Page 14 of Protected By The Mountain Man

West looked surprised for a second. “Really?”

“Yeah. My friends Chris and Susan planned to do a few nights of camping on this trip while Kaitlyn and I stayed at the hotel for a spa girl weekend.”

“You’re at the Silver Pines Lodge?”

“Mm-hm.”

“You think your friends would mind if we borrowed their tent?”

“I’m sure they’d be fine with it, but there’s a storm raging outside. We can’t put up a tent in the rain.”

He laughed. “I can.”

I furrowed my brow. “Really?” A crack of thunder blasted in the sky, as if to reiterate my skepticism.

“Really. The only question is whether we should stay in the car or the tent. I vote tent.”

I looked around the interior. “But the car’s dry.”

“Sure. And we can stay in this dry car if that’s what you prefer. But I won’t be able to sleep in here. If you haven’t noticed I don’t exactly fit.”

It was true. This mountain man looked like he was folded up into a tin can. The economy-sized rental car didn’t fit his stature very well.

He squeezed my thigh. “Why don’t we do this? I’ll set the tent up and then we can try both of them on for size. If you prefer the car, we’ll do the car. But I wouldn’t mind stretching out a little.”

When he put it that way I could see the benefit. “All right, boy scout. Let me watch you put a tent together in the rain. I want to see how it’s done.”

He grinned at me. “Drive back down close to the lake where it’s flat. I’ll pick out a good spot for us.”

Chapter 6

West

Putting up the tent had been nothing. I’d already been soaked, so it’s not like getting more rain on me hurt anything.

And what an amazing turn of events that her friends had packed the trunk full with all their camping gear. Mia said they hadn’t bothered to drag the stuff up to the hotel room since they didn’t need it there. And the group had rented two cars so everyone could do their own thing during the vacation.

Now I had this gorgeous woman to myself, snug and cozy in a dry tent while the storm shrieked around us.

Waving her apple and the tiny bag of chips in the air, she asked, “Should we have dinner now or later?”

“You don’t need to split that with me.”

“But I want to.”

My stomach took that moment to growl. What a traitor. “All right. I’ll split it with you. Thank you.”

We devoured the chips first, then took turns taking a bite out of the apple.

“Is this the kind of adventure you thought you’d find when you came to Red Oak Mountain?”

“No. It’s a wilder, bumpier ride than I expected. Do you really think those feral pigs would have hurt me?”

“Probably not, but it would have depended on your actions. If you tried to interact with one of the piglets, then mama would have been mad. But you seemed hell-bent on running the other way. I think the mama would have left you alone instead of chasing you down.”

She handed me the apple, our hands brushing together, as she looked up into my eyes.

“If you hadn’t sailed by, I’d still be on that shore.”

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