Page 3 of Wounded Mountain Man

DUKE

The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen was seated on my couch. And I was, as usual, messing this up.

It was exactly why I stayed to myself up here. I was better off interacting with other humans as little as possible. I just tended to turn every interaction into a clusterfuck.

“What do you do for food?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

I was confused. I’d gone to the kitchen to grab her some ice water while she settled in on one of the bench seats in front of the table that made into a bed. I was surprised she hadn’t chosen the couch. It was more comfortable. But maybe she was hungry. I should offer her something to eat. That was what polite people did.

“You’re up here all alone. No way to get to town, right?”

Oh, that was why she was confused. Yeah, it made total sense.

I set our drinks on the table—water for her and a bottle of beer for me—and slid into the booth across from her. “I guess you didn’t see my bike.”

“Bicycle?” she asked. “But how?—?”

I was shaking my head, interrupting whatever she was going to ask. “Motorcycle. That kind of bike.”

“Oh, you’re a biker.”

I would hardly call myself a biker. I had a motorcycle to get around town. But there was no point in correcting that.

“It’s back there,” I said.

I hitched a thumb in the direction of the rear of the RV. It was behind the RV, not in the bedroom. But if it confused her, she didn’t say anything about it.

“So, what are you doing way up here?” I asked. “Do you live in town?”

She tilted her head and gave a half shrug, lifting one shoulder. “I’m living in Adairsville right now, so not quite in town. I’m a rideshare driver. I pick people up and take them where they need to go.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You’re a handy person to know.”

She snort-laughed. “I was. Until my car exploded.”

I frowned. “I doubt very seriously your car exploded. I’ll hop on the bike and take a look at it.”

She was taking a sip of her water, but my words caused her to pull the glass away from her mouth and look at me. “You’d do that?”

I’d taken her into my house. Looking at her car was something any human with a soul would offer to do. At least anyone who knew a little something about cars like I did.

“I doubt I can repair it,” I said. “I’ll just take a look. There’s a guy in town that can fix you right up. I’m sure it’s nothing serious. Did you say it was smoking?”

She nodded. “And I can’t even look up what could cause that.” She sighed. “I never realized how dependent I was on the internet until I didn’t have it.”

“You can get service at certain spots up here.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I kicked myself. I didn’t want her to get service, and that was a jerk way to look at it. But selfishly, I didn’t want her to leave.

And that made no sense. I loved my alone time. I didn’t want a woman around—or anyone, for that matter. It was exactly why, when I exited the military, I bought a used RV at a steal instead of looking for a more permanent home. This would allow me to move on a moment’s notice if I needed to.

“You scared the crap out of me, you know.”

Her words pulled me from my thoughts. I frowned at her.

“The gun,” she said.

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