Page 2 of Fearless Mountain Man

She’d been over there for a good five minutes, maybe longer. She didn’t realize I’d spotted her, but I always kept my eye out, even when I was doing laps. It was that part of me I just could not turn off. But now that I was facing her, she’d have to explain herself.

I crossed my arms over my chest, completely ignored the fact that I was naked, and asked, “Enjoying the show?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She was a good twenty feet from me, but I could make out that much from where I stood.

She wasn’t from around here, and I wasn’t exactly sure how I knew that. Maybe it was the pantsuit that looked like it came from a high-end retailer. Or it could be that perfectly styled dark hair with lighter highlights. I couldn’t make out the finer details from here, but the lighter sections looked like a caramel color. It could also be the fact that she was standing on the empty lot next door, holding a clipboard to her chest.

“I’m Ana Winston,” she said. “I’m just checking out this lot. I’m a real estate agent out of Nevada.”

She’d come a long way to check out a patch of grass. Okay, it was a generous patch of grass that overlooked the same view I had. The best view in the city. I heard that one from everybody who stopped by. I’d been lucky enough to snatch this up at a bargain, mostly because it wouldn’t seem like a bargain to the average military vet moving to town to work on the logging crew.

But the purchase had barely put a dent in my considerable savings, built over two full decades of modest living and investing. It was pretty impressive for a man who just hit his mid-thirties.

“It’s not for sale,” I barked.

I immediately winced, regretting my tone. If she were anybody else, I’d be looking for a way to get her the fuck out of here. I’d also be trying to figure out what I could say to end this conversation. But it wasn’t that way at all with her. This Ana woman intrigued me.

Ana was not some random real estate agent here to hard-pitch me into selling. Okay, she was exactly that, but she was also a gorgeous woman—all curves and long, dark hair. I couldn’t see those eyes since they were covered by sunglasses, but what I could glimpse of her face was fucking gorgeous.

“Everything’s for sale,” she said. “For the right price.”

I completely disagreed with that. But instead of arguing with her, I found myself staring, trying to find a way to keep her in my life just a little longer.

Damn, I wanted to see those eyes. But right now, I’d admire those curves out of the corner of my eye as I pretended to focus on her face.

“Not this,” I said.

“I get it,” she said. “Do you mind if I ask what plans you have for this land?”

She returned her hand to her left arm, clutching it again. It looked like she was squeezing it to remind herself to stay calm. It was a subtle thing most people wouldn’t have noticed, but I’d been trained to catch the small details, even in everyday interactions.

Yes, body language was everything. Ana’s body language said she was far less confident about this conversation than she was letting on.

“I plan to keep that lot empty,” I said. “In fact, if I had my choice, this house would have been dead center on these two lots. But they’d already poured the foundation when I put a contract on it, so I bought up the lot next door to make sure they couldn’t cram another house in between these two.”

The retired couple who lived on the other side of the empty lot didn’t give me any trouble. Not that I knew what “trouble” meant in this context. It was hard to explain to a civilian, but I needed my space. It was why I’d moved to the mountains in the first place.

It was also why I always chose the end stool at the lodge bar if it was available. I didn’t want anyone close to me, physically or otherwise—although a woman like this one just might tempt me to drop my defenses for the first time since coming back from my second deployment. The deployment where everything that could go wrong did.

“What if you could have a say in what happened to this property?”

She took a couple of steps closer, and I had to admit that surprised me. I didn’t surprise easily.

I didn’t feel tempted to take a step back. That was the biggest surprise of all. Normally, I’d be inching my way toward some distance. If anything, I wanted to hop this fence and cross the remaining five feet or so to where she stood.

“And you’re probably concerned about noisy parties in the back yard,” Ana said. “There are things we could do to block visibility and make sure you have a neighbor that will respect certain quiet hours.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. I wasn’t wearing sunglasses, so she would see that in full detail. I didn’t say a word, though. Not at first. I let the silence linger while she thought about what she’d just said. Because there was no way in hell I was buying that she—or her client—would be able to control what a property owner did in their own home.

“It’s not that,” I said. “I can handle noise.”

I could even handle having neighbors see me swimming. I’d have to wear damn swim trunks, but it wouldn’t be that big a deal. I’d just have to actually buy some first.

“What is it then?” she asked.

“It’s my land,” I said. “I own it. I don’t need the money.”

“You work on the logging crew here in town, right?” she asked. “This money would ensure you never had to work again if you didn’t want to. The right investments…”

---