different since arriving in Seduction Summit. I’d barely even seen the outside of the ski lodge in the short time I’d been in town, but there was something quiet about this town, even with a lodge full of bakers and skiers. A slower pace.

Yes, I definitely could get used to it.

“I’m taking you past the lodge a little ways to show you where my cabin will be,” he said. “Just, you know, since you’re curious.”

We wouldn’t get out of the car. It was a construction site, anyway. It wasn’t like we were going back to the apartment where he was staying while he waited for his home to be built.

There was nothing the least bit romantic about what was happening here, so why did I keep thinking about losing myvirginity to him? Why did nothing in the world sound better than making love to this guy right now?

6

KREBS

Ifelt like a teenager looking for a good place to make out. I’d done plenty of that in the two years of high school that I’d owned my own car. It was an old, beat-up piece of shit that I’d made payments on with the money I earned working construction, but it was my home at the time. The only place I felt like I could be myself.

“Do you think they’ll ever put streetlights on this main road?” Teagan asked once we were about a couple of miles past the ski lodge.

She was right. It was dark up here. They had streetlights going all the way up to the lodge, but at that point, things got pretty dark.

“I bet they will,” I said. “Especially as they get more houses up here. There are no side roads right now. That’ll change.”

“How are they going to do that?”

She was frowning as she looked around. It did look almost impossible with every inch of land around us seeming to have trees or rock that they’d cut through to build this road.

“Progress,” I said, rolling my eyes.

She didn’t see that. She was too busy looking at the world outside the vehicle.

“If I hadn’t met you, I probably would have spent the whole weekend at the lodge and never seen any of this,” she said.

“There are beautiful views of the ski slopes from the lodge,” I said.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nod. “I noticed that when I dropped my stuff off at my room. It’s not the same as being out here in it, though. Plus, you can’t really see a town when you’re visiting. Hanging out with a local makes a big difference.”

“Except I’m not that good a local. I’m still learning a lot about the place myself. I do know there’s no grocery store in town, but Adairsville’s only fifteen minutes from here. It won’t be that big a deal to make that drive to grocery shop once I’m moved in.”

I should be selling her on this place. That was what I was trying to do. She might be scared off by the lack of shops, though.

That reminded me of something. “A shopping center is going in near downtown. I don’t know if you noticed it. The Shoppes at Brighton Village.”

“No, I didn’t see that.”

“It’ll probably be touristy stuff, but hopefully we’ll get a coffee shop.”

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