Page 3 of Forsaken Mountain Man
But damn if I didn’t like the fact that someone—even a tiny woman encrusted with half the mountain's dirt with a big attitude problem—could make me smile.
I cleared my throat as she found my wooden table at one end of my living space and set her things on the floor beside it. “You know my name, but I don’t know why–”
“I came out here to talk to you.” She ignored my intent and rummaged through her things, head down, ass in the air.
I got an eyeful of curves as she faced the wrong direction, or maybe the right one, digging through her pack. A few expired rations pouches I recognized were laid out in haphazard piles.
Crouching nearby, but not too close, I collected her rubbish. “You got these from Travis down at the ranch.”
She nodded, or at least, her hair did as she continued rummaging without raising her head. “Yep. He sorted me out when I came through Red Hart a few days back. Him and trader Kyle. Freaking love Kyle. He’s been amazing."
Another name’s name on her lips sent a jolt through my chest. I crumpled her rubbish into my fist and removed it to the bin system at the back of my kitchen.
“Thank you,” she called. “That leaves me more space for the return trip.”
“Which will be soon,” I muttered under my breath. “I’ll top you up before you go.” I wasn’t that cruel, but I also wasn’t used to talking. My breath and voice officially expired on that last word. I pulled out a chair from my table for her, and one on the corner for me. When she didn’t notice, I reached across and grabbed a hip, squeezing. “Sit.”
Mistake.
Touching her was the worst thing I could do. Despite her skin and bones appearance, my fingers sank into her flesh to thatjust rightpoint. The point where I could pull her back into me, and?—
Fuck.
I let her go as she gasped at the contact. “Sit,” I growled. The single sound ripped my throat.
My voice was done, along with my sense of peace. Whoever she thought she’d come out here to see had died a long time ago.
Bode Hunter wasn’t the same man who walked into these hills and built a house near on a decade ago. That man with the broken heart, he used to care. I lost that sense of humanity a long time ago. Travis and Kyle should have warned her aboutme. Shit, maybe they had. Maybe she’d been too gung ho about whatever she’d gotten into her head that brought her up here and nothing they said would have stopped her.
“Thank you.” Her quiet answer blew my mind.
While I was ranting inside my head, she was off being all sweet and gentle. Christ, I wasn’t fit company for a woman like her. Maybe I never had been.
“You shouldn't be here. Not with someone like me.” The words came out so faded and thin, I wasn't sure she’d heard them. Not until she straightened up and scattered a handful of stones across the table. Stones that I recognized because I’d spent the last years carving them. Her eyes flashed with triumph as she tossed her hair in an undeniableta-daagesture.
No, not stones. At least not the sort you pick up from the ground. No, these came out of a river. At least, they did around here. Red Hart’s river. Because these were Yogo sapphires, and they originated from the mountain right behind Red Hart Ranch.
I stared at the carved gemstones, recognizing my own art. “Fucking Kyle.”
She grinned at me, those damn pretty eyes sparkling with the sort of mischief I wanted to hate but couldn’t. “He’s good, isn’t he?” she agreed.
She. Because whilesheknew my name, I didn’t know hers.
“Alright, sprite. Tell me why you’re here. And start with your name.” I coughed into my hand, pushing my chair back, needing the distance from her.
She nodded. “I’m gonna get myself that water first,” she told me. “And wash up. Alright?”
I blinked and nodded, waving her in the direction of the other rooms in my cabin. It wasn't like she could get lost.
She wandered away from the table, running her fingertips along my shelves, padding barefoot through my house.
Releasing a slow breath, I leaned back and watched her. Maybe it wasn’t so bad having a girl back in my house. Maybe I could deal with someone else in my space, even if she challenged everything about me in the few seconds she’d been here.
Maybe I'd let her stay a little longer and find out what she wanted. Work out why Kyle sent her in my direction.
My sprite disappeared along the darkened hallway that ran through the middle of the house like a vein through the mountain before I realized she’d left without giving me what I’d asked for.
I still didn’t know her damn name.
