Page 2 of Relentless Mountain Man

But instead, I was frozen, just staring at him and worrying about him seeing me naked. Which was a ridiculous thing to worry about when my life was on the line.

But my life wasn’t on the line. As I stared up at him, I didn’t feel fear. In fact, I felt safer than I ever had in my life. He was mad, but he wasn’t dangerous.

“Yourroom?” he thundered. “Do you pay the mortgage? Because it sure as hell seems like it’s coming out of my bank account.”

Mortgage? Bank account? Murderers didn’t talk about that stuff. Neither did men who broke into your house in the middle of the night.

“What?” I asked, blinking up at him.

I sure wished I could see him. Maybe I could reach over and turn on the lamp. But it wasn’t just that it was dark in here. He’d pulled me out of a deep sleep. My mind was all fuzzy.

“This is my house,” he said. “You’re in my bedroom. Inmybed.”

No, that was impossible. “I have permission to stay here,” I said. “My friend Joely said I could stay and keep an eye on things.”

I could see the outline of his muscular shoulders, and they lowered slightly, making me think maybe he was relaxing a little. But then he crossed his arms over his chest like he was taking a defiant stance.

“You’re probably supposed to be in the cabin next door,” he said. “They built that motherfucker right on top of my property. The driveways are barely separated by a strip of grass.”

No, I couldn’t possibly have messed up that badly. Not only had I pulled into the wrong driveway, but I’d gone into the house, stripped off all my clothes, and climbed into bed. Someone else’s bed. A complete stranger’s bed.

“But there isn’t much furniture,” I said. “No pictures or knick-knacks. This has to be a rental cabin.”

The guy shook his head. “This is my cabin. I bought it two years ago when I left the military. I didn’t even think to ask ifthey would slam a cabin in between this property and the one that’s now two doors down. I was barely here four months when the bulldozers came in, followed by concrete trucks and months of mind-numbing construction noise.”

“I’m in the wrong house,” I said.

“And you’re in my bed.”

This had to be the most mortifying moment of my life. I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing that I’d ever done.

But the question was, what did I do now? I was a fixer. I took care of things. That was what I did for a living. I could fix this. I had to.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Can you just give me a minute? I need to get dressed and grab my stuff, and I’ll be gone.”

“No problem,” he said. “I’ll be in the bathroom. You just show yourself out.”

With that, he turned and walked through the door I assumed led into the bathroom, leaving me sitting in his bed, staring after him. I hadn’t even thought to go in there before heading to bed. If I had, I probably would’ve seen signs that someone lived here.

I’d fucked things up big time.

But what bothered me most was that I hadn’t even gotten a look at the guy’s face. And more than anything, I wanted to see what he looked like. I was just too humiliated to ever let him see me again.

Unfortunately, I was staying in the cabin next door for a couple of weeks. Plus, Seduction Summit was still a relatively small town. What were the chances I’d be able to avoid him for my entire stay here? Pretty darn small.

I didn’t mind that as much as I should have.

2

QUINN

Her vehicle was in the neighboring driveway. I noticed that the next night as I came home after grabbing dinner with some guys from my logging crew. It was the small, dark red sedan that I’d parked next to in my driveway last night.

I’d tried to shake her image from my mind all day at work, but it was stuck. Like a song I couldn’t get out of my head. I’d come home to find a naked woman in my bed. How could I forget something like that?

Last night had been a late one for me. It was poker night, and I’d been trying to beat Josiah, one of the most competitive guys on our logging crew. I’d been on a winning streak. Josiah was determined to beat me, so that had gone on until about two in the morning, when I finally told him I had to get some sleep.

The car in the driveway had me on alert as soon as I entered my house. It had me thinking about the gun in my master bedroom. Would I be able to get to it in time? Maybe I should call the police.

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