Page 8 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men
Halfway through my sentence the front door flew open, and a giant of a man stepped in. Without looking up he began brushing the snow from his boulder-like shoulders, and stomping it from his boots. Once satisfied, he shook the flakes from his thick, black beard.
He didn’t look up until he was finished. When he saw me, he frowned.
“Who the hell isthis?”
~ 4 ~
JAXON
The roads in town were bad to begin with, but with the plows still fueling up, they only got worse the higher I went. My truck was decent in storms like this. Nowhere near as good as the Marauder of course, but it got me most places without a hitch.
What I didn’t count on was stomping through the woods once I finally got home.
The prints were still fresh, so I hadn’t wasted any time. Grabbing the Maglite from under my seat, I plunged straight through the scrub brush and into the pines, zigzagging in whatever direction my quarry took me. For the better part of two hours I fought the storm, squinting into the darkness, until freshly fallen powder swallowed the last of the tracks, ending the chase.
I fought my way back through the drifts, swearing furiously as I followed my own bootprints. I was cold, wet, and tired. Struggling with the bitter taste of defeat. It also didn’t help that I was hungry enough to eat a horse, saddle and everything.
When the house came into view again, I was already in a foul mood. Throwing open the door, the last thing I expected was a five-foot blonde standing in front of me, blocking my way to the kitchen.
“Who the hell is this?”
The petite stranger looked taken aback by my question, at least for a moment. An instant later however, her body language shifted in the direction of grim defiance.
“Who am I?” she shot back. “I’m Camryn. Who the hell are you?”
I scoffed. “I’m the guy that lives here, that’s who I am.”
Defiance didn’t even begin to cover the smirk on her face. I almost admired it.
“Well at least you came of your own free will,” she shot back. “I was practically abducted.”
For the first time in a long while, I was at a complete loss. I looked to Oakley.
“We didn’tabducther,” he explained with a sigh, “but we did carry her back here. It was either that or leave her to freeze to death.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You know that little cabin?” Ryder spoke up. “The one at the turn with the blown out tree?”
I knew it well. A bolt of lightning had obliterated that tree during a spectacular storm, the summer before last.
“Yeah? So?”
“So she was in trouble,” Ryder continued carefully. “She needed some help, so we gave it.”
I frowned at him. I knew Ryder long enough to know when he was holding something back. Luckily, the blonde had no problem speaking up.
“I was being attacked when they showed up,” she explained. “They burst in. I was lucky.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Wolves?”
“Worse,” offered Oakley. “Some shithead landlord.”
My eyes flitted over her again, this time with a bit more in the way of consideration. To her credit, she didn’t look away. Setting her hands on what looked to be a pair of very shapely hips, her pretty blue eyes remained locked on mine.
“Look, you don’t want me here. And that’s okay.”
“I didn’t say that.”
