Page 13 of Claimed By the Mountain Man

He raised his head and looked at me then, meeting my eyes. “I did all of it, Gage. I wanted to do something nice for you. I wanted to take care of you.”

No one had ever taken care of me. It had always been the other way around. I was more touched by this gesture than he would ever know. I didn’t have the words to tell him that, so I just smiled softly at him and said, “Thank you.”

The food was excellent. All of it. Cooper had done a phenomenal job with it. I looked over at him and noticed he had a big dollop of hummus on the side of his mouth. I tried to point it out to him, but he just wasn’t finding it. So, I moved closer to him to wipe it away for him. But after I’d done that, I found that I didn’t want to move away from him again. I wanted to get even closer to him, so I did. And when I got within a couple of inches of his face, his breath hitched. Before I could talk myself out of it, I leaned over and kissed him ever so gently, almost chastely, on the mouth. But when I broke the kiss and leaned back, he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me back in, deepening the kiss.

My whole body went up in flames, and before I knew it, I was lying on top of him, both of us grinding against the other. Cooper’s breathy moans drove my desire even higher. The last thing I wanted to do was stop, but I grabbed onto what little control I had left and pulled away from him. When he smiled, alllust-drunk, and reached for me to pull me back down to him, it took every bit of my resolve not to go.

I looked into those chocolate-brown orbs of his, which I could then see actually had tiny gold specks woven in, and I smiled sadly. “Cooper, this has been lovely, really. You have no idea how much it meant to me for you to do this.”

Cooper sighed. “I hear a ‘but’ coming, don’t I?”

I let out my own sigh, as I nodded. “But, we need to slow this down. I’m not in a place where I can date you, Cooper. I’m not good with relationships. I’m selfish, and I hurt people.”

He shook his head vehemently. “I don’t believe that. I may not have known you long, but I can tell that’s not who you are at all. No one who is inherently selfish and hurtful would have done what you did for me last night.”

How could I make him understand I was no good for him? “Just because I have occasional moments of being a decent human being doesn’t make what I said any less true. It doesn’t change the things I’ve done. I don’t want to hurt you, Cooper.”

“Then, don’t,” he said as he stared earnestly into my eyes.

I was starting to get frustrated. “It’s not that simple, damn it! I’m not good for you. I’m not good for anybody. You should steer clear of me.”

Cooper hung his head for a second, then gathered up the leftover food and put it back into his basket. As I watched him, he got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and extended a hand to help me up. I took it. When I got to my feet, though, he didn’t let go of my hand.

“I don’t know what has happened in your life to make you feel this way about yourself, but I’m going to prove to you that you’re wrong. Now, come on, it’s getting late. And as beautiful as the sunset is from this vantage point, we don’t want to be trekking down that trail in the dark, especially since you’re unfamiliar with it.”

He grabbed up the picnic basket with one hand and kept his other hand latched to mine as he pulled me down the trail. And right then, I was content to let him do it… for now, at least.

EIGHT

COOPER

I was working behind the bar, and it had been a very slow night. I had already taken care of all the customers, cleaned all the glasses, and restocked everything that needed restocking… and some items that didn’t. I was beyond bored with absolutely nothing to do, which just gave me more time to obsess over the situation with Gage. I hadn’t seen him in a few days. I hadn’t heard from him either. I thought we’d left off in a pretty good place the day we’d hiked to the lookout tower, but maybe I was mistaken. I’d sent him a text the next day thanking him for going on the hike with me. I also told him I’d had a great time, and I hoped we could do something like that again soon. I didn’t get a response.

I knew after his words about being no good for me and him calling himself selfish and hurtful that my sending that text would probably be pushing it. But it had still hurt for him to just completely ignore my text.And, damn it! He was wrong. He had to be.Unless he had some sort of evil alter ego, ala Jekyll & Hyde, he had to be wrong because the person he described was nothing like the person I’d known him to be. No one who is a selfish person could have given of himself so freely and socompletely the way he did when I had my panic attack during the storm. One way or another, I would prove to him that he was a good man—that he was a good man for me.

