Page 27 of Orphan Girl's Mountain Men

He doesn't look happy to see me, but then I'm not sure if he even knows what 'happy' is, so I don't allow myself to read too much into that.

"What do you want?"

"Hey," I say. "Good to see you too, neighbor. I'm absolutely fine, thanks for asking." This gets zero response. I take a breath and carry on. "I've come to return this." I gesture to the bucket and mop in my hands. "I also want to ask you a favor."

"The answer is no."

"You haven't heard the favor."

"It doesn't matter. I'm too busy to do anyone any favors. Go away." He takes his bucket and mop and tries to close the door, but I quickly wedge my foot into the opening, preventing it from closing. As I've got my boots on, the door closing on my foot doesn't hurt at all, so there my foot resides, and there my foot stays. He yanks the door back open, eyes wide with surprise and mounting anger.

"Are you insane?"

"Maybe," I tell him, my temper sparking through me. "I'm also stubborn, and what is more, I'm rapidly growing tired of dealing with ignorant assholes with no manners. So… I'm not leaving here until you do me the simple courtesy of listening to me properly, you jackass."

CHAPTER 10

Dean

Iblink at the woman standing in front of me, a bucket and mop in her hands, and defiance glowing hotly in her penetrating gaze.

Desire slams into me instantly, my cock unexpectedly hardening for the first time in months. I clench my jaw against this highly unanticipated and almost invasive feeling, even as I try to tear my gaze away from her captivating eyes.

I can't. I fucking can't. It's not often that I find a woman with enough spunk to challenge me and not back down when I use my 'hardass voice', as Reed likes to call it.

It's basically impossible to expect such strength of character and such mesmerizing beauty to come in one delectable package, and yet here she is. Her combination of looks and attitude is making my body go haywire, giving rise to urges that I've not felt in months... well okay, in years, in fact. How long has it been since I was last with a woman? I don't care to think. For that matter, how much longer has it been since I was last with a woman I actually loved and cared about? Now that's a calculation I don't even want to do in my head, let alone out loud.

Damn it, I knew this would happen. I knew from the second she climbed into my truck that she'd be Trouble with a capital T.

Damn Reed and his promiscuous ways.

"Just hear me out," she says. "I have an offer for you and it's a good deal. I want you to teach me how to run my farm, and I'll pay you a couple of thousand dollars for your time and trouble. If I succeed then you'll have the pleasure of knowing you started me off as a small farmer. On the other hand, if I fail, I'll sell the farm to you at the price you offered me before, and I'll move on. How about it?"

Well… that wasn’t what I had expected.I cross my arms over my chest, rubbing my chin. I mull her offer over, running the idea through my mind, giving each detail due consideration. "Would you be willing to put that in writing?"

She nods, her expression serious.

On the face of it, it's a good deal, because it's one that benefits me either way. If she does decide to stay I get a friendly and co-operative neighbor with a huge source of water and not much use for it, given the small amount of actual land she's got. If she doesn't, I can buy her land off her and then I get to own that water source itself, lock, stock and barrel. Whatever happens, I'll still get paid for my time and effort teaching her.

I glance down at her. She looks like she has soft hands that have never worked a day of hard labor a day in her life. Seems she's some kind of an heiress, inheriting the land from her long dead parents. A traveler who's no doubt used to staying in comfortable hotels whilst visiting tons of glamorous cities around the world, dining in fancy restaurants, visiting swanky art galleries, drinking in pretentious wine bars, getting manicures from underpaid beauty specialists. This is probably merely the latest 'next thing' in a long list of adventures. It's only a matter of time until she gets bored and moves on. There's no way she'll last. How can she?

The deal is so lopsided in my favor that I almost feel reluctant to take it. Call it the last remnant of a conscience left in me or whatever. I don't want to take candy from a baby.

I give her my most serious look and say, "It's not as easy as that. Whatever I tell you, you won't understand the true difficulties unless you're in it. You're going to have to do it, not just learn about it. And that means hard work. A lot of it. And I'm not the type of guy to mollycoddle you because you're a woman. If you do it, I'll be giving it to you straight. I reckon it's going to be a lot more brutal than you're expecting."

"Reed told me you trained him and Lennon."

A spike of jealousy shoots through my chest.So, she's been talking to Reed. How nice. I wonder what else they've been doing...though on reflection perhaps I don't want to think about it.

"I did," I say. "I did it by having them start with all the grunt work. Pulling weeds, milking cows, cleaning stalls, digging ditches, chopping firewood, spreading fertilizer. A lot of the dirty, thankless work in the sun, rain, wind and snow, in the heat and in the cold, from dawn till dusk. You'll also have to do a lot of things you'll think are useless, but it's necessary for you to know what it entails if you're going to survive out here in the wilds. It's not all about farming. You have to maintain buildings and equipment. You have to store your harvests and make sure they're water and windproof. You have to find distributors to take your excess product, and wholesalers to sell you seed, fertilizer and pesticides. The list is pretty much endless."

"I'm down for that. Try me."

I pause and raise an eyebrow. "Are you willing to muck out a dirty stable? Shovel horseshit all day?"

"If that's what it takes." She smirks at my astounded expression. "I know you think I'm some sort of a princess who's lived a privileged life and had everything handed to me. Youthink I've never had to struggle, or live rough, but I assure you that's not the case. In the last five years I've slept in tents, sheds, reed shacks, and mud huts. I've skinned and boned animals for the pot, and I've made bread out of wild oats and barley. I've lived on a raft for a month and half in Colombia, I've navigated down the Amazon in Brazil with the Yanomami. I've trekked over two hundred miles by horse across the Gobi Desert, carrying all our food and water rations with us. I've helped build a freshwater irrigation system in Kenya, and I’ve taught at an elementary school in the Sudan, and that's only what springs to mind right now. There was a whole lot else besides. So yes, I might not know what you know, but I'm very good at getting my hands dirty. So, if that's the deal you're offering, I'm in."

I frown. As much as I want to turn her down, it's difficult, now that she's called my bluff. I honestly didn't think she would go for the deal. I thought she would back down once I made it clear how unglamorous it was going to be. Honestly, that résumé is actually impressive, and what's more, there's something in her eyes. Something that gleams with cold, steady determination. Something I cannot ignore.Maybe it wouldn't be a complete waste of my time…

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