Page 6 of Wild for the Mountain Man

“Yeah. It was his eighteenth birthday and we had both snuck a couple of wine coolers. I didn’t think I was ready but then we… well, we just didn’t stop. And after a month and a half, I realized that I missed my period and bought a pregnancy test.”

“I assume that Jesse was excited about the baby.”

Flushing, I stare down at my coffee cup, tracing the logo. “No. Actually we’d already broken up at that point and he was on to dating the next woman.”

“He…what?”

“Yeah. That’s one of the reasons that your parents don’t believe that Sam is Jesse’s son. They think that I made up the pregnancy to get him back. And that I don’t really know who is the father because I’ve slept with so many men since then.”

He grimaces. “Yeah. Well, I know my brother even if they don’t. Jesse was not a saint. If you say that he’s the father, I believe you.”

“Yeah, well, he is. There can’t be anybody else.”

He nods his dark head. “Gotcha. Well, do you need anything? Any financial assistance?”

Wiping my mouth and vigorously shaking my head, I hold a finger up until I clear my throat. “Help me? I don’t think so. I’ve been doing just fine.”

He glances around again. “I can tell. This is a nice little place. Kinda looks like what I’m looking to buy since I retired.”

“You’re coming back home to the mountain then?”

“Oh yeah.” His dark eyes glow with some strange emotion and a tingle trails down my spine, settling in my belly. “This place feels just right.”

“Well, I can help you find something similar but this is my home and my son…so…well, just worry about your life and I’ll worry about mine.”

He dips his chin and a smirk tilts his full lips again. “As you wish. Now… I’ll be back to pick you up for dinner tonight. You don’t need to dress up. It’s a very casual place.”

“Okay.”

He stands up and walks over, holding out a large hand. I hesitantly slide my fingers into his palm and he curls his fingers around it, warm and rough, his callouses making tingles break out on my skin. I jerk my fingers back, stunned. He grins at me and backs away, his dark eyes so intense that it feels like I could fall into them.

“I’ll be back, angel. Stay safe.”

And I watch him walk out the door, his broad shoulders barely skimming the frame as he walks outside then gently tugs the door closed.

I glance over at Sam who’s covered in so much chocolate his hair looks like brown spikes. He grins and there’s chocolate frosting on his front teeth. “Yeah. You’re gonna need a bath, my friend.”

For the first time in a long time, I’m struggling to keep from getting excited. I don’t know exactly what’s going on here but I know I like it. A lot.

And that’s a fucking scary thing.

4

ADAM

It takes everything in me not to race my SUV up the mountain to get back to Sam and Livvy. I’ve been on pins and needles all day. I forgot to ask for her number so I couldn’t call and give her a time.

Because I’m an idiot and something about Livvy Hennessy turns all my brain cells into mush and turns my dick into a steel spike in my pants.

She’s gorgeous. I didn’t think Jesse liked redheads with freckles on their pretty, flushed cheeks and golden-green eyes that are so bottomless a man could fall into them.

And it pisses me right the fuck off that he had a shot with a woman like her and he chose to waste it. To move on to the next woman he could charm into his bed. And leave.

He always left. It knocks me for a loop that this woman that I would give me right arm for was his for the taking. She obviously loved him. And he used her and threw her away and then wouldn’t acknowledge the little boy that they made together.

I knew he was a son of a bitch but I didn’t realize how eternally stupid my baby brother was. Livvy is not the kind of girl you leave. She’s the kind of girl that makes you want to be a better man. Want to move mountains for her and take care of her until your dying day. She’s the kind of woman you stay and build something with. A family. A future.

He’s an idiot. An immature little boy that didn’t realize what he had.

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