Page 12 of Kidnapped By the Mountain Man

Yet… here I am. Two days in a row following someone who’s told me plenty of times she needs to marry a pile of trash to save her mom. But fuck it, I’ll figure out something. There’s got to be a better way.

I watch Cora leave the bake shop. It’s a cute place that’s run by Josie, a resident baker here on the mountain. She’s owned the shop forever and makes the best baked goods around. Cora leaves with a single cupcake in a small pink box. She’s out again alone, at this time at night. I realize this is a safe, small town, and that she’s a grown woman… but women should be cared for. They should be cherished, worshiped, and protected.

“You make your decision?” I stand behind her in the cool night air, towering over her.

She turns back, her gaze wide. “What are you doing here, Austin? I thought we decided you’re crazy.”

I laugh and nod. “We did. We decided you’re crazy too, right?”

“No. I’m the sane one. You’re the one who’s unhinged. You’re still following me around.” There’s a hitch in her tone like maybe she enjoys that I’ve followed her. Though, that could be my brain trying to give myself reason to continue.

“Did you make your decision?”

She looks toward the bake shop, then toward me. “You know, Josie is right inside. I could scream and she’d call the sheriff. I bet the guys at the tattoo shop would come out too. You’d be hauled off to jail, and I’d continue right on with my wedding tomorrow without a bit of sorrow.”

I smirk. “So, you’ve decided you’re still marrying him?”

She nods with a flicker of something I can’t explain in her gaze. My mind equates it with permission. She wants me to lift her up onto my shoulder. She wants me to take her back to my cabin. She wants me to do the things she’s been needing.

So then, I do the most reasonable thing, and lift her up on my shoulder, and walk to my truck.

She pounds on my back and screams, but no one comes for her. Mostly because her screams aren’t that loud. Truthfully, if I’d heard them, I’d think she was playing. Then again, I’m biased.

I slide her into the truck through the driver’s side and climb in after her, starting up the engine quickly so she doesn’t head straight out the other side.

“You know people are going to look for me, right? We’re leaving my truck parked at the bake shop, and I think Henry installed cameras on Main Street last month.”

I’ve been friends with Henry, the owner of most of the land in Rugged Mountain, since the dawn of time and know for a fact that man would never install cameras on Main Street… but I don’t burst her bubble. My heart is beating too wildly to think straight, anyway.

“Seriously,” she laughs, “what are you doing? We both know you’re not going to hurt me.”

I glance toward her, then back at the road again. I’m driving erratically and I need to slow down. “Hurt you? I’d never fucking hurt you. I’d die before I let anyone hurt you.”

“Austin, stop! You think you want this, but you don’t. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I do know, Cora. It’s funny. I felt a little crazed grabbing you off the street, but I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

She laughs. “Well, I’m glad you’re sure.”

“One of us has to be.”

Her arms cross over her chest, and she gets that obstinate look in her eye, like she’s trying to convince me of something she knows I’m not going to fall for. “You’re sick.”

“Okay, that may be the truth, but you make me that way.”

She laughs. “I make you sick? Fun! You should put that in your proposal.”

“Proposal? Wow, that moved quickly!”

Her cheeks flush red and she looks out the window. “That’s not what I meant.”

I grin. “What did you mean then?”

Her lips smack together. “What happened to you, anyway? Why are you like this?”

“Which part? Smart? Confident? Supremely handsome?”

“Well, I was thinkingstubborn, but…”

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