Page 2 of Dangerous Mountain Man

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” I asked. “People are trying to sleep.”

“I think we’re the only two living within a good square mile.”

“Okay, but you woke me up.” I’d stayed up half the night studying, and I’d finally gotten to sleep. “What are you even shooting?”

I pointed to the gun as I asked that question. It was probably none of my business. But he’d made it my business.

“Deer. Thinning the population.”

“You’re killing sweet, innocent deer?”

Again, he stared at me. “You think people finding dead deer by the roadside up and down these mountains isn’t a problem? You think somebody’s not eventually going to get killed hitting one of those things?”

I fought the urge to take a step back with each question that shot out of that mouth of his. He couldn’t intimidate me. And he couldn’t convince me that shooting an innocent deer was ever the right thing to do.

But I wasn’t really scared of him. Intimidated, yes. Not scared. If anything, I was intrigued.

“When you come up with another solution for the deer overpopulation around here, let me know,” he said. “Until then, I’m going to go back to shooting, and you can go back to bed.”

“And I can call the police and tell them that you’ve broken the noise ordinance and the no-hunting ordinance too.”

I was basically calling his bluff. I knew as well as he did that Seduction Summit didn’t have a police department. At best, I could call the neighboring town and maybe get a sheriff uphere, but would anyone do diddly squat? The answer to that was almost definitely a “no.”

“Fine,” he said. “What time do you want me to start?”

“I don’t want you to ever go back to shooting deer. But if you’re going to shoot, I’d rather you keep it to a reasonable hour. Maybe eight or nine. At least wait until it’s daylight out.”

Wasn’t that what hunters did anyway? Did they ever hunt in the dark? I didn’t think so. Which made me wonder if this guy was really hunting deer. But what else would he be doing with a gun in the forest?

As he turned back to his cabin without another word, that thought haunted me. But what bothered me most of all was that I wasn’t completely repulsed by this guy with a gun. If anything, he’d accomplished something no other man had. He’d made my panties wet.

I just had no idea what to do about it.

2

MEMPHIS

Damn fucking yellow ducks. Ducks were prey, not adorable little creatures that lived on some woman’s pink fuzzy bathrobe.

But I couldn’t get those ducks off my mind as I headed back out to do my part to cull the deer population. The city council had issued an invitation to locals for that purpose, and I’d been given the go-ahead.

It helped that most of the other military vets around this town knew I was a guy who had no trouble killing when the job called for it. I wasn’t some sort of vigilante. I’d simply served on the front lines for our country’s military. As such, I’d done some things I wasn’t proud of. But I’d long ago learned to shut that out if I wanted to survive.

I came through the woods in the same area where I’d spotted the brunette just a few hours earlier. Per her request, I waited until after nine to start hunting, and I still hadn’t fired off a shot. I’d pointed, aimed, and even had my finger on the trigger when I heard her voice in my head saying, “You’re killing sweet, innocent deer?”

Fuck the woman with the yellow ducks. I wasn’t going to let her get in my head. Okay, so maybe she was already there, but I’d find a way to exorcise her if it killed me.

That didn’t seem likely, considering I could still see that beautiful woman staring down at me from the deck. I actually could see her. The trees were blocking most of my view, but every now and then, I’d get a peek of that head of hair through the limbs.

I came to a dead stop when I realized that wasn’t my head playing tricks on me. No, she was actually sitting there, holding a mug—probably sipping her morning coffee while watching me. If I could see her, could she see me?

“Kill anything yet?” she asked.

She could see me.

At the sound of her voice, my body betrayed me. My heart started beating a little faster and my dick stirred. I’d gone back home, planning to have a cup of coffee and maybe even take a quick nap before work. But instead, I’d undone my jeans to give my raging erection a little space to breathe.

I couldn’t stop thinking of those damn ducks and the hot pink pajama bottoms I glimpsed beneath the hem. There was nothing sexy about any of it, but I pictured myself stripping off those bottoms and the underwear that lay beneath.

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