Page 12 of Forgotten Mountain Man

I blinked at him through stinging eyes. “For a man who refuses to see other humans and didn’t talk to his father for the better part of ten years, you have a remarkable sense of what they are about,” I whispered.

Walker started. His hands opened, freeing mine. My hair unraveled from his fist and fell back to my lap. “My answer is still no.”

He pushed away from the small table, closed the laptop with a snap, and shifted the outdated tech away from me without a second glance.

“Fucking mountain man,” I grumbled as I sank into the hot water in his cave pool, bitching all the while. “Stupid, stubborn man and his stupid, stubborn mountain.” I splashed a bit just because I could, and stamping my feet did sweet fuck all in the water.

I mean, stomping bedrock wasn’t satisfying in the least, certainly not when there was no one else around to see me do it.

“Are you always this vocal when you whine about other people, or should I get out and leave you to it?” Walker's voice emanated from the other pool.

The cold pool.

“What the fuck are you doing over there?” I shrieked, submerging way too fast in the hot water and upping my temperature at a speed my body did not cope well with.

My hair tangled in the water around me, swirling in tiny eddies like a noose until I wrapped myself up in red tentacles that also happened to be attached to my head. Wet hair washorribly heavy. I knew I should have knotted it on top of my head, but the idea of it swirling around me seemed romantic…until right now.

I fought my way out of my cocoon with the grace of a waterlogged hippo and flung my hair at a rock to free myself of its grip.

“I’m bathing,” came the calm reply, seemingly through a wall of rock, though I knew there were air pockets between the pools because I’d spotted them when I did my little discovery tour earlier in the week when Walker first let me into his secret man cave shit.

Almost a whole week. That’s how long I’d been in his home. I was no closer to succeeding in negotiations with him. My phone was totally flat, I had no reception before that and as far as I could tell, Jude and Travis would only know that I was stuck on the mountain by the fact I never returned like I promised.

I hoped they figured that out and didn’t just think I’d gone back to White Cap.

Because as great a host as Walker Roan was, I still needed to return to my own life, my business and my clients. Even though we hadn’t killed each other just yet, it had been a close thing a few times.

Plus, it was still raining. Which was why I had finally succumbed to the temptations of the underground hot pool. Otherwise, I froze my ass off in the log cabin cave that, although pretty, also wasn’t home. Though with Walker nearby, it was sorta starting to feel like it, staring out at the gray skies. A big part of me wanted to see what was beyond.

Another part of me wanted the sky to stay that way and never change because…

That meant not having to go back.

Not for the first time I’d sat there looking at the rain I couldn't see beyond while Walker stared into the fire from his chair. I wondered what it would be like to just…stop.

To not go back. Not to have clients and responsibilities. Not to have a business. Just to shut up shop and…exist.

Like Walker Roan did.

Then my brain kicked in, told me that was the stuff of impossible dreams, and my planning went on and on and on again. I forced my mind back to the situation at hand, because the idea of staying here with Walker was far too…romantic.

I didn’t want to have those sorts of thoughts about anyone.

“Why are you in the cold pool?” I frowned. “I thought you were having a shower?”

“I did.”

“But you didn’t follow me down here.”

“There’s more than one entry into this part of the mountain, Precious.” I could freakinghearthe smirk in his voice.

“Asshole,” I muttered and leaned back into the water that muted whatever he said next. “Sorry, I can’t hear you,” I singsonged, just to be a brat, because I was feeling the vibe.

The water rippled around me and something splashed my face. A large something.

I sprang up, lurching half out of the water. “What?—”

“The water got too cold.” Walker blinked innocently at me, but my mountain man had never been innocent, not once in his damn life.

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