I looked up when the bell over the front door rang announcing a new customer, and my heart all but leaped out of my chest when I saw it was Gage, and a huge smile spread across my face. And then I really looked at him, and my smile fell. He looked terrible! I’d never seen him like this. His normally gorgeous hair looked unwashed and was sticking out in all directions like he’d been continuously running his hands through it or pulling at it. He was still beautiful, but he’d obviously had a rough few days. I came out from behind the bar and went straight to him, intent on giving him a huge hug. But when I threw my arms around him, he didn’t hug me back. His arms just laid limply at his sides. And that close to him, I could smell on his breath that he had already had a few drinks.What the hell? He never drinks like this.

I laid a hand on his cheek and brought his eyes to meet mine. “Gage? Baby, are you alright? You didn’t drive yourself here, did you?”

He jerked his face away from my hand. “Of course I didn’t drive. I’m drunk, not stupid. And I’m not your baby.”Ouch, that stung.I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I kind of just stood there in front of him feeling dumbfounded.What had I just been saying about an evil alter ego? Hello, Mr. Hyde, nice to meet you.

“You want to come sit at the bar? I can make you a coffee, and we can talk?” I asked him, hopeful he’d accept the offer.

No such luck, though. He just pushed right past me, walked a little unsteadily over to his regular booth, and sat down heavilyonto the bench seat. And because I’m a glutton for punishment, I followed him. I noticed a couple of our regular customers staring after us with confused looks on their faces. They weren’t used to seeing Gage act like this either. Anyone who came to the bar regularly knew his habits by now. And he never came in drunk.

“Gage, what’s going on? This isn’t like you.” I was really worried about him.

He glared up at me with bloodshot and bleary eyes. “How would you know, Sunny?” I hated the way he sneered my nickname. “You don’t know me. I told you who I was when we were at the lookout tower. You should have believed me.”

He obviously wanted to pick a fight with me, but I refused to take the bait. “Look, I don’t know what’s happened for you to be in such a state. But I’m here if you want to talk. I’m going to go make you that coffee. I’ll be right back.” I turned to head back toward the bar when I heard him yelling at my retreating back. It was loud enough and so out of character for him that the whole bar just went silent, shocked at the display.

“I don’t want any damned coffee! I want a whiskey. Just bring me my usual. And keep ‘em coming.”

I momentarily stopped in my tracks, my back going ramrod straight, before continuing on to the bar.Well, okay, then. Guess I was getting the drunk asshole a whiskey.By all rights, I shouldn’t even serve him when he was so obviously already drunk. I didn’t want to take the chance of him leaving, though, and going God knows where and doing God knows what. In his condition, anything could happen to him. At least if he were here, I could keep an eye on him, make sure he was okay. So, I decided to serve him one normal drink—his usual, just like he’d demanded—then I’d gradually start watering down anysubsequent drinks. Maybe I could eventually talk him into an Irish coffee and just conveniently leave out the Irish.

When I took him his whiskey, he barely even acknowledged me. I wasn’t sure which was worse, being insulted or being ignored. I decided being ignored was worse. But I could tell I wouldn’t get anywhere with him like this, so I just sat down his whiskey, then turned on my heel and left. So, I took care of my other customers and served him a new drink whenever his glass went empty, although they were mostly water by the end of the night. Not that he had noticed. I was honestly shocked he hadn’t passed out by now. At closing time, I walked the last customer out and locked the door behind them.Alright, time to go see my boozy, mountain-man adonis. And I am getting to the bottom of this one way or another.

“Can I join you?” His lips were already forming the “no,” but I paid him no mind as I sat down opposite him in the booth. “So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to sit here and stare at you until you talk to me. And I’m prepared to sit here all night, so you might as well just spill.” He looked at me only long enough to roll his eyes before looking away again. Well, it was going to take more than some adolescent eye rolling to get rid of me.

